Looking for work

It's been relatively quiet at work this week --the calm between Christmas and the beginning of Lent, long may it last--and so I've spent a fair amount of time looking for job listings, preparing cover letters and sending out application packets. And what this has reminded me is how time consuming and exhausting this whole process is.

When I was on the academic job market I thought that was hard--and it was. But at least in my field there was a relatively fixed time period in which job listings would come out, and a more predictable timetable for response, interviews, hiring decisions and so forth. And there were reliable places where you could be pretty sure that if there was a job, it would show up there.

With clergy positions, it's different. New openings can come up anytime, and while that's a benefit, it's also time consuming to track. In my denomination there is a national job listing site, but what I'm finding is that not all positions end up being listed there in a timely way. There is a second on-line resource that has listings for the geographic areas I'd most like to be in, but again, some dioceses are better than others about keeping their listings updated. Some dioceses list openings on their own websites--but not all, and there are 108 or so dioceses, if I were inclined to check out all of them (which I'm not). And then there's the matter of who you know. I wish it didn't make a difference, but I fear that it does. Luckily for me, my clergy coach is well-connected and he's a tremendous help. Assistance in the form of tips for me and recommendations to parishes have come from a few other (sometimes unexpected) places as well, for which I'm grateful.

The search and call process is a long and winding road. There are some good reasons for this, but it can still be frustrating--for people on both sides. So there is at least one position that I know is coming open (and have known for months) and might be interested in, but because of the nature of the process, it may not happen soon enough for me to apply for it.

And let us not forget--this is a discernment process, not a hiring process. Parishes and candidates are in a mutual process to discern a good fit, to discern who is called to become the next rector. Despite the hint of sarcasm in that, I do believe that. It's just hard not to lose sight of what's going on in the tedium of the whole thing. And it's hard not to get anxious about it, too.