Obtaining jobs is harder than training ants - how I got the job

There's this little story about how I got the job. Ineptitude sometimes is quite frustrating.

Back in September 2005 my mother asked me if I was still interested in working in science because she had heard about a position at a prestigious school that has a monster science budget (yeah, Can't complain about that).

At the same time, while teaching english at this academy, I met a woman, namely a student of mine, who worked at the school. I casually and very much intentionally asked her if she had heard about the job and how I should approach the school and apply. She offered to bring my resumé in and boom! a week later I get a call for an interview. And thus the nightmare begins.

It was September 23rd, around 11am. My cellphone rings and i answer. A woman's voice asked me if I had submitted a resumé for the lab technician position at the school. I said of course and she invited me for an interview with a man, whom I later found out would be my supervisor. Of course I agreed and then proceeded to write down the details such as phone numbers, names and dates. This is a praphrased version of how the crucial part of the conversation happened...

"If you can, we'd like you to come in on the 28that 9am"
"Next week?"
"No, in October"
"That's Friday the 28th, right?"
"Yes"
"9m, Friday October 28th"
"Correct"
"Oh, ok. I'll be there"

It struck me as odd that they'd ask me in for an interview a month in advance, but I didn't think it would be impossible since I would do something like that as well. I thought perhaps they're interviewing a lot of people... perhaps the guy i'm going to talk to is very very busy or perhaps even out of town until then. Whichever the reason, i prepared, read up on biology, chemistry, biochem, microbio, physics and all. The month provided me with the chance to study up and get in shape for the interview.

So on October 26th I called in just to confirm that the interview was still on.

"We were expecting you last month"
"wow, wait, I have it written down, it says 28th of october, a friday"
"Let me see"
"Your interview was scheduled for the 28th of September at 9am"
"But that was not even a friday, I remember distinctively that I was told to come on a Friday, I wrote it down"
"Sorry"
"Well ok, i recognize that I missed my chance, but isn't there any other possibility?"
"I'm afraid not"
"Very well then, thank you for your time"

I was crushed, it wasn't like me to do stuff like that. I felt the weight of failure and of chances missed.

After a week of feeling sorry for myself, I started thinking. I couldn't have been my mistake because I wrote it down as I spoke with the woman on the phone. I decided in my mind, although still nowadays I sill don't know whose fault it was, that it was her fault because she spoke poor english and although I offered to speak spanish to her she kept on speaking english. So I stopped feeling sorry for myself and I kept looking for work while working in the english teaching business.

Months went by with nothing.

In January 2006 the same woman who told my mother about the job asked why I wasn't hired, she found it a bit odd. My mother explained what happened and the woman, very much surprised, said that the position has been left open and nobody had been hired.
The kind woman offered to intercede on my behalf and I was called by the chief of science to be interviewed. On January 16th I went and was interviewed by him and the biology teacher.

It wasn't much of an interview, it was clear that the had already decided to hire me and wanted to meet me just to make sure I wasn't some kind of freak. They showed me around, introduced me to a couple of people and offered me the job. I accepted.

I came in for an interview with the chief of staff of the school on the 17th and signed the saw the contract. A pretty lenient one, no term clauses, the pay was a bit better than my previous salary (around 500USD now, compared to 400USD teaching english).

I was asked to come in for another interview on the 23rd, just to meet the top dog of the school, the almighty principal. I departed and that very same day I introduced my resignation to my boss at my old job as english teacher, and worked the full 2 weeks notice.

On the 23rd i met the principal and got along just fine with her. On the 25th I signed the contract and on the 30th I got my security pass, keys and clearance. I was set.

So I worked my 2 final weeks teaching english. I must say, that job was probably the most fun i've ever had. I met new people every day, there were lots of good looking women all around (mostly desperately bored yet moderately hot housewives that have nothing to do other than hit the gym for 4 hours and then land in an extra 2 horus of english lessons while their kids are at school).
But anyway, there were also children learnign english, and they were a riot to teach. Always playing games and stuff, it was awesome. They're like little sponges, they learn amazingly fast. I miss that aspect of the job.
Then again, I was working all-day until 9pm 4 days a week and saturdays too, only sundays off, it was driving me mad. Plus it's a very fast paced job since this academy had an open all day schedule, students could come in whenever they like or can for lessons; it was always incredibly busy and there were virtually no breaks. Never a dull moment. And teaching is exhausting, it figures too eh? I tortured my teachers as I grew up and now I recognize how badly it sucks to be tortured by your students. It's tiring, physically because you're standing all day and running around getting stuff done, and mentally because you are always thinking on the run.

After finishing my notice period on the 3rd of February me and my girlfriend treated ourselves to a daytrip to a group of beatufully isolated tropical islands off the coast of our little "paradise" (see previous posts). It was a day of relaxing fun in the sun and you would not believe the sunburn. It was awesome. Plus, my girl looks great in a bikini. I love that girl.

In comparison, as a lab tech, I don't do even 1/10 of what I did before. It's so relaxing... AND! I have tons of cool toys to play with. Making pointless redox reactions and reacting indicators for no reason never gets old...