Upset at finding a teaching job in Idaho Falls area (Boise: home, teaching jobs)

[azgrum]

I am LDS. I am not understanding why no one in Rexburg wants to hire me. Is it because I did graduate from ASU and not BYU, maybe it is because I am from Arizona, or I have brown hair? I feel like I am getting shunned. Right now I am in Arizona. I have 6 years of experience. I am getting so upset. I have been applying left and right to different teaching jobs. Bonneville and Madison school district have been looking the other way to other candidates "with better qualities". Idaho Falls and Jefferson are my last hope. We are getting ready to close on our home in Rigby in May. My husband can transfer with no problem. What to do without getting blackballed?

[bjjmomof3]

My husband and I moved here to Rexburg 12 years ago... (with a year split in the middle to boise area) We have come to recognize that Rexburg has yet to evolve past the "good ole boy" network. Unfortunately, it is who you know, or who gave birth to you that matters most. We plan to move to the Idaho Falls area to give our kids a fighting chance. Most recently, we ran into some Boise friends who were from Rexburg. Believe it or not, the husband, born and raised in Rexburg, was never considered a local because his parents were from California... Go figure... Oh, be careful when getting bids from contractors... if they find out that you are not from this area... the bids are higher ( until you tell them that you are getting several bids) You will be happier in Rigby or IF school districts anyway... trust me. Please don't get me wrong, there are some WONDERFUL people here... just the others make it difficult. Give it another 10 years for things to "mature" Good Luck

[Earniefan]

Maybe Rexburg is not the path that you are supposed to be going on. My husband and I have found if we force something to work, it doesn't turn out so well in the end. There's a reason for everything....

[mejaka]

It's possible that there are people with better qualities, or equal qualities, who are already known in the community. This isn't blackballing, it's just the way things work anywhere. Ask any employment coach type person how to go about getting work, and they'll talk a lot about "networking." They'll say "Tell everyone you know you're looking, because most job leads come from someone who knows someone." Given equal qualifications, most employers would prefer to hire someone recommended by someone they know and trust.

Make sure your resume is impeccably prepared (If, by chance, you don't recognize the grammatical errors in your post above, have someone go over your resume and cover letter for you). Control every variable you can, and accept that networking is a reality in any job search. It may take more patience to find a position. Certainly it isn't helpful to look for reasons outside of yourself. Plenty of folks look hard for work for months on end; assuming there's some kind of conspiracy against you personally because you haven't been hired by a single school district (or two) in a relatively short period is silly.

Quite often, in schools, positions are offered to someone who has substituted for the district or had some other connection so that their abilities are already well known. There are more people looking for teaching jobs in Idaho than there are jobs to offer them. Where I live, they hire subs monthly, and of the ten or so I trained with, I was the only one who wasn't hoping to sub their way to a permanent position.