Job seeking continues

As I have mentioned in the past, Mike is currently on the job market, in the hopes of finding a job to begin in the fall. I just thought I would give an update on what has transpired thus far in his search and ask y'all to keep him (our family) in your thoughts and prayers as we continue this journey.

First of all Mike has a scheduled date for his defense. It is May 27th, so be thinking of him then as his committee grills him for a few hours on the many hours of research and writing he has done for his dissertation. He will do great and I have no doubt he will pass, but it is a grueling process non the less. This is basically the last thing for him to do for his PhD, so once that day is behind him, you can start calling him Doctor, hehe.

Now for the job market. As anyone might guess with the economic situation of our country at this time, looking for a job right now sucks. Mike has applied to many, many jobs. Anything that he has found that he qualifies for he has applied to. Unfortunately a lot of other people are applying for those same jobs. Some jobs have received anywhere from 100-500 applicants, that is not good odds. So sadly, he has also received many rejection letters. Most university positions, have been filled by this time, however many community colleges are now trying to fill positions for the fall semester, so he has started to apply to several different community colleges.

In April, we were excited to get a call from one of the CC schools located in Dallas, TX. They sent up an interview for Mike. It was Mike's first interview, so it was very good news. He had to plan a teaching presentation and he was off to Dallas for an interview. At the interview he was told they had interviewed 12 people (if you don't know this is a high number of people to interview). So once he was home, we thought that the odds were against us again, and we weren't too hopeful. The school informed him that they would be in contact with him in 1-2 weeks. Well exactly 2 days after his interview, he received another call from the school inviting him for a 2nd interview. This was awesome news. They had narrowed it down to 3 people, so the odds were looking much better. Mike was scheduled for an interview in June. We were both very hopeful about the situation. Unfortunately, Mike received a email this week from the school, explaining that due to budget cuts they were unable to hire a faculty position this year and they canceled his interview. As you can imagine we were very disappointed.

So the job search continues. We know the Lord will provide for us and I really have no doubt that he will have a job, but any prayers you can send our way, will be much appreciated.