Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott.
I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers, just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition.
What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty . Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.
Welcome back to episode 109. I believe it is of teachers and transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boitnott. I am the founder of teachers in transition and the owner of Boitnott coaching.
If you've listened to this podcast or watch the YouTube channel in the past, you know that I alternate topics each week, one week, I talk about stress management, especially with teachers in mind, since I specialize in working with burnout teachers and on alternating weeks, I talk about career transition for those same burnout teachers. Who've decided there isn't enough stress management strategy in the world to help them other than changing jobs.
I am experienced career transition and job search coach as well as a certified stress management coach. And so that's why I talk about those two particular topics. This week is career transition topic week. And I want to talk today specifically about how to prepare for an execute an excellent interview. Now I went back and look, I could've sworn, I've talked about this before. I can't find it in the list of titles from previous.
I must have missed it, which is certainly possible, but I want to talk about it again, even if I have talked about it before, because it is so extremely important for people to grasp this notion that the resume isn't, what gets you, the job cover letter. Isn't what gets you, the job, even the networking that you do while it may be loosely related to your landing, the job, depending on your network and who, you know, and how you managed to get a particular introduction.
But what really counts when you're trying to land a brand new job is the interview. And if you blow it at any stage along the way, you've lost the opportunity. And there are some simple things that you can do to more ensure there's never total 100% insurance that you're going to, you know , do a stellar job. Things. Things can happen. People are human, but the less you leave to chance, the better you increase the odds of you're being offered a position.
If you have eliminated as many of the things that can go wrong in your interview as possible. So what are some things that you can do? This is very much on my mind because I was just helping someone get ready for an interview that happens to be today. And we spent a fair amount of time. Last time talking about specific questions. Although there are specific questions that you can expect to be asked, and maybe I'll devote another episode to how to answer some of those questions.
But today I'm more focused on preparing for the interview because in the case of this one individual, she had the interview set up. When I asked her, do you know, who's going to be on the panel? She knew it was going to be a panel. She also knew it was going to be by zoom, which of course adds a whole different dimension to the interview. That meeting in person it's just different. Hopefully we'll get back to meeting in person because there's nothing that can replace your presence in the room.
And no matter how good you are on zoom, there's just, there's no substituting being in the same room with someone. But right now we have to deal with the , the hand that we're dealt. Right? So zoom is it. So she's being interviewed by a panel of folks and she is going to be on zoom. So I asked her, do you know who is going to be on the panel? Was she knew two of the names? Do you know anything about those people? No, she didn't.
Well, as a matter of fact, I knew something about one of those bugs . And so I directed her, advised her, nudged her to do as much research over the weekend as she could to find out as much as she could about this individual so that she would feel like she knew him, even though she would be meeting him for the first time today, I suggested that she do the same for the other individual . And she knew the name of one of the other people that was going to be in the room.
I didn't know that person, but I recommended that she do the same kind of homework and that she knows as much about these people as she could. So that if something were to come up passing, that she could offer a tidbit or an insight, something that showed that she's done her research, she's done her homework. That adds points in her column. I have sat in on interviews with people who had absolutely no idea what they were even applying for.
Now, you're going to think I'm crazy that I'm making that statement, but it's true. You can't always tell what a job entails, what the job is going to be by the title of the job. So if you were applying for the title of a job, it is your job to do the research and understand in detail what that job entails. You may not be qualified for that job. And we, when I was president of the VEA , we did lots of different interviews. Trust me.
There were people that we actually interviewed not to mention the people who applied for jobs. In fact, years ago, I was on a committee that was in charge of finding candidates for an important position at the VA. This was long before I was ever president. And one of the jobs of my committee was to go through all of the various applications and determine which candidates we wanted to narrow down to the ones we wanted to actually interview.
And I remember making the comment at the time that this was the first time I knew you could apply for a job that you weren't qualified for at all. Because we got resumes from people who were not qualified in any way, shape or form. They had applied because the job sounded like fun, or they were wanting to move to the town and they were quite not apply. I mean, it was like, really?
So that was the first time that that ever occurred me, that you would , uh , you would find people who applied for jobs that they weren't qualified for. But the problem is often people go by the job title instead of really digging deeply into the job description.
Now, I would
Hope that if you've gotten to the point of being invited for the interview, that you've got a deep understanding of what is required of you, should you get the job,
But if you haven't done that type of research,
You need to before the actual interview
And
Other preparation, besides doing the research about what the job entails and who the people are that you are likely to be interviewed by, you need to have a deep understanding of the company or the corporation or the organization that you are talking to, who are the leaders who are the drivers of the organization? What is their mission? What is their vision? Why do they even exist?
And you really need to be prepared to talk about why you want the job and why you think you're a good candidate for the job
Job .
People often don't know how to express that, how to articulate that because they haven't thought about it enough.
So don't
Make that mistake unless you just want to be another one of the people who come in and they do the round of questions with and decide, or this person doesn't know enough about the job. This person hasn't done any homework about who we are. This person doesn't understand our problems. This person can't help us to , to make our vision become a reality.
When ,
When you haven't prepared properly, you waste your own time, as well as the time of the people who are interviewing you. So don't do that Ways to prepare. Let's assume that you've done all the homework. Now you are needing to prepare for the actual interview. And let's just for the sake of the time that we're in, pretend for now that you're only going to be interviewed on Zen from now on that won't be the case, but let's assume that you're about to be interviewed on Zune .
Do you need to
Prepare yourself, your person
In the same
Way that you would, if you were going in for a real live in person interview, which means you dress the part, whatever interview suit he would wear, women or men , whatever you normally wear for an interview, even if in person, you're going to wear it for your zoom interview
Right down to the shoes, because
Make a difference in how you feel about yourself and how you comport yourself. Even on Zen.
It will give
You a sense of confidence that you wouldn't have. If you're sitting there in your pajamas or your lounge PJ's, or your jeans and whatever, even if you put on a business type top and jacket, and you're in your jeans, won't be the same. You need to be dressed just like you would be for wheel interview. Same goes for your hygiene. If you're a guy you need to have had a recent haircut, you need to be well shaved. If you wear a beard, make sure that it's trimmed, make sure that your , your,
Your ability
To present yourself well is going to be conveyed over the video or over the zoom platform and pay attention to your background as well. One of the things that I recommended to this person that I was helping , uh , to get ready for today's interview was to adjust her computer so that instead of a blank wall, which is what I was seeing, mostly as her background, just by turning the computer a couple of inches, I see how I added a mantle behind her with some figurines across the top of the mantle.
There was a fireplace, a much more interesting background. It's the little things that can make such a huge difference.
So
Think about not only how you're presenting yourself, but also how your background is going to speak for you. If you've, even if it's not a conscious awareness that people have, that you've gone to the extra care of looking, the part of the job that you're applying for, and that you've taken care of with your background, even if they don't go up , what a nice background, there will be an impression that will be made.
And
In this interview, you're making your best first impression. And remember what they say about you , not being able to make a great impression first impression after your first chance.
So take
Your, your interview opportunities, even when they're on zoom, as seriously as you would, if you were going into , uh , uh , corporation business office in person,
Be sure
You've done the research. I cannot stress that enough. If you haven't, you'll blow it. Trust me, even, even if you're not aware, they will be aware this person hasn't really done the research. They don't really understand the job. They don't understand who we are. They'll know that you haven't done your homework. So don't make that mistake. That's a rookie mistake that more people than you can imagine, make that you don't have to make.
And that's my best advice for this week on how to prepare for an interview. So as always, if you have questions or comments, email me@kittyboynineatgmail.com . If you have suggestions for future episodes, please feel free to let me know what your suggestions are. Check me out over@teachersandtransition.com. If you'd like an appointment to learn more about how I might be able to help you to go to teachers and transition.com forward slash calendar and set up a complimentary discovery session.
I'd love to chat with you about your particular situation. And on that note, continue to wear your mask , continue to stay safe, get vaccinated, and maybe we'll all be out and about soon. That's my hope until next week have a wonderful week.
So there you have it. An episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoy the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me@kittyboitnottatboitnottcoaching.com .
If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott . And this is teachers in transition.