Cambridge Fair - Early Interview Sign Up Session
Cambridge Fair - Early Interview Sign Up Session
So my wife and I have accepted an invite to the Cambridge fair. Looking through the candidate schedule, we noticed an early interview sign up session for counselors and administrators on Thursday while teacher sign-up times are on Friday. She is an elementary/middle school counselor. Can I go with her to this and play up the teaching couple card and start trying to set up interviews early? I am a primary teacher. I assume this is a big advantage over the mad rush that will be happening the next day at the teacher candidate sign-up sessions?
Reply
The split is so that recruiters can focus on teaching faculty vacancies and counselor/library/admin vacancies separately. Part of this was so that recruiters wouldnt be poaching the prime teachers and close out the vacancies before the signup sessions.
Yes you can go with her, and yes you can pitch the primary/elementary angle. SHOULD you though? A lot of people would say its not fair, and your basically having someone in the club walk you past the bouncer without paying the cover or waiting in line.
Compounding the issue is that your a primary teacher and a lot, and i mean a lot of primary teachers who cant teach anything else will cry foul, since your basically skipping in line a head of them. Many recruiters wont even post primary vacancies at the big fairs even if they do have them, because the line become saturated and dissuade the other more in demand vacancies (if your a decent school and you post a math and a elementary vacancy, and you have 20 people lined up for an interview 19 of them will be primary, and 1 will be a math teacher, and a recruiter doesnt want to miss that math teacher).
Personally, I think you can and should do it. Fair or not your a teaching couple, you come as a package, and your marketing yourself as a package. Im admin qualified, and I have used that as an in to "access" and interview early for teaching vacancies. The schools have caught on as well, and will sometimes post a coordinator or other junior admin position so that they can talk to prime/preferred candidates in advance. The conversation usually starts off as "Well our admin position is only tentative right now but I see by your resume you qualified in______, how do you feel about a teaching position?"
Yes you can go with her, and yes you can pitch the primary/elementary angle. SHOULD you though? A lot of people would say its not fair, and your basically having someone in the club walk you past the bouncer without paying the cover or waiting in line.
Compounding the issue is that your a primary teacher and a lot, and i mean a lot of primary teachers who cant teach anything else will cry foul, since your basically skipping in line a head of them. Many recruiters wont even post primary vacancies at the big fairs even if they do have them, because the line become saturated and dissuade the other more in demand vacancies (if your a decent school and you post a math and a elementary vacancy, and you have 20 people lined up for an interview 19 of them will be primary, and 1 will be a math teacher, and a recruiter doesnt want to miss that math teacher).
Personally, I think you can and should do it. Fair or not your a teaching couple, you come as a package, and your marketing yourself as a package. Im admin qualified, and I have used that as an in to "access" and interview early for teaching vacancies. The schools have caught on as well, and will sometimes post a coordinator or other junior admin position so that they can talk to prime/preferred candidates in advance. The conversation usually starts off as "Well our admin position is only tentative right now but I see by your resume you qualified in______, how do you feel about a teaching position?"