Hello
good friends!! Hopefully you have started your summer break, although I know that some of my Canadian friends have a few more weeks, hang in there!!! With summer, comes many teachers
retiring, taking leaves of absence, moving schools, or leaving the
teaching profession. This means schools are looking for teachers to
hire!! Maybe you are fresh outta college, or a few years out of college
putting your time in with substituting (thank you for this by the way,
we all need good subs), or maybe you are relocating, or just looking for
a fresh start! Whatever your situation may be, I am writing a 3 part
blog series about Jobs in Teaching! Check out the first part Jobs in Teaching : Land the Interview.
Ok, let me start by saying, I am no
NO expert! I am a first grade teacher, just finished up my 3rd year
in Maryland. However, I do have some insight into the teacher hiring
process! Before going back to school to be a teacher, I worked in the
Human Resources department for my county's public school system. I
witnessed first hand the type of educators that got hired, as well as
the ones that were looked over. I worked in that position for 5 years,
and loved every minute of it. BUT, I always wanted to be a teacher, so
with the support of my family and co-workers I was able to go to school
full-time while working to make that dream a reality!
So,
let's get to the good stuff! This blog post is all about rocking the
interview. Some schools/districts/counties have hundreds or even
thousands of educators applying to them, and then they only interview a handful! So here are some tips to help
with rocking out the interview.
Do your homework. Is the school you are interviewing for Title 1? Does it have great technology? What is their mission statement? These are all things worth looking into! If the school has a website much information can be found there. Or maybe there is a district or county website that can be insightful to your research. Walking into an interview knowing about the schools specific programs shows the administration and interview team that you are interested enough in their school to do your homework!
Dress appropriately. Please don't take offense to this! I sat in on interviews for my teammates 2 summers ago when we had 2 first grade positions. We interviewed 12 candidates. At least 4 of them were dressed inappropriately. So what does that mean? One of the candidates had cleavage showing---this is not professional. One candidate had a knee length skirt, which could have been professional, but it was super tight and had a slit going up the back that I could almost see her lady parts--again not professional. One candidate was wearing tights as pants, and everyone in the room could see her undergarments--not professional. And the last unprofessional candidate was dressed very relaxed with gym shorts and a tank top--again, not professional. I would recommend high neck lines, longer skirts, no undergarments being shown. Remember you are selling yourself, interviewing for a spot in their school, are you representing their school well by what you are wearing?
Be specific with your answers. Refer to your own experience. When asked a question, such as, "how would you deal with a conflict with a co-worker?" Don't dance around the question--the interview team wants to see your conflict-resolution skills with a question like this. If you've never had a conflict with a co-worker, say that, but also add that maybe you had a conflict with a classmate, and explain how you handled it. Use whatever experience you have, even if it's not educationally related. If asked about the common core, use your experience, be honest if you don't have any experience with it, but use the experience with whatever curriculum you have used in your teaching experience.
Be gracious and say thank you. When your interview is over, shake each person on the interview teams hands, look them in the eye, and thank them for their time. Manners can get you a long way. Taking along a few (maybe 5) pre-written thank you cards and dropping them off with the secretary on your way out doesn't hurt either. It shows that you are appreciative of their time and willingness to interview you. Remember, there were hundreds of other candidates that DIDN'T get an interview.
If you have any tips on rocking the interview for a teaching position, please feel free to leave them in the comments below! The third blog post in this series will be all about Changing positions or schools! Be sure to check out the first blog post in the series, Landing an Interview!
Do your homework. Is the school you are interviewing for Title 1? Does it have great technology? What is their mission statement? These are all things worth looking into! If the school has a website much information can be found there. Or maybe there is a district or county website that can be insightful to your research. Walking into an interview knowing about the schools specific programs shows the administration and interview team that you are interested enough in their school to do your homework!
Be gracious and say thank you. When your interview is over, shake each person on the interview teams hands, look them in the eye, and thank them for their time. Manners can get you a long way. Taking along a few (maybe 5) pre-written thank you cards and dropping them off with the secretary on your way out doesn't hurt either. It shows that you are appreciative of their time and willingness to interview you. Remember, there were hundreds of other candidates that DIDN'T get an interview.
If you have any tips on rocking the interview for a teaching position, please feel free to leave them in the comments below! The third blog post in this series will be all about Changing positions or schools! Be sure to check out the first blog post in the series, Landing an Interview!
Happy summer friends!
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