Job Hunt Overflow

Friday was an eventful day in the job search mayhem that has been my life for the past few weeks.  Let me back up and start at the beginning...

Wednesday night we went to a couple's house for a get-together.  We were invited by a couple, Heather and Dustin, that we met at church the first Sunday that we were here.  They were from Georgia, and that's how we were introduced to them.  Anyway, Thursday night was great because we got to spend time and hang out with four other really cool couples.  As I've heard many times, and even experienced, in a job search it is not what you know, but who you know.

Anne, one of the people we met Wednesday, works at Vineyard Christian School in Anaheim.  She told me that they just had an opening come available for a middle school math teacher.  Now, I am well aware that many would think the last thing I could be is a middle school math teacher, but with the job situation the way it is for teachers out here, I'm willing to take anything.

She spoke with her principal on Thursday, and then contacted me to let me know that if I was interested, I needed to call that day.  I did, and we had an interview set up for Friday morning.  Now, in California, most of the public schools post any job openings they have on Edjoin.org, which is convenient because most of the time you can send an electronic application and it takes very little time.  I checked the website like I do most nights and there at the top of the page, the newest posting, was for a district that was looking for an AP US Government and AP Economics teacher.  After investigating a little, I realized that they start school on Monday, the 23rd.  I immediately got in my car looking for a place to go print off my information and their application.  This would be just too good to be true.

Friday morning, I get up and am ready by 7:00 am.  I drive the hour to the Riverside Unified School District to drop off my application.  I then head back towards Anaheim for my interview.  The interview lasted for almost an hour and a half, and I really did get a good feel about Vineyard Christian School.  It definitely is a place I could work.  I returned home around 1:00 pm and began to wait to hear from either one of the schools. The next chain of events had me going out of my mind....

2:00 pm:  I call the Riverside Unified School District's contact person in Human Resources to make sure that she received my application and that she didn't need anymore information from me.

2:30 pm:  I get a job offer from Vineyard Christian School. I speak with the principal and he tells me he'll call me back with the specific salary offer.

2:45 pm:  I send an email to the contact person at Riverside Unified School District asking about the timeline, expressing my interest, and letting her know about the offer I just received.

3:15 pm: The principal from Vineyard Christian School calls back to let me know what the salary would be.  He asks me to let him know on Friday if I'll accept or not, because teachers first day back is Monday.

3:20 pm:  I receive a call from Riverside Unified School District asking me to interview for their position on Monday.  From their starting salary scale, the difference in pay would be around $15,000 a year.

3:45 pm:  I call and speak with the principal at Vineyard and ask if I could let him know Monday.  I explained the situation to him and he understood.  Thankfully, he told me they would wait until Monday afternoon before moving on to someone else.

It was a crazy day to say the least, but again it goes to show that God will provide, just not always on the time schedule that we would like.  Monday will be an interesting day as well, but at least things are all starting to come together for us.