It's a good job God made us so resilient.

Five interviews, one working arrangement, one appointment, one cancellation, one staying put and one in waiting.

If I have been a little quiet lately it is because our household has been under some stress with The Curate, myself, younger son and his girlfriend all having experienced different types of interviews within the last week. There have been various blogs about selecting the right person for the job and it seems there is no set formula for carrying out an interview. Maybe people have lost confidence to back their intuition, or perhaps our culture demands that all decisions are evidence based so there is no room for gut feeling.
The Curate had over nineteen interviews with individual people before he started his training.When I first started teaching you could apply to be in a 'pool' of teachers for a particular education authority. Once in that 'pool' you were first in line for any short term contracts and supply work. That way you became known and were assessed actually doing the job. Head teachers would come round and visit you in your classroom. You still had to be interviewed for any permanent job but they had a much fairer idea of what they were getting. There was no demonstration lesson with children who had no idea who you were or why you were there. That doesn't even happen in inspections.

Myself and younger son's girlfriend were both applying for teaching posts - she is at the beginning of her teaching career and I am at the end. My job was part time and hers was full time. Meeting one person after another is a very exhausting way for a candidate to be interviewed - I met five people and had to perform in an unknown classroom. It took all morning (I gather there were other candidates on other days) and no one was appointed to the job.Which is probably fortunate as I am very happy where I am. Learner Teacher had two interview days, one after another and had to jump the hoops in the classroom. I am happy to say she was successful on the second day and can now focus on getting started.

During all of this time, younger son watches and waits. The type of job he is applying for seems to take three months to get to the interview stage. In some cases, I wonder if he can remember what it is he has applied for, as it all takes so long. The various stages from applying, to psychometric testing, to telephone interview, to face to face interviews are so spread out it is very easy to lose heart. But he too, was off to an interview last week and is still awaiting an outcome. He has several applications moving into the next stages so what he will finally end up doing is not predictable at the moment. The elongated time factor is very unsettling.

And The Curate, not to be outdone, has had the prearranged meeting with his New Boss to discuss working arrangements. This should have also been with New Bishop but that was cancelled so some of the pressure was taken off. Arrangements for final service in present parish, welcome service in the new parish and the house move are in full flow. All these events happen in the space of seven days. 

It's a good job God made us so resilient ( except that I have a horrible cold now!).