April 1st Job Offers

The other day Tom and I were recalling April Fool's Day of 1996.

We were living in Missoula, MT at the time and the week prior both Tom and I had job interviews on the same day. Mine was for a teaching position in some itty-bitty-teeny-tiny Montana town. I had to drive through a blizzard and over a mountain pass (that I later found out was supposed to be closed, but somehow I didn't get that memo) in white-out conditions to get there. And then I got stuck in a snow drift right in front of the school and had to attempt to walk out of it in my interview clothes and find a tow-truck in the town to get me out. It was an interesting interview, to say the least.

Tom's interview took place in Spokane, but was a tele-conference for a position in Seattle at the buying office for the Bon-Marche. We had no clue what would happen if we both were offered the positions. Seattle or rural Montana???? HMMMMM, I guess you can figure out what happened there.

So fast forward to April 1st. I was at work and got a call from Tom saying he got offered the position and they wanted him to start in 4 weeks and would fly us out the following week to find housing. I was completely overwhelmed and excited and hung up the phone. My mind was racing with the thoughts of what needed done, how I was going to learn to drive in Seattle, how we would afford it.......... About 30 minutes later I realize what the date is and call back to tell Tom this would be a very cruel April Fool's joke, but he assured me it was not.

Fast forward again 13 years later to today, I got a response from my job interview for my latest interview. Certainly the position wasn't going to be as life altering as that interview 13 years ago but I still had great hopes for what it could be. Unfortunately, April 1, 2009 wasn't as lucky a day as April 1, 1996. I didn't get the job and am suprised that "lack of experience" is the reasoning. I didn't think that would be my down-fall, but I guess the other canidate had more co-op preschool experience (or so they say.....)

So back to square one! Funny thing is that before I applied for this job I didn't even know if I was ready to go back to a teaching job but the process made me so excited that now I am sure I want to and the chances of finding a job that fit my needs and wants is so slim that I am bound to be disappointed........ (wow that is a horrible run-on sentence, sorry!!)

The moral of the story? If you are in a hiring position, please consider a day other than April 1st to call your job applicants about their employment future! And that is my mindless ramble for the day!