Getting Emotionally Prepared for an Interview

Thanks to its partnership with publisher Eye on Education, EducationWorld is pleased to present this professional development blog post by PJ Caposey, author of Building a Culture of Support: Strategies for School Leaders.

“Good morning, this is Mr. Smith from XYZ school. We have received your résumé and would like you to come in and interview tomorrow afternoon." When people think about interviews, they usually think about the technical preparation that takes place from the time that phone hangs up until you walk into the office and shake hands with the administrative assistant. The intent of this article, however, is to help prepare candidates for the emotional wear-and-tear caused by the interview process and to do so using the analogy of an interview as a first date.

1. On a first date, the overall premise for both parties is to decide if there is a mutual interest in moving forward with a relationship—same as an interview. It is important to remember the same is true for both sides—as a candidate an interview is your best opportunity to see if this school is an appropriate fit for you. You are not looking to make a sale—you are looking to form a connection!
2. On a first date, it is important to gain the interest of the other party, but if you do so with lies or exaggeration, this will soon catch up to you, and the relationship will not be long-lasting—same as an interview. It is natural at times during an interview to try and give the ‘right’ answer, not the ‘real’ answer. If your goal is to create a successful connection—make sure you give the real answer that truly reflects who you are. If you oversell yourself or your experience, it often catches up with you sooner rather than later when reference checks and data review take place during the interview process.
3. On a first date, mistakes commonly happen, and a second date still occurs—same as an interview. An interview does not have to be perfect—in fact, it most likely will not be. Novice candidates often have a tendency to lament a weak answer or one that is followed with a pointed opinion or subsequent question. One weak answer will not derail an interview, unless it derails the candidate and his or her performance throughout the rest of the process.
4. On a first date, you will not know if the other party already has somebody else in mind whom they would prefer to date—same as an interview. You may have everything in the world seemingly going for you--the perfect day, the perfect restaurant, the perfect conversation--and still not get a second date because of the ex-boyfriend or girlfriend who re-appears. Things happen—the same can happen on an interview. It is a possibility that when you sit down to interview for a position, the people who are also interviewing for the same position may be some combination of the following: the sister of the other principal in the district, a student-teacher who just completed her work for the school, a highly regarded teacher in your discipline from a neighboring district who was invited personally by the principal to apply, or five other teachers with no experience. You will not know this, and you cannot control it. This may not seem fair, but it is important that you emotionally and cognitively prepare for this type of circumstance.
5. After a first date, it may take a while before hearing if a second date will occur—same as an interview. Time elapsed between interview or first date and the next communication is rarely a good thing—but is also is not an automatic bad thing, either. I have interviewed candidates for a position directly before leaving town for a conference to return and interview additional candidates. This process may have taken over a week, and I may have chosen the candidate interviewed first. Keep your head up and know that timelines vary for a multitude of reasons. This won’t stop you from checking your cell phone 10 times an hour, but please keep it in the back of your mind.
6. On a first date, you may meet many of your date’s friends, but they only have input from your date as the final decision-maker—almost the same as an interview. When you interview with a group of people, it is important to remember that there is ultimately one decision-maker. If one member of the interview panel gives you bad vibes from the outset—it is not an indication that you will not get the job. This is the same as a first date when one friend of your date clearly does not like you. This will most likely not play in your favor, but it certainly is not a deal-breaker.

MOST IMPORTANTLY—neither first dates nor interviews are measures of your self-worth. It is very easy to be down after an interview that does not lead to a job—but there are so many unknowns in an interview process that taking the result of not winning a job and transferring that to a quantification of self-value is not productive or accurate.

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