Questions for Educators to Ask Interviewers

            As the school year crawlingly draws to a close, teachers and newly graduated teachers start looking for jobs. They scour the internet to prepare for the latest interview questions and refresh their answers to the questions that always are asked regardless of position. But often interviewees make the mistake of focusing to much on the questions they will have to answer and not on the questions they will need to ask. When the interviewer finally says, “Do you have any questions for us?”, the last thing you want is to be sitting their dumbfounded, unable to come up with anything. Asking the right questions can make the decision process down the line easier and gives off a good impression that you are actually interested and will be invested in the school. Without further ado, here’s some questions that are really good to ask.

School

Ask about the school. This should seem obvious, but it can be difficult to come up with questions on the spot. Questions like,

·      What is the school environment like?

·      Is there a school wide behavior incentive?

·      Why do you enjoy working here? Why did you choose to work here? 

These questions are important practically and can help make the decision process after you are offered the job easier. This way you already know whether the school’s attitude on student discipline aligns with your own or whether you two are could not be further apart. Of course, a job is a job, but if you do have the opportunity to pick between several schools it would be a good idea if you picked the one where the policies align with your own personal convictions.

Teachers

You are going to be teaching at this school, potentially. So you want to know:

·     What opportunities are there for professional development? Continuing education credit, level 2 certificate, etc.

·      What expectations do you have of teachers beyond teaching, like extra circulars etc? 

·      What does it take to be a successful teacher at this school? 

·      What sort of things do you like to see when you walk into the classroom?

You want to get a feel for how this principal views teachers and how they treat teachers here. If there are teachers on your interviewer panel this is a great opportunity to get some insight from your potential future coworkers. It also demonstrates that before you’ve even started the job you are already looking for ways you can improve as a teacher and are going to be really dedicated to being the best teacher you can be.

Yourself

This section of the interview is one last chance to shine and stand out from all the other candidates. After you’ve asked those other questions here’s one more to try and really wow them:

·      Is there anything I have not spoken to or could elaborate on to show why I'd be a great candidate for this position?”

Other than that the best thing you can do is try your best and go for it!

What About You?

Are you looking for a new job here soon? What questions do you like to ask the interviewers? Did you already have an interview and you used one of these? How did the interviewers react? Let me know in the comments.

Notes:

Sources:
Image Credit: "Career Fair" by San Francisco Foghorn