Job Search (and Search and Search and Search)

Dear Fate,

I thought I played this right. I went to grad school right when the market was at its worst and jobs were supposed to be scarcest, particularly for government jobs because of tightening state budgets. I wasn't looking for a job during the worst of the recession; I used that time to get another credential and therefore improve my chances of being hired to teach...somewhere. Now the economy is picking up (according the most recent issue of The Economist, anyway), and I've graduated from a top-notch school. So how come you seem to be conspiring against me?

Let's start with the hiring freeze. Seriously? The New York public school district supposedly isn't hiring anyone (although I hear they're making occasional exceptions for special ed. and ELL teachers), and on top of that, I hear that they plan to lay off 6,000 teachers this spring. SIX THOUSAND. The upshot is that competition for charter schools and independent schools is brutal. Everyone wants to teach in NYC, and everyone wants to teach English. Yeah, yeah, I've got the reading specialist degree to give me an edge, but at this point I'm not sure it's enough.

I've attended two recruitment fairs in the last few days, both through Columbia. One was specifically for charter schools and one was a more general K-12 fair with charters, independent schools, and out-of-city/state districts. They were essentially huge rooms filled with tables manned by representatives from different schools snagging passers-by with varying levels of enthusiasm. Most of them had stacks of glossy brochures that must have cost a fortune to print, and some of them even had personalized tote bags, water bottles, mints, pens, and mini bottles of hand sanitizer to give out alongside the standard bowls of candy. (Most people, myself included, seemed too intimidated to stock up on all the free loot, though.) They were happy to answer questions and would take resumes, but the litany was the same virtually everywhere that I stopped: Fill out our online application. My biggest accomplishment was collecting a giant stack of brochures for anywhere and everywhere I thought might possibly lead to a job for the fall. Next step: carpet bomb New York with my resume and hope for the best.

You haven't been entirely cruel, Fate (or maybe you're just toying with me). I have two phone interviews scheduled, one this week and one next week. Friends have told me that most schools ask you to come in and teach a demo lesson to a room full of kids you've never seen before if the interview goes well. I hate being observed, and I hate the idea of trying to teach a lesson on a random topic to kids who were studying something different yesterday and really don't owe me a thing. But that's the way it goes, and it's a bit depressing that the chance to teach one of these lessons is my immediate goal since it will lead to employment.

Look, Fate, I know you've been kind to me in the past. My first teaching job fell into my lap, since I student taught at McGavock before they hired me, and I knew I had the job in the bag as soon as the principal proposed it to me. (Boy was that the best interview ever!) And let's not even talk about how great St. Paul's was. I have an OK gig going with the whole tutoring thing, but I'd love to get some more experience to build up my resume, to say nothing about making enough money to keep living in New York. I'm trying here. I really am. I spend about three hours a day filling out mind-numbing online applications. So how about smiling on me again? Please?

Sincerely yours,
Unlucky and Underemployed on the Upper West Side