Job or Not A Job?

Back in the 1990's when I lived in Chicago, there was a play called Late Nite Catechism. It was a comedy about a nun, Sister, who was reviewing the lives of saints and determining which ones were really saints and which ones weren't.  She would present a saint from the encyclopedia of saints and asked the audience, "Saint, or not a saint?"

Real saints were like St. Athanasius, who as a little boy risked his life so people could have communion. Others were sinners, thieves or/and violent nuts who somehow slipped in. When Sister saw this, she would yell, "Not! A! Saint!" as she slammed her ruler against her desk. The audience would crack up.

Earlier this week as I was applying for a job, I remembered that line and thought, "Is this a job, or 'Not! A! Job!'?"

Last week I applied for a job with an organization where I know some of the people and it is in my old advocacy line of work. The organization is small--about a dozen people, but it serves several larger organizations in the area. This position is Director of Communication, which sounds cool and very interesting. I used to work in communications before I became an advocate.

As with any job I look at, I think about whether or not I'd want to a) work for that group, b) do what they are asking me to so, and c) does it pay enough to make me give up writing my blog, which I do for free. This job was a yes on all counts, which is good. It would make a serious dent in Claire Adele's college tuition bill in a year and a half. I was already planning what I could do with the money. Would I be the best or most qualified person for the job? I don't know--that depends on who else is applying for it.

Two days ago, I woke with a start thinking about the position. "This isn't a job," I thought. The group already has a Communication Manager, yet nowhere in the job description does it say the Communication Director manages the Communication Manager, which makes me think this posting might, in fact, be a way to promote the Communication Manager and give her a raise. In other words, this job "opening" might not be open and already be filled by an internal candidate. 

Also, this is a small group. The likelihood of them adding an additional upper-level position given the funding crunch is probably very low.

This group gets money from various government groups: they are required by law to post the open position. It is considered a new position because it is at a higher level. In a large organization, multiple people might want to compete for a newly opened, higher level job. In this organization, there is really only one position that would be reasonable to move into the Director role. It is not like they have ten accountants and need one new manager. Suppose they want to expand the responsibilities of the current manager job to this new level. Are they going to make this person apply for the new role and fire her if they find someone better? That would be cruel.

It is possible that the Manager is leaving the organization, and if they are going to replace her, they might want to re-create her position.

I applied for another job a few months ago, this one with the government. I called a friend to tell him I'd be using him as a reference. When we spoke a few weeks later, he asked about that job, and I told him I hadn't heard anything. 

"Don't be surprised," he said. "Many government jobs that are posted aren't really open. They are already filled but need to post it because they have to."

Why am I fretting about this? It is disheartening to be actively looking for a job and put your thoughts and energy into applying for a position that doesn't exist. Is there a way for the government or government funded groups to get around this, so they don't waste the time of people applying for the job? Can we get a little signal or sign on the application so we know it isn't a real opening? I applied for another job which gave the opposite feel. "This is a new position!" the description read, telling all of the applicants this is real.