Week 8 Discussion - Interviewing For Your First Admin Job

Sunday, February 23, 2020, 9:10 AM

I really enjoyed watching this video and I felt like much of their advice will be helpful as I prepare for administrative interview. Much of their advice would be applicable for any teaching interview but I think there were a few topics that they discussed specific to interviewing for our first admin role that I think that were extremely beneficial to hear. 

The first thing they discussed that piqued my interest was the idea of what the resume should look like. I have begun to process that my lack of professional experience (beyond my internship) I will have as I apply for an administrative position. I have all of the experiential evidence that I can perform the duties of an administrator, but no real title to apply to that. I thought the idea of having a Leadership Skills section on the resume to highlight the skills and roles we might have taken on in the past was a great idea. 

Another idea that I liked that they spoke on was the “closing statement”. One of the panelists spoke on this as being the time to sell yourself right before leaving. This would be a great time to highlight those experiences that I feel have best prepared me for the job. While this is a strategy I have used in my teaching interviews, it will be important to prepare this for these interviews because, as I have said before, I will likely be interviewing up against people with professional experience in the role.  The final section that they spoke on that I paid specific attention to was how to attack the “what are your weaknesses” questions. It was nice to hear them say that that question has never disqualified anyone from a job in their experience. I also thought their idea of framing the answer in terms of “I look forward to gaining more experience in _____” was a great idea. Overall, much of this video will be helpful as we prepare for our interviews moving forward. It has helped me realize that these interviews will be, in most ways, similar to the ones I have done in the past and it has helped me see what I need to prepare moving forward.