Monday, June 29, 2009

Poor Judge of Expertise

I graduated in 2000 and went for an interview for teaching at the Ministry of Education (MOE). That same day, they read an article about me in the newspaper. I thought that that was a positive thing, but we kept talking about my art background. After 15 minutes, he said that I was not accepted. “Will you be teaching Art or English?”, he quizzed. A teacher in Jumeirah who used to teach me then called me about a vacancy. I joined them as a volunteer. Results were good, so the MOE invited me back. The same guy interviewed me. And on the same day, another article about me appeared. But luckily by then I had already been hired by MOE.

2 comments:

  1. Might you clarify your point, Matt? Were the articles negative? Perhaps misleading? Why would reading an article about you cause the MOE to turn you away? Thanks

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  2. This is a story from a teacher in Dubai - as I remember the context, she was applying for an English teaching post, but was also an up and coming artist. The article was about her art work, and I think her expertise in this area probably made the MOE guy a little doubtful about whether she would make a good English teacher as well.

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