Something To Look Forward To

 Well yes, I'm scared. I have not interviewed for a job in twenty-five years. That's not entirely accurate, since I was asked to re-audition for my spot at my current school when the staff was being reconstituted. Some of them left. I got to stay. I have never been completely clear if that was because I had done such an exceptional job answering questions, or if that distinction went to the folks who were spread about the district. I stayed where I was. Where I am still. Unless the district goes ahead with its plan to close ten schools at the end of the next school year. Then all those years of experience and dedication will be out the window as I am forced back out into the pool of those who have no fixed place of employment. 

There is a bright spot to all of this, I suppose. The "talent division," formerly Human Resources, has been placed at our nominal disposal with the vague assurance that even though our schools are closing the school district is still anxious to keep our knowledge and enthusiasm around. 

But here's the nitty gritty: I have never interviewed and not gotten the job for which I applied. I could look at this as an affirmation of my exceptional skill at interviewing. Or perhaps it is more evidence to my eternally obsequious manner. Or maybe I have always set my sights just a little lower than where I wanted to land. For the most part, my employment history was based primarily on knowing someone who already had a job at the place where I wanted to work. That worked at Arby's. And at Target. And at the video store. And when I got my job as an office furniture installer. Even when I moved out here to California, my wife helped me get a position at the book warehouse that distributed her mom's books. When it came time to get a spot in the intern credential program for the Oakland Unified School District, it was my wife who recommended me to the director for whom she was doing design work. It wasn't until I actually sat down with the principal who would eventually hire me that I was dealing with someone who had never met or heard of me before. 

And once I landed there, I stayed. No further interviews necessary. In the meantime, I have sat in on numerous interviews for others who desired employment at our little school, so it's not like I have been in an interview-free zone for the past quarter century. Which is probably a good thing, since it's starting to look like I may be back on the other side of the table again soon. I wonder where I left my tie.