P and PD please--interview next week(UPDATED 3/3)

[TheOtherVillainess]

I am scheduled to call the director of a daycare/early learning center on Monday to schedule an appointment. I also am expecting a call tomorrow from the head of Child Nutrition at another local school district with schools very close to my home.

So P and PD please..that I get one of these positions. The one at PKK is for an assitant teacher in the 2 year old classroom. The one at the other local school district is for the same thing I was doing before in LEISD (prior to temination).

I know I can answer just about any question they throw at me except one. I still can't figure out how to answer "Well, why were you terminated from "X" position?". I just don't know what to say to that. I mean, how do explain in a short, coherant manner that you were fired for exercising your constitutional rights? I am not techincally allowed to say very much right now because we have a lawyer working on the case and he wants it to be very hushhush.

I need P and PD for another reason,well, DH does really. He is considering running for city council.

So keep that P and PD flowing ya'll. We sure could use it right now.

TOV

 

[janette]

I know I can answer just about any question they throw at me except one. I still can't figure out how to answer "Well, why were you terminated from "X" position?". I just don't know what to say to that. I mean, how do explain in a short, coherant manner that you were fired for exercising your constitutional rights? I am not techincally allowed to say very much right now because we have a lawyer working on the case and he wants it to be very hushhush.TOV

You tell them it's personal and don't answer, less information is often better.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hope all goes well for you, TOV.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Thanks Dan and janette. At least somebody is wishing me well. I know there are others out there on the DIS who would LOVE to see me fail, and talk about me behind my back.


What, you thought I didn't know about the UNDIS board?


TOV

 

[figment52]

Are you certain they know you were terminated? Most often when I ask people why they left their last position they tell me it was time to move on or they wanted to broaden experiences with different organizations.

As an interviewer I know that not all positions are a perfect match and there will always be some differences. If you remain positive and do not bad mouth any previous position you will be better off. If they try to keep bringing up bad experiences just say something like I learn from negative experiences as well as positive experiencs and move on. Diplomatically steer the interview away from the experience.

They may not even bring it up.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I can't say for sure, but I'm sure it will come up in the interview, figment.

I will do the best I can, and I'm really nervous about this but I'm going to try and be as positive as I can. I already know what I'm going to wear: black kneelength sleeveless dress with a black blazer (borrowed from a friend of mine who has a whole closet full of them) with black shoes, silver ball earrings (smallish) and matching silver ball bracelet. Easy makeup and hair pulled semi-back (top and sides back, back down).

TOV

 

[palmtreegirl]

Thanks Dan and janette. At least somebody is wishing me well. I know there are others out there on the DIS who would LOVE to see me fail, and talk about me behind my back.




TOV

If you think there are people like that reading the Dis, then maybe you should remove the name & link to the place you're going to be interviewing with? Just a thought...

Good luck with your job search.

 

[Buckalew11]

If you think there are people like that reading the Dis, then maybe you should remove the name & link to the place you're going to be interviewing with? Just a thought...

Good luck with your job search.

Gosh, I had the same thought, TOV. I hope you get the best job for you!!

 

[Honu]

Good luck!!

If it comes up, and it probably will, tell them the truth BUT don't elaborate or criticize the old employer.

I would tell them that you mistakenly broke policy and put a picture of yourself in your uniform on your myspace.com page. Tell them that you really enjoyed your position and you hoped you could work out a resolution, but now that you've worked in this field and know you like it, you would like to check out other opportunities as well.

The old school really should not be giving out any information other than your dates of employment and title, but that doesn't mean they won't try to say something negative "off the record" though.

Let us know what happens.

 

[barkley]

i doubt the new places would know anything about why you left your prior job, most don't contact prior employers until they have finished interviewing and are ready to offer a position (saves so much time). and if they do contact, most hr's will only tell if you worked there, what your final salary was and if you are eligible for re-hire (anything more than that and they open themselves up to people suing for slander). school districts keep personelle files VERY private (thats why if someone complains about a staff person you can never find out if it was even addressed-the files are considered confidential information).

i always think it's better to say less than more. you could simply answer "i was terminated and i would realy like to explain the circumstances but my attorney has advised me that while it's under review i'm not to able to go into detail". then you can add "but i can tell you while i worked there i...." and go into some of your achievements, good performance reviews and the like.

once when i was sitting on hiring panels we had (over the course of about 3 8 hour interview days) 2 candidates who had both been terminated and had lawsuits/appeals pending. one went into a HUGE explanation, the other simply said they would prefer not to discuss it pending a legal resolution. the panel by and large liked the second response better.

 

[minniecarousel]

Hey there, TOV - good luck with next week's interview. You've received some good suggestions here. Hang in there!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I'm copy-pasting the suggestions into MSNotepad so I don't forget them. Thanks guys.

I really like the wording you suggested, barkley. That's better than what I could come up with.

TOV

 

[MsDisney23]

Dear TOV, Good Luck, here is some for you! Now just think Positive, all will work out. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Honu]

i doubt the new places would know anything about why you left your prior job, most don't contact prior employers until they have finished interviewing and are ready to offer a position (saves so much time). and if they do contact, most hr's will only tell if you worked there, what your final salary was and if you are eligible for re-hire (anything more than that and they open themselves up to people suing for slander). school districts keep personelle files VERY private (thats why if someone complains about a staff person you can never find out if it was even addressed-the files are considered confidential information).

i always think it's better to say less than more. you could simply answer "i was terminated and i would really like to explain the circumstances but my attorney has advised me that while it's under review i'm not to able to go into detail". then you can add "but i can tell you while i worked there i...." and go into some of your achievements, good performance reviews and the like.

once when i was sitting on hiring panels we had (over the course of about 3 8 hour interview days) 2 candidates who had both been terminated and had lawsuits/appeals pending. one went into a HUGE explanation, the other simply said they would prefer not to discuss it pending a legal resolution. the panel by and large liked the second response better.

You don't think that throws up a red flag to the interviewer?

If a candidate came into my office and told me they were terminated, which is not uncommon, but then followed it with "their attorney" or insinuated that they would be pursuing a lawsuit it would not matter how much I liked them or what their qualifications were, I would have to move on to another candidate.

My job is to protect the interests of my employer and hiring an employee that possibly has a litigious nature isn't an option. Personally I would feel bad for them, but this is business.

 

[Disney Ella]

I agree with Honu, the last thing you want to mention in the interview is your attorney. I'd pass you over too if you said something like that - sounds like trouble.

 

[barkley]

You don't think that throws up a red flag to the interviewer?

If a candidate came into my office and told me they were terminated, which is not uncommon, but then followed it with "their attorney" or insinuated that they would be pursuing a lawsuit it would not matter how much I liked them or what their qualifications were, I would have to move on to another candidate.

My job is to protect the interests of my employer and hiring an employee that possibly has a litigious nature isn't an option. Personally I would feel bad for them, but this is business.

no red flags-we would not have perceived that an individual utilizing their legal rights in an individual termination issue was in any way litigious in nature. we likley would have glanced back to see where that indivdual had been working at and (in the op's situation) seeing it was a school district recognized that many terminations with a "public agency" often result in some form of legal review (we were hiring for government jobs, and all aware of the many mechanisms for termination review our employees had available to them and regularly used-union, eeoc, and the like). most of our terminations who went this route were not litigious in nature-they were exercising their employment rights to have the termination reviewed to ensure appropriate pre termination steps had been enacted on their employer's part. one individual termination on a reasonable resume would throw up far fewer red flags than a person who had job hopped, been involuntarily demoted within a agency (showed they may have lied about their educational experience and were found out) or someone who was evasive in answering the question. few people are entirely honest or forthcoming about the circumstances of a termination and their former employers are not going to share much if any information. i would prefer to be told upfront that it's under legal review.

i should add-the applicants in these situations did well to bring copies of any commendations or recent posititve work evaluations they had received during their time at the prior employer. we did'nt give much weight to weather someone had a letter of recommendation since most public agencies are barred from providing these, and we had been burned by folks who were still working for a private employer but their private employer wanted to get rid of them and saw writing a letter of rec. as a way of hopefully getting rid of them (since we are not in an "at will" state the cost of terminating an employee in time and effort can often result in it being "cheaper to keep her" for private and public companies).

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Thank you for saying what I could not find the words for, barkley. I read what Honu said and was thinking to myself, "Well how else am I supposed to answer the question?".
Oh, and for the UNDIS..yeah I read your complaints about me behind my back that you posted within the last day or so. You are a really mean bunch when you're not on the DIS aren't you?

TOV

 

[palmtreegirl]

Oh, and for the UNDIS..yeah I read your complaints about me behind my back that you posted within the last day or so. You are a really mean bunch when you're not on the DIS aren't you?

TOV

What are you talking about?

 

[marlasmom]

TOV - I am probably wasting my time - but unlike Barley you are not going for a professional position. Even a hint that you are involved with litigation with a previous employer would be a signal to me to discard your application.

Simply say that your leaving was due to a personal conflict and let it go at that.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I want to say thank you for the P and PD because THEY WORKED!!!


I had the interview with the daycare/ELC this afternoon after I got off work and it went very,very well. I was dressed fairly conservatively--black kneelength dress, black Liz Taylor blazer (borrowed from my friend J*), nude hose, silver strappy sandals, silver ball earrings (smallish) and bare minimum makeup.

The first part of the interview was with the Educational Coordinator and she asked mostly typical interview questions (where do you see yourself in five years, etc) as well as questions that were about child care (what sort of experience do you have, what would you do if s*this incident* occurred, etc).

When she was finished, I sat down with the director of the center who told me more about their philosophy and how they run things. The director also asked me childcare related questions and asked me how I would do things if I were in *X* position.

At the end, I was asked to fill out a sheet for a background check and offered a position as an asst. teacher in the 'infant' (0-12 mos) classroom.

I have to talk to DH tonight, but I'm probably going to tell them yes tomorrow morning. I know that makes me sound like an eager beaver, but to heck with it! I really want this job. The pay is decent and you get a raise every six months depending on how your review goes. I can also enroll DS for halfprice which isn't bad either.

TOV