Yeah…I don’t think I got the job…
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I got kind of a basic run down of how I should expect the interview to go. Ryan said they usually ask about classroom management and the first day of class…yeah…well, that’s a not so much with those questions, which kinda gives me the impression that I’ll have to keep looking.
As Natalie mentioned, her colleague in the UK, Phillip would call me about fifteen minutes prior to the actual interview. He seemed quite an amiable fellow; much like the other career managers, he gave me some basic information about the school and we both laughed at the “hospital” bit to the name. He said it’s considered a very traditional school, but one of the highest in the area. It is located close to Victoria Station, which is easily accessible by tube or regular line, so if I wanted to live in a kind of leafy area like Surrey, I could still do so, or if I wanted to live in the heart of London, kind of the party scene, it would also be possible.
He asked me if knew about the position. I said no, but I meant that to mean I didn’t know what age group I would be teaching. He explained that it would be an English and Drama position, more Drama than English and that I would also be on-call for what’s referred to as General Cover, which is essentially in-school substitute teaching; so if a Geography teacher is out sick, there’s a chance I could be covering one of his or her classes. I thought that was very interesting.
He asked me if I’d ever done a phone interview before, and I confessed that this would be my first one.
“I think they’re the best kinds of interview to have. You can sit around in your pj’s” — I actually suited up for it; I wanted to try and treat this as any other interview — “you can have cup of coffee” — surprisingly, I had a glass of water — “or get up and pace. One of the only downsides is that they can’t see your face so you have to try and convey everything in your voice.”
“Yeah, I’m told I have kind of an expressive face, so it’s too bad they won’t be able to see my expression. And I have a tendency to gesture a lot.”
He told me my interviewer would be Sandra, who is like the second head teacher or something like that. “Now, I’m told that she’s kind of a hard interviewer, but she’s really a lovely lady. Don’t be surprised if she goes straight into the questioning.”
I couldn’t help but think of Mr. Butzen and wondered if they had similar styles of intimidating candidates.
He gave me the basics of how the phone interview would work; he would put me on hold and while it would sound like there was no one on the other line, he would be back as soon as he got in touch with Sandra. He said it might take a while because he had to go through the school switch board. During the interview, there would be a flashing red light on his phone to indicate that we were still in the process. I joked that I would try and keep her on the line for an hour or two so he would have the chance to relax, and then he would only have one hour or so before the end of his day. He seemed to appreciate the sentiment. Phillip went on to explain that once the interview was over, he would give me a call back to see how things went and if I had any other questions.
Okay. So, the time was fast approaching the designated interview time. Phillip asked if I had any last minute questions and the like. I could think of nary a one. He wished me luck and then started the conference call process.
I freely admit, while I was on hold, the beeping that occurred made me think that I had another call. Naturally, I ignored it, but it eventually became obvious that the beeping was attributed to being on hold. At one point, someone answered the phone, but was clearly an operator of some kind.
“Um, I’m waiting for a phone interview…”
“A phone interview?”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll put you back on hold then.”
And I think I got disconnected somehow because about thirty seconds later, Mal started ringing. It was Phillip. “I lost you for a second!”
“Yeah, someone picked up and then put me back on hold.”
“Really? That’s odd. Well, I have Sandra here now.” I could hear her acknowledge her presence. “So I’ll leave you two to it.”
Phillip wasn’t kidding about how she pretty much dives right in. She asked me about my teaching background. So I first talked about Nova, since it was technically my first job. I explained my title as “regular instructor” and about the kinds of classes I taught. I mentioned that I was at the Multi-Media Center and talked a little bit about the system. Then I talked about University High School and what I did there.
So, Natalie had sent the 20 questions sheet, and I pretty much expected there to be more questions related to that; even Ryan mentioned as much too. Unfortunately for me, the sheet wasn’t very helpful.
Sanrda went on to ask me who my favorite author was. I told her honestly, “At the moment, George R.R. Martin.” She asked me why, to which I replied, “I love his attention to detail. He’ll introduce someone on like the first page, who seems incredibly insignificant, and then that character will be mentioned in a more important capacity in like the third book.”
“American author?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about your favorite author pre-1900.”
Crap. I don’t have a favorite author pre-1900. I blurted out the first name I could think of that was definitely pre-1900: “Chaucer!”
“Why?”
I said something about how I like the insults that were veiled in his writing. In translated, Modern English it doesn’t have the same effect, but looking back at the Middle English and the time period, it’s really quite clever. I explained how I really like doing that kind of comparative study.
She asked me the same kind of question with playwrights. She asked me for one pre- and post-1900. For post- I said Neil Simon. It’s true that I had to read a lot of his stuff, mostly because of Forensics, but I really do enjoy his stuff. I’ve had the opportunity to see a few of his plays performed, and I said I generally like the scripts. For pre-, I defaulted to Shakespeare, mostly because he’s the one I’ve studied the most and extensively.
I’m pretty sure that was the end of the interview, ‘cuz then she asked if I had any questions about the school or the department.
I asked about the department. She explained that it’s heavily literature based and they have a target for Key Stage 4, which I’m not familiar with without looking it up. (Lucky for me, I had the presence of mind to have a few browsers up and running on John so I quickly glanced at the page.) She also mentioned one of the achievement tests, but I’m still not overly familiar with the acronyms.
I asked about the Drama department. She talked about the productions that were put on and mentioned Westminster and a few competitions that the group qualified for. She said that they often combine with two other local schools to fill the male roles. Apparently, they recently put on a production that was written by one of the staff members.
I made sure to ask about the theatre itself, whether it was proscenium, thrust, or black box. She said they don’t have a theatre to speak of, they just use the hall. It’s a venue of 500 or so, and there is a balcony. In general, they have the same equipment any other theatre would have and it’s generally a proscenium stage.
One of the things that really stuck out to me on the website was the uniform code. Now, I’ve had experience with wearing a uniform, but looking at the Grey Coat expectations, ours was not nearly as strict. I asked what kind of measures are taken for breaking the dress code, if it was something teachers enforced themselves, or if it was something the students are sent to the office for. Sanrda talked about the blanket rules expected of both teachers and students and mentioned that some schools, it might vary from teacher to teacher as to what they’ll allow in their classroom, but in general, Grey Coat teachers are expected to follow all the same guidelines.
She asked me if I had any more questions about the school. I really couldn’t think of anything, so I told her “not at the moment.” She started to thank me for my time and such. I was pretty shocked by the fact that the interview was apparently over. I expected more questions, and Phillip had mentioned Sandra usually asks personal questions at the end. Before she could hang up, I decided to ask one more question.
“Why was I a candidate for your school?”
“Basically because of your CV, you have English and Drama which we’re looking for, and you come from a good school.” (Some part of me couldn’t help but think, “Illinois State? Really?” I mean, it’s not Harvard or anything…)
We bid each other good-bye and then I closed Mal. Yeah…totally didn’t get the job. I don’t think I have enough content knowledge for what they’re looking for. I’m totally okay with that fact because the more I talked to Phillip and Sandra about the school, the more I thought it was way out of my league.
Phillip called back, as he said he would. He asked me what I thought.
“It was nothing like I expected.” I explained about the 20 questions thing and how the questions seemed to be more about my content area and not about my teaching at all. I also apologized for not being able to keep her on the phone longer. We shared a laugh about that, and I kinda wished that Phillip had been my interviewer.
He said he would get back to me about things, or I would hear about stuff through Natalie, what with the time difference and stuff.
I thanked him for his time and the like, and a bit dejectedly hung up. Seriously…that didn’t go well.
But that’s okay. Like I said, the school seemed to be more out of my league than expected. I kind of equate it to New Trier in comparison; the impression that I got from Sanrda was that the teachers at Grey Coat are practically professors and I have but a lowly B.A. At least I got to experience a phone interview, and God willing (it’s the only thing I could think of), I’ll have another interview with another school and with this one behind me, I’ll know to think of my content area as much as my teaching ability.
I guess I ought to start applying for jobs in the States.
