Dealing With Potential Jobs & Saving Yourself Time

I’ve been on such a tear in terms of trying to find a part-time/full-time job in Thailand.  Over the past few months, I’ve come across the most ridiculous potential employers, as we’ve all had in our lifetime.  How can you save yourself a peace of mind during the process? Let’s go over the past potentials — turned laughing stocks.

The One That I Thought Was Cemented

Ahhh, this was was a gut-check.  This was the one that made me throw my hands in the air incredulously and say, “how did that happen?! It was a perfect interview!”

Rule Number 1: If they want you, they’ll call you within 24 hours. 

If you have the interview and they tell you to have a good weekend, chances are they’re not going to call you back EVER AGAIN.  I thought I landed what could’ve been a dream job, but for whatever reason, it vanished.  The worst part about it is I gave myself false hope.  I had the interview on December the 18th and I was still telling myself, “he will call me” around the 27th.  Into New Years, I was still clinging onto hope, thinking I would get an email for an orientation of some sort.

My student gave me the wake-up call and said, “you already know what happened.  You’re wasting time thinking about them.”

Hard dose of reality.  If a potential employer wants you, they’ll ask you to start almost immediately.  Back in America, I had my first ever interview at a newly opened dental practice and he called me the next day around mid-morning saying, “we decided to hire you.”  It was the most glorious moment of my life.

Don’t get bent out of shape and jump to conclusions.  Whatever the reason may have been, which might include an extensive list, they don’t want you.  Move on, like I did.

The We Will E-Mail You Once We Find Out

HA! These are the deceptive ones that make you wait.  I had a great email response to an individual who said, “thank you so much for your extensive and impressive resume.  We’ll find out soon about times and let you know.”  This was in regards to a corporate employer.

Was it true? No.  I told him that I’d be waiting and then he sent me an email back saying, “we also have jobs in China.”

So, I think his intent was to find someone here in Thailand and ship him/her off to China.

REDUNCULOUS

Rule Number 2: You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.

That “we’re waiting on a response” is horseshit.  But thanks!

Please make sure you tell them that.

The Apply For Jobs But Never Get A Response

Now let me tell you this.  This probably doesn’t relate to people outside of Thailand, but I want to give you some stories to some notorious teaching agencies.

There was a girl I met who was running an agency online.  She said she had quite a few corporate clients and wanted me to teach one in particular out in the boondocks.  She then gave me another one, reconfirmed for a particular morning during the weekend, and then she went silent.  About three days later (and just before I blocked her through messaging), I asked her “so, what happened with that particular company?”

She retorted, “oh, they chose another teacher.”

As a man of color, these agencies are not only impossible to work with, but it’ll drive you insane, destroy your confidence, and make you want to leave the country.  So basically if a Thai company is going to choose between 5 white men and 1 black men….who the hell do you think they’re going to choose?

It wasn’t just one company, it was five other potential suitors.  They would say, “ok, we will send you profile to the student and it’s up to them to contact you.”

They would never contact me.

Rule Number 3: When dealing with a company of this nature, STAY THE F*** AWAY! If not, your confidence and self-esteem will be battered. 

The Respond 6 Weeks Later & No Human Follow-up

Oh, we have all had that job that responded way too f***ing late, right? LOL! I think my record was about 3 months.  This one that happened recently caught me off guard.  I jumped up in JOY because it wasn’t just one job offer, it was 6 in total with different timings and all in the same area.

I said, “OMG! This is perfect! I knew I would attract this to me!”  I sent somewhere between 4-6 emails back in terms of choosing jobs.

However, this is there little memo they had at the bottom….

Please note, this is not a job offer, this is a job listing that is distributed to our mailing list of teacher candidates. Please read the information above carefully and respond to the listing if you are available to teach the contract, we will then get back to you if you are short-listed and arrange an interview / orientation.

We apologise in advance but due to high numbers of applications we will only respond to short-listed candidates. However, you are on this mailing list because we have already reviewed your resume and consider you a viable candidate to work with. If this opportunity does not work out please continue to let us know if you are interested and available for future openings.

If you would like us to remove you from this mailing list, please let us know and we will do so immediately.

Wow….so teaching candidates — of what could be more than fifty teachers; let alone fifty white teachers.   Not only that, only short-listed ones will have an interview arranged.

They went on to say, “due to high numbers of applications, we will only respond to the short-listed ones.  You are on this mailing list because WE CONSIDER YOU A VIABLE CANDIDATE. If it doesn’t work, please continue to let us know about future openings.

If you would like to be removed from the mailing list, please let us know.”

OH-MY-GOD.

You’ve got to be shitting me.

Not only did they it might not work, but they said if I want to remove myself off the list, please ask them?

WHO THE HELL SAYS THAT?!

That’s like me saying, “Margaret, you probably won’t get the job, but please inform us if you want one in the future and we’ll continue to beat around the bush and waste your time.  If not, we’ll block your email.”

I mean, that’s got to be the most outlandish s*** I’ve ever seen in my life.

And out of all six of those jobs that were sent to me by email a week ago, I never got a human response from them.  I never got a follow-up to why they didn’t work.

I went on google to google the company and realized that it was the most PRO-WHITE company I’ve ever seen.  Every single teacher there was over 50 and beyond white.

Rule Number 4: Are you looking in the wrong place?

Yeah, I should definitely be my own boss now after these happenings, but I’m contemplating staying here any further in this country.  The ignorance and racism continues to get worse and worse.

However, to everyone who is reading this, when you’re looking continuously in the wrong place, you’re going to continue to find the same problems.

Time to open up some new doors.

Don’t give up!