Recruiting

There's still time to apply for the chem tech job but we've had a few applicants already.


Earlier this week my HoD said that he'd like me to be involved in the selection process. I guess normally the chemistry HoD would be in charge of this, but he's leaving us at Christmas so it's mostly fallen to my HoD, since he's overall head of science as well as physics. It certainly makes sense for both me and bio tech to at least meet the candidates, since although we don't work very closely we do need to coordinate resources etc at times, but I did point out that generally helping to draw up the shortlist and even maybe being in the interviews is really more of a senior technician thing, 'and I'm not senior technician'. 'Ah, but you will be' was the answer to that one, so he obviously hasn't forgotten the carrot HR dangled under my nose last term when I was thinking of leaving.


This morning he passed me a bunch of application forms to look at. One out of the five is already working as a technician, but all of them have strong science backgrounds. I kind of have a favourite, but that's only on paper. Looking forward to meeting them in the flesh once we set an interview date.

Interview

Well, in the end I wasn't the only job applicant and yesterday, along with 3 others, I went along for an interview.


It's always interesting to have a look around another school and mostly I really liked what I saw. Sadly the bit I wasn't so keen on was the science department. I think it has potential but some serious money needs to be spent on the labs. It's a much smaller school than I have ever worked in before - about 330 pupils, 6 science teachers, 4 labs. In a way I think that could be very nice as you'd get to know everyone quite quickly and it was emphasised that everyone is expected to get involved in school life beyond their own department. That could be a good thing, I don't know.


The interview process itself consisted of 3 separate interviews with the Head of Science, the Principal and the Vice-Principal. This was the first time I've ever been interviewed by a Principal! All 3 clearly had different aspects that they wanted to find out about. The Head of Science was obviously interested in my credentials as a technician and my skills, the Vice-Principal mainly asked about ways in which I could benefit the school as a whole and my skills and experience outside of science, and the Principal seemed to want to find out who I am as a person, I suppose to decide whether I would fit in.


I felt as though I made a good impression but the one thing no one could tell me was what the hours or salary are likely to be! Those are fairly major considerations and it does seem odd that they couldn't even hint at a ballpark figure. It sounds as though there's a bit of a restructuring of the staff going on at the moment which I guess is fair enough, but if they did offer me the job there's no way I could accept if they can't give me those sort of details.


Last night after I got home I had a call from my best mate (Head of Biology at the school concerned) who told me off the record that I'm definitely the Principal's preferred candidate but that everyone is going to sleep on it and I may hear something by the end of today.


However...  I have now been offered a big juicy carrot by my current school. I knew that going for an interview would shock them into action and they have proved me right. It's a carrot that I won't get until this time next year but it's a good carrot. Can't really say too much because it's all a bit unofficial at the moment.


So now we wait.

Still here

I realise I rather left the blog hanging after that last post. Sorry!

In the end I decided not to even go to the interview. Everyone I mentioned it to had nothing but bad things to say about the school in question, the money was a bit less than my current salary, but the killer for me was the commute.

I currently drive for 45 minutes to get to work, so I thought that a school around 10 miles closer to home would be a good bet but when I tried out the journey I discovered I was sorely mistaken. It actually took 30 minutes LONGER than my current commute because the roads are terrible and really congested in that area!
No job is worth over an hours drive each way, so I pulled out.

Upcoming interview. Eep!

I applied for another job.
I'm not sure I would actually want it, but it never hurts to take a look.

However, I now have to face an interview - my first in over 5 years and the first time I've interviewed for a Team Leader position. the e-mail I had from the HR manager explained that the process will begin with a tour. Good, I can cope with that. Then there will be a student panel, which sounds mildly terrifying, an 'In Tray' exercise (I have no idea what that means) and finally a formal interview which is to include a 5 minute powerpoint presentation on how I would develop the technical team.

I'm SO far out of my depth here! I haven't the faintest clue how I would develop the technical team. I've never met them, know nothing about their working hours or how the work is divided up. I don't even know how many there are because the school website makes no mention of technicians at all.

I may not desperately want the job, but I don't want to make an idiot of myself. Help!!