How Bloody Strange!
March 5th, 2007 | Filed under Personal.There I was, teaching year 12s about system testing and explaining the fineries of how to install stuff in PCs when my pocket vibrates. Being in the middle of my lesson, with a hand inside a PC I let the thing continue buzzing away in my pocket. “Yeah, that bit is the CPU, it goes in there… no, other way up” *bzzzzt* “and this is a graphics card, stick it in one of those slots there…” *bzzzt*
It was voicemail. Voicemail from a school I had applied to. They wanted to interview me. Heh, join the queue as I have an interview tomorrow and Wednesday. I can probably fit you in sometime on Thursday or Friday, right after planning my lessons, writing an assignment that’s due in on Monday and curing 3rd World Hunger.
How things change with a phonecall. The principal said he was very interested in my application and wanted to see me today, as soon as possible. Err… right… today… there’s short notice, and there’s turning up as quickly as possible. Fortunately I don’t teach Monday afternoons so after a quick chat with my mentor, something to eat and a quick go with Google Maps I knew where I was going and set off.
There was only me there. No other people being interviewed, it was strange. Lots of friendly staff who showed me around the school and lead me around more computer rooms than I’ve seen in one building before - every room I went in had at least five. Then the interview, which was also different there was the principal, assistant principal and the head of ICT. We had an “informal” interview which cunningly asked all the same questions as every other interview, but in a much better way. Being able to have a cup of tea in an interview makes a difference.
And then the day got just about as bizarre as it could without breaking the laws of reality. Really, it was one step away from monkeys flying past the windows. I was asked to come back on Tuesday to teach a lesson, which posed a slight clash with another interview. I was then told in no uncertain words “There’s a stack of applications over there that I’ve not even looked at. You’re in a shortlist of one, now what do you say?”. Well duh… “Yes, I have no problem at all coming back tomorrow. What time?”. Possible job by Tuesday vs a long drive to Rotherham for a standard tedious day of being interviewed? Hard choice.
I was given a year 11 revision class on Operating Systems to teach, and a revision guide to look at. More tea was applied and I was shown back to the reception, head all a blur.
So tomorrow then…
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