Working Girl

I had a job interview today. It is interesting to go on a job interview I actually care about, an experience I haven't had since... ever before in my life. As a liberal arts graduate I pretty much just took whatever job came along that required skills I could figure out myself or learned in high school, like answering a phone, Googling stuff, using various Microsoft Office programs, and adding.

Today was a screening interview for Suburban ISD, which is my preferred employer. It's where I did my student teaching and where I sub now, and also all the schools are within 20 minutes of my house, so that is pretty awesome after commuting an hour each way to grad school for the past year or so. Now that I have successfully contained my stupidity, vulgarity, and emotional imbalance for 30 minutes with the HR lady I am cleared to go on actual interviews with hiring committees at various schools.

But alas, it is not that simple. My mom is a teacher in neighboring Urban ISD. Since I started grad school she has gently suggested I go work at her school, and lately it has become more of an assumption on her part that I will. The cons are that the school is 30+ minutes away in wretched traffic, the district overall is not as good (not as many services for kids and treats teachers like crap), and this is the elementary school I went to so many of the teacher have known me since I was 5. The rest go to happy hour with my mom and I am frankly kind of scared of some of them, including the principal. I'm afraid everybody would be all up in my business all the time. I'm sure I will screw up a lot and I'd kinda rather do that anonymously. Also, I hear that it is really, really hard to get a job in Suburban ISD if you have worked in Urban ISD before - they would rather train/brainwash/indoctrinate you to their liking right from the start. So if I choose Urban ISD it might be hard to switch later.

The pros are that the school itself is really awesome and I would have a ton of support from the staff, as scary and meddlesome as they are. Also, it sounds like I am pretty much guaranteed a job as long as don't pee myself during the interview. Plus working in Urban ISD seems the noble thing to do. The kids at my mom's school are a little needier, and the main reason I became a teacher was to make a difference in the life of a child, blah, blah, blah.

Clearly this is a major decision for me, and I don't like those. Would anyone like to tell me what to do? I have about a week to decide. The principal at Urban ISD will have an opening and she will not post it if I want it. And I think if I turn her down now she probably won't be as willing to hold any future positions for me, so it's kind of now or never.