Despite having a ‘strong application’, I was first told that I would likely be told I was unsuccessful as I had not worked long enough at previous schools - which I think is completely understandable, they have a standard I did not fit. My issue lies with the following: - I was given this news not to expect a good answer during my skype interview which occurred after putting me through an aggressive amount of application hoops to jump through, including 12 video recordings, 10 paragraphs of writing, a visa form and an online form. This took more hours than I care to remember. Days. I asked ‘Surely, if my lack of time at individual schools automatically rules me out, there was no need to put me through all that since you’ve had my resume from the start?’ She ignores that and went on to: - Attack my character (‘You don’t know what you want, the fact you hadn’t worked more than 3 years at a school tells me that’), and when I calmly told her I knew exactly what I wanted to do next, she waved her hand dismissively and said ‘No you don’t.’ - She was on her phone during our Skype interview and sighed through questions as if I was disturbing her. I tried very hard to keep the conversation respectful and positive (I don’t have issues with not getting a job, I knew I would get one elsewhere, but I do take issue with rudeness) she talked to other people in her room then hung up the call. About a month later, I was at a school job fair in London where my assigned agent insisted I go to the head of the school who was attending and let her know about the poor experience with her staff. After signing up for interviews elsewhere, I approached. She knew who I was and quickly snapped ‘Yes, yes, I’ll meet with you.’ I was surprised as I had clearly stated I wanted to talk about the interview, not have a second one. But the optimist in me thought maybe all that hard work with applications would pay off if I had a fairer shot. The next day, she and I sat in a coffee shop and she went on her phone just as the previous interviewer had. She had looked at my application and admitted she did not know why her colleague did not pass on my info after my Skype call (further confirmation I was a pretty good candidate) but said ‘she must have her reasons’ and then switched off as she started what was clearly a farce interview. She didn’t listen to my answers to questions, and asked the same questions twice (once three times). Eventually I got up to leave. She looked surprised and loosely apologised, asking another experience question. Instead, I recounted the horrible experience I had had with her colleague, she agreed it was out of line, and I left. I alerted the fair staff who were both angry but not surprised. I reached out to a current teacher there who said that she had a similar troublesome experience, and she insists most of the teachers are great but management don’t treat employees with any form of respect. She actively avoids them at all costs.

It was long and difficult as I had to meet so many people over many weeks, and had to do a demo lesson. After the demo lesson we had a debrief which was challenging. It was certainly very thorough, but too drawn out in my opinion.