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Hey TL!! (damn, my title is broken ; I didn't see the character limit!)
My question is «For a newly graduate, is any job (in our domain) a good job?»
Hopefully, you can help me with your own stories! Basically, I'm wondering if a new graduate like myself should accept any job or if I should decline if it doesn't meat certain criteria.
A little about myself.
Graduated in Philosophy (undergrad + master degree) in 2012/13. I started looking for a job as a teacher without success.
2013-2014 : Got my certificate in pedagogy
Summer 2014 : I got a job this Summer (after 1-1.5 year job hunting) in a College as a teacher!!! :D
However...
1- The job is located far from where I live (I still live with my parents). All my friends and family are in my current city. I spend about 4 hours each day in a car (to go there, and to go home after my classes). I love my job, I love my colleagues, I love my students, but I dislike doing that much car each day. It is physically very taxing.
2- They offered me another contract for the next semester. However, it is a replacement. In other words, as soon as the teacher (who holds the job) gets back, I'm out. It could be a few days, it could be a month, or it could be the whole semester, we don't know yet when he will come back. Under these conditions, I'm not sure if I want to rent a room or not (most people seem to ask me to sign a contract for at least half a year)
3- What are my future with the College? As of right now, it's close to none. I don't expect any teaching position to be available in the short/mid term. The 6 teachers there are still relatively young and unless they quit or if they are sick or if they take a leave for their baby, I don't expect anything except maybe a few replacement contracts/Summer classes. Each College here has its own system of experience. When a job is available, whoever has the most experience has priority for it. In other words, the experience I get in this College (while it is good experience for my job hunting), will give me no priority in other College.
I'm thinking of accepting the contract, but at the same, if I accept it, I would feel bad to quit it IF ANOTHER opportunity (with better job perspectives) should be offered to me (in another College). Most college, if they need to hire, will do so next week or a week after classes start (most college hire a few days before class, or even after classes have begun).
TLDR : Why should I keep my job? I love my job. I love my colleagues, I love my students. If I refuse it and I don't find another job, I'll be jobless next semester.
Why should I look for something else? I dislike the city, I dislike how far it is from my home. I don't enjoy the lack of security from this job. There is close to no future at that College since all 6 starting positions are occupied by teachers that are no where close to retiring (short term).
Thank you TL!
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Cue rant on the absolutely ridiculously awful situation people are facing in higher ed, but the structural exploitation and injustices aside, I'm surprised you get to teach at all with a terminal MA. Obviously not every job is a good job - I'd go so far as to say that the vast majority of adjunct jobs are a complete joke. However, experience is quite important, especially this early on (and especially without a phd), so if you want to continue doing what you are doing, I'd say use every opportunity available.
The conditions on your contract sound genuinely mysterious though: substitutions for someone on leave or otherwise unavailable usually happen for an entire semester (at least over here), so I would really talk this through and ask for clarification. Once you're sure they won't kick you out after a few days, I would strongly advise renting a room, since 4 hours of daily commute are quite a heavy burden. But I would certainly stick with your current offer and also not feel bad for quitting it if a better opportunity were to present itself. After all, the contract you have been offered is completely unreasonable to begin with.
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On August 17 2014 03:50 GERMasta wrote:
Cue rant on the absolutely ridiculously awful situation people are facing in higher ed, but the structural exploitation and injustices aside, I'm surprised you get to teach at all with a terminal MA. Obviously not every job is a good job - I'd go so far as to say that the vast majority of adjunct jobs are a complete joke. However, experience is quite important, especially this early on (and especially without a phd), so if you want to continue doing what you are doing, I'd say use every opportunity available.
The conditions on your contract sound genuinely mysterious though: substitutions for someone on leave or otherwise unavailable usually happen for an entire semester (at least over here), so I would really talk this through and ask for clarification. Once you're sure they won't kick you out after a few days, I would strongly advise renting a room, since 4 hours of daily commute are quite a heavy burden. But I would certainly stick with your current offer and also not feel bad for quitting it if a better opportunity were to present itself. After all, the contract you have been offered is completely unreasonable to begin with.
Hey Germasta, thank you for your answer.
Some quick clarifications :
Substitution : From what I have been told (and I quote human ressources), the teacher is unavailable right now due to health issues. However, he has to meet with another specialist (third verification they told me). That third specialist will have the final say on the situation. If he says he can teach, then the teacher must either come back and teach, or he must forfeit his job (in which case, there will be a room to hire a new teacher). If the specialist says he hasn't recovered yet, then the teacher can remain home (while getting paid because of health issues, if I understand well).
Substitution is something that happens sometimes (I heard). Some of my friends got their job that way. They got hired near the end of the semesters because the teacher had somes issues and couldn't finish the class.
As for quitting : Even if everything is hypothetic right now, I would feel bad to start a semester (I start on Wednesday 20th August), and then quit for a better job. It just doesn't feel right in my mind ; but at the same time that's kind of the reality of my situation. There is nothing bright in the near future where I am at ; there could be a better opportunity somewhere else...
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Don't feel bad about quitting in the middle because you're giving someone exactly like you the opportunity. Just tell them as soon as you know in advanced that's not a small amount of time.
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My sister graduated with a Bachelor of Law/Bachelor of Political Science dual degree and is working in marketing at United Postal Service (UPS) Australian branch. She used her fancy law degree to persuade them she would be good at convincing people to export with UPS so she got the job. It's fairly standard full-time pay for a job in Australia ($55,000 per year) but she can make up to $120,000 a year in commission. She hates the job though, but realises that its good money (her commission over last quarter year was $8,000) and that unless she has a better job in the bag she really doesn't want to lose it. I'm finishing up a Bachelor of Information Technology/Bachelor of Mathematics dual degree and in my 'regional' town of less than 100,000, jobs in IT are rare. One opened up at my uni for network security and I was the only applicant but they wouldn't give it to me because they wanted immediate start and I finish uni in October.
So I'd truly say take the job for further work experience to look good on your resume. Get some money out of it and don't stop looking for new and better jobs. My two cents.
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"I would feel bad to quit it IF ANOTHER opportunity (with better job perspectives) should be offered to me"
Change that attitude, you are the most important person to you.
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Don't straight up quit if another opportunity arises, simply take said opportunity to HR and tell them your situation, explain to them that the current lack-of-security arrangement is far inferior to alternatives and have them give you an answer as to whether or not they will give you a formalized contract for at least the semester.
If they refuse you should pursue other opportunities with a clear conscience.
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When you write college, do you mean what the British call college or what Americans call college?
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If you are given such a opportunity in a related field take it, any real hand experience is worth it. This creates better chances at future perspectives.
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TLADT24920 Posts
I think you should take the job if they offer it though read the contract carefully to find out if you are able to quit if you get a better offer. The other thing to keep in mind is that as you said, it doesn't look like you have much of a future with this college. Why lose other potentially good job opportunities because you'll feel sad that you'll have to quit? The other option is to refuse it and just keep looking but as you said, you'll be jobless for a semester at least so I don't think it's something that you want to do. It's definitely a rough spot to be in but keep in mind that any opportunity that's missed is something that you might regret and realize that you also need to think of yourself (on top of student's welfare but this is different imo).
On August 17 2014 08:51 zf wrote:
When you write college, do you mean what the British call college or what Americans call college?
probably Canadian though I dunno if American and Canadian college have similar standards.
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On August 17 2014 11:05 BigFan wrote:I think you should take the job if they offer it though read the contract carefully to find out if you are able to quit if you get a better offer. The other thing to keep in mind is that as you said, it doesn't look like you have much of a future with this college. Why lose other potentially good job opportunities because you'll feel sad that you'll have to quit? The other option is to refuse it and just keep looking but as you said, you'll be jobless for a semester at least so I don't think it's something that you want to do. It's definitely a rough spot to be in but keep in mind that any opportunity that's missed is something that you might regret and realize that you also need to think of yourself (on top of student's welfare but this is different imo). Show nested quote +On August 17 2014 08:51 zf wrote:
When you write college, do you mean what the British call college or what Americans call college? probably Canadian though I dunno if American and Canadian college have similar standards.
I assume he means Uni. Also I would suggest you research a bit OP. There are a lot of options open to you, but none are super glamorous as of now. If you want to teach you're going to have to pursue some higher education depending on the level you'd like to teach at. If that isn't your end goal do some reading up for it, I'm on a similar track as you went on so I'm curious too.
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TLDR : Why should I keep my job? I love my job. I love my colleagues, I love my students. If I refuse it and I don't find another job, I'll be jobless next semester.
Why should I look for something else? I dislike the city, I dislike how far it is from my home. I don't enjoy the lack of security from this job. There is close to no future at that College since all 6 starting positions are occupied by teachers that are no where close to retiring (short term).
I can't help but feel we're the wrong group to be asking. Assuming you want to end up where your colleagues at this temporary-ish job are (position wise, not necessarily at the same school), you should probably ask them. They obviously got where you want to be, perhaps they have some insights as to what is expected, and what will work best.
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On August 17 2014 08:51 zf wrote:
When you write college, do you mean what the British call college or what Americans call college?
Oh sorry, College is something between Highschool and University (where I live : Canada/Quebec). Kind of unique/weird system. Like highschool, it offers a general cursus (classes that everybody must pass, no matter what) ; but depending on the program the student picked, he also get to have some specialized classes.
I've sent my applications to other colleges. I don't know where that will lead me. That being said, I'm getting ready for my first class this Wednesday.
Sometimes, I'm wondering if I should get ready to look elsewhere (I just want something stable). But then again, I'm not sure what I can do with my diplomas. I've applied to government exams for public sector. But other than that, not sure...
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On August 17 2014 17:20 Artisian wrote:Show nested quote +TLDR : Why should I keep my job? I love my job. I love my colleagues, I love my students. If I refuse it and I don't find another job, I'll be jobless next semester.
Why should I look for something else? I dislike the city, I dislike how far it is from my home. I don't enjoy the lack of security from this job. There is close to no future at that College since all 6 starting positions are occupied by teachers that are no where close to retiring (short term). I can't help but feel we're the wrong group to be asking. Assuming you want to end up where your colleagues at this temporary-ish job are (position wise, not necessarily at the same school), you should probably ask them. They obviously got where you want to be, perhaps they have some insights as to what is expected, and what will work best.
My generation (the people who graduated around the same time as me) is pretty unlucky as most college are done with their recruitment. The elders that held the jobs have almost all retired. So the opportunities are quickly diminishing.
But yea, when I get to meet them (I've met only 3 of them) this semester, I'll definitely ask them some questions about their career path.
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I don't know about a teaching position, but I think that of my friends who went to grad school (not for teaching) had a more difficult time procuring a position because they went to grad school. This was less about the education and more because they had a stick up their ass about what they thought their MBA or *insert masters degree here* was worth in the real world.
I think that what is most important is to just always be working, not necessarily at any job mind you but one with that can contribute in some way shape or form to that next step up the proverbial ladder. In education that might be a bit different again, but if you can't get into the profession proper gaining experience in a field like education policy, or peripheral fields is very useful. Trying out something like Teach for America or whatever the Canadian equivalent (if there is one) is, can be beneficial down the line.
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EPT
