Week 6: Rise (and fall) of the Penguin

For the last few weeks I have had nothing much to report but this week is different. This week, I have actual news. Does this mean I am now happily employed? Well, you’ll have to read until the end to find out!
Monday was a big day because it was the day our uni results were published. I am now the owner of a 2.1 degree in primary teaching. A 2.1 is a pretty decent degree to fairly pleased about that. I’m mostly apathetic about the whole thing though as it was kind of irrelevant what level degree I achieved, it is still little use in getting a non primary teaching job.
Late last week I received an invite to interview for one of the jobs I applied for. This invite was quickly followed by a shopping trip because my parents had decided that I required an entire new suit for the occasion, despite the fact I considered my old one perfectly fine. I feel that as long as I look presentable it doesn’t matter- not having a brand new outfit is the least of your worries when you find normal conversations with strangers challenging, let alone a job interview.
The job was a teaching assistant post in a local secondary school, not something I was hugely keen on doing but better than having no job at all. The first part of the interview involved being interviewed by the school council, a group of students. For once I was actually at my best there and quickly built a good rapport. I felt pretty good about it and was later told the feedback from it was really good.
For the most part they asked standard interview questions which troubled me little but out of nowhere came a curveball. “If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?”. Now I know this type of question comes up occasionally but it was completely unlike the rest of the interview. For some reason my brain immediately screamed “penguin” and at that moment I could think of none of the other billions of species that live on the planet. So penguin was my answer and I somehow managed to make up some rubbish about how they are very social and work as a community to keep warm.
I sat waiting for the next part of the interview considering how it turns out Dan 2.0 is metaphorically a penguin. Soon I waddled out to be interviewed by the staff panel, which was surprisingly undaunting. They seemed nice and most of the questions I handled easily. Several were to do with child protection issues and the amount of times I discussed the exact issues in seminars at uni meant I could pull out some textbook answers. I was a little thrown when they asked me about upholding the Christian ethos of the school seeing as though I am an atheist but I just said something or other that made sense. It was by no means an amazing interview but it was perfectly passable and at this point I was feeling unexpectedly pleased with myself.
3.pingu
The final part of the interview involved someone basically observing me doing the job. Unfortunately I was put into the worst possible situation, a textiles lesson. A dyspraxic male stranger attempting to help with sewing. I knew immediately this wouldn’t go well. I felt really awkward and there was little I could do because they only doing basic stitching.
Eventually that evening I got the dreaded phone call to let me know the result. It was a no. Much as I have described to you, the nice lady informed me that the school council bit was really good, the interview was ok but the lesson observation was “requires improvement”.
Those two dreaded words, the way lessons are graded by national standards, were ones I heard regularly during my school practice. I couldn’t be a good teacher and in that interview I couldn’t even be a good teaching assistant. I know the situation was rubbish but it is really hard not to feel that maybe I am just not meant to work with children. I was never massively keen on the job but to not be offered it in that way was really disheartening. In penguin terms, it felt like I was stuck in a heatwave.
Cry
Still, there is hope because shortly before the rejection phone call I was invited to interview by someone else and this one is a job I really do want. It’s in a brand new school for children with autism. The interview is not until next week but I’m a little worried because part of it is another lesson observation. I know the situation will almost certainly be easier but I’m so worried I will mess it up again. It’s a job I really want and with nothing else on the horizon it might be my last chance for a while. No pressure then…
Jobs Applied for: 9   Responses: 2

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