The Hiring Process and Interview Tips

A couple of weeks ago, the principal at the junior high where I student taught (Woah! Past tense!) sat all of us student teachers down and gave us tips for getting a job. One of the documents he gave us was these sample questions. (Click for a larger image.)


He said that although these are not identical to questions you'll be asked at other schools and districts, they should be pretty representative.

By the way, if you're not already familiar with the interview process, it usually seems to go one of three ways:

1) If you're in-state and applying to a big district (in Utah, these are districts like Canyons, Jordan, Alpine, Davis, Weber, Salt Lake, Granite, Nebo, and Provo), the district will probably make you do a screener interview as part of your application. These interviews are usually conducted by district personnel, especially Human Resources personnel (read: business majors, not teachers). They may take place at the district office, or the districts will periodically send representatives to the BYU campus and you can sign up to interview with them in the Wilk.

The purpose of the screener interview is to narrow the field of candidates applying for individual jobs. The interviewer will give you an overview of the district's hiring process, take down your contact information, and then ask you a series of general questions about teaching. He will give you a score based on your responses. What these interviewers are really looking for are keywords--buzzwords, really--the kinds of things we hear over and over in the education classes through the McKay building (things like transactional vs. transmissional learning, methods for teaching multicultural students, effective uses of technology, strategies to promote student engagement, discipline and behavior hierarchies, etc.). Don't let this make you nervous! You know this stuff--you just have to remember it. Go over your class notes before the interview and memorize fifteen or twenty of these important ideas (and make sure you can explain them and give examples of when you'd use them!). Some districts--like Canyons in Salt Lake--have this down to such a science that they'll actually check off these topics and keywords as you mention them in response to their questions. The more they check off, the higher your score.

After the interview, the district attaches your score to your application file. Once all your application materials are in, they'll pass on complete files with "high enough" scores (no, I don't know what that means) to principles who are hiring. From there, it becomes your responsibility to check with Teachers-Teachers and individual districts to see when positions open up. You'll either apply for the position through the district or contact the principal directly, depending on the way each district runs (you'll have to investigate each district individually, especially since they tend to change their hiring process from year to year).

According to Oak Canyon's principal, the one that gave us the sample interview sheet above, each position will have between 5 and 60 applicants vying for one job--and English and Social Studies always have the most applicants. If you are one of the handful (usually between 3 and 8) selected to interview for the job, the principal will contact you for a face-to-face interview at the school. This is why it's so important to have a strong resume: Your resume and references are what the principals go off of to decide if they want to have you come in for an interview. That's why your resume is called your "paper interview"--it's what determines if you get called for a "real" interview or not.

Questions at this "real" interview will often be similar to those at the screener interview, but here the principal is more interested in hearing specific, concrete examples of those key ideas in action than about hearing the keywords themselves. Go to the interview prepared with specific stories of moments of good teaching that you had during your student teaching.

2) If you're applying (in-state) with a small district (like Murray) or a charter school, there is often no screener interview--you skip that step and go straight to applying for individual positions.

3) If you're applying out-of-state, the process is slightly different and may involve phone interviews. Check with each individual district and school (call the district's HR department) to find out how their hiring process works and what you need to do to get a job. Ask the HR folks whatever questions you need to--and don't feel like a pest. It's their job to find good people (like you!) to work for them.


Here are some other pointers about interviewing and getting hired that Oak Canyon's principal offered:

• As you begin applying for jobs, follow up on your placement file. Call BYU to make sure that all of your necessary documents are in, and call each district individually to make sure they have everything they need from you. If your application/placement file is incomplete, the principal will probably throw it out.
• Proofread really, really carefully on all written materials. This should be a no-brainer, but he says you'd be surprised at how many English majors submit resumes with spelling and capitalization errors.
  
• On your resume, make sure that you have extracurriculars listed that you'd be willing to teach, coach, sponsor, or help out with. Teachers-Teachers has a HUGE list of these; snag the ones you'd be willing to do and put that on your resume. Principals want someone who can be a member of a staff team at the school, not just someone who teaches a core subject. Extracurriculars are one way to really stand out--especially coaching.
• Once you've applied for a position with a specific school, one of the most important things you can do to get hired is to personally bring your resume and copies of your letters of recommendation to the school. Try to meet the principal or an assistant principal--shake hands, say which job you're interested in, and personally give them your resume and letters. Don't call or email ahead of time; this isn't a formal interview. Don't bring portfolio things like work samples; save those for an interview. Just be present and smiling so that the principal has a face to put with your resume. If all of the administrators are out of the office and will be for a while, you can hand it to a secretary and ask (him or) her to give it to the principal.
  
• Go into the interview thinking, "I'm it. I'm the one they want for this job. I'm the best candidate applying," and have examples of times you were a wonderful teacher in mind to back it up. Confidence sells. Yes, you are just a beginner, but you have the skills and knowledge you need to be a great beginner. Sell yourself!
• Ask real questions at the interview. Before you go, check the school's website to get information about specific programs or activities the school has, and find a way to mention you'd like to participate in the future (or at least show that you are aware of this school, specifically). Remember, you're not applying for a job, you're applying for this job. Personalize as much as you can. Ask about extracurriculars--"How can I help?" Ask the principal, "What do you think a good teacher is like?" Ask, "How soon can I contact you about your hiring decision?" And yes, at this point, it is perfectly okay to ask about salary and benefits. Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You want to make sure that this job would be a good fit for you.
  
• Don't worry about showing content knowledge. Principals will assume that if you have a degree in your subject matter, you know it. They're a lot more interested in your pedagogical knowledge:
  
• Can you discipline?
• Have you shown growth and improvement over the course of your student teaching?
• How do you show that you respect students? That you have high expectations for their learning?
  
• How do you respond when kids need extra credit, extra time, or extra help?
  
• How will you keep improving as a teacher?
• Do you have a passion for working with kids?
  
• Can you plan well?
  
• Do you have general teaching knowledge--the kinds of things that you're supposed to know to get a teaching license?
  
• Mention general teaching strategies--things like Bloom's, ways to engage higher-level thinking, chunking, moving from more structured to less structured over the course of a lesson, etc.
• Do you reflect on your own learning as a teacher?
  
• Do you have kindness, compassion, and patience?
  
• Do you have a fun personality? Are you the kind of person that teenagers want to listen to?
• As always, use concrete, specific examples to back up all your claims and all of your answers to questions or statements like that. Tell about the time that Josh was completely unruly but you managed to get him back on track and participating fully in the group project. Tell about the time that you gave a test orally to Jamie because she has a learning disability. Tell about the time that you worked with Andrea's parents at parent-teacher conferences to set up a homework plan at home. Etc. etc. etc.
• It's perfectly okay to pause and think about your answers to the interviewer's questions--this shows that you are reflective and considerate of what other people are saying.
• Be involved. Make eye contact. Use reflective body language: mimic the interviewer's posture. More than anything, be honest and be real.
  
• After the interview, call back as soon as the administrator says you can--just don't hassle them. If you get a job offer, act on it as quickly as you feel you can. Don't feel pressured into taking a job that you don't feel would be best, but remember that if you make a principal wait for more than a week, odds are very good that he won't keep his job offer open.

That's what I've got, as far as interview tips and the hiring process are concerned. Please feel free to add information that you know of! Edit the post, write a comment, or create a new post with your own tips and ideas.

--Cathryn M.