The reality of looking for a first job

Finding your first job isn’t an easy to do. People struggle with financial, emotional, and physical problems while in search for their first job. Teachers here at AJCMS like any other teacher have suffered through the struggles of searching for a first job.

Teresa Argueta, an English teacher at AJCMS, had a hard time looking for a job and when she did find one, she was bombarded with all the changes she didn’t expect.

“It was kind of hard because I was also applying midyear. So I was going into a school that either a class, the teacher left or they had too many students and they just threw them into a classroom, which that’s what happened to me… I felt lost. I thought my classes in college would prepare me and they didn’t, not because it wasn’t a good program, but because teaching is different everyday..,” says Argueta.

Not only did she get unexpected changes, but she also faced the fear of being laid off shortly after being hired.

“They actually give what we’re called pink slips. They fired teachers new teachers who they hired that year and I was going to be in that bracket for a lot of years…I was a little unhappy at my previous school because of things out of my control,” says Argueta.

Not only do lots of teachers get rejected, but others like Aisha Nash, a science teacher at AJCMS, get turned down because of their appearances.

“I looked very young, I was 21 or 22. I looked very young for my age and a lot of the principals at the schools that I wanted to be at, they wouldn’t hire me and some wouldn’t even interview me. They would say, ‘Oh no. You’re too young.’ I’m like, I dressed up and spent my time prepping for this interview and now you wont even interview me,” said Nash.

David Han, a math teacher, also went through a lot of challenges even though finding a job was easy.

“There’s a lot of teaching opportunities, especially for math and science teacher. There’s not a lot of people that want to be math and science teachers, so it was not that hard becoming a math teacher but the tests required to become a math teacher was very difficult. I failed the first test about two or three times. So it was a difficult journey becoming a math teacher, but there were a lot of openings,” says Han.

Stress, anxiety, rejection, and fear have all affected teachers. Looking for a first job is really a journey, especially for non-experienced teachers.