Weird Job Interviews (I mean, good lord!)

Everyone has those weird job interview stories, right? Well, here's mine! Enjoy!

1) Montessori Aide job

When I arrived at the Montessori school to interview for the aide position, I walked inside and to the right of me was the office. The husband-wife co-owners of the school, where there in the office with the light off, with their "admin" (a woman) who had tattoo sleeves on both arms.

My first thought was: what the hell were the three of them doing in the dark in that office? The husband-wife are in their early 70s. The job interview was SO WEIRD you guys!

The husband gave off sleazy car-salesmen-like vibes to me in that he trashed the county and state regulations for Montessori schools (red flag #1 of many), "we don't like being told what to do." Um, eeek! He wrote down a salary offering on a yellow legal pad, "$44K" yet would not provide me with a valid offer letter that was signed by him and his wife with that in fine print.

There are only 3 other "employees" aka teacher aides who I met during my tour. The school doesn't offer a salary but just hourly wages (one of the aides slipped me that info, of $15/hr = no thanks!) and there's no health insurance offered either. When I emailed the husband later to decline, he was real pushy in his response. Instead of thanking me for my time, he wrote back, "I don't take 'no' for an answer. We need you to start Monday b/c we want to retire soon!" And yes, he really wrote that in his email! EEEK! I didn't respond and I don't plan on it.

2) Internship

So, in my grad program there was a professor who was offering an unpaid internship to support her consulting firm in turn for a letter of recommendation instead of payment. She didn't present me with anything typed up, re: intern duties/responsibilities or deadlines for projects etc. And when we Zoomed to discuss it (she had to be reminded twice to send me the Zoom link and then she emailed me "whoops, it was in my email drafts this whole time!"), I knew I had to back out of working for her b/c she is not organized, not reliable, not professional. She basically rattled off a litany of things she wanted me to do for. her consulting firm FOR FREE that I could make $$ doing for someone else as a freelance agent.

Knowing just how flakey she is, how unreliable she is with communication, I emailed her today to tell her that I had another opportunity (I didn't say what it was) and had to decline her internship offer. Even if she's mad, I don't have to take any more classes from her so I won't lose out on anything and I have other professors I can ask for recommendation letters for jobs that I apply to.

3) Early Childhood Education teacher

While the director and I were in her office for my interview, one of her teaching staff just burst though the door and interrupted our interview to let her know one of the infants had diarrhea. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but someone who can see through the glass that her boss is interviewing someone for a role there, should wait until the interview is over. It's not like that baby was going to get up and walk away.

The director did not take control of the situation either, by communicating that she was in the middle of an interview with me and she could talk to this staff woman later. Seemed like a preview of what type of boss she is? Someone who doesn't know how to set boundaries with their staff.

She offered me a salary of $37K stating that my health benefits premium is paid for by the school and that if I wanted to further my certification, that the school would pay for the tuition for me. So, while those are nice benefits, do I really want to work for a center director who can't control her own staff or set guidelines?

*The staff woman took over my interview time spilling her whole life story; how she was fired (no surprise based on her lack of self-awareness and work etiquette) from her last education job b/c her boss didn't like her, how she planned to stay at this current early childhood education center until she was fired (she made a joke and I just looked at the center director perplexed). Then she finally left. The center director emailed me an actual offer letter with a background study attached along with the certification coursework start dates and trainings for CPR etc.

**I am on the fence about this one but honestly, feel like I would be walking into a bad situation based on how she showed a lack of strict leadership letting her employee interrupt my interview which was super disrespectful to me. I didn't speak up that her actions were disrespectful b/c what would have been the point? You know?

What bizarre people you encountered. Yikes!

And unprofessional people as well! I men, what kind of image did that elderly couple want to present to the public - meaning me, a job applicant at their Montessori school - by the way they huddled around their sleeve tattooed administrator aka 30-something licensed Montessori teacher (or so I was told that she is).

And, my prof. expecting her intern to just read her mind and do everything yet not put any effort in creating the infrastructure for the internship she wants to offer her students. That's utter laziness! It's disrespectful! You know?

I'm still on the fence about that early childhood education center job offer despite the way that the director mishandled her employee bursting in to her office during my interview.

I went to another early childhood place this morning to interview with that director and the SAME THING happened; one of her teachers just walked in to her office asking about a 10 a.m. parade that the 4 year olds were going to do for the elderly residents of the connected nursing home. No regard for the fact that her boss was in the middle of an interview with a job applicant. I felt disrespected yet again.

Then, at the end of that interview, the director said she'd have her recruiter (this is a large center that has independent chains) follow up with me. The recruiter emailed me with NO offer letter but just wrote, "we'd like to offer you the job."

So, I wrote back to the recruiter, "Please send me an offer letter with x,y,z because I received an offer letter from another early childcare center and want to make my decision by tomorrow." I think my response was totally reasonable. Now, if that recruiter can't be bothered to send me an offer letter with salary, healthcare benefits that's an automatic "no" from me as a job applicant.

I realize that an offer letter is not legally binding, but it's proof in writing of the promise, since most states in the U.S. are "at will" employment states, which means companies can fire their employees for any reason, at any time.

I also forgot to mention, that when I asked the director about her transition from corporate to childcare center director, where she is also a board member, her answer does not match her recruiter's lack of professionalism.

By that I mean, the director explained that she left her previous consulting role of 20 years because she grew frustrated by the lack of legal accountability. And, now she's a board member and manages two daycare centers. Yet, she's not going to direct her recruiter to send me an official offer letter that should explain to the job applicant:

Position/Title.
Name/Position of Supervisor.
Full-Time/Part-Time Schedule. State whether the position is full-time or part-time; specify the basic work schedule.
Exempt/Nonexempt Classification. ...
Duties. ...
Compensation, benefits, and terms. ...
Base Salary.
A statement of at-will employment. ...
An employee confidentiality agreement and noncompete clause. ...

If the director left her 20 year career behind due to the lack of follow through on required legal county and state regulations, why would she treat offering a job to her daycare center without any formality. I need to see in writing exactly what I'm getting myself into. I won't just accept a verbal job offer, or email of "we'd like to extend you the job." I deserve better treatment.

Oh, and I had another interview today after that over Zoom for an admin role that is listed in the mid-30s to mid-40s salary wise. I asked them for an offer letter if they decide to extend me the job offer. So we shall see.

If nothing else, it's good experience to be interviewing for jobs again after this horrible 2 years of the pandemic. But, people seem to lack respect and professionalism with the way that they offer jobs to job applicants based on my brief recent experiences. Those seem like they are all examples of red flags to me.

The educational system in the US is bad. Some states are worse than others. There is a shortage of teachers and high turnover. It’s gotten worse due to Covid. It’s not surprising reading what you have shared. Entry level teaching jobs don’t pay much sadly so it’s not surprising that there is a lack of professional structure.

Teachers are underpaid so it’s not surprising there is a problem with places being short handed. Maybe the director doesn’t say anything about being interrupted because she doesn’t want to lose whatever staff she has.

It’s very possible that you will be disappointed going forward in your pursuit to become part of this very broken system made much worse due to Covid. Perhaps lowering your expectations will reduce the shock in what you encounter.

Oh, trust me. I've been aware of the short-comings of the US education system my entire life. Teachers are always on strike.

I don't want to take one of these jobs, but my program (and financial aid award refunds I use for living expenses) ends in two semesters. My plan is to hang on to one of these jobs for the income (I can pay my rent with the early childhood teacher salary) while I continue to apply for jobs in the field that I want to work.

But you're correct. I will lower my expectations and just show up and do the job's basic requirements until I can get my ideal job (which is not in education).

You may even find that is what others do as well.

It’s sad that people are not getting paid well for educating our country’s children. Teachers have a lot of influence on their students.