The Job Interview
I had the pleasure about two weeks ago now of being interviewed for a principal’s job in McDowell County. Joe Sparks, who’s been the principal of Bradshaw Elementary School for the last couple of decades, is retiring. I put in a bid for the job when it was posted even though my paperwork hadn’t actually come through and I didn’t have my license for educational leadership physically in my hands yet. (I’d completed the last requirement for the license on May 2nd.)
Six people applied for the job. Two were already in teacher leadership roles at the school. I went in for the interview tickled pink to just be there.
The interview took place in a conference room with our Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education. Many of the questions were predictable based on the requirements of section §18A-4-7a of the state code. I was asked questions about my elementary experience, my administrative experience, my academic achievement and GPA, etc.
Two questions threw me off a bit. I was asked what I thought my strengths were. That wasn’t hard. If you know me at all you can probably guess that I can talk at some length about my strengths if asked to do so. Stupid me… it never dawned on me (even as obvious as it seems in retrospect) what the next question would be: What are your weaknesses? The question caught me off guard I suppose because, to be honest, I don’t think much about my weaknesses – or at least I hadn’t before the interview. I mumbled a few things that I’m not sure came out as complete sentences, and I came very close to saying that, well heck, I wasn’t sure I had any. (Some members of the Title I staff at my school are, at my request, graciously composing a list of my weaknesses for me to carry around as a reference in the future.)
The other question that threw me was this: What are your plans for future professional development? I’d just completed my certification program in educational leadership 17 days earlier. I’m looking at my first summer without a graduate course hanging over me in the last five years. I said something about feeling like Christian in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress after he’d just been relieved of his burden. I have more graduate hours than the state will pay me for. Of course, that wasn’t the question. And I do plan to continue my professional development. But at that moment during the interview I had very little idea how.
So, next time I’ll know the answers to those questions. And in the meantime, going through the interview was a useful experience.
