Early season interviews/offers

[helloiswill]

Is it early to be getting a interview? I was contacted this week by a school requesting an interview. It seems a bit early and I'm not quite sure how I should react if I am offered a position. The school certainly isn't at the bottom of my list but there are a few other schools I am interested in that have contacted me but haven't officially offered an interview yet. Should I inform these schools that I am getting interest from other schools in the hopes of speeding the process up a bit? I haven't been offered anything yet but I want to be fully informed in case I am presented with an opportunity. Thanks for any advice.

[vandsmith]

i think it's too early for you to be playing that particular card, i.e. i've gotten other offers from other schools, just yet. i've heard of some schools (schools that can anyway) that try to firm up their positions before the fairs with the goal of avoiding the fairs if possible.

best of luck!

v.

[dude]

I think the danger of urging a school to move along the process because you have other offers is that they might feel like you are giving them an ultimatum. Regardless of how tactfully you phrase it, they might just wish you the best of luck with your other offers. If you want to see where you are at with a school, say so, but I would leave other offers out of that conversation.

[sid]

If you do it politely, absolutely tell the other schools you have an offer. "I am very interested in working with you, but I currently have an offer from another school. Are you able to give me any information on your timeline for making offers?" This gives the recruiter a chance to jump if they really want you, or to defer if not. I've been in this position as both recruiter and recruiter, and the key thing is a mutual respect for what the other is facing.
It is early in the season, though, so many schools will not yet be willing to speed up timelines, unless you're one in a million.

[Nomads]

The recruiting season is well underway. What used to occur from December to February now is October to April. There is now a recruiting fair in November.

I expect to offer contracts to a couple for next year this week.

I would encourage you to contact the other schools once you have a firm offer from the first one. I would not contact them and say I have interviews with other schools will you interview me.

The variable is whether the schools have definite openings at this point or tentative ones. Some schools begin interviewing if a current teacher has said they are probably/possibly leaving, but cannot offer until the current teacher resigns.

[PsyGuy]

I strongly disagree with @Nomad, thee has been a November fair for a few years, but its a leadership fair. The timeline hasnt changed the bulk of peak recruiting is still January too February. Any IS thats still recruiting in April is either a head start on EU Spring recruiting or is a lower tier IS.

Early recruiting generally starts around early November (some even much earlier), this is what elite tier ISs participate in. What has happened is that some lower tier ISs will begin recruiting early to benefit from your insecurity, they are hoping an interview and offer now is worth more than facing the great sea of opportunities you may or may not have coming up. They want you to feel special, increasing the likelihood you will accept their offer, before even finding out what your utility and marketability are.
You havent gotten contacted by a bulk of your application ISs, so this IS is an outlier, if you were getting regular contact and requests to interview you may be a candidate thats marketable for early recruiting. You need to explore why this IS and why now. Are they an upper tier IS that has minimal recruiting to do this year, or are they an IS thats in a hardship region and trying to contract you early before you know what you are worth and they look a lot less competitive in comparison. Is the interview an actual pretest to an offer, or is this an attempt to mimic early recruiting and this interview is a starter to a meet and greet for first night recruiting?
Second, you have to ask yourself where you are at, if they interview and they offer, would you accept, and this would be your dream job? It doesnt sound like it, so your going to waste an hour of time just to give the IS a soft no, because while they are on your list, there are other ISs that are on your list as well that you have a higher desire to be at on of those? Whats their outcome and whats your outcome. If you ask and they are ready to move now, are you ready to turn away from all the opportunity that hasnt even happened yet. What if you were looking at this offer and IS compared to 2 other offers from ISs on your list? What would you think then? Would their offer be a strong contender, or is it really only interesting to you now, because they seem interested in you (this could be job bait, an interview thats essentially needs practice or experience for leadership.)

I wouldnt approach any other ISs, you dont have an offer you have an invitation to interview, everyone on the circuit gets their first interview request at some time. Its just an interview and this early they are going to think its some bottom third tier IS trying to poach ITs early, they are very likely to bid you good luck, because an interview request means little if anything.
If you take the interview and that leads too an offer, than you have an issue. At that point you need to look at what the offer is and who its from and assess your position and marketability. Id be prepared to go into the interview with the requirement of allowing a lot of lead time to decide on the offer. If they give you a couple days, your not going to get much utility going to your list of ISs and saying I have an offer can I interview with your IS and would you be prepared to make an offer this early, its going to come down to a decision on just this offer.

[helloiswill]

Thanks to everyone! It's not so much that I wouldn't be happy at this school, but that I feel like I should at least explore more than one of my options. Honestly, I don't know what my marketability is yet. I have gotten several "bites" but this is my first request for an interview. The school is only in its first few years, but it is affiliated with a school that had a reputable name in education. FWIW, they also claim to be non-profit and the package seems to be on upper-end for schools in its location. As many of you have advised, I will politely contact the other schools that have expressed interest in my application, only if a firm offer has been made from this school. Anyway, wish me luck in the Skype interview.

[reisgio]

PsyGuy is spot on this one. I was propositioned at about this time several years ago by a school that knew it could not compete with the big boys so it tried to get out front of them. With that said, sometimes it's best to end your search early if offered a position at a school and in a location that you like a lot or love. Why not? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.