Hired

Exciting News: I am teaching 6th grade in the fall!

In other news, I shouldn't have gotten this job. If everyone followed all the rules that people on panels tell job-seekers to follow, then I REALLY shouldn't have gotten this job.

I reused an old cover letter and only changed the basic information. I forgot to notify my references again that I was applying for another job.  Between the cover letter, resume, and online application, I think I used  3 of my 4 possible e-mail addresses.

I wrongly assumed that "informal interview" meant phone interview and then rescheduled the said informal interview for 4pm. On a Friday. After my first full week of teaching at a summer program. I had done very little prep.

I left school late, didn't anticipate construction on part of the route, mislocated in my head where the school was and ended up circling in a not-so-great neighborhood. I came within 100 yards of the interview location and turned around because I thought I was lost. I convinced myself that this school district was not real. I really wanted to give up.

Then my pastor texted, completely out of the blue, "Are you ok?" He helped get me to the interview, but by this time I was 25 minutes late. Whoops.

But the principal decided to interview me anyway. The "informal" interview ended up being me teaching three mini-lessons on the spot.  I had to teach the difference between a semi-colon and a colon. I had to teach how to add mixed numbers.  I had to describe what ancient civilization I loved the most. While I love most history, ancient civilizations are not my favorite. My mind went blank. Then I suddenly remembered that I minored in Religious Studies and knew a lot about Judaism and Early Christianity.

Even though I did a lot of things wrong, here's why I believe I was called back for a second interview and was eventually hired: I believe there was some divine intervention going on and second, the principal and I clicked.  The interview turned from question and answers to a conversation about the great things about education and teaching.

What they don't tell you on those how-to-interview panels is that perhaps the most important part of the interview is connecting with the other person. In my best interviews, there's always a point where that weird wall between the interviewer and the interviewee comes down and you're just two people having a conversation.  Fortunately, that happened.