Horrible day

Crying seems to be a part of daily life, recently.

Today, a failed job interview. It wasn't the not getting it that upset me (the guy who did get it is a really ace person and a great teacher - he's on my course), but the feedback I received. It was the head who phoned me, and he told me that my interview had been very good and there were lots of points that he thought made me a very good candidate. However, the two women who had watched my 20-minute lesson thought that I was too nervous and that this had made me hesitant. Therefore I couldn't progress any further.

During the day I said to my fellow candidates that there is little point in thinking about how your lesson went, because they always end up telling you something you hadn't even considered. This is a case in point.

For a start, though I was a bit nervous (which is a desirable in an interview situation, surely? Else you'd look like you didn't care), this had no impact on the lesson at all. What did impact it was the fact that there wasn't a pen for the interactive whiteboard and that they didn't fetch me in time to set up my powerpoint etc etc

At a time when I'm not feeling confident about my planning or teaching abilities at all, this really knocked the stuffing out of me.

Then I found out from another unsuccessful candidate (also on my course) that they'd told her that she'd been too nervous and not done the lesson as they'd have liked. THEN I found out of the successful guy that they'd said both me and my other coursemate had been really strong and had given him tough competition.

Is it really a load of bollocks? Can anything be learned from these ghastly situations? Or does it just depend on who you are and whether you're in the right place?