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fseor- not sure what kind of job looking for (quality huge area), but Huntsville has a lot of missile jobs, including some on quality (no one wants their missile to blow up before it is supposed to or to now blow up after all that effort of shooting it off). Raytheon is building a new facility out there, I think Redstone has a new contract or something. Also, United Space has some quality jobs opening up there- listed as engineer 2, but will fill as starting. Not sure if other companies do that, but might want to start searching engineer 2 positions 2. can't hurt to try.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Belle, I got a little confused w/ all the different posts. Is the long term sub job in the same school district as the ESL/sheltered English job? Is the latter definitely off the table?
I like your thinking about taking the job (if offered) to stay in the field and gain valuable experience. Good luck.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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The one I really wanted, the sheltered English is off the table, they hired someone else - I didn't even get an interview. Yeah, that really stings, too because I was very qualified for it.
Every other full time job I've applied for has apparently been filled - all of them have been removed from the job board.
The only thing I've interviewed for and have any shot at is the long-term sub. Which is right at minimum wage, and only about $10 a week more than I would get with unemployment. But, as I said, it's better than sitting at home being depressed and angry about not having a job, and better than earning nothing at all. Plus it gives me experience, so I am going to take it, if offered. He was interviewing two more people after me, and said he'd let me know Monday.
I did apply for a job as a web content editor, but they haven't gotten back with me. It's a university, and they are always notoriously slow about moving along with the hiring process so I'm not expecting much.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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So it's Monday, and I haven't heard anything yet so I am now assuming that I did not even get the long term sub.
To top it off, the web content editor job has been removed from the university's job board, and I didn't get an interview for that. I didn't really want it anyway, I'd rather teach, but doggone it I am getting sick and tired of being passed over without even an interview.
So I'm down to...nothing. No jobs anywhere that I can even apply for at this point. I suppose I will be part of the "new unemployment filing" statistic.
I am also facing withdrawing from school so I won't be able to continue my master's program. And, given that I have a daughter going to college next fall and my husband needs to add a degree to keep his part time job teaching at a junior college, I will most likely never get back to school. That hurts, because it means that I will have wasted these five classes. And I LIKE school.
So pardon me, Hatrack, while I wallow in some self-pity for a while. Hopefully I'll be over it soon....I have to move into the "acceptance stage" but right now I'm mired in the dejected, hurt stage.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Belle- I am really sorry. I know it doesn't help, but when my husband was job hunting, he turned in probably 50 applications and got 3 interviews total, one job offer. One of the most annoying ones was for the job he got, he initially didn't get it and they called back 2 months later and hired him. But when he was told no the first time, they were like, you are the perfect applicant for this other job in our company- like your resume fits everything so perfectly, you couldn't lie to make it better. So, he applied for that job and never got a call back.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Belle, I'm sorry. Keep your head up and your eyes and ears open.
As for me, I was offered a new job today - one I'm going to take. It's an opportunity to get in on the ground level of an established advertising agency. They've put in a solid client base and are hiring for the first time.
In this economy, it's a gamble, but one I'm willing to take. Hoping for the best.
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Good luck Belle. I've been trying to find an art teaching or art services position here in Seattle, but they all want people with a BA in Fine Arts for teaching.
I'll be putting up flyers for private lessons, but I broke up with my BF and I'll be losing Microsoft insurance coverage, along with a lot of luxuries. I'm seriously considering the cruise ship industry, or yeah, teaching English in Japan. I know there are some that don't require you to have a BA, just an AA will do, and it'd be a great experience it seems.
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What a lousy day at work. As part of our restructure, a handful of folks from my department got moved to another department - which is apparently the department that all the other departments steal lunch money from. I was at work until 7 pm. I put in 10 hours yesterday.
I'm trying really hard to look at the bright side cause that does mean overtime. But I don't want overtime. I want to go home at 5:30. I want my job done perfectly so I can put in exactly 40 hours and never think about it on my off time. And I sure as you-know-where don't want to miss my evenings with my husband who goes to work at 3 am. Evenings are family time.
I am not cut out to deal with the one department in the entire credit union that's time sensative. Anywhere else I could wait until tomorrow. Thank god the outside vendors aren't acting up at the moment or I'd run screaming, back up job or no.
And there's still almost nothing out there. Debt collection seems to be the thing at the moment. How you gonna collect debt from people with no money? How can that even be an in demand job?
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm climbing back in the saddle, another long term sub has been posted. It's the same lousy money, but it's closer to home so that's encouraging. Less gas money.
I'm going out there today to try and catch the principal and leave a resume.
Like a slap in the face, a friend I know from school called me to brag that she just got a job. I'm happy for her, but I'm frustrated - she hasn't finished school yet and does not have a teaching certificate. I'm certified, highly qualified, and experienced and I can't get interviews and they are hiring people who don't have a teaching certificate. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I was confused when I went in, saw someone standing in the hall, asked where the office was and they pointed to a door. I opened it....and the door took me right into the principal's private office where he was engaged in a meeting!
Whoops.
I stammered out an apology for interrupting, gave him my resume, and left. I fumbled that one badly, I'm not expecting a call from him. He gave me the generic "I'll be in touch" which they always say but they never are.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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The hits just keep on coming. The mayor of the city where my husband works petitioned the city council for the authority to change firefighter pay. They gave it to him, so it looks now like my husband's pay will be cut 30%.
If I don't have a job, we cannot absorb that big of a hit. I don't know what to do. I have never felt so helpless...I've tried everything I can do to find a job....I've applied for almost 40 in the last two months, I've looked outside education, but I can't find anything. Even unemployment is not going to be enough...I have to work. When the girl without a teacher's certificate got a job today...I really felt like just giving up.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I wonder how many firefighters they'll have left...I can't imagine many full-time employees can easily absorb that big of a financial hit. Disposable income hasn't exactly been on the rise in the last decade.
I just found the news article from your area, where it says 10%, but the union is claiming up to 30% due to errors in how the pay is calculated? That's rather vague.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Belle, I'm so sad for you. I don't get this whole thing of hiring the inexperienced kids either. I have a friend who graduated with his teaching certificate a year ago. He's done short and long term subbing all year in the county schools. People know him. He's good. I specifically requested that my principal hire him for the fifth grade position because I knew we would work well together. She went and hired a newby, fresh out of college. At another school, where he did the long term sub, the principal indicated that he was almost assured to get the job. The job went to another newby. I don't get it. Here he is, known and experienced, and the newbys are getting the jobs. There were only six teaching jobs available in our county (there were 150 people hired the year I was hired, seven years ago), and nearly all went to May graduates, while there's a whole class of graduates from a year ago who have been subbing, and none of them got hired. I just don't get it.
Posts: 315 | Registered: Dec 2005
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It's 30% because of the hours they work....The mayor is claiming that they should make the same annual salary as police, instead of the same hourly rate. Firefighters work 52 hours a week on average to the police 40. Right now they make the same hourly pay - let's say it's 20 bucks an hour. But the firefighter makes more in the long run, because he gets 52 hours a week at 20 where the police officer gets 40. It's more complicated than that due to firefighter off day schedules, but that's the gist.
The news is notoriously unreliable on this issue because they don't understand the facts - firefighters are exempt from the normal wage and hour law and are covered under a completely different set of federal regulations due to their work schedule. It's called the FLSA K exemption:
quote:"Public-sector (government) fire departments may establish special "7(k) work periods" for sworn firefighters, which can increase the FLSA overtime "thresholds" beyond the normal 40 hour week. Firefighters covered by these special work periods are entitled to FLSA overtime only for hours worked in excess of a threshold set by the Department of Labor on a chart. For example, in a 28 day work period, fire fighters would be entitled to FLSA overtime only for hours actually worked over 212 during that 28 day period (in essence, a 53 hour work week). "7(k)" refers to the section of the FLSA in which these special rules are contained, 29 USC §207(k). Most fire fighters who work "platoon schedules" will be classified by their employers as "7(k) eligible" and compensated accordingly.
So, firefighters don't make "overtime" if they work 52 hours a week as long as they don't go over 212 hours in a 28 day period. The mayor is saying that police and fire should receive the same annual salary, not hourly rate, so he is reducing the hourly rate to make the annual salaries match.
I'm sure that is much more than anyone here wanted to know about firefighter salary issues. But, it may help explain where the union is getting that 30% figure.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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So are the hours going to be the same as police? Will the work week be lessened to only 40 hours? That's the only way it could be considered even close to fair.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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No kat, their hours will remain the same. They will work 52 hours a week and make the same annual salary as someone who works 40, when both are supposed to be equal, because the mayor is interpreting the "equal pay" as an annual salary, not an hourly one.
Thats's why the union is up in arms and wanting to fight it. I hope they are successful. But, all signs are pointing to them successfully reducing the salary.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Thanks for the explanation, Belle. It's good to get information directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Oh, Belle, that is so NOT right. <grrrrr> <aaarrrggghhh> I can't think of anything else to say.
Posts: 315 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Another day, another application sent out for a job outside teaching. I'm focusing on the universities in town...I'd rather stay in some form of education if I can and most of the local universities have tuition benefits which may help out in paying for college for my kids.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I just found out my part time job is gone. The owners thought they were selling the franchise, but corporate said no, so was told today no work next week (or ever with them). Only part time, money was used for a perk that we will find a way to pay for somehow else (bin's gymnastic lessons), but still really bummed.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Oh scholarette, I'm sorry. yeah, that short notice really sucks. Hope you find something to replace it soon.
I applied for another job at the university where I attend (bonus - if I get a job there I can finish my master's for free!)
A friend called to say her principal told her they would be posting an ESL position soon...so I may have the opportunity to jump at that chance. I'm going to email the principal and try to be one of the first people to submit. It's not posted yet, so there shouldn't be too many others sending in resumes for it.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Right now, it is hard to even think about finding another job. I am 30 weeks pregnant and my husband is trying to transfer to another state so, it is like ok, who is going to hire someone so very pregnant and do I really want to find another job if we are moving anyway? The transfer hasn't happened yet, so we may not move, but husband really wants to transfer. Working in space industry in Houston is not the most stable work right now and he is thinking getting out before forced out would be good.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Right now, we are thinking this is just early maternity leave and I'll start job hunting in like Dec/January.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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My contact at the board came through and is managing to get me on the sub list at the county where I worked. That's actually a big accomplishment because most school systems are refusing to accept new subs.
In other words I've applied for about five more jobs that are non-teaching. The last minute ESL teacher opening is still open, but the principal has not called for an interview and since school starts Wednesday I suspect he already has someone else in mind. That's how it usually goes.
One other bright spot, though - my professor asked me to email her later today she is trying to work some magic and get my classes paid for so I can stay in school. That would be awesome.
So, I suppose I'm looking at unemployment, maybe subbing if I can get work, and maybe staying in school, or maybe not depending on whether I can get any money to stay in school. I could apply for loans I guess but I know it's way too late for this term.
An article in the paper quotes a local superintendent as saying that we haven't seen anything yet - next year all the stimulus money will be gone and there will be teacher unemployment unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes. That's encouraging.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: That's encouraging.
>_<
I thought that for the most part, the stimulus money is ALREADY gone -- or will be January, and is already spoken for.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Yeah, rivka but they were able to preserve some jobs for this school year with it. Not so next year. Class sizes will be astronomical.
The school where I worked last year let 9 teachers go and didn't replace any of them - and the number of kids didn't change. So, imagine how much bigger class sizes have to be to make up for that.
I don't know. I loved teaching last year for the most part, even though I taught in an incredibly challenging situation. But, I'm thinking that I am in the wrong profession and need to find something else to do.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: But what job is not hurting right now?
Too true.
Belle, I taught for 10 years. There are some really awesome things about being a teacher. And some really sucky ones.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'm just sick of the injustice of it. And I'm not even talking about myself - I mean, I only have one year of experience so it makes sense that I am struggling to find a job. But, I have a good friend who has taught for years, is a highly qualified special ed teacher, also certified in math, and incredibly gifted with helping students achieve. She moved out of state with her husband's job and had to give up tenure, but now that she's back home she is unable to find a job. Husband decided to leave too, so she is a single mom.
She needs a job, really badly and no one will hire her. And yet I know of so many incompetent special ed teachers that I worked with who went into it because it's easier (and it IS if you don't care about doing a good job). I am so angry and frustrated with the system - the students deserve better.
I've been passed over for jobs so they could hire people who were related to someone or who graduated from that school. Not because they were more qualified. Hell, at most schools I can't even get an interview because I don't know the principal.
I've seen really great teachers pushed out of jobs to make room for someone who is a terrible teacher but can coach. I've seen so many downsides to teaching it's making me long for the days when I worked in corporate and I kept my job as long as I did it well, and they offered me more money because they wanted to keep me and not have me leave for another job that could pay me better. God bless the free market.
I don't know. I'm just down...depressed, despondent, and feeling like giving up. I guess I'm assuming the grass has GOT to be greener elsewhere. But it probably isn't.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:And yet I know of so many incompetent special ed teachers that I worked with who went into it because it's easier (and it IS if you don't care about doing a good job).
It's, in fact, why special ed is such a travesty in so many parts of the nation. Schools who can't fire incompetent teachers with tenure and can't pawn them off on another school use special ed as a dumping ground for the lemons, to keep them out of the way of 'normal' operations as much as possible. So, even though they're taking care of students who arguably need MORE qualified, specialized teachers to attend to them, the special ed department is turned into glorified babysitting by teachers who are a step above rubber roomers.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Belle, when my sister was in corporate America, she was temping with the contract supposedly including full time hire provided they liked her work. She did a great job, but when her contract expired, they gave the full time job to someone's friend's son. They did keep her on, floating between depts until finally one of the other people offered her a job. Apparently, he had a stack of resumes and he was looking at it and said, geez, I so don't want to go through all these and do the interviews. Hey, temp, you want the job? She said yes and then got to send out rejections to all the other applicants, whose resumes the boss never even read.
In teaching, the worst story I head was over getting out of a contract. She signed a contract, but said she was still looking for another job (with salary freeze, this made a huge difference in pay since she wasn't getting the bonus for having a master's but if a new hire she would get it). They said that was fine- just sign now and they would release her without problems when she had another job. So, she did that and found a great job (8k raise, one prep instead of 4 and all classes she was certified to actually teach- her old school had her teaching things she wasn't certified for). When she asked to be released, they refused. The principal claimed no qualified applicants applied for the job so they couldn't release her until they found someone to take her place. In this environment, she could not believe no one good had applied. After a bunch of run around, she finally called the HR person, who said they had interviewed several qualified candidates and had even hired someone contingent on her quitting. My friend was furious and again went and asked for her release and she did get it this time. One of her friends at the same school was in a similar situation, but the new school that hired him didn't want to wait for him to be released once it became obvious the other school was making trouble, so he lost out on his other job.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Good news finally - found the money to stay in school. So I will keep working on my master's degree. In the meantime I'll keep looking for a full time job (any full time job!) and I was able to make it on at least one substitute list. If I can string enough sub jobs together I might make it until next semester...when there is a long-term sub position available that I have been recommended for. Maybe I can survive that way.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I'm glad to hear something has finally gone your way, Belle. :-) I've flirted with the idea of becoming a high school math and/or economics teacher, but stories like yours - where clearly qualified teachers are passed over because of our crazy public school system and its hiring practices - always make me hesitant.
In my good news of the day, my boss has agreed to allow me to work remotely from the company's San Francisco office. It's not ideal, by any means... I'm not a huge fan of my job to begin with, and working remotely will accentuate some of the things I dislike about it. I'll likely have an hour + commute each way, since we want to live somewhere in the Mountain View to north San Jose area. I'll have to keep East Coast office hours, which means getting up no later than 5:30 every morning...
But it's a job, and moreover a job which comes with benefits and more than decent pay. So I'm counting my lucky stars that we're crazy-busy & my boss hates hiring and training new people (plus it does take a long time to get up to speed with our work).
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: Good news finally - found the money to stay in school.
Yay!
quote:Originally posted by Jhai: But it's a job, and moreover a job which comes with benefits and more than decent pay.
Right now especially, that's big. And hopefully you'll find something that makes you happier not too long after you move.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Got my first sub job! Not until Aug 31...but it's a day and the more I sub the more I'll be called because the best way to get jobs is being visible where other teachers can meet you.
I also called a friend who teaches at a local high school and told her I was hoping to sub and she reminded me that her mother works in the office at the school...and is in charge of scheduling subs! So I will hopefully be able to get more jobs that way.
If I can string together an average of 3 days a week as a sub we can (barely) pay our monthly bills. We'll have to make some adjustments in our lifestyles and give up some wants but our needs will be taken care of...and that's the same thing a lot of families are having to do right now.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Belle, that's great. Glad you can keep going to school and hope you will be able to get as much subbing in as you want between now and the long-term sub job.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Just got interviewed over the phone by one of the universities I applied to. It's a financial aid position and consdierably less money than a teaching job. But, considerably more than subbing.
I don't know...everyone tells me subbing is the way to get a job...and I was feeling really good about that. If I take this position I can't do that, and I don't increase my chances of getting a job as a teacher.
Then again, it's a lot more than I'm making now. The woman had several other phone interviews to go and then said she'd get back with me so chances are the decision may not even need to be made - they could offer it to someone else. With my luck, they will. I don't seem to get much further than interviews these days.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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