Podcast 3: Interview Guidance

The speaker discusses tips for interviewing for a teaching job. They emphasize the importance of researching the school and knowing its values, curriculum, and demographics. They advise against choosing a job solely based on desperation or the first offer received, as it may lead to unhappiness. They suggest preparing for interview questions but being authentic in responses, providing examples from personal experience. Lastly, they encourage valuing oneself and selling oneself as a valuable investment to the school. The speaker hopes this information will help listeners in their job interviews. Hey guys, it's Tyler Coleman here. I just wanted to talk today, jump on real quick. Happy Valentine's Day, by the way. I wanted to talk about something that I don't necessarily consider myself an expert on. Hey, that's a great way to start giving advice to somebody is to say, Hey, by the way, I'm not an expert. But I can tell you, I have a lot of experience with this topic. I am around a lot of people that have a lot of experience on this topic. There's so much research and information out there that I feel comfortable talking about this topic and sharing some things. At the very least, I can share with you what I was lacking whenever I was looking for a job. I can share with you what I wish I had known about this topic. And that's interviewing for a teacher job. So I'm going to hit some real quick bullet points, I mean real fast. And I just want to go over some things that, again, I feel like somebody out there needs to hear. Somebody out there is going to hear it and they're going to be able to relate to it or it's going to help them in some way. And if it just helps one person, that's my goal. I'm happy with that. So, for starters, when you're interviewing for a job, yes, dress the part, dress nice, all those things, right? Speak up, be confident, all that. Good posture, okay. My first tip would be know the school that you're applying to. Know the school that you're interviewing with. Do as much research as you can about that school. This is going to help you as far as interview questions because they're going to ask you about it. Of course they are. They're going to ask you about if a school has the seven pillars of Johnny B. Goode, elementary. They're going to ask you about the seven pillars. If it's the three principles of classroom management is the foundation, the schools, that's what they're going to ask you about, along with anything else. It could be about the curriculum they use. Have you ever seen this curriculum? Have you used it before? It could be about the demographic, the area it's in. I mean, all these things. You need to know a little bit about the school. Just like any other company or job you would apply for, you need to know about that company. They're going to ask you about it. If you want to show that you care and you actually have a desire to work there and you'd be a good fit, you need to know about that school. You need to know a few things. The other thing I'd say about that is you need to know that for yourself. I know it's tempting because the school's giving you an interview and potentially a job. You are a teacher in need of a job, and they're potentially going to offer you a job. That's enticing no matter where or who is offering you the job. But the thing is you need to be happy, and you need to last a long time in this profession, and you need to choose a place not based on how much it pays or not because, hey, they're the first one to offer me a job, and I haven't had a job offer in three months, and I've never made it to the final round of an interview, and okay, I get it. But if you make a choice because you're desperate or because they're the ones offering you a job, you're going to end up unhappy. You're not going to work where you want to work, with the people you want to work with, in a system that you're comfortable with. You're not going to be in a school or a place that represents your values the way you want to. And just free yourself, do yourself a favor, and make sure you want to be in that place. I can tell you in my job search, I can't tell you how many schools I looked up and said, you know what, I bet I could get hired there tomorrow. But the reality is I don't want to work there. I don't like their system or their curriculum, or I've heard these things, I had a friend work there, and he said that they believed in these values, and these are their core principles, and I didn't agree with that. I don't want to work there. That's not going to last. I mean, I'm going to make a funny, weird example. Picking your girlfriend or your boyfriend, I'm sorry, but you're not going to choose somebody just because they like you, right? At least you shouldn't. That's not the recipe for a long-lasting, healthy relationship. That's not how things should be. So, same thing with a job. Know the schools because, number one, you're going to be asked about it. You need to know about the school you're applying to, and number two, you need to know for your sake, okay? My second overarching point, my second big point about going into a job interview, it's okay to do some research and to have some answers prepared and to prepare for that interview. Now, I'm going to say this with the caveat of every single person ever, every person that's ever going to be in your interview will see right through your answers. If you're just using a bunch of buzzwords, if you're just regurgitating a cookie-cutter answer that you got from ChatGPT or online, it needs to be authentic. Everybody, I don't care who it is, we all can see through that. We know you prepared your answers. We know you rehearsed. I'm not saying don't prepare for your interview. Don't prepare saying things out loud and go to mock interviews and whatnot, but be authentic. The best way I can find, the best way I found to do that, yes, you can research questions. Build up a list of 10, 15, 20 questions, tops, that you know you're going to be asked in some way, shape, or form. Why did you get into teaching? When did you get an interest in teaching? What experience do you have with classroom management? How did you resolve? I mean, these are just questions, of course, you're going to be asked in some way, shape, or form, and you need to have an answer ready but not rehearsed. Man, it's got to be authentic. People are going to see right through that. One of the best ways you can make it authentic, give your cookie-cutter answer. That's fine. Give the answer you prepared, and, you know, those are good answers. Give an example. Connect it to real life. Connect it to something you've done that's worked. Give an example. That's the best thing I can say, talking to administrators, talking to teachers, talking just in interviews myself. The most effective answers I gave are not the ones where I said, I believe the solid foundation of classroom management is first building relationships. Now, I mean, that's, yeah, of course, that's important. But it was better when I could say, look, here's some things I've done in my classroom. Here's a system I had in place. Here's the behavior systems I've worked within. I had a student one time, and he was dealing with this, this, and this. We tried this intervention, and at first, you know, it didn't work, but then we tried tweaking it a little bit with this, and we tried this. I mean, you know, I'm speaking in very broad, generic terms, but that's the idea, right? Hey, here's my answer. Let me connect it to real life. Let me connect it to experience. I don't care if you're in student teaching, you've worked as a para, you've worked in before or after school care program. Chances are, you're going to be able to find an example that works. You've probably done things that were successful and unsuccessful. You probably have worked in systems that had certain things in place that all schools might have, okay? Work hard to build up those examples and that experience, because that's what people are looking for in an answer, okay? The last point I'll make, I'll wrap it up with this. Value yourself. Be confident in yourself. Don't be cocky, but you can certainly be confident. I'm sorry, but you don't have the experience other teachers have. You just don't. You're a first year teacher. You're coming out of student teaching. You might be in the middle of student teaching doing your interviews. Value yourself nonetheless. Understand the value you provide walking into a school. Number one, they don't have to pay you as much. Maybe don't bring that up, but hey, a principal looking at that, they don't have to pay you as much. You need to sell yourself as an investment. Yes, teachers out there have 5, 10, 15 years of experience that might be going for this position, but you know what? You can make the investment into me. And you can sell yourself as, I am a solid, I am a safe investment. What you get out of me for the next 2, 3, 5, 10 years, that growth, when you extrapolate that out, is going to be worth more than a teacher that has 5 or 10 years now that, say, has been coasting along and things like that. I mean, don't bad mouth teachers with experience. I mean, those are going to be some of your best friends, your allies, the people that get you through your first year of teaching. But the reality is, you are an investment. You provide value. They need you. People, somebody out there needs you. And you know what? Somebody is going to take a chance on you. Somebody out there is going to do it. And you can say that. I can't tell you how many interviews I said that in. Got the job, didn't get the job. I said, look, somebody is going to take a chance on me, and I am going to provide a return on that investment tenfold. Somebody will take a chance on me. They will not regret it. They will be happy that they invested in me as a teacher. Again, 3, 5, 10 years down the road, you will be happy you did not hire that teacher with 5 years of experience because I will surpass them in value. I hope something in here was able to help you. I hope it was concise enough to give you a quick hit of some good information that you can use interviewing for your job. And these are some things that I wish somebody would have just told me straight up. But that being said, I appreciate you listening, and good luck. Thank you.