I feel as if I've been dropped into a twillight zone. I arrive dressed very well, having read as much as possible about the school whose doors I enter, having read as much as I can in the days that have elapsed between the email and the day of the interview about sometimes entirely new subjects for me, files on computer of material to reference, and notebook when I don't need the machine, packet of student essays and, as of this week, corporate haircut. I'm as polite as Garrison Keillor. Patient as his audience and, for that matter, a grandparent with a child who is learning to say "Grandpa". You don't force it, you wait, and you hope and you never more than pray for it. I sit in offices as long as asked, no matter how many noises roll past or above me. Even when no one seems to know I'm there. None of that bothers me. I'm just confused by the latest strategy of some of the principals and I am wondering if anyone has experienced it and how they handle it.
I've been called for several interviews now at which:
1) The interviewer has not seemed to know why he/she called me.
2) The interviewer has taken notes on the answers to a prescribed list of questions dispassionately, occasionally nodding to my answers and then almost physically stopping himself.
3) I've been asked almost no questions while the person thumbs through my CV trying to remember why she called me. This is before having enough time to be bored with me.
4) I've been talked with in the lobby, while the interviewer describes the position to me as if it were neurosurgery, hoping I'll walk away. When I greet it with pleasure, the person seems dumbfounded, so I suggest we proceed to the office.
My only guess is that I was originally called because I seemed interesting in some way and then someone dropped a ball. I often wonder if the "some way" was that I just turned 40 -- I'm class of 1990 so it's a good chance I'm 40 if you can do math, or if you add my years of the DOE to 22 or 23 the years people usually start teaching. Anyway, if you're looking to round out your search with a few veterans so that you make sure you don't seem to be unbalanced, I fit a certain niche. Or, if you like people with interesting and long CV's I also fit that niche. If you like people with interesting degrees, I fit that niche. But, I digress.
For whatever quick reason the person put me in a pile, they stopped there. The person did NO MORE homework. OR SEEMS not to have.
What is this about and am I the only one going through it?
If you've been to one of these amnesiac interviews, can you let me know?
2 comments:
I can't say that I have, I'm afraid, but from all the interview preparation stuff I went through at the end of last year, I can tell you that if the interviewer is indecisive, you need to take the opportunity to show that you do know why you're there.
If they're not asking you questions, ask them questions, if they're not sure why they called you, tell them why you turned up. You need to be forward and confident (without being overbearing) because it's not like you have anything to lose.
(I am, of course, being hugely hypocritical when I write this.)
appreciated and glad to know you're still out there.
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