Job went to another internal candidate, how to move on.

[finfitrulesok]

I was the better candidate. The other person has been unreliable. I have more experience, more qualifications, and have a lot more proof of what I have invested and achieved. I am baffled that they chose the other person. I don't want to go back in and face it all. This is such a huge set back and I am gutted at all the time and energy I invested in making sure I was ready for this role. No career progression for me now. Unsure what to do.

Thanks again, everyone. I need to reframe my thinking. I gained all that experience and all those skills, and I will be taking them elsewhere.

I've been in a similarish position to you recently, OP. Teach in a freelance capacity and lost out on a more long term role which would have been 10 years of solid work and allowed me to buy a house etc. I was the most qualified, able person who applied and didn't even get an interview.

I've used it as an opportunity to accept that I need to give up on teaching. Even outside of schools, it's so riven with petty politics and shit people trying to stop other people making them look bad. I love kids and I love maths (my subject) so much, but have come to the conclusion that the other adults you have to put up with do, in the end, make it not worth it. For me personally I've realised that film directing allows me to use a lot of the same skills but in a completely different context, so I'm going back to uni to train in that. Is there something else you really want to do that you could use this as an opportunity to push you to make a move into?

If you are in teaching, the existing school probably know you're not happy because of the references if you are jobhunting...

This happened to me nearly 20 years ago and still rankles.. helpful I know! Sorry OP 😬 to be fair the woman who got it it very careful and precise and serious and did a good job, so I'm being tongue in cheek really, but just to say I feel you in the embarrassment/awkwardness aspect of things! It sounds like they've made a very bad call OP. Interviews can be so stupid - add up the points on the day and go with the answer however silly.

Ive recently missed out on a job to another internal candidate too. Only I had been actually doing the job for 6 months and getting great feedback!

The fact is, if the interviewers do their jobs properly, it isnt personal. In my case, the other person interviewed better. Its just that simple. I requested feedback and was told that they gave a better example to a question which was why they got 2 points more than me.

It was disappointing but it is what it is. Apparently a senior manager noted the grace with which I took the message.

So lick your wounds, congratulate the other person and move on either in your current role or somewhere else.

I get it, and feel for you. There's a leadership position coming up in my school and I have half a mind to go for it, but the other half is shouting not to because of the likelihood of this outcome! Schools can be really shitty places to work and you're subject to internal politics that you cant influence. Inferior candidates can and do achieve positions they don't deserve, I've seen it over and over. I have only ever taught so have no idea if this occurs as often in other industries.

You should be really proud of all the extra you have given to your department - what that really means, is the extra you have given to kids, which is after all why we're in it (most of us). And, all that professional capital goes with you into your next post, even if you step back while you decide what to do next. It sounds like you are ready for a change and it's time to focus on making that happen for you.

I’ve been both sides of this, the person who didn’t get picked and very recently the one who did.
I say be professional, do your job and look to move on. Good luck it’s hard I know

@finfitrulesok I’m sorry that must sting so much.

You remind me of my dad and so my take on it after listening to your long list of achievements is that you’ve made yourself indispensable. Basically you’re too good, a victim of your own success as it were. The safe pair of hands and by your own admission the ‘yes’ person, the ‘people pleaser’ who will accommodate difficult elements of your job - all in the hopes of progress - except your employer has ‘weaponised your competence’ against you as it were.

My dead dad (now passed) was a CNC operator/setter and was an incredibly intelligent man and hard worker. After long tiring work days, he himself chose to be proactive and gained many engineering related qualifications at night college (bear in mind English wasn’t even his first language). When the job came up for foreman, everyone assumed my dad would get it from his quals and experience. I should add his employer even rang him up at home on his holiday to ask him to nip into work when something went wrong with the machines because none else was of that same calibre. Anyway, he didn’t get the job - and it went to the foreman’s nephew, a young man just out of college. My dad at that point was gutted and it was really awful that his job was now even more tiring and mentally upsetting as he had to ‘train’ the new guy from scratch to do a job he was hopelessly under qualified for. My dad tried to leave and get a new job and would ask me to ring up for application forms (late 80s/early 90s) and they’d be lovely to me for I had a nice clear English accent but then when I gave the Indian name of my dad, we never ever received the forms 😔. My dad had no choice but to end his years there. Overworked and underpaid. What’s was also galling was the senior leadership team would even take him to events where they would showcase new machinery and tools to get his insight into what would be best to buy. I really have so much admiration for him being able to continue in such an environment. He retired in his late 60s and passed from stomach cancer not long after sadly

So apologies for the long tale but I really hope you recognise your worth and don’t stay somewhere if you can help it where you’re not appreciated. Especially in this climate where perhaps now more than ever with the cost of living crisis, you do whatever you can to obtain the highest salary when you have the energy and youth to do so. Myself, at 52 now am trying (whilst I just about have enough energy to!) to get one last promotion in as I live alone and really need the boost for my pension!

Good luck!

No, you need to spread the word locally that you are looking. Ambitious, experienced teachers with solid qualifications , looking to move up to permanent senior management are hens teeth. You have valuable skills and experience to offer. Think about who you know, use your contacts, it’s amazing how word can spread, you know five people, they know five people, they know five people, before you know it your name is in the mix.

Contact people who have been in your school offering CPD, contact the people who ran training you have undertaken, contact anyone you have had dealings with professionally, contact your opposite numbers in other schools and ask if they have heard of anything. People like to be asked for advice, it is flattering and they will help you.

The end of the year (6 months) is not a long time in the timescale of a career. Just put your head down, do the bare minimum and focus all your effort in getting another job.

dear @finfitrulesok I do just hope it wasn't HOD English you were applying for? because its "excruciating" (think of being crucified). Still, I feel your pain. It's how it works sometimes. Hope there wasn't also a gender bias in there? I think that's probably changed a lot for the better since my day, but we used to remark that if the candidate was "male & had a warm body" (i.e. was not actually dead) they'd get the job. Yes, definitely look for another job. But don't just jump off into anything, let this be the impetus behind you looking for the career progression that is right for you. Don't be shy about letting colleagues know you're looking, always with a "no hard feelings; win-some-lose-some"" smile on your face. Perhaps, also, you'll find that you don't quite have as much time to be as helpful as you've previously been, as you're so busy buffing up your C.V. and honing your applications. Good luck!

This was me last year. I was devastated.

I had my annual appraisal last week and my boss happened to mention the person in the role wasn’t enjoying it/ the person he works for wasn’t happy with his performance. It made me feel slightly better.

In your situation, honestly lick your wounds and move on to a new school.

This, take your drawbridge up, stop doing things outwith your actual remit, because of course the person who got the job will be much better placed of course.
MN introduced me to the term 'quiet quitting' o9which is so relevant here.

Have you had experience being on a selection panel? It opened my eyes and made me realise some of the missing factors I was not showing through the whole process when I went for roles.
For me it was my interview style. I practiced with senior managers leading into the next round.

All the best, OP.

Appreciate all the kind thoughts and careful answers. Not looking forward to going in tomorrow.

I totally understand. Just be upset for now but then you go back in, sometimes there are things going on that you know nothing about and there is a reason for it.

You will get a promotion, it’s not this one but if you keep working hard you will find another one.

They might have something else in mind for you. Be brave and go back in. Don’t change yourself because of this.

Good luck going in tomorrow. It’s horrible when you’ve done the very best you can and someone says it’s not good enough (or that’s how you see it).

Just remember you’re replaceable. All those extras aren’t appreciated and are just taken for granted. Look after yourself, take time to lick your wounds whilst holding your head high and take this opportunity to decided what you really want to do.
There’s only a couple of weeks until the summer hols to get through. You can do it x

get feedback, be professional - don’t burn bridges, and spend your time preparing for leaving for something better. I’ve been there with people assuming I’d get a certain role and I didn’t- I smiled for the 3 months I had to when someone else had the role - continued to do a good job and make sure everyone remembered how great I was and I spent every evening and weekend preparing for interviews and I left. But I left on good terms and knowing I was better off for it. I now look back on that time as an incredibly helpful life lesson for many reasons.

...or gay, ethnic, non-white, disabled? Don't forget - these days it's all about minorities rather than merit.

What a stupid thing to say.

Op- hold your head high tomorrow. The next role will be the right one. Onwards!

If it's genuinely as starkly an odd decision ad that then you may have a claim for constructive dismissal - speak to a solicitor.

I was involved in a similar situation a few months ago, but as a member of the interview panel. Four internal candidates applied - two weaker, two stronger. The seeming strongest simply did not present in enough detail nor answer the questions throughly, whereas the other good candidate had thought through every aspect and was very reflective. Based on the interview, the expected successful candidate could not be offered the post and was very disappointed, but gracious about it.

Nepotism still running riot in schools then, if you don't feel valued find somewhere that will appreciate you. I had something similar, I was actually doing the job, which had been seen as good practice, they gave it to a less qualified person, then asked me to hand over my work to them, when I refused I was told I wasn't a team player, I pointed out they had got a huge wage rise so they should sort it out themselves. Don't let it get you down (big hugs)

It happened to me early on in my career. It was a done deal though - I am a she, he was a he and the recruiting manager and he got on like a house of fire - all blokes together....

Anyways 2 years later a corporate job came up. I was on maternity leave and was asked to apply (code for preferred candidate) so I did and got it. 8m later they promoted me to the corporate lead role, so I was more senior than my ex colleague.

Sometimes the right doors close.

Good luck with in your new nursery/ school/ college/ uni.

If it helps, I went after a job with my CV. The man looked at it and said ''You are more qualified than me''.

I got a better job. Perhaps you will too.