I'll admit, my job searching effort has been less than stellar. Mostly that's true because it's very hard to remind oneself how little anyone wants you.
I had two interesting jobs pop up today. One was for a company named Imagination Publishing. Doesn't that grab you already? Their web site sure pushed the "happy people" and "vibrant energy" angle. The job was for a fact checker, which is something I can certainly do, though it's not complete in my wheelhouse.
As I was looking at their site, checking out the pictures of the people that work there, suddenly there's Kevin. As a high school student, Kevin worked for me at the local newspaper when I was in my mid-twenties. I worked with four kids from Batavia High, and they all had different good qualities. Kevin was the most intelligent, though none of the others were dumb.
I got in touch with Kevin a couple of years ago, as he was writing sports blogs for a Chicago paper. How cool is that, right? We didn't get together then. Just an e-mail or two.
Anyway, I got in touch with him again because of the job, and he said he would put in a good word for me and make sure we got together for a beer.
By the time I read his e-mail, another e-mail from Imagination was waiting for me. Man, they didn't take long to tell me "no," did they?
So many jobs don't even bother to get back to me, even after follow-ups. This one tells me right away, when all I wanted was to spend a little mental time imagining how cool it would be to work there and take the same train as my wife into the big city.
Depressed enough, I decided to look at teaching vacancies. I've been a high school math teacher for seven school years, but not this year. Not my choice. I got RIFed (Reduction in Force) two consecutive years and couldn't find another job. So I spent six months studying for, and passing, two difficult actuarial exams that have led me absolutely nowhere.
Anyway, Hinsdale Central has an opening for next year. They're a fantastic school, or at least the students coming out of there have fantastic college prep scores. I nearly went there as a teen, but our family moved out to Batavia right after I graduated from junior high.
Get this: the job wants someone with Discrete Math, Introductory Statistics and/or AP Statistics experience. Seriously, I have ALL of those. Discrete and Stats are my two favorite classes to teach.
I have a major concern that the principal and possibly the head of the math department at my last school cost me a job at a local private school and might do the same on this one. But I don't know the best way to take care of it. If I can get an interview, I think I can do a good job explaining what happened.
I've had a rough go as a teacher the last two years. My patience was not where it needed to be. Even though my performance reviews were good and my lack of work was not performance-based, I didn't feel as if I was doing my best as a teacher.
I could do that now. At Hinsdale Central, I certainly could.
When I asked Margie about applying for this, she said that I've had such difficulty that I don't know "which way is up."
Right now, having a job, responsibility, purpose and a paycheck is "up."
Please, karma. I've been a good man. Please keep me believing that I should continue to be so.
No comments:
Post a Comment