Interviewing can be a cold, chilling process

There’s no doubt that times are hard, especially for teachers. If you’re an educator and have not been keeping up with current affairs, best to mosey on to any paper’s site and browse through their education section. With all the debates regarding data, merit-pay, and contracts, the field of education has become far more complicated than simply having a desire to be in a classroom and “make a difference.” New Jersey is broke and cannot sustain the current pension system in place. For better or worse,  a good number of veteran teachers have decided to retire before the new laws diminish their monthly returns. That means for new teachers, there are now more openings than there have been in recent years.

As a recent graduate, I was anxious having to compete with more experienced teachers, and even with all the shiny details I used to puff my CV, I couldn’t help but feel woefully inadequate. I also don’t interview well, becoming shaky and more soft-spoken than I normally am. But needs must, and I’ve stepped up my job hunt with greater zeal. While regularly scouring the local papers (the Sunday Classifieds are the best), recently I also paid a subscription to NJHire. The site allows free members to see excerpts of new education job postings, (many of which may not show up in the papers until it’s too late), while premium members can see the whole post and apply directly through the site. Since my current methods haven’t successful, I thought the investment was worth it. So, ruining my credit score even more, I charged the fee on my card and began browsing. I liked the fact that I could apply the moment a new posting was up, because some schools only interview or accept the first few applicants, ignoring the rest once a suitable hire is found.

Since I’m a horrible driver, and my old, fat Camry isn’t so good for long distances, I was thankful that more than a few openings were nearby. Since I haven’t heard back from Bayonne, I applied to every Language Arts position within an hour’s drive from my home. For new teachers who send applications en masse, keep track of school numbers, and always give your mobile as your primary contact number. The first advice is to save you some embarrassment; if the person is nice, he’ll say what district he’s from, but others just go right on and you have to play along like you know. The second advice is to take the opportunity right when it offers itself. Some like giving home numbers because they can reply to the voicemail on their own terms; however, answering right away allows you an extra chance to impress the person on the line (provided you can quickly compose yourself).

Of course, the bad side of giving your mobile is being called at any time, and my luck often had me answering calls at the worst times. One was when I was in the parking garage, and I walked right into a spider web. I had another impromptu phone interview while celebrating my sister’s birthday in a Chinese buffet. The last was when I was outside with loud traffic whizzing by. Spitting and sputtering, muffled chewing and plate clanking, or cars racing and honking, none sound professional, attractive, or even pleasant. If you have more cajones than I do, you can ask to call back at a more appropriate time, but overall, I suggest being able to respond on the spot, as it highlights your flexibility and quick-thinking.

Anyway, I was surprised that one of those disastrous calls actually led to a call-back. I’m hopeful about this one, but my previous interviews have not been fruitful, and it’s best not to put all one’s egg into one basket. I’m revising cover letters to make them somewhat personal to each school, and I’m anticipating interview questions, like the favourite book one. I think I should reread Frankenstein so I have something actually useful to say about it.

On Monday I had a job interview in Bayonne, NJ. I had gotten a call instructing me to avoid the building that housed the Board of Education, and instead enter the high school itself, where the interviewer’s office was located. Needless to say, I made the every mistake the interviewer warned me about, parking in the east side of a building. I didn’t know until later that Bayonne High School was essentially a complex of six buildings, included their BoE. To make matters worse, I could not parallel park for the life of me. Luckily, one of the teachers had stepped outside and took pity on my pathetic driving skills, guiding me into a spot and pointing me to a door entrance. That entrance, however, was the Board of Education area, and a secretary kindly escorted me to where I was supposed to be.

I was ten minutes late for my interview, which is obviously a horrible first impression. The interviewer didn’t seem to mind, as he had his own issues regarding the broken air conditioner and some notes he had to prepare. He looked over my resume, which made me feel uncomfortable, as if I were naked, my entire value as a human being decided on my list of negligible experiences and carefully phrased descriptions. He was impressed with my high school’s reputation, as well as my being a Magna Cum Laude graduate.

He then proceeded to ask the usual interview questions: asking for me to describe my interests, to say how my experiences would help me as a teacher in his district, and of course: to tell my favourite book.

English majors are asked this question all the time, and honestly, I’m never prepared to answer it. If you’re an avid reader, you know how hard it is to choose an “all time favourite.” Each one has its own unique value, but the whole experience of reading and being transformed by it is more than the sum of its parts. I think a much better question is “what are you currently reading?” It avoids the painful act of discriminating our beloved reading collections while still offering equal, if different, insight about the responder.

As expected, I stumbled, and eventually recovered enough to sputter the first book that came to mind: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I’d done so much research on that in uni that I practically breathed its text for two years as an undergrad. I then fumbled over explaining its merits: its theme of human potential and moral dilemmas, its rich narrative structure, and the fact that it was written by a teenage girl.

He asked me a few more questions afterward, and I left the interview more relieved than happy. I don’t know if I really put my best foot forward, but it was a nice day out, and it was hard not to be positive.

Thomas O’Shaughnessy, my high-school English II teacher, died on Thursday, after two years of fighting colon cancer. I heard it through our high school’s Facebook page, which shows that social networks still serve some of their core purposes: to inform and to stay connected, rather than become detached and caught up in farming games and Bananagrams. Admittedly, it’s a bit strange to start journaling my life with this event, but for some reason it felt fitting in a Circle of Life sort of way: it is around the time of his death that my life as an educator is about to begin. (more…)