my interview experience!!! who you know and not what you know gets the job

ethical

How to ruin your holidays in a few easy steps!!
I would really like to know your thoughts on this. A friend of mine applied in-house for a principal position in a secondary school run by a religious order at the start of summer.The teacher in question had worked in this school for a good many years and was up against one other candidate (an older teacher who was considering leaving on a nice pension, believe it or not, a few months previously!). The older teacher got the job,my colleague was disappointed but felt that another opportunity would arise and so it did.
My friend was then encouraged to apply for the deputy role,after all my friend had done lots of work over the previous years in promoting the school,liaising with the dept and was instrumental in getting new buildings for the school while also serving on the board of management for a term as well as being school steward.It was a shoe-in according to many.....the teacher in question did not get the position and when the teacher asked for evidence as to how the interview went- detail was not forthcoming -but after a number of letters to the chair of the interview panel-a figure was forwarded,a mark out of a total with no explanation of same,how was my friend to improve for next time? The candidate that got the position is some one that had shown no inclination of being interested in the post in the first place,is notorious for not turning up for class,is rarely in the school for a whole day but has great religious world contacts and others.My colleague missed one day last year,two days the year before and two the year previous to that,is never late for class and does extracurricular also.With the new school year nearly here my colleague is absolutely sick of going back. My colleague feels that as a person he only aided and abetted a mock interview situation not once but twice and made the interview process for the school look good and above board.He feels now that it was a fix up from the start and that he wasted his summer in even bothering to apply for either of the positions.:mad:

Zamboni

That is the way it goes, for right or wrong.

RealJohn

Is that your interview experience or your friend's?

You kept saying it was your friend so I'll assume that it was. You don't really know how accurate your friend's account is, do you? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it didn't happen exactly like that but your friend is likely to colour his account given that he clearly feels hard done by.

That being said, there doesn't even seem to be any problem with the first appointment other than that the person who got the position had considered retirement. Surely that shouldn't rule them out, should it?

On the second interview, you might not like it but if the school is a religious one then the candidate's religious views and activities are relevent. Of course they shouldn't be the only factor but I can't imagine they were.

I can certainly understand your friend's frustration but unless you have the whole story it's difficult to be objective.