Jobs - Part One

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.