A job i've applied for has contacted my employer BEFORE interview now what do I do?

[Eddas]

I was hauled into my bosses office today because he's received an email re a job I applied for. I hadn't heard from them at all and the interview date is Tues 29th so I presumed I had been unsucessful.

On my application form (inline) there was no where to state do not contact prior to interview so I attached a letter asking them not to.

I rang them and asked if I had been selected for interview and they checked and said yes (to my suprise) Then I asked if it was usual to contact prior to interview and she said yes. I then said that I had asked them not to and I am now in a really ackward position.

The email to my boss also states the interview date, the interview is 9am (can't change, I did ask)

so WTF do I do?

I am so upset.

Funnily, the interviewers asking for your reference pre-interview can also be seen positively. I say this because, I have known hiring managers request that this be done as they feel that the candidate whose references they are requesting is such a strong contender that they want to commence the pre-employment checks that little bit sooner to speed up the recruitment process. This would always be cleared with the candidate, for obvious reasons. Sometimes they've said no, again for obvious reasons, or provided alternative referees.

they overlooked my request not to contact them. I would never give permission for them to do that! I would have been happy for them to contact my 2nd employer but thought that'd look odd so requested they not contact either.

I figured they have done it to speed the process up because the start date is 1st Jan so barely gives 4 weeks, assuming the sucessful person is contacted by Friday.

I think you should follow this up afterwards, whatever the interview outcome.

Schools seem to have recruitment procedures that are alien to those of us in private employment and afaik all decisions will be made on the day of the interview. I don't think it will be a case of being contacted by Friday, you'll know by the end of Tuesday.

Yours is a cautionary tale, I'd think twice about applying for a job in a school now.

I'd imagine you'll know on Tuesday too - usual school practice is to leave you all in the staff room / conference room after the interview then they'll make a decision and let you know. Even if they send you home they'll decide before the panel leave that day because people will need to sign the paperwork who might not usually be in school (chair of governors etc).

Good luck tonorrow!

And remember they won't have 4 weeks - if it's a Jan 1st start date everything will have to be out if school by dec 16th when they break up.

i'm now imagining an Xfactor scenario where they come in and ask someone to step forward and announce them the winner

Its standard practice in school to contact referees at the interview stage. I was recently asked for a reference for someone who works for me and it was made clear that they needed it to arrive BEFORE the interview took place. I think its to do with safeguarding procedures even if it isn't actually teaching.

I also think might only be schools who even bother with references nowadays anyway. For at least the past 10 years organisations I've worked for have stopped providing anything other than the dates of employment and I haven't been asked for one either.

Eddas - that's exactly how it is :o successful candidate gets asked in to see panel, rest of you eye up what's left of the buffet to see what you can nick... :)

Interesting, I made the leap from private to public sector a few years ago and was a bit about the potential employer contacting your current employer before interview. I now realise its standard across much of the public sector. be bold, brazen it out. So what if you are window shopping, nothing to be ashamed of. It's business, not personal. Though I still do find it odd telling my boss I've applied for something, but actually rather fun Now I'm a bit more used to the idea.

I'm quite disappointed, no xfactor style reveal I will hear early evening today. Not convinced I did well enough but hey I tried my best

well I didn't get it. Someone with experience in school finance did. Wish me luck at work tomorrow!!

Good luck for tomorrow :)