Talked with my local school district about careers

I called up the school district that I live in, which is also the one I would like to work in. I wanted to make sure that I am making the right decision with attending WGU. I just wanted to make sure that they wouldn't look at my degree differently from those that are graduating from universities such as the U or USU.

The HR rep that I talked with said that they don't care what university you go to as long as it is accredited and you receive a teaching license for the State of Utah.

I also asked what the competition is like for jobs in that district. The kind of laughed at that question. Basically, if I had my teaching certificate right now I would probably get a teaching job there.

The district looks at three major items during the interview process. You have to have a Utah teachers licence, of course. You have to have passed the Praxis Content Test. And they look at your teaching evaluations from your student teaching.

That last item, the student teaching evaluations, is the most important. All of my competition are going to have the licence and will have past the Praxis test. So I will have to make myself stand out during my student teaching. I will have to make sure that I am always happy, smiling, teaching and all of that other stuff that I will be learning.

I also asked if they are looking at out-of-state applicants more, because the elementary school by my house just hired several teachers from other states. The district HR rep said they did that because not enough teachers in Utah are applying at this school district.

The HR rep sounded very excited that I getting a masters degree, teachers certificate, and then looking at their school district for employment. They are having a hard time attracting teachers because they just changed their retirement benefits and health benefits. But almost no company or organization is offering benefits like they used to. I'm not worried about that at all, so it looks like my career has a bright future ahead.