Written on July 12, 2007 at 5:37 pm by

Bad news but in a nice way

Filed under Teaching Assistantship {18 comments}

After sending countless e-mails to the rectorat of Grenoble, I finally sent a few to people who work specifically for Haute-Savoie. I was told I haven’t been renewed and all the posts are already taken, which I assumed would happen. But at least they were nice about it:

Mademoiselle,
Tous les postes sont pourvus pour le moment, j’ai verifie que vous etiez bien sur la liste. On vous contactera des que des demissions auront lieu et ce sera probablement en septembre. En tous cas vous avez priorite sur les recrutes locaux, il y a donc toutes les chances pour que vous ayez quelque chose. Si vous n’avez toujours rien en septembre refaites-moi un message.
Bonnes vacances

Basically, I’m on the waiting list and as soon as someone quits (probably in September), I have a good chance of taking their post. Great. More waiting.

I knew this would most likely be the outcome, but it still hurts. New assistants are supposed to have priority over renewing assistants, which I understand, but then why have some people been able to renew right away with no problems? Especially EU citizens who could easily get different jobs anyway.

As a non-EU citizen, this is the only job I could legally have until I get my CDS vie privée et familiale (in February 2008!) I just don’t understand. All of the teachers loved me and wanted me back. The husband of one of them even works for the Inspection Académique and he couldn’t help me. I wrote letters to the rectorat saying that I’m staying in France anyway and I want to teach ESL as a career, so this is great experience for me. But nothing worked.

I have little hope that someone within an hour of me will quit their job. It’s not like I’m going to attempt to commute 2 or 3 hours to a school, or move somewhere else in the académie.

The application for the 2008-2009 school year will be up in October. Hopefully we’ll be in Quebec by the end of 2008 though.

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  • Samantha

    Funny, I got pretty much the same email last year…and we all know how that turned out!I thought it was really odd too that they told me that all the posts had been taken, but yet a friend of mine found out she had been renewed in May and got her arrêté in June. And my teachers all really wanted me back too, and I got a good recommendation from my CP, plus an “avis très favorable” from the Inspecteur, but they still gave my damn post to a welshman who ended up quitting half way through. So I totally hear your frustration – it’s just so hard that it’s all out of your hands, and that everything always seems to be so random. I’ll be crossing my fingers for you though, I know how much you need this!

  • Samantha

    Funny, I got pretty much the same email last year…and we all know how that turned out!

    I thought it was really odd too that they told me that all the posts had been taken, but yet a friend of mine found out she had been renewed in May and got her arrêté in June. And my teachers all really wanted me back too, and I got a good recommendation from my CP, plus an “avis très favorable” from the Inspecteur, but they still gave my damn post to a welshman who ended up quitting half way through.

    So I totally hear your frustration – it’s just so hard that it’s all out of your hands, and that everything always seems to be so random. I’ll be crossing my fingers for you though, I know how much you need this!

  • ColourMeCrazy

    Bugger. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you too!

  • ColourMeCrazy

    Bugger. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you too!

  • Penny

    Sorry to hear this. Hope something comes up soon :)

  • Penny

    Sorry to hear this. Hope something comes up soon :)

  • Karina

    It really depends, I kept on politly harassing my Rectorat when I wanted to apply as a recrutee locale 2 years ago and they said the same thing. Someone did drop out and i think the fact that i was always calling so much made my name seem a bit more familiar ( i was very nice about the whole, thing, persistant but not rude, not saying that you are! lol)i got assigned to 2 lycees but they had to wait until mid-Oct to officially cancel the other assistant’s contract to hire me. of course they wouldn’t hire me to work only 1 week until vacation so they hired me as of Nov 1. Good thing was that I still had a 7 month schedule, just decale a bit :-) keep your hopes up, you never know, each academie and rectorat are different (as i’m sure you know!) keeping my fingers crossed for ya!

  • Karina

    It really depends, I kept on politly harassing my Rectorat when I wanted to apply as a recrutee locale 2 years ago and they said the same thing. Someone did drop out and i think the fact that i was always calling so much made my name seem a bit more familiar ( i was very nice about the whole, thing, persistant but not rude, not saying that you are! lol)
    i got assigned to 2 lycees but they had to wait until mid-Oct to officially cancel the other assistant’s contract to hire me. of course they wouldn’t hire me to work only 1 week until vacation so they hired me as of Nov 1. Good thing was that I still had a 7 month schedule, just decale a bit :-)
    keep your hopes up, you never know, each academie and rectorat are different (as i’m sure you know!) keeping my fingers crossed for ya!

  • Linda

    Keep up your good thoughts, be positive and try not to let that horrible buracracy get you down. So many people seem to either have trouble getting jobs, keeping them, or they really hate them. I’m sure as Karina said above, that you will get the job-just not when you hoped. That would be too simple.

  • Linda

    Keep up your good thoughts, be positive and try not to let that horrible buracracy get you down. So many people seem to either have trouble getting jobs, keeping them, or they really hate them. I’m sure as Karina said above, that you will get the job-just not when you hoped. That would be too simple.

  • The Franco Fille

    Sorry it didn’t work out. But I hope you still get some positive news.

  • The Franco Fille

    Sorry it didn’t work out. But I hope you still get some positive news.

  • DestinationMetz

    :( Like everyone else, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I don’t know what the drop out statistics are like but they seem to be quite high so chin up for now, even though its difficult…

  • DestinationMetz

    :( Like everyone else, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I don’t know what the drop out statistics are like but they seem to be quite high so chin up for now, even though its difficult…

  • The Late Bloomer

    Oh, I understand where you’re coming from! It must be incredibly frustrating, but that is a really nice message they sent you — which is kinda rare in France, to be honest! And I don’t know if this is any consolation, but back in 1998 when I tried to renew my assistantship, it didn’t pan out at the time either. I was told it was virtually impossible to do so anyway, so I probably didn’t exhaust all the possibilities like you did — you see really to have done everything you could to make it happen!Apparently today it is possible to do a second year of the assistantship, but I get the impression that it varies from one year to the next, and from one académie to the next, like Karina said. Who knows? It does seem a bit arbitrary… But I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you too! With a little luck, it will all fall into place.

  • The Late Bloomer

    Oh, I understand where you’re coming from! It must be incredibly frustrating, but that is a really nice message they sent you — which is kinda rare in France, to be honest! And I don’t know if this is any consolation, but back in 1998 when I tried to renew my assistantship, it didn’t pan out at the time either. I was told it was virtually impossible to do so anyway, so I probably didn’t exhaust all the possibilities like you did — you see really to have done everything you could to make it happen!

    Apparently today it is possible to do a second year of the assistantship, but I get the impression that it varies from one year to the next, and from one académie to the next, like Karina said. Who knows? It does seem a bit arbitrary… But I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you too! With a little luck, it will all fall into place.

  • Gloria

    If you are half as helpful in the classroom as you are as an online resource, you of all assistants deserve to be renewed! Hopefully the waiting game will pay off for you. Good luck!

  • Gloria

    If you are half as helpful in the classroom as you are as an online resource, you of all assistants deserve to be renewed! Hopefully the waiting game will pay off for you. Good luck!

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