I applied on LinkedIn, and the headmaster reached out to me two weeks after I had submitted. We scheduled a 30-min Skype call that ended up lasting 50 minutes. I was baffled by the call, as it wasn’t an interview, but more of a casual conversation. We discussed tangential topics and he told me about the school, but he barely asked me any traditional interview questions. He asked if I had any questions, but ended the call after I had only asked one.
I was put in contact with the World Languages chair and the school’s college counselor. Both of them wanted to conduct an interview, so I thought scheduling a group call would be easier. The counselor didn’t reply for 3 days, however, and the headmaster wanted to expedite a call between me and the languages chair.
Even though I had already reached out to the chair and mentioned my availability, she asked me again in a separate email. I was able to hop on a call with her eventually, but again, it wasn’t really an interview. I was able to get a lot of questions answered, and she seemed very kind though. She even mentioned that she thought the headmaster “liked me” and “was thinking about making the role full-time if I needed it.” I was surprised since I thought I wasn’t being taken seriously throughout this process.
I eventually scheduled a call with the college counselor, whom I assume was meant to check my level of French (I creeped on her LinkedIn). One hour before the call, she said something came up. She asked to talk in the morning the next day–despite the fact I had said I would only be available in the afternoons. I said that I wasn’t free then, but offered 3 other time slots. She didn’t reply.
I waited 3 days before reaching out to her again, as well as the headmaster. Neither replied. I checked on LinkedIn and saw that they’d reposted the job and promoted it after having spoken to me. I called the headmaster almost 2 weeks after my second follow-up, and he admitted that they had found someone else, which I’d assumed.
He started making excuses trying to justify this decision, though–he said they wanted to hire someone part-time, and seemed to assume that I wanted a full-time role, though we’d never discussed that. The role was part-time, so if I applied, I obviously was okay with that. When I pointed out that we’d never discussed FT or PT, he added that the other candidate was also experienced with IB. He said that they would’ve been willing to teach me, but that it was a lot to take IB on part-time. That’s great that they found someone with experience, but there was no need to make excuses. Clearly I was a last resort if they reposted and promoted the job after interviewing me.
He also apologized for the long wait, saying that people were traveling. This was also a poor excuse as he picked up on his school extension, and had responded to emails rapidly until they found someone else. He also had to have told the counselor to stop responding to me, as she must’ve interviewed the other candidate in the meantime.
This school's interview process could use much more organization, professionalism, and clarity. They shouldn't have interviewed me if they only considered me a backup. It's also incredibly disrespectful to ghost someone after starting the interview process. If you experience any of these red flags, I would remove yourself from the situation first.
