Job Hunt

I know everyone is going through the epic job search right now and I wanted to hear about some of your experiences with that.  I have been trying to navigate everything recently and it has been a bit overwhelming so I'd love to hear about your feelings on the matter!

I had an interview with Haywood Elementary last week.  It was super rushed because she wanted to get me in before the Teacher Fair on Saturday.  The interview was strange because I had a weird reaction about the school--it seemed enormous even though I had been in other similar schools.  It just didn't seem like my niche, but the demographic was what I wanted and the position was for a grade I wanted, so I considered it.  She offered me the job a couple of hours later and said she'd see me at the teacher's fair.

Then, I went to the teacher's fair and was incredibly frustrated.  I did all of my preparation: looking for schools with my demographic (high ELL) that were within 40 minutes of where I'd be living next year.  I weeded down the list, visiting the schools with the most ELLs first and then slowly moving down.  It was the most exhausting experience...anyone else agree?  First, it seemed like no one had positions open and then those who did were not conducting interviews.  Haywood was conducting interviews but I had already had one.  I made sure to stop by their table, though, and remind her that I was interested.  She said that she could send me a recommendation through MNPS that day and wanted to know if I would like that.  I said sure, thinking it would be wonderful to have a potential offer that I could choose from!

Luckily, after the teacher fair I realized that it was not for naught.  I got two interviews: one with Napier and one with Cole Elementary.  The one with Napier was the worst interview of my life...the principal pretended to be an angry parent and yelled profanities at me while I tried to figure out how to get her out of my classroom.  I left that interview certain that I would not have the job.  She called me back in and offered it to me.

Then, I went to Cole Elementary and immediately fell in love with the school, the staff, everything.  However, they had no openings.  The principal said that I could be the top on his list, but that every opening I saw on MNPS' Applitrack was actually already filled.  He said that they might have something come up in the next few weeks and that he'd give me a call if that was true.

After much thought, I declined Napier because I do not think that I could survive an urban school, especially during my first year of teaching.  That felt weird, but luckily the principal understood where I was coming from.  However, then I had the big question: do I accept Haywood and have immediate job security?  Or do I hope for something better to come along at somewhere like Cole that I loved immediately?  I bounced back and forth on this for days.  Meanwhile, my offer had not arrived from Haywood and the principal was e-mailing me every day asking about it.  Finally, I e-mailed her back asking for a few days to finalize my decision because I had other possibilities.  She immediately called me back and said that she had thought that I had accepted the position at the teacher fair--yikes!!  If I was pursuing other opportunities, she had to revoke the offer.  So, on the one hand she made the decision for me and I don't want to work at a school where the principal is that aggressive about things...but at the same time, now I'm offer-less and that sucks.  I'm hoping that after TCAP ends, more opportunities will crop up.  But I feel pretty strange now playing the waiting game.  Is anyone else in the same/a similar boat?