Panicked About the Teacher Interview?: Five Areas of Focus for the Busy Teacher Candidate

There are certainly some variations in chronology, but as the pressure to find the right candidate for the taxpayer dollar has grown, schools are increasingly using the same best practices in the field to screen candidates. There are very few schools that are not using methods such as the “candidate introductory phase”, “around-the-horn”, “the written task”, “the teaching demonstration” etc. Knowing exactly what these stages involve will help to ensure that you are not caught off guard on interview day and that your comfort level is maximized. You want to do everything you can to avoid being a “deer-in-the headlights.”

You need to understand their perspective- over a lifetime, a school district will invest millions in you as an employee. In addition, your success or failure will be a direct reflection on them. If you are not going to reflect well upon the district or do not have the judgment needed to serve as a mentor to young people, they want to know about it before they hire you. In addition, educational environments tend to be conservative in nature. We don’t mean politically conservative necessarily. The K-12 educational arena is dealing with educating and taking care of every parent’s pride and joy- their babies- their most prized love in their world.  Hiring committees take that responsibility very seriously and they are looking for new teachers who will too. Yes, they want to hire people who are knowledgeable about the art and science of teaching and the content of their discipline but they also want people with good ethics, someone who will present a positive model for their children, someone who can be trusted to use good judgment and who will not embarrass themselves or the school. 

What does a Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc search reveal about you?  Are you representing yourself as a teaching professional on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc?  What profile image do you use?  What other images of you do you have on your social media accounts?  School districts and members of hiring committees are increasingly using the world wide web formally or informally to check out candidates who come for a teacher interview.  Rough or uncivil language, pictures of partying, or other content not befitting a professional, could quickly sink all the hard work you have done to prepare for your career. Review all of your internet and social media persona right away. Try to read it from the perspective of a potential parent or administrator on a hiring committee. If it is in any way questionable, remove it. The safest thing to do is to put highly restrictive privacy settings on your accounts or eliminate social media accounts altogether.

Even if you are one of those rare birds born naturally comfortable in front of a hiring committee, in the end, you are not going to maximize your potential performance if you are caught off guard. You are going to have to research potential questions and practice them. Preparation and practice are going to reduce the chance of surprise in front of the committee and increase your comfort level.  THE GREATEST MISTAKE made here is people who are led to believe they need to master responses to 500 interview questions. Try this and you will be an even bigger mess.  One of the reasons the Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview has seen such success is  “The Umbrella Approach”.  We spent years collecting, studying, and organizing interview questions used by hiring committees across the country leading to the development of this approach that can quickly prepare candidates to have the response to any question thrown at them.

We have seen more than one interviewing committee turned off by a teaching candidate who did not do their homework on the school or district from which they were seeking employment. Remember, the people interviewing you want to see a candidate who really wants to be a part of their school, their faculty, and their community. We know that candidates who do not complete their research before the interview significantly reduce their chance to win the position. Principals, teachers and members of the interview committees don’t expect you to know everything about the school, but they do expect that you cared and showed enough respect to do the research that you could. In this day and age of the internet, there is no shortage of information on school communities and no excuse for you not to know their major programs, core philosophies, performance data and culture. If you do not know the basics about them, they will assume you lack diligence or your interest in their school is not authentic.

Very best of luck to all of you out there pursuing jobs as teachers.  Do not give up on your dream, just get the information you need to master the teacher interview and spread the word to a fellow teaching candidates.  No one should have to be a “deer in the headlights” when it comes to the teacher interview!

by William A. Kresse, Ph.D. and Michael J. Vallely, Ph.D.

·         authors of The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview (2012)

·         founders of the www.theEDUedge.com (blog, daily twitter tips and other teacher interview resources for aspiring teachers)

If you’re one of the busy teachers looking for a new job, you may want to check out my blog posts about resumes or this post on a teaching portfolio.

My thanks go out to Dr. Kresse and Dr. Vallely! If you have any questions or comments about their guest post, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.