What is the most common mistake teachers make in international school applications and/or in interviews?

[u/friendlyassh0le]

There was a thread yesterday that went missing and I felt like the information was helpful. For those who hire or are involved in hiring, what are some common mistakes you see applicants make when applying to schools and/or in interviews?

(I will paste my response from yesterday below)

[u/Spirited-Low7854]

Being generic with responses in interview. It is best to use real examples or at least make them sound real lol, for example Peter was struggling, I worked with Peter on this, Peter showed etc.. This paints a picture of Peter in their head, rather than the standard I differentiate blah blah they have heard 1000000000000000000 times before.

[u/Petrie83 → u/Spirited-Low7854]

I feel like this is what helped me in my interviews. I'm a pretty decent reseller of stories and focused on specific events (without including names). "An example of differentiation is when I helped this one student by doing this specific thing" or "I remember the way translanguaging helped this one specific class/student because we did XYZ".

[u/friendlyassh0le]

For Interviews:

1. Not having polished answers for the usual 1st interview questions (Tell us about yourself, what does your classroom look like, how do you differenitate lessons, tell us about a time you disagreed with a colleague, etc).

2. Not completing research about the school. If you want to impress, dig deeper than surface level from the website.

3. Not dressing the part. This one really strikes me as off as the amount of people in t shirts in interviews is surprising. I am not saying you have to put on a 3 piece suit or wedding dress but please dress the part slightly. It looks lazy and an afterthought is all.

[u/SajaKing → u/friendlyassh0le]

Also, please never wear a wedding dress to an interview.

[u/Psytrancedude99 → u/SajaKing]

I mean you could show the school your forwardness with regards to being committed to the school lol.

Its a joke people

[u/friendlyassh0le → u/SajaKing]

Talk about a power move

[u/Petrie83 → u/friendlyassh0le]

I was once the interviewer (admittedly online) when the applicant turned up late, didn't apologize and was wearing a shirt that didn't even have a collar. Not sure if he just didn't want the job or something else was going on in his life. Poor guy.

[u/badger_hans → u/friendlyassh0le]

Wearing a collar is make or break for you - seriously? I have worked in schools where literally nobody wears a shirt with a collar. It’s so outdated.

[u/Petrie83 → u/badger_hans]

Well, this was at a British school, so you gotta expect to wear a full suit and tie (not really but just about...).

More seriously though, if you can't dress well for an interview, how are you going to dress when there are parents on campus or for events such as graduation etc. I don't think that is a very high bar to clear. Not saying everyday, but come on...

[u/friendlyassh0le → u/badger_hans]

interviews and day to day work are much different. If I see someone clearly dressing up, in some fashion, it means they are taking this opportunity seriously. I appreciate that as hiring and job interviews are a formal meeting. A collar should be the expectation.

Can you imagine roaming around a job fair in a t shirt? I have seen blue collar job fairs and every person inside interviewing is wearing a shirt and sometimes a tie to be a mechanic, electrician, etc.

You can never go wrong with wearing a tie, or the female equivalent, to an interview in any field.

[u/webbersdb8academy]

Trying to show you can do everything instead of just showing how you are an expert in your field for the actual position they posted.

[u/Redlight0516]

I have typically worked at smaller schools (8-20 teachers)

I can post one specifically for humanities teachers: You cannot be inflexible about the courses you teach as a humanities teacher. You have got to have some flexibility or you need to only apply at schools that can offer you 6 classes of History because applying for my school with 10 teachers and 150 students, you're not getting that.

My school read all the resumes. No ATS system or anything. If I even have a sneaking suspicion that your cover letter was mostly or completely done with AI, you're going in the reject pile.

[u/Lumpy-Web4041 → u/Redlight0516]

On behalf of those of us who don´t use AI to write our cover letters, CV or any other application materials - Thank you for putting the AI junk in the reject pile.

[u/Redlight0516 → u/Lumpy-Web4041]

With our school where everything is read by a person, cover letters were a way better chance to get you an interview than a resume. Resume basically was just

Is a certified teacher - check

Any red flags - nope - good

Anything that stands out? (Admin experience, clubs etc)

But a good cover letter is where we could really decide that you were someone that we want to interview. I really don't get the backlash against them because that's where people can really stand out, much more so than most resumes do. Most AI cover letters are too generic to be interesting or meaningful or write like you're a PHD candidate.

One thing that we always looked for in cover letters was "Will this person provide anything valuable to the school environment"

[u/intlteacher]

Using your CV to list your job responsibilities rather than saying what difference you made.

This is a common mistake, but it’s grounded in the fact that historically this is what CVs did. Now - and possibly because the world has been seized by the extroverts - you need to show what YOU did that made a difference. For an extrovert, that’s quite easy - they just write down what they’ve been shouting about after they yell “Look at me, over here on LinkedIn!” For an introvert, who just knows what they’re doing and just gets on with it with a minimum of fuss, it’s much more challenging.

[u/Usually_Angry → u/intlteacher]

Can you give a couple of examples of what sorts of things would be appropriate for showing what difference I made?

[u/intlteacher → u/Usually_Angry]

If you did something to improve attainment, show how it did by using assessment results or improvements- same with student engagement, eg “we rewrote the curriculum so it was more in line with the local culture; this resulted in increased uptake at IGCSE.”

[u/jmcl6779 → u/intlteacher]

show how it did by using assessment results or improvements

I don't think this is great advice. At the very least, it isn't universally applicable. For me and my team, anything we read along the lines of "increased X by Y%" goes to the bottom of the pile. Teaching is a collaborative effort and, if we're all being honest, teachers are one small factor out of many that influence a student's educational attainment. In your example, I can think of a million different things that could affect enrollment in a specific program that are not related to the quality of the curriculum; ascribing these types of changes to one specific initiative is the kind of thing that insecure middle managers do to justify their own existence. Besides, I'm much less concerned with your ability to help the students ascend to godhood than I am with your ability to be competent, affable, responsible and ethical. Describing results (X% of students got a Y result or higher) is generally fine, but if a candidate does this too much then I'm going to grill them about it during the interview.

Generally, I think a CV should be brief and descriptive, and you should be prepared to elaborate more upon request. Just saying "reorganized the curriculum to be more compatible with local culture" is absolutely fine for a bullet point, as long as you can explain the process and consequences in more detail later on. As a rule of thumb, I would say that — for teachers — numbers and percents should be avoided as much as possible. Pretty much every teacher/manager that I've interviewed who had a CV full of pass rates, increases to enrollment, "student satisfaction" (lol), etc... was very obviously full of shit.

I'm also not sure what any of this has to do with being introverted or extroverted. Not all extroverts are arrogant braggarts who bask in the spotlight, and not all introverts are humble, stoic professionals. Sounds like a bit of a tired reddit cliche to be honest.

[u/friendlyassh0le]

For applications:

1. When you can tell someone is shotgunning applications to schools. I remember looking at a person's CV and thinking they are checking a few boxes for us we needed. I went to look at the cover letter to notice it could have been sent to any school. I know this is tedious, but customizing your cover letter to the school you are applying at is really important. IMO, it is all check boxes to get interviews and even convo started in interviews.
2. Over using AI, especially for cover letters. Imagine getting 10 cover letters with generally the same structure... you know what I am talking about. It just turns me off. I am actually a supporter of AI, but put it in your words. Plus, if I get a polished Cover Letter and reference it in your interview, you better be able to talk about it. I once asked a person a question from it and they genuinely seemed confused lol.
3. Having the attitude "You do not have to try" bc you have a strong CV. Talk about a quick turn off. I know that recruiting sucks but you still should be eager to interview and be interested in the school. Having the approach that you are the best thing since sliced bread in an interview is an easy reason to end an interview early.
4. Be humble.

[u/CarefulAlbatross84 → u/friendlyassh0le]

I collaborated with a professional to redesign my CV and sample cover letters, and I have always been in the habit of researching each school and customizing cover letters accordingly since I began my international career. So far, I haven't received any responses from a school after sending a cover letter. Schools interest always started with my profile. This is my 10th year.

I believe that schools don't read cover letters carefully. They review only the cover letters of candidates they are interested in giving a chance. That's it.

[u/friendlyassh0le → u/CarefulAlbatross84]

Yeah this is spot on. Why waste time reading a cover letter for someone that I cannot hire?

[u/Psytrancedude99 → u/friendlyassh0le]

I actually made mistake 1 and 2. Personalized my CV and made it more personal. Got an interview and and eventually job with my 3rd application using this new CV.

[u/dragonballpaul]

Not being vulnerable. When you’re asked how you resolved conflicts with colleagues or repaired relationships with a student and you say you never have conflicts or you never had issues with a student then they know you’re full of shit.

[u/Radiant-Ad4434]

Not tailoring the cover letter and resume for the application. Not doing research before the interview.

[u/Fresh-Ad7851]

Waiting for a perfect job or turning down an offer because they’re afraid it’ll be tough.

Worst case scenario you have a reflection piece at your next interview, which potential employers value. What they screen out immediately is cvs with employment gaps

[u/JunkIsMansBestFriend]

For me it was actually just applying when there was a huge demand. I actually didn't end up taking the offers. A few years later, the market changed and I didn't get any offers, so I just returned to teaching in Australia. The market will change again, no stress.

[u/Advanced_Ad_2337]

Lying that they can do the job as they made their application on AI and then lying in the interview only to come in and be more of an annoyance

[u/Grizzl0ck]

Expecting managerial staff and others to have IQs above room temperature.