In this week's episode, Kitty offers the importance of listening to one's intuition--their gut--as one pays attention to how potential employers handle their questions or provide information. She tells a real-life story that serves as a cautionary tale about why paying attention and asking the right questions can save a potential job hunter a world of pain and heartache.
If you have questions or want to submit topics to Kitty for future episodes, contact Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com.
If you would like to talk to Kitty about your specific job search situation, make an appointment for a complimentary Discovery Session at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
In this week's episode, Kitty offers the importance of listening to one's intuition--their gut--as one pays attention to how potential employers handle their questions or provide information. She tells a real-life story that serves as a cautionary tale about why paying attention and asking the right questions can save a potential job hunter a world of pain and heartache.
If you have questions or want to submit topics to Kitty for future episodes, contact Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com.
If you would like to talk to Kitty about your specific job search situation, make an appointment for a complimentary Discovery Session at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt-out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day-to-day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition, the podcast, and the YouTube channel. My name is Kitty Boitnott I am the owner of Boitnott Coaching LLC. And the founder of Teachers in Transition. I am a certified stress management coach and a trained and experienced career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in working with burnt-out teachers who are ready for a career change but don't know how or where to begin. If you've listened to this podcast before you know that I alternate topics each week, one week, I talk about career transition alternating weeks. I talk about stress management strategies and this week the topic is career. It occurs to me that I want to share with you in, in brief, not a lot of detail because I don't want the person that the story is about to feel like her privacy has been invaded. Should she hear this particular podcast episode? But I do think that her experience might help to inform someone else's experience. And I think she would appreciate that and to be good about sharing. So the, the purpose of the story is to indicate to you that whenever you are thinking about taking a new job, you need to do research and due diligence so that you don't wind up being surprised once you've taken the job, that you've your job, isn't what you thought it was going to be your task. Aren't what you thought you were told or that anything else about your circumstances are off from what you expected. The reason I'm sharing the story is back in my early, early, early days of coaching and we're talking 2015, I had created my first jumpstart, your job search course, and I was selling it over all over the country. And I had a client who invested in it and launched right into it. I mean, she had already made up her mind that this was going to be her last year of teaching and she was going to do whatever it took to leave teaching behind. She was certain that her teaching job was not taking full advantage of her skills, her talent, her aptitudes, she felt, um, unchallenged. And she, she was ready for her next chapter. So she went through the program at record speed and was the, probably at the time, the most motivated client I'd ever worked with. And within a few weeks of finishing the course, she emailed me to let me know that she had, uh, an interview coming up with a gentleman who ran, uh, an affiliate. I won't name any names, but it was an affiliate for a franchise. And he was hiring a new manager that he thought she would be perfect for. And in fact, during the interview, he told her multiple times that she was just perfect for the job. He felt really good about the interview. She, she would be awesome. And he, he conveyed to her that he thought she would be a terrific candidate. So a few days went by, he emailed her, her an offer and indicated what the salary would be. And she wrote him back and said, you know, I would love to take the job, but I can't take it for the salary that you're offering. It's way too low I need. And I won't indicate how many, but several thousand dollars more in salary to be commensurate with what she would've made. Had she gone back to her teaching job, which she was prepared to do, if she didn't find anything else, the other piece of the puzzle was it, this new job was going to require a significant move. Now, the good news about that, and part of what she was excited about was that she and her family had already determined that they were going to move to this part of the state. And so she was planning to go ahead once. Okay. So let me back up and say, if he had offered her more money, she was excited about the possibility of the, because her husband would follow and everything would be hunky Dory. I don't know whether she told him any of that or not, but she did indicate to him that the salary he was offering was not enough. Couple days later, she got another email asking her what if he could match the salary, which meant coming up with thousands of dollars between what he had offered her and the first offer and what she needed in order to match her teaching salary. Now, I don't think she ever thought to ask him, how was he gonna come up with that much money? And I was still new and didn't think, I mean, I did. I honestly, I did think to tell, or are you sure this is legitimate? Are you sure? You know, that this guy is for real, because you know the adage about anything that sounds too good to be true, but she was so excited and I did not wanna come across as an old foggy or someone who was trying to reign on her parade. So I kept my mouth shut. I didn't question it. And she took the job. And then she went to that part of the state in that town where she would be working, starting in September. And she found an apartment that she paid first months went on and she started getting things ready for her move. She was over the moon, excited about this new opportunity. And then little things began to happen. The first thing that hit her wrong was that the guy who was going to be her boss, emailed her to ask her, could she do some training over the summer, some virtual training. She wouldn't have to travel anywhere, but there was some virtual training that she needed to do to get under her belt before she actually started the job in September. And there would be no pay for that training. Well, she didn't like it. And I didn't think it sounded right, but you know, teachers are asked to do that all the time. Aren't you pay, stay late for meetings that you don't get paid for, go to conferences on the weekends. You don't get paid for it. In fact, you have to pay out of pocket yourself to go to the conferences, but the cause it was related to what she would be doing starting in September. She agreed to do the training and there were other little things that happened. And she, she was sharing with me as she went along, communication snafus. She started complaining about how this guy didn't communicate very well. One part of the problem I think was that English was not his first language. And there might have been some of that men versus women communication style, who knows, but she was unhappy before she ever got there with his communication style. Uh, there were things that she thought he was taking for granted that he had told her that he had never told her things like that, that began to pile up. So by the time she got moved and was ready to start the job, there was a little bit of ex I mean, there was a lot of excitement, but there was also a little bit of trepidation about whether they were going to be able to make it work. Cause of this communication rift that had already occurred, she was still wanting to make it work still eager to get started. And she started on the Tuesday after labor day. And again, they continued to have communication issues. So she would email me and she would ask me, what should I say to so and so about such and such. And I would offer my best advice at no time. However did I ever say which now looking back on it, I wish I had, are you sure this guy is legitimate? I should have asked her that I should have. And I would know, I know I would do this today. Have you done a background check on this guy? Do you know that he is legitimate? Do you know anything about his business practices? How does he operate the other franchise locations that he has? Have you talked to those managers to know what, what their experience of working with them was like, I know that she didn't do any of that. And I didn't, I didn't expressly indicate that she should, because I was starting out myself. I was green as a coach myself back then, long story short, three weeks after she started the job, he came to her to tell her that he wasn't going to be able to match the job Sal the salary, that, that he had promised her, not that month, probably not the next month. Probably not in November, but maybe by December he could need it. But that he had hoped that she would come in and turn things upside down and bring in new business already in the first three weeks that would allow him to pay her the thousands of dollars extra in salary that he had promised her. And that hadn't happened. Of course it hadn't happened three weeks. Are you kidding? So needless to say, she quit on the spot. And she went and told her landlord that she was going to need to go back home. And she was, she did get out of the lease, but I think she ended up having to pay extra, to get out of it. And she wound up having to Sue this guy for damages, for lying to her about what salary he could pay her and for the expense of the move. I mean, she was out of thousands of dollars herself at this point, rather than to let her take him to court. He did settle and she wound up financially pretty much made whole for the first month.<laugh> but not any longer than that. And she came home with no job. Her spirit completely crushed her confidence shaken to its core. And it took a long time for her to recover. Now, why am I sharing that particular story to with you today? And that is, I want you to pay attention to the little red flags, the little, the little things that might feel off. If you're applying with a company, especially a new company, an unpro company, uh, with an affiliate or a franchise that is a standalone has, has a name behind it, but nothing else because usually franchise owners by into the big name, but they're standalone entrepreneurs pretty much. And they often have a lot of debt attached to buying into the franchise unless they have lots of, of resources of their own. And when you start to feel these little things that are off the little red flags that are being raised, things that if, especially if the individuals that you're working with, can't answer a question directly can't or won't don't look you straight in the eye. When they're communicating with you in person are unclear and their written communication, answer questions with questions. Instead of with answers, tell you one thing today and something else next week, any of that kind of thing, where you feel the sands shifting under your feet, you're not quite sure where you stand. Everything is shifting day to day. If you get a sense of that run, don't walk, run in the opposite direction. Now, if you've done your due diligence, if you've researched the company, if you know who the people are that you're working with and you can research them, do do, you can pay for a background search if you feel like you need to, but find out as much as you can talk to other people who work in the company to find out what it's really like to work there, do as much research as you possibly can so that you don't get surprised when you find a new job and do have a, a solid feeling about leaving an old job and taking on a new one. Otherwise you may be in for a world of hurt, like she was. And I hated it for her. It broke my heart too. Especially when I consider that I never did say, are you sure this is legitimate? Are you sure he can actually meet yours? Did you ask him, where will he come up with the money? Cause I know she didn't and I should have encouraged her to, but I was green. She was excited. I didn't wanna be the person leaning on her parade. And now I know I would, I would least offer a cautionary note because I've had that experience with her. I've seen the devastation that happens when you leap too quickly into an opportunity before you've had a chance to prove it's worth. So the moral of today's message is look before you leap, do your research, do your due diligence. Don't take the first thing that's offered. When you are countering for a salary, it is fine to counter for a few thousand dollars. But if it's several thousand dollars multiples of thousands of dollars that you're asking for that they suddenly say, oh yeah, we can meet that. Be skeptical because it may not be true. So that's the message for today. Be careful trust your instincts, pay attention to your intuition. Don't let something like what I just shared with you. That's a real story. True story. Just like I shared with you minus a lot of the more painful details do take care of yourself and do the research that you need to do to know that you're getting the job that you are bargaining for. And that's the message for today. Take care of stay. Well, I'll see you next week. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."