What Seemed Like The Never Ending Job Process

    At the beginning of my senior year, I could not escape the question, “What are you doing after graduation?” I constantly thought about my future and was panicked that I would not be able to find a teaching job come May.

I had heard so many stories from friends and supervisors that it is extremely hard to find a teaching job and that most people subbed their first year. Those words were not good for me. I pretty much then decided that I’d have to work at McDonalds for the rest of my life (if they’d even hire me). But I was determined for that not to happen, so I decided to get to work right away on my applications.

    I remember my first application that I started. There were about 400 pages that I had to complete and I thought I would never finish. Once I finally completed it I danced around my room until I realized that I still had 15 more to go. After that first application, I never wanted to look at another application again… but that wasn’t going to happen… because I decided on 16 school districts around Dallas that I was going to apply to because SOMEONE was going to have to take me. Luckily the day I sent in my first application, the school district immediately contacted me to set up interview times! 

    I kept working and working and working on applications feeling the carpel tunnel coming on and my eyes were in a constant squint from staring at a computer screen so long. I had four of my Baylor professors write me recommendations, and by the end of it I am pretty sure they never wanted to hear my name again.

    As graduation approached, the more and more antsy I became. My friends had started to get jobs and I was determined to have job security before I graduated. At one point, I even applied to Home Depot thinking I’d never get a teaching job. I could wear an orange vest and smile at people and cut lumber. (I am obsessed with Home Depot, I could spend days in there.) Well guess what, when Home Depot didn’t even want me, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Really Home Depot??

   I kept waiting and waiting for one of my top districts to contact me. ß That right there my friends is the worst decision. The more you wait the more you question yourself, the more time that will pass without someone contacting you, and you’ll never get a job just sitting there. You have to go out and meet those people or contact the districts that you want to work for.

    So I continued to go to job fairs and conferences handing out my resume to anyone who so even glanced at me. (I am pretty sure I bought out every paper company with the amounts of resumes I printed out.) Every time they were nice and accepted my resume saying, “Ahh Baylor, good school, good GPA” and I just stared at them with begging eyes, down on one knee with my hands in a fervent prayer position.

   THEN the week before graduation I received a call that a principal wanted to interview me! After I was given the interview location, I think I Google mapped the school about 3,000 times making sure that it hadn’t changed locations in the past 3 minutes.

   When the interview day finally came, less than 48 hours after my graduation, I was so ready to go in and get a job. The interview went well (all those interview blogs I had read really prepared me along with my experiences.) Thankfully they liked me and offered me a teaching job. HALLELUJAH. And the school and school district are amazing. Everything I went through, and the time I spent trying to get a teaching job was WORTH IT!!!

-Hannah

TIPS FOR THE JOB PROCESS:

1.) Apply anywhere and EVERYWHERE that is somewhere near where you want to live.

2.) Make connections, you never know if your cousin twice removed has a friend that is a superintendent somewhere…

3.) Email the principals of every school district you applied to.

4.) Be patient, and know that most teachers don’t get hired until the summer.

5.) Read tips for interviews and read through mock interviews, they will really help you prepare and know what you would say or ask.
6.) Be YOURSELF and RELAX at the job interview!!! The more real you are and confident you are- the more they will like you!