If you haven't been in an interview lately, let me set the scene for you: One nervous new educator is escorted into a meeting room. There may have been a minimal amount of pleasantries exchanged in the lobby, but more often not. Chances are the interviewer has been interviewing candidates for several hours now, and possibly has more to go after this. The candidate has a large portfolio of resumes, samples of student work, pictures of students engaged in work, samples lessons, and possibly their own whiteboard. The meeting room is full of people, the candidate can never tell how many people will be there, and always has too few resumes to hand out. Everyone is introduced, and the candidate promptly forgets everyone's name.
Some of you are like me, in the interviewee chair. You're new, you're trying to make a good impression. You're trying to be the real you, but a version of the real you that would fit in at this company. With this culture. Even though you have no idea what the delicate balance of intraoffice politics is like. But, you smile, answer the questions with the right amount of thinking time, carefully weighted words, and all those wonderful catch-phrases they taught you in your teacher prep program. This post isn't for you. I wish you luck.
But this is more for the interviewers... The panel of 4-6 people (principals, teachers, parents, nurses) who sit at the far end of a large conference table with pads of paper and stacks of resumes. The people who have carefully choreographed scripts of the questions that will be asked. The panel who FIRES OFF question after question, furiously writes down my responses, gives no indication of what they thought of my answer before moving onto another, completely unrelated question.
You are exhausting me. I can't be my best me under these circumstances. I am so tense it is a miracle I can answer any of your questions. The real me is engaging when conversing with another person, one-on-one. The real me can even be funny in group situations. I can tell jokes, I can make you laugh. I can make me laugh! I don't take myself so seriously in real life.
To the interview panel: How are you making your decisions about candidates who are the most inauthentic situation ever?
I interviewed for a position a few weeks ago, and I was told I would have to teach a mini-lesson as part of the interview. After a series of round-robin type questions - multi-part, jargon-laden, 40 minutes of confusing questions - I was asked to present my lesson. To adults. In a meeting room without any sort of whiteboard, blackboard, desks... any basic classroom props. Here's the thing about presenting my lesson to adults... I am never going to tell an adult they have to raise their hand. I am never going to tell adults having a side conversation that they need to focus. They are adults! If there is something more pressing going on, they will take care of it and get themselves caught up.
It was a disaster. It was inauthentic. How could they judge my ability to manage a classroom of students when they didn't give me the chance to manage a classroom of students?
By the time the part of the interview set aside for my questions rolled around, I was worn out and downtrodden. My answers weren't adequate, and my mini-lesson was cut off. What could I have asked that would have made a difference? Nothing.
I did get a thoughtful email from the headmaster the next day. It gently let me know that I wasn't what they were looking for.
Oh, how the interview process has changed and evolved.
With all the work of looking for positions and applying for positions and interviewing for positions, I've come to a conclusion. If I can get through all the work of interviewing, I can get through the teaching. The teaching part might be easier than the interviewing.