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Tips to Land an Interview & Get That JOB!

March 16, 2016

Need a new job, or just starting out as a new teacher and trying to land an

interview? Trying to land a  job, whether the first time, or third time, is HARD. I’ve been

holding interviews and helping to hire for special education teacher positions for

more than four years now. In the end, I have the final say in who we hire, so I’ve seen

a lot of ways people have easily secured jobs, and ways that people have made me

want to run for the hills!  Below I’ve listed some tips to help land an interview, and

what to do once you have that interview.

 

How to LAND that Interview!

Make sure everything in your resume is spelled  correctly. I once had someone write

in their resume they “obtained an Batchelor’s degree.”  #IcantMakeThisStuffUp

If your resume is riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes on a document you

should have taken extreme care with, I can only assume that when you are rushing

to complete documents, you will put even less care into those. It sets you off on a

bad foot right away. There’s no need for that!

 

Make your resume stand out. Everyone uses the Microsoft Office template. Seriously.

I’ve seen about 300 or more resumes.  I can tell you the ones whose resumes stood

out still. I have about three a year.  Those people ALWAYS got an interview.  If you

don’t think you could possibly get creative with your resume, look at perfecting the

cover letter. But, why hang all your hopes on your cover letter. Have your resume

stick out. And your cover letter too, for that matter. Cover letters are another

pet peeve of mine. Make sure you TAKE THE TIME to make the cover letter  unique to

the place you are applying to. I get so many resumes where it is blatant that no effort

was made to make it different from all the others they are probably sending out.

 

It starts off:

 

Dear _________,

I would love to work for your school.  I have this experience, and can do this. Call me

for an interview because I’m a great fit for your school.

Sincerely,

An Educator

 

The recipe for a great cover letter is the following.

 

Dear _____________,

 

I’m writing about the current opening you have for this grade. I would love to work

for Mount Union School District.  I’ve heard great things about your (Specialized

program/good stat).I’ve had these experiences X, Y, Z.  I have these expert skills

because of these experiences. I know I would be a great addition to your staff

because I have these skills. I look forward to hearing from you to discuss the

position further.

 

Sincerely,

An Educator

 

Do you see the difference between them? Often times the cover letter I receive are

basically sent to say, look, I gave you a cover letter!

 

You Landed The Interview!  Congrats!

Now what?

 

– Dress for the job you want. 9 times out of 10 people dress nicely. So this is an easy

one.  Make sure you shake hands, and make eye contact. It doesn’t happen all the

time. Trust me. I’d say only 60% of the time I get eye contact, an introduction, and

a handshake.

 

– Always take a moment to think before you answer questions. Slow down, don’t let

yourself get flustered. It’s okay to take a few minutes before formulating a response.

 

– If you don’t know an answer, it’s okay to say you don’t know. I like the response I

heard from someone one time. She said, “you know, I don’t know the answer to that

question, but to find out I would …. ” And she followed that up with an email after the

interview with the perfect answer. I offered her a position.

 

– Don’t talk about salary. It’s poor taste. I seriously get this question ALL. THE. TIME. I

know you want to know the salary, but if you are the person that is chosen, OR even

chosen for the second interview, you’ll get to find out what the salary is eventually.

 

– After you’re done write a quick thank you email. If you need to correct anything

you said do it here, if you didn’t know the answer to a question, answer it here. Go

this route especially if you know that the turnaround time for picking the employee is

quick. After that, write a handwritten thank you note and drop it in the mail. DO this

even if you don’t get the job, or if you already wrote an email note. Seriously. This act

right here has caused me to call up that person later in the summer when I had a

position become open unexpectedly. The actions you take towards your co-workers,

(or future co-workers) when you aren’t getting paid, speak to the character you have.

 

– Be able to answer how you will set up a good classroom management program for

your class. When I ask this question, only two times have a gotten an answer that was

thorough and complete. I typically get strategies that teachers would use, not a

program or the foundation of all good classroom management systems. The people

who answered it correctly, got a job offer. Behavior management is huge. I can’t be

in every classroom all of the time. I can help you tweak your classroom wide plan,

help plan target interventions, and coach you to improve certain areas of your

teaching!

 

As for a list of questions you’ll get asked?

 

Here’s a nice list I came up with and use frequently.

 

1.Tell me about yourself. (It’s open ended, for you overshare-ers.) But don’t share too

much. This is a thing. I don’t need your life story. Just the cliff notes version.

2.What is your greatest strength?

3.What is your greatest weakness? (I always give a negative that I am aware of, and

steps I take to work on it)

4. Please tell me about your special education background.

5. Why are you interested in this position/ why do you want to leave your current position/district?

6. What do you think are the 3 major challenges facing special education teachers today?

7. How do you differentiate for all of your students?

8. How do you communicate with parents?

9. How do you work with your peers?

10. Tell about a time you collaborated with your colleagues?

11. How do you get your students excited about learning? Give an example.

12. What behavior management strategies do you use?

13. Tell me about the technology you  currently use.

14. Intervention Specialists (Sped Teachers) document daily. How do you keep documentation on your whole case load?

15. Tell me about a lesson you did that was a success.

16. Tell me about a lesson that was a failure? Did you learn anything from it?

17. Is there anything else about you that I should know?

18. Do you have any questions for me? (you should always think of one question…. even if that is, what are you looking for in the

perfect candidate?)

 

This isn’t all the questions I ask, but a pretty good start. I hope that it helps you to think and get your head in the interview game

before you head off to that interview!

 

Good Luck!

 

 

Filed Under: Intervention Specialist job questions, Interview Tips, Land a Job, Sped Interviews, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

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