Drought
CSIRO. (2000). Drought affected landscape. CC Attribution 3.0 Unported.
The initial phase of job search can feel an awful lot like a drought. Applications for positions sent off with hope come back after a month or so, rejected before interview time and time again. It can be hard to keep seeking feedback and trying again. At some point, however, the hard slog of adjusting your application to fit the conventions and expectations of the job market hits fertile ground and you make it to the interview stage!
I was lucky enough to make it to the interview stage for my first position in late November of this year. It seemed the perfect position – 3 days per week in a small school that was a reasonable commute from my home in an area I was quite attracted to. I felt the interview had gone well, but had nothing against which to judge it. Another position, this one only 1 day per week but in an innovative school that is even closer to my home, had applications due before I heard back so I put my material in for that one as well.
Deluge
Max Pixel. (n.d.). Walk in the rain rain downpour male umbrella. CC0.
In a tumultuous month, I heard first that I made the eligibility list for the first position and got an interview for the second. After being offered the second position and accepting it, though, I was also offered the first (in the last few hours of the school term) as their original candidate had pulled out. This led to some soul-searching over Christmas (sometimes a deluge can be as uncomfortable as a drought) with an eventual decision to withdraw from the 1 day position and accept the 3 day. Now I have to wait for the DoE HR department to return to work after the holiday shutdown so that I can iron out the formalities. It has definitely been an exciting and eventful, if not relaxing, holiday period thus far.
I offer this as hope to those in the job market giving it their all – keep at it and you may yet break through. However, be careful what you wish for, you may get more than you bargained for!