What would you do?

[Briz]

Here is a scenario that comes up at this time of year. I would like to know what people on this forum would do.

You accept a position in January even if you do not think it is the best job you can get. The money is good and you think it will help your career if you stay for a period of time. You are not wowed by the job so you keep your feelers out. One day you get an email from a school you really like. They want to talk to you about a position. It has some administrative duties, it is more money, it is a better school, and in a better location. You understand the repercussions (being blacklisted by a recruiting company) if you drop your other contract. Would you....

Interview only, because it is good for your ego.

Interview and accept, damn the recruiters!

Not interview, your word is your bond, accepting your situation and ignore the many benefits.

Thanks for playing....

[CDNTEACH]

That is a tough one!

To be honest, I would be take the interview. I would always wonder if the grass was greener, especially if the first job does not work out so well.

If you receive an offer, then I would have a serious debate - "your word as bond" or the step forward with the admin duties. Some schools may understand the desire for advancement and they may try to counter or support you.

[Chicagogirl]

I would interview and see what happens. It doesn't hurt to interview. Now if they give you an offer that's the hard part.

Good luck.

[Nomads]

Word is your bond.

Play out the scenario a bit more. Imagine the second school contacting your references, only to hear "He has already taken a position with another school." The admin at the second school now questions your integrity as well as your current admin. You better hope they don't know the admin at the school where you accepted the position.

International education is a surprisingly small community. Once you get a negative reputation, it is very hard to repair it. If you are good enough to get an offer at a top school at this point, you will get an offer in two years once you fulfill the contract you committed to in January.

[DeDee]

This happened to me 2 weeks ago. I accepted a position on a Friday. I checked my email Sunday evening and had received a request for an immediate Skype interview at a school I really would have preferred. Initially, I thought about interviewing just to hear what would be said. Then, I thought about what if I was offered the job. What lie could I come up with to get out of the 1st job?

After a day or 2 of thinking about it, I realized there's always going to be something better. If I wasn't happy with the 1st offer, then I shouldn't have taken it. I emailed the school back and let them know I had already accepted a position but would keep them in mind in 2 years if I was looking again. They were very kind and wished me luck. Once you've accepted a position, you can't look back or do the "what if's?".

[Briz]

Interesting points have been brought up. Let's deal with those. The contacting of references. If you speak to your references and inform them, it is quite possible they would not let the cat out of the bag. The network of international educators though, that would be a killer one!

I think the safest way is to not interview. The best way however would be the amount of risk an individual is willing to take. I think if you truly felt this was "the opportunity" you have been wanting, it might be worth it to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Every individual would have to weigh that based on their situation and the assessment of all the variables.

Personally I would take the interview and talk to my references letting them know how the opportunity was worth the risk. If it so happened you receive an offer, then it is all about numbers. A good old Ben Franklin to the rescue! Draw up those plusses and minuses and let the chips fall. The next 20-30 years make up your career, might as well go for the shot when it is presented. I definitely hear the "just say no" argument though!

Interesting

[BlueJay]

I get the whole word is your bound thing. I do. But we are talking about what could be the next 20 to 30 years of a persons life if they found that one place where everything just falls into place. My take on the situation is this. Be transparent. Let the school that contacted you know that you have accepted an offer but that you have wanted to work for them for a long time and could see yourself retiring from there. If they are still interested in interviewing you, then do it. They have the facts going in. If they make you an offer and you accept it, then yes, you'll lose face with the school that you accepted the offer of, but they should be able to find a replacement this early on in the hiring process.

If I'm the director of the school who's offer that you accepted and then later rejected because you found a place that you believe that you would be happier in, yes I would be upset but once rational thinking took over I would probably be happy that you weren't going to be my problem for the next 2 years. In the end I would probably be understanding. As the director of a school I want to hire a person that wants to be at my school and isn't already thinking about bolting my school just a few weeks of accepting the job.

You only get one shot, one opportunity at this life. Sometimes you've got to make the tough choices and accept the consequences of your actions. Sometimes you just have to do what's right for you and your family.

[tdaley26]

Just to add in my two cents worth. It depends on if you have signed a contract or if you verbally accepted an offer. I was in a situation where I had accepted a verbal offer from a school and then waited 2 weeks for the contract to be emailed to me. Upon reading the signed contract from the school, it wasn't what had been promised in the interview. After emailing back and forth over the next few days I ended up politely turning down the offer. Luckily I had kept applying for jobs in the mean time and landed a job I have been very happy in for the last year and a half.

So, my advice is, if you accepted and signed a contract: then I feel you should honor it. If the agreement is verbal, it still needs to be confirmed by the signing of the contract. I have heard of cases where schools have taken back a verbal offer and I see no reason why it shouldn't be ok for teachers too.

[Briz]

I have had an offer rescinded. I was in complete agreement with them taking it back as the parameters changed and it would have not been suitable for me to take it. I see and understand where you are drawing a line in the sand. I also see that if something were to present itself and it is just better for your career, damn the signature. Such a slippery slope. I am really enjoying the insights to this possible scenario.

[sid]

As an active administrator and recruiter, I would be both upset and philosophical about this.
Upset, because it is highly unprofessional, disruptive to our hiring process, and reflecting badly on me that I extended a job offer to someone who turned out to be unreliable and untrustworthy. Yes, I would feel free to mention the actions of this person to anyone, if it came up, and it does come up more often than you think. I couldn't be bothered to mount a campaign to spread the word, I have better things to do, but I will tell the truth when a colleague asks me.
Philosophical, because it's not the first time I've needed to go back and restart a job search. I think it's highly unlikely for someone to imagine that I wish the person well, but I might go so far as to wish their new school 'good luck', tongue in cheek.

[Briz]

Sid, while I highly respect your insight and comments as a recruiter and an administrator, I also think there is the other side of the coin that could be looked at. Of course it is troublesome and tiresome that you would have to recruit again, but don't you believe that the person would have to have and extremely compelling reason to break such a contract. It might be like the situation I described above, where a job presents itself that just propels that individual right where they want to go, and just because you happen to have been there first and they felt scared something better might never arrive, professionalism alone would cause them to miss what might be a HUGE opportunity. It isn't the best thing, but I don't think making that decision defines an individual. Also it could be that life circumstance just simply changes. Mother gets very ill, wife dies etc. etc. and the person just doesn't feel they can or should start the contract. Of course it isn't like you will be bff's but the world is large, and there is always another way to look at things.

[heyteach]

Briz, in this last post of yours it sounds like you are trying really hard to justify something you have already decided to do, and you're just looking for our validation. Dedee's response was similar to what I would have said. Tell the school you've already accepted a position, but say you'd like to talk to them for a future position. If they do that, you may find it's not as good a fit as you thought. In the end, you've maintained your integrity--something in short supply these days--and made a contact for later. You should know how jobs cycle around; it'll come back open eventually.

Another lesson learned: never accept a position you aren't 100% sure of, to the extent that you're still looking around.

[Curitiba]

I agree with DeeDee, sid, and Heytech,

I beilieve Heytech's lesson is worth repeating "...never accept a position you aren't 100% sure of, to the extent that you're still looking around." Before I left for the London Fair, the biggest piece of advice my very experienced friends gave to me was "It is okay to leave the fair without a job. There is plenty of time." Yes, it was hard to accept, but I know it was great advice.

[Briz]

I just wanted a discussion of a topic I thought had multiple angles and view points. This is a message board that I believe has the aim of helping teachers. This is something that has hit close to home for me, and for other people I know, and having an anonymous forum of discussion allows people to maybe speak more freely from the heart. I think it is cool and interesting that there have been responses covering the whole gamit of what could be done, and how it would be perceived. I am personally bored with, hey do you know about this school topics, which are also VERY helpful. A good socratic dialogue leader requires the ability to oppose even points which you might see as "more" valid. Stir the pot, beat the hive, whatever you call it, eventually interesting things come out and there is a thread that keeps me coming back.... : ). Thanks for seeing my passion heyteach!

[sid]

Yes, I'm absolutely sure that the person has a compelling reason to renege on the offer. Compelling to them. What is compelling to me is a different issue.
Things like a sudden death in the family, an ex spouse suddenly refusing the custodial parent to take the kids out of the country, these things are compelling insofar as they could not be predicted, are serious, uncontrollable, and have permanent impact. A candidate could not reasonably predict that these type of circumstances would come up (unless of course they could, sometimes that is possible), so they have my sympathy and support. Their job search and acceptance were conducted in good faith, and then life intervened. We will all move forward as best we can.
But an alternate job offer, or even an interview request, are predictable, controllable, and of only hypothetical impact. You may suspect that the alternate position is a better one, even that it is THE one you will spend your life at, but you do not know that, and a quick review of the colleagues I have known reveals that such an animal is likely a myth. It's a illusion of greener grass in a pasture that's far away and exists only in your head.
If you want to do this, it's not my job to dissuade you.
If you are seeking my blessing, you won't get it.
If you are seeking external blessing, why? Perhaps what you really want is internal blessing, but you are denying it to yourself. If so, why? A moral compass pointing you in a different direction?