Anyone a school secretary/receptionist/admin assistant please?

Werdnal

Just wondered how difficult it is to "break into" the school employment loop?

I currently have 2 part-time, term-time jobs, one doing admin for the local pre-school, which is only 3 hours a week, and the other 7.5 hours working for the contractor that does the local primary school's meals (kitchen staff).

I have been scouring the local council vacancy site for the last 18 months, and have applied for 10 vacancies, been offered interviews for 9, but still got nowhere. Hubby works in a school too, and we have one son, so term-time working would suit me well. I have 14 years experience as a secretary/PA working for an international engineering company, which I left when my son was born in 2000. I took the above 2 jobs in recent years to fit in with his schooling and liked working with the children far more than I thought I would.

However, it just seems impossible to get anywhere with anything I have applied for. I must seem suitable on paper (I am more than qualified for the minimum eductional requirements and experience on the Job Spec) to have been given interview for all but 1 of the posts. What am I doing wrong? Or is it just that I have no actual "school admin" experience and up against others that do?

I have been told on several occasions that I have been down to the last 2 candidates but the other person was sightly more suitable for their requirements. Getting really disheartened now - always the bridesmaid and never the bride me!

I could probably get a checkout job in the local supermarket tomorrow, but want to go back to the admin work I enjoy, and make use of all my hard earned qualifications doing a job I am more suited to. Not sure what I am asking for really, just a bit of a moan, but if anyone works in a school and could give me a few pointers, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

dancingfairy

Hi. I don't work in a school or an admin job but as a complete outsider it sounds like you are actually doing pretty well. You've had an interview for 9/10 jobs you've applied for? (that's pretty impressive) and if you've come second a few times, that will tell you that you are doing a pretty good interview.
All I can suggest is thinking back after an interview about which questions you felt you didn't answer particualrly well, maybe bits of experience you forgot to mention, also maybe see if you can draw on different experiences to show how you meet the criteria.
Really though it sounds like you've just been unlucky and are just struggling due to the sheer number of people out of work vs the number or qualified people who can do the same job
Keep plugging away, it sounds like you're close.
df

piglet74

Hi there.

Sorry I can't be of any realy help, but I just wanted to add that my hubby is currently in the same boat as yourself, he has applied for 8 schools as a caretaker, has had 2 interviews so far, but no word back from either, some have just reached their closing date recently, so he could get called for more interviews, but he is really fed up as at one interview there was 40 on the interviewing panel, (staff, school principal, board of gov's etc) and there was 63 to be interviewed for the post (how 40 people would agree on just one person from 63 I will never know) the other interview was 6wks ago and he never heard a peep back, he is just assuming he didn't get it, tho they did tell he would be "police checked" next,

We live in N.Ireland if that makes a difference or not, good luck in your job hunt, I hope you find the job that is meant for u

Piggy x

Werdnal

I may be a bit negative here, but I look at it that I am letting myself down at the interview, as I look better on paper than I come across on the day IYSWIM.

Today they interviewed 9, which is quite a field to compete with, so wasn't really expecting to get anywhere, but I have been for 1 interview for a job share post (morning + afternoon shift) and they only interviewed 3 - the other 2 got it

I have learned a lot from the interview process, but the questions are sometimes so random, you cannot predict that the things you have come across before, will crop up again. Theres the usual "How would you maintain confidentiality", "what do you know about Child protection" etc, which are all procedural things that come up time and again and I'm pretty confident with.

Another common question is what your proudest achievement - I must have lead a very boring, uneventful life as I don't have one! Sitting here, I can't really think of one - sad aren't I.

Today's new one was "what do you think we will gain by employing you". I said "you will get a conscientious employee who will give 110% to everything required of the post and make every effort to fill any gaps in my knowledge or experience. I am not afraid to admit I don't know something or ask for advice if I am unsure of a situation, but I will do my best to achieve everything asked of me". I wish you could get a results sheet afterwards to give some idea where I went wrong. I have asked for feedback before, and they normally just say my responses were good, but another candidate was better, so not much help really :mad:. They don't really have the time or inclination to go into any detail!

I also wonder whether my being out of a proper "office environment" since 2000 is working against me, but thats only going to get worse the longer time goes on, as I can't turn the clock back.

Thanks for replies, got no option but to keep trying!

RuthnJasper

I worked in a private school in admin. for 8 years, it was good and I enjoyed it at the time.

From your posts I actually can't see that you are doing anything "wrong" - I suspect that you have just been unlucky. The answers you quote are exactly the sort of thing I would have said myself and perhaps you were just unfortunate on the day. It's very hard to not take it personally after a bit though and it's quite demoralising.

However, your posts on MSE are always helpful and very well-written - I'm sure you would be an asset to any office, in or out of a school. When you get another interview think about throwing into the conversation something along the lines of "I would like to use my skills to benefit the smooth running of the school as it is SO important to help children achieve their potential and the best of their strengths as they are the generation who will succeed us and it would be a privilege to play an active part in equipping them for the future." or similar such words - those sorts of sentiments tend to appeal to school managers. But don't say "I believe the children are our future..." or (trust me) you won't be able to get that Whitney Houston song out of your head and you'll have quoted other lines from it before you realise what you're doing...

Have you thought about applying to private schools? You don't have to be "posh" to work in one (I'm certainly not!). Here's a link to where you can find details of UK private schools:
http://www.isc.co.uk/

You could also try the Times Educational Supplement; they have a good job section.

But the main thing is to keep doing what you're doing with the local council's job site and/or local newspapers. I'm sure the right thing will come along for you.

Best wishes. xx

Werdnal

Thanks, actually my hubby works in a private school!

We only have a couple in the whole county so not much chance of me getting in any of them. Its good to hear other people's perspectives on it though. I am also keeping an eye on the individual school websites as many locally are going for academy status and not sure of they will still advertise through the council site.

Will keep plugging away.

mum2one

To be honest to get through to interview stage nowadays is a damm good achievment, esp with the number of people applying,

The situation about the achievement, - (my thoughts) whether it is something small but maybe you went out your way to do something for someone and that produced results for them. Have you turned something around in a work sense - brought in an incentive.

Completely different environment, but I use to be a mgr for a fast food restaurant, I was covering another restaurant, and noticed the staff were giving out the little tubs of ketchup with every order, upto about 4 a time, - most were getting wasted, and health we couldn't reuse them, at the time there were costing the restaurant 5p a tub, so i took all the tubs off, introduced sachets, (cost 1/2p each), - within a week, I had saved the restaurant nearly £100.

That ended up being picked up by the area manager and a memo was sent to his restaurants and implemented, - broken down it was 4 1/2p but times that over a week, (£100) x 20 restaurants - average would be 2k saving. To me that was a simple swop over, more common sense, but it would be an achievement as it was picked up and used. For the restaurant cost effective, the customer till got their ketchup so it was win win all round.

Good luck, xx

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Werdnal wrote: »

Today's new one was "what do you think we will gain by employing you". I said "you will get a conscientious employee who will give 110% to everything required of the post and make every effort to fill any gaps in my knowledge or experience. I am not afraid to admit I don't know something or ask for advice if I am unsure of a situation, but I will do my best to achieve everything asked of me"

I am afraid that answer, from a manager's point of view, doesn't actually tell me what I will gain...this answer is (I'm not being mean, just honest) run of the mill and a mid scorer. What they want to know is that you are x y and z, not x, I might make an effort to be y and I will try not to be z.

So 'you will get a punctual, conscientious administrator, with good all round knowledge of systems and procedures, keen to learn, self-aware and a self-starter, a good communicator who loves dealing with parents and children as well as colleagues' etc etc. if you make it easy for them to tick a box and score you a '1' for each point then you stand a better chance of making the cut.

arbroath_lass

In my LA school jobs normally go to the person who has been covering the vacancy. We have a bank of people who do short term temporary work. Is there such a thing in your area?

The only other thing I could say is the 110% thing is one of those phrases that irritate people - maybe best to stick to 100%.

Like the others I think you are doing really well to get interviews. Term time jobs usually have a lot of applicants.

piglet74

It is so easy to let the whole thing get you down, the thing that really is annoying my hubby is that so long is passing between the closing date and the letter calling him for interview, and then the interview and being told yes or no, he is just assuming its a no now because so long has passed again, (6wks since he was interviewed for first school) but he is still looking and applying to everyone he sees.

I don't think you are doing or saying anything wrong, like mentioned above, I think you have just been unlucky and need to keep plugging away.

jollymummy

I work in the office of our village school, I was lucky to get the job as my son also attends and we live in the village.

I've worked there for 3 years and the lady who worked there before,was there for 25 years,I think this is why it's difficult to get your foot in the door. 6 people were interviewed for my role and the person who was offered it,turned it down, so it was lucky on my part.

I hadn't worked in a school previously, but had worked for the education department at a different local authority and in a college before I went off on maternity.

I applied for a lot of jobs before working in school and did all kinds of p/t work when my son was a baby.

My advice would be to keep on applying, look at local council websites and perhaps contact agencies that provide admin cover for schools. If you worked for them it would enable you to learn school computer systems etc and give you some good experience for your CV.

Feel free to PM me if you want and good luck.