‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 16 Sliding door moments.

‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 16

Sliding door moments.

People often speak of ‘sliding door moments’ when events can go one of two ways. I had a sliding moment re-run when I got my job teaching at St Pius X College at the end of 1996.  John Paul II was undergoing massive change and I took the opportunity to look elsewhere. Back then jobs were advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald Saturday edition. I’d stuck my application in and was hopeful of a positive response. After a week or so, a letter arrived in the post box politely informing me that I had been unsuccessful in my application. I found out that Australians also had a version of ‘Dear John letters as well! Slightly disappointed I went back to my beloved JPII to rethink my next move. 

The etiquette of interviews and interviewing can be strange. So it was when I then went for an interview at another Catholic School out at Dural. I was keen to secure a permanent role so read up on the background of the school which was an Opus Dei college. The role was a History/Commerce  based one but in the interview it emerged that the school actually taught an ‘adjusted curriculum’ with certain historical events not being touched upon. Feeling the need to fit in around the conservative ethos of the college, I answered several questions with some pretty creative answers. 

Headmaster: “Steven, tell me what you would consider to be a major failing in yourself”.

Me: “A lot of people would see it as a big weakness of mine but I’m very traditional”.

Thus, people who know me well, would have been shocked to hear this exchange. However, the pressure to secure work as an immigrant often drives one to accept jobs teaching the health hustle or working with crazy Catholic extremists. This response I gave was exactly the stuff that that Headmaster wanted to hear. As I left the interview, the person behind the front desk said it would be a little while before I would receive an answer and would I like some printed prayers to take away with me? Thanking them for their kindness I said I had plenty of my own including the Stones classic, ‘Dear God, if I can’t get what I want, please help me get what I need’.

To my surprise, a few weeks after my ‘Dear John’ communication from St Pius X College, they were back advertising the same Business Studies / Economics role in the Sydney Morning Herald. Puzzled at this, I just happened to have a chance conversation with a fellow JPII staff member Mark McGinity. He revealed that he had in fact worked down at Chatswood for several years. Rather than be put off from reapplying he encouraged me strongly to write in again, only this time he would phone ahead and put a word in for me! This involved getting a ‘yellow post-it’ sticker placed on my CV to at least ensure an interview. Voila! I got an immediate phone call offering an interview. As is the way with buses turning up in two’s and three’s, I also got an Interview at Patrician Brothers Blacktown, back then it was a 7-10 feeder school to JPII. All this while still waiting a response from the Dural School. It transpired that the original job was offered to a chap named Chris Saltos. He had changed his mind after accepting and went to St Aloysius instead, leaving St Pius to go through the interview process once again. As fate would have it, I later became friends with Chris and was actually his boss out at HSC Business Studies marking. 

The Blacktown and Chatswood interviews dove-tailed perfectly. My morning at Patrician Brothers went well, they clearly liked my combination of Business, Economics and Football. I would happily have gone there but the attraction of Chatswood was a chance to reduce my traveling. Walking up the steps at St Pius X College suddenly brought back a memory because this in fact was the ‘St PLUS’ of my earliest Australian experiences when I was dropping off all those speculative resumes!

I remember quite clearly how the interview went and who was there. Deputy Jim Olsen, Curriculum Co-ordinator Margaret Vere and Principal Brother Paul Leary. Some people are natural comedians without actually realising it. Brother Paul was one such person. While the other two staff were trying to conduct a professional conversation, Brother Paul would exclaim, sometimes almost shout and take the interview off into regular side-tracks. Thus, when he asked why I was willing to come to St Pius X College I took a chance to impress with some numbers I’d researched earlier. I explained that by getting a job at his college I’d be saving myself 600 hours of driving a year. Feeling satisfied to have given a decent answer to his question, he immediately asked what I’d do with those hours. Off the top of my head I said that I’d dedicate 300 to my family and 300 to St Pius X College. Bang! He bashed his hand down on the table and turned to Margaret Vere and said, “I like this bloke, can we offer him the job now?”. Jim Olsen quickly jumped in with, “Not that we are offering you the job now but do you think you’d take it if it was offered?” I quickly replied with. “I went to Blacktown this morning and am also waiting for a reply from the Dural school, but if offered I would prefer this role at St Pius X College”. I drove off back home to Berowra happy I’d done my best and within 15 minutes of getting home, I got a phone call offering me the job. The next morning I called back to accept it. I never found out if I would have been offered the Patrician Brothers Blacktown role but interestingly Dural rang me a few days later offering ‘a friendly second interview with a view to offering me the job’. I thanked them profusely but had to decline their offer having accepted a job elsewhere. A bit of a near miss but things worked out well as I’m now in my twenty third year at St Pius X College. Chris Saltos often reminds me he helped me get the job when in fact I owe all the thanks to Mark McGinity, who eventually came back St Pius X himself!