I am finding it difficult to get a job. I don't know what's going on. I can make a good guess though>
I always seem to have had problems getting a job.No problems with studying really, all seemed to go smoothly. There were one or two things I wasn't sure about. Like one of the teachers at my first secondary school did not want me to do German because he thought I would have difficulty pronouncing German. Not quite sure what he based that on. There was another couple of minor incidents. I was at the top of my form in the school in London and transferred to Hastings and was put in the second set. Within a few weeks it was fairly obvious that I was in the wrong set; even the other kids knew it. Another boy who arrived after me, with a similar background, went straight into the top set. I am not sure why the difference. (He did worse than me at O Levels, in case you are wondering). Also, the high achieving pupils were always pushed to do Oxbridge. Again, I wasn't. Not that I necessarily wanted it, but......... Imperial was the best at Chemistry at the time, pretty close run thing with Cambridge then.
I applied probably for 12 - 15 jobs after my Ph D. No interviews except one. The only ones who did an aptitude test after the application - BT. They even offered me a job - as a stock controller! Lol. I wasn't interested. Might be a millionaire by now, if I had taken it.
When I was applying for jobs as a teacher, most of my friends got jobs after the 3 or 4 applications. Even a friend with a Ph. D got one after 6. I applied for 20+ jobs. I am not that bad at interviews or writing application forms. When I wanted to move on, I applied to 60+ jobs. I had 15 - 20 interviews. No job offers in school. A few were ok, because there was a better candidate. Some of the excuses were ridiculous. what do you say when someone says "You are too quiet" when you have been as chatty and extrovert as the other candidates. "Do you mean I am too Asian? Why the fuck did you invite me for an interview?" I did take one school to tribunal. They were forced to apologise and had to give an undertaking to change their system. One of the pupils in the school wrote something racist and had to apologise. At the end of the day, the school said I was the best candidate but they wanted to talk to my Head, who then said something non-committal. They didn't give me the job but said they were going to re-organise an interview and ask me to attend again. They didn't and said they had not given any such undertaking. I went to the Head's house and meet her with the Head of Science for feedback, a fortnight after the initial interview, when they said they would call me back so..........
I got the job at St Martin's but Anne Riggs was the HoD. The other candidates were not good, a couple had a blow out. One of them was wanted by the PGCE Course Leader but didn't perform on the day and Anne was in my corner. :) I think I should smile, even after all that happened. I loved working with the students and the schools. Most of the staff were ok - I think! Especially the support staff.
Friday 31 May 2013
Sunday 26 May 2013
Update on my life......
I thought I would do an update about life so far since my last bog about family related stuff.
Melissa and I are officially divorced. She married Charles, who was a family friend. He had had a stroke a few months earlier. He died a few weeks later, leaving her a house and money. His daughter Lauren set up a memorial thing for him. http://www.justgiving.com/remember/28179/Charles-Brocki ... if you feel like giving.
Hari is in his second year at Aberystwyth University, enjoying life - a bit too much, if his results are anything to go by... Seems to be heading for a lower second at best.
Tara has had a tough time but she is improving and coping better now. She is just about to finish her GCSEs, which should be a mixture from A* - C, nothing spectacular. That's fine. A levels next. She's off to Germany for a week or ten days, staying with friends. She seems to have a facility with languages. Wonder who she gets that from then?
Adam has had a good first year at QES. Got into a few scrapes but basically seems to have settled in well and is enjoying it. He played for Craven Wanderers' U-12 football team.
I haven't got a job yet. I have applied for 12 or 15 teaching jobs, 5 or 6 teaching agencies ( see post about them) but no luck. Nothing for proofreading or tutoring either. No response even for minor things. I am too old and well qualified.
I am doing voluntary work at the Looking Well. Thinking about doing stuff at the Library.
Might have some marking to do - MA assignments. Also, doing some work with my sister.
The JobCentre / Benefits people are giving me a hard time, claiming I have savings. Lol. Then in the next breath, they say I may have used them up for expenses. When I tried to reason, they told me, in varying tones and volumes (like that would make a difference) "We must be vigilant". I was accused of delaying sending in financial stuff, which I had already sent in twice and been visited by a Compliance Officer to check it out, cos I was hiding something... The Housing Benefit people don't want to hear I have more than one child I need to house. "You only get child benefit for one..."
Anyway, I need a job soon.
Met a really nice woman but she lives in the US... I like doing things the easy way obviously.
Sometimes I feel really angry about everything. Then I kind of think I love my kids and I should be grateful for that. I am still in a better place than a lot of other people. It will get better. I will get a job soon. :)
Melissa and I are officially divorced. She married Charles, who was a family friend. He had had a stroke a few months earlier. He died a few weeks later, leaving her a house and money. His daughter Lauren set up a memorial thing for him. http://www.justgiving.com/remember/28179/Charles-Brocki ... if you feel like giving.
Hari is in his second year at Aberystwyth University, enjoying life - a bit too much, if his results are anything to go by... Seems to be heading for a lower second at best.
Tara has had a tough time but she is improving and coping better now. She is just about to finish her GCSEs, which should be a mixture from A* - C, nothing spectacular. That's fine. A levels next. She's off to Germany for a week or ten days, staying with friends. She seems to have a facility with languages. Wonder who she gets that from then?
Adam has had a good first year at QES. Got into a few scrapes but basically seems to have settled in well and is enjoying it. He played for Craven Wanderers' U-12 football team.
I haven't got a job yet. I have applied for 12 or 15 teaching jobs, 5 or 6 teaching agencies ( see post about them) but no luck. Nothing for proofreading or tutoring either. No response even for minor things. I am too old and well qualified.
I am doing voluntary work at the Looking Well. Thinking about doing stuff at the Library.
Might have some marking to do - MA assignments. Also, doing some work with my sister.
The JobCentre / Benefits people are giving me a hard time, claiming I have savings. Lol. Then in the next breath, they say I may have used them up for expenses. When I tried to reason, they told me, in varying tones and volumes (like that would make a difference) "We must be vigilant". I was accused of delaying sending in financial stuff, which I had already sent in twice and been visited by a Compliance Officer to check it out, cos I was hiding something... The Housing Benefit people don't want to hear I have more than one child I need to house. "You only get child benefit for one..."
Anyway, I need a job soon.
Met a really nice woman but she lives in the US... I like doing things the easy way obviously.
Sometimes I feel really angry about everything. Then I kind of think I love my kids and I should be grateful for that. I am still in a better place than a lot of other people. It will get better. I will get a job soon. :)
Saturday 25 May 2013
Rambling about money and art
I was listening to a radio programme - Any Questions on Radio 4 - when a question was asked about whether art should be justified in terms of its economic impact.
One of the panellists said that it should not, quoting Oscar Wilde "All art is quite useless."
I am not sure about art's economic impact, but doesn't art have some intrinsic value? Like a good work of Art moving people to tears, changing their views on something, how they perceive the world? Obviously, the impact is going to be different on each person but surely it has some effect.
This then got me thinking about research. Nowadays, there's a big emphasis on research being only funded if it can be shown to have an impact. So if somebody wants to research an aspect just because they find it interesting, they are unlikely to get funded. I personally think that's very short sighted. I can see how it makes sense for companies whose bottom line is how much profit they make for their shareholders. But why should academics be held to the same constraints? Surely there should be some funding for research just because it is interesting. There is always the possibility that at some point down the road, it may turn out to be of economic value. It all adds to the sum of human knowledge which should not be sneered at. If a scientist does research that leads to a dead end, even that is beneficial because it means someone else does not have to explore that at a different point.
One of the panellists said that it should not, quoting Oscar Wilde "All art is quite useless."
I am not sure about art's economic impact, but doesn't art have some intrinsic value? Like a good work of Art moving people to tears, changing their views on something, how they perceive the world? Obviously, the impact is going to be different on each person but surely it has some effect.
This then got me thinking about research. Nowadays, there's a big emphasis on research being only funded if it can be shown to have an impact. So if somebody wants to research an aspect just because they find it interesting, they are unlikely to get funded. I personally think that's very short sighted. I can see how it makes sense for companies whose bottom line is how much profit they make for their shareholders. But why should academics be held to the same constraints? Surely there should be some funding for research just because it is interesting. There is always the possibility that at some point down the road, it may turn out to be of economic value. It all adds to the sum of human knowledge which should not be sneered at. If a scientist does research that leads to a dead end, even that is beneficial because it means someone else does not have to explore that at a different point.
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Teaching Agencies are the Pits
I put up my CV on various job websites last year. I took some time out to rest. Since then I have had job offers from the Middle East - lucrative packages to go and teach there. Unfortunately, I don't feel I can at the moment.
I also joined various agencies and keep applying for jobs through them but have not had any luck so far. The one time I asked for feedback, they told me to ask whoever had put the post up. As there were no contact details, that was not really a helpful bit of advice.
First Agency -
I contacted them to apply for a job in the Bentham area. They asked for my CV, so I sent them it. I asked the guy to arrange for me to visit the school which he promised to do as he was visiting the school and seeing the headteacher. However, when he had not contacted me a couple of days later, I asked him to let me know what was going on. I received no answer, in spite of trying to contact him several times.
Second Agency - Reed Global
I uploaded my CV on to their site in July 2012. Several posts came up and I applied for them with no luck. It was them I asked for feedback as stated above....
In November, one of their people contacted me to ask me to send me my CV as there was a job for which he would like to put me forward. I replied that it was already on their site. I also said that several posts had been advertised by them which I had applied for. Could he explain why I had not been considered for these posts? He said I need a standard CV to apply. I said that's fine but please could he give me an answer to my question. That was the last I heard from him.
Following my experiences with Randstad (see below) I complained to the Reed Management. After they put someone on the case, their excuse was it was an error. Their Global website had not passed on my CV to the local office / Education website. Really?
Just for information, Reed are in partnership with Lancashire LEA to recruit teachers for them.
Third Agency - Randstad
I received an email from these people in January, asking for references and an updated CV. I provided all these and we set up a meeting for an interview - for cover work. We had to cancel due to personal circumstances. The appointment was rearranged for January 2013.
On the Friday, at 5pm, I received an email saying the meeting had been cancelled. I rang up on Monday to find out what was going on, as requested. When I eventually got through, the guy (Frazer) told me that as I had not taught since September 2011, I needed to go back into school on a voluntary basis to get reacquainted with things. He said it was a Department of Education regulation and being a recruitment agency, they had to stick to very rigid rules. This was a blow, but I said I would do that.
However, I spent the evening looking for this regulation but I couldn't find anything. The next morning I rang up and asked whether he could send me a link or a document with the regulation in it. He promised to do that. I asked him how long I should do voluntary work for and he replied, "Uhhhhh, two months".
After I got off the phone, I rang up the NASUWT who refused to help but offered me the number of a teachers' helpline. They gave me the number of the Department for Education, who passed me on to the Teaching Agency's Return to Teaching helpline. After a bit of research, they informed me that there was NO such regulation OR guideline. I contacted Randstad again at which point their guy said, there was no Regulation, it was just a guideline. So I asked him again for a link or a document. He said he would let me have one. He also apologised for not noticing, for 3 weeks, that I had had no teaching since September 2011.
Since then, there has been no document or link forthcoming. I have had an email saying one of his managers will contact me on Monday to sort everything out. I emailed back to say if he could send me proof, that would resolve the issue in 2 minutes. There was no call from his manager. When I rang back, he said the compliance officer would ring. She didn't either. I had emails saying they had the wrong number on my CV. There was no reply when I called and emailed back to tell them I had left my number with their receptionist.
Eventually the CO asked me for my complaints. I wrote them down for her and she promised to get back to me within a fortnight. So, 5 weeks later, I received a letter by snail mail telling me that they wouldn't be send me their documentation because they don't want rivals to see it. She accused me of being rude to Frazer. She also said it was just because he was inexperienced, he had made a mistake. Firstly, if he is inexperienced and not had enough training, he should not be taking calls. Secondly, I heard him asking people in the office about what he should say. Every time I rang he said he would check. That excuse simply does not wash. I do believe ignorance is not an excuse you can use in Court. I emailed this back to her and also asked her why she had taken so long? Why use snail mail when she knew I preferred email or phone? Was she trying to delay me taking the case to tribunal? At this point, she asked me whether I was taking the case to tribunal and on what grounds. I replied I had told Frazer that and put it in my emails to them before, so why was she surprised?
I reported the matter to the agency which regulates the Teaching Agencies. I told them as well that I was taking it to Tribunal. I put a complaint into the Employment Tribunal and they are taking it seriously. I also complained about the agencies in general but they want a separate complaint about each.
Fourth Agency - Key Stage Agency
They contacted me immediately I sent in a CV but when I rang back and left my phone number with the receptionist, they did not get in touch. Shocking!
Fifth Agency - Capita
I applied for a job through Capita. They said I had been shortlisted. I have contacted them 3 times but they haven't been in touch about what this was about.
My Opinion
What I think, backed by other people, is that the agencies have a profile of the type of person they want - and I am too old to be considered. This profile is drawn up in reaction to how schools act. I don't believe the agencies act in isolation. This is age discrimination in all but name but also, I believe, sex discrimination as it will affect women who have been out of school due to maternity care or taking time off while they were raising a family.
I also joined various agencies and keep applying for jobs through them but have not had any luck so far. The one time I asked for feedback, they told me to ask whoever had put the post up. As there were no contact details, that was not really a helpful bit of advice.
First Agency -
I contacted them to apply for a job in the Bentham area. They asked for my CV, so I sent them it. I asked the guy to arrange for me to visit the school which he promised to do as he was visiting the school and seeing the headteacher. However, when he had not contacted me a couple of days later, I asked him to let me know what was going on. I received no answer, in spite of trying to contact him several times.
Second Agency - Reed Global
I uploaded my CV on to their site in July 2012. Several posts came up and I applied for them with no luck. It was them I asked for feedback as stated above....
In November, one of their people contacted me to ask me to send me my CV as there was a job for which he would like to put me forward. I replied that it was already on their site. I also said that several posts had been advertised by them which I had applied for. Could he explain why I had not been considered for these posts? He said I need a standard CV to apply. I said that's fine but please could he give me an answer to my question. That was the last I heard from him.
Following my experiences with Randstad (see below) I complained to the Reed Management. After they put someone on the case, their excuse was it was an error. Their Global website had not passed on my CV to the local office / Education website. Really?
Just for information, Reed are in partnership with Lancashire LEA to recruit teachers for them.
Third Agency - Randstad
I received an email from these people in January, asking for references and an updated CV. I provided all these and we set up a meeting for an interview - for cover work. We had to cancel due to personal circumstances. The appointment was rearranged for January 2013.
On the Friday, at 5pm, I received an email saying the meeting had been cancelled. I rang up on Monday to find out what was going on, as requested. When I eventually got through, the guy (Frazer) told me that as I had not taught since September 2011, I needed to go back into school on a voluntary basis to get reacquainted with things. He said it was a Department of Education regulation and being a recruitment agency, they had to stick to very rigid rules. This was a blow, but I said I would do that.
However, I spent the evening looking for this regulation but I couldn't find anything. The next morning I rang up and asked whether he could send me a link or a document with the regulation in it. He promised to do that. I asked him how long I should do voluntary work for and he replied, "Uhhhhh, two months".
After I got off the phone, I rang up the NASUWT who refused to help but offered me the number of a teachers' helpline. They gave me the number of the Department for Education, who passed me on to the Teaching Agency's Return to Teaching helpline. After a bit of research, they informed me that there was NO such regulation OR guideline. I contacted Randstad again at which point their guy said, there was no Regulation, it was just a guideline. So I asked him again for a link or a document. He said he would let me have one. He also apologised for not noticing, for 3 weeks, that I had had no teaching since September 2011.
Since then, there has been no document or link forthcoming. I have had an email saying one of his managers will contact me on Monday to sort everything out. I emailed back to say if he could send me proof, that would resolve the issue in 2 minutes. There was no call from his manager. When I rang back, he said the compliance officer would ring. She didn't either. I had emails saying they had the wrong number on my CV. There was no reply when I called and emailed back to tell them I had left my number with their receptionist.
Eventually the CO asked me for my complaints. I wrote them down for her and she promised to get back to me within a fortnight. So, 5 weeks later, I received a letter by snail mail telling me that they wouldn't be send me their documentation because they don't want rivals to see it. She accused me of being rude to Frazer. She also said it was just because he was inexperienced, he had made a mistake. Firstly, if he is inexperienced and not had enough training, he should not be taking calls. Secondly, I heard him asking people in the office about what he should say. Every time I rang he said he would check. That excuse simply does not wash. I do believe ignorance is not an excuse you can use in Court. I emailed this back to her and also asked her why she had taken so long? Why use snail mail when she knew I preferred email or phone? Was she trying to delay me taking the case to tribunal? At this point, she asked me whether I was taking the case to tribunal and on what grounds. I replied I had told Frazer that and put it in my emails to them before, so why was she surprised?
I reported the matter to the agency which regulates the Teaching Agencies. I told them as well that I was taking it to Tribunal. I put a complaint into the Employment Tribunal and they are taking it seriously. I also complained about the agencies in general but they want a separate complaint about each.
Fourth Agency - Key Stage Agency
They contacted me immediately I sent in a CV but when I rang back and left my phone number with the receptionist, they did not get in touch. Shocking!
Fifth Agency - Capita
I applied for a job through Capita. They said I had been shortlisted. I have contacted them 3 times but they haven't been in touch about what this was about.
My Opinion
What I think, backed by other people, is that the agencies have a profile of the type of person they want - and I am too old to be considered. This profile is drawn up in reaction to how schools act. I don't believe the agencies act in isolation. This is age discrimination in all but name but also, I believe, sex discrimination as it will affect women who have been out of school due to maternity care or taking time off while they were raising a family.
Sunday 19 May 2013
Looking back
Spent a lot of yesterday and today trying to find pictures of where I used to live in India. The two places I remember a lot about are:
Shimla - we lived in Summerhill, in Sanjauli and the Oberoi hotel on the other side. I used to go to school near The Mall. I remember spending Sundays on the Mall, running around, falling and grazing myself countless times. My grandfather worked for the LIC of India and we used to walk together in the morning, him to his office and me to my school. In the afternoon, when I finished, I would walk to his office and play there or work (doing maths!), sipping sweet tea or coke brought by the chaprassi. Some amazing pictures of Shimla. They look so familiar.
I saw the BBC film about the Kalka - Shimla rail journey on youtube. I remember doing that as a child. Even more frightening was doing it on a bus driving far too fast along a poor road with a drop of several hundred (or thousand!) feet on one side.
Ambala - we lived here from 1963 on. I went to the Convent of Jesus and Mary School till 1968. I had to leave then. I don't think the nuns could cope with boys once we reached puberty..... Nowadays it's a girls only school. I showed pictures of the school from google images to Adam, explaining how the kites used to dive bomb us, snatching food from the hands of unwary children. After CJM I went to the Air Force School but that seems to have changed. A very nice young man has set up a facebook about the city and he may upload some pictures for me!
I also found some pictures uploaded by a man called R. Bhatnagar who, as I had hoped, turned out to be Atul's (one of my childhood friends) eldest brother. What a small world........ I am waiting to hear from Atul.
Update: Just reading the history of Ambala. I didn't realise how important it was militarily. I do remember reading a bit about Ambala in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim"
(i) Official Ambala website
(ii) Air Force
(iii) St. Paul's Church
Shimla - we lived in Summerhill, in Sanjauli and the Oberoi hotel on the other side. I used to go to school near The Mall. I remember spending Sundays on the Mall, running around, falling and grazing myself countless times. My grandfather worked for the LIC of India and we used to walk together in the morning, him to his office and me to my school. In the afternoon, when I finished, I would walk to his office and play there or work (doing maths!), sipping sweet tea or coke brought by the chaprassi. Some amazing pictures of Shimla. They look so familiar.
I saw the BBC film about the Kalka - Shimla rail journey on youtube. I remember doing that as a child. Even more frightening was doing it on a bus driving far too fast along a poor road with a drop of several hundred (or thousand!) feet on one side.
Ambala - we lived here from 1963 on. I went to the Convent of Jesus and Mary School till 1968. I had to leave then. I don't think the nuns could cope with boys once we reached puberty..... Nowadays it's a girls only school. I showed pictures of the school from google images to Adam, explaining how the kites used to dive bomb us, snatching food from the hands of unwary children. After CJM I went to the Air Force School but that seems to have changed. A very nice young man has set up a facebook about the city and he may upload some pictures for me!
I also found some pictures uploaded by a man called R. Bhatnagar who, as I had hoped, turned out to be Atul's (one of my childhood friends) eldest brother. What a small world........ I am waiting to hear from Atul.
Update: Just reading the history of Ambala. I didn't realise how important it was militarily. I do remember reading a bit about Ambala in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim"
(i) Official Ambala website
(ii) Air Force
(iii) St. Paul's Church
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