Interviews play a very important role, this is your only chance to secure your dream teaching job and impress the interviewer. You can’t let anything wrong happen when its your interview day, no excuses are going to work that! You finally secured your interview slot so are you really going to mess up?
To ensure you don’t end up with any reasons to failing the most important interview of your life, here’s some reasons you should have to face:
- 1.      It wasn’t your day
I don’t mean the arriving late part but also, the whole timing was off. You weren’t motivated to do an interview and that has a huge impact on the interview. The interviewer will think your not interested, will hire another candidate compared to you. This is your time to sell yourself and demonstrate how passionate you are for this position and teaching in this school. You don’t always get to teach at your favourite school, do not let anything take away this opportunity.
Make sure you are prepared and on time but if you end up being late, own up to it and apologise for the inconvenience and thank them for their eagerness to still see you. A good time to arrive is 15-30 minutes before your schedule time and give yourself enough time for the journey to relax, prepare yourself for some time and avoid any delays or traffic.
- 2.      You came in late…and didn’t greet the receptionist
Your every move as your step inside the building is being watched. I don’t mean to put you off, but it’s important for you to be polite and greet the receptionist or anyone in the office the moment you see them, some managers will purposely ask others what their impression of you was to see how you came across to members of team. Little things matter to securing your job. You don’t want to come across rude, it’s basic steps to manners. It’s good to be friendly, shows you will end up working in the environment once you do get the job.
- 3.      You didn’t groom yourself
First impression is the last impression! I’m sure you’ve all heard of that phrase. Many will judge you on your outfit attire and how you are dresses and if you are well groomed. Little things make a big difference, groom face, clean hair and smart teacher attire, short nails, less makeup and no piercings or tattoos. Make sure your portfolio, folders, bag is well organised as if you’re finding it hard to look for documents then you will come across unprofessional and unarranged.
- 4.      You over-shared
This is not your time to chit-chat, certain employers specifically test you to see if you start to talk about personal matters and based their judgement of you getting the position on this. You can come across unprofessional, so it is vital to not speak about matters that aren’t related to your CV/Resume or your job position. You must prepare yourself for tricky questions, employer may ask about why you took a leave for certain time or why you had a lot of sick days.
There’s no need to be scared, you just need to be honest and that shows engagement between you and interviewer. Sometimes they are just genuinely asking to get to know you and your necessities. Never make the mistake of thinking the employer is your friend to gossip, they aren’t your friends to vent – don’t put yourself in such position that will risk your position you could’ve had.
- 5.      You hesitated when talking about the school
Research, research, research! Be honest, do not exaggerate or talk so much about the school that you may forget what else to say. Keep it brief, simple and to the point. No one is sitting there to know the full history of their school, makes notes on important factors and speak confidently, engage with employer and make a healthy conversation. Be in the position that you can talk about the school and what happening, better than them.
That’s most of the points covered, all this can be prevented with right preparation and practice. Good luck on your interview!