Interview tomorrow, any help? :o

[Cowlinn]

Afternoon all,

I've got at interview tomorrow for a Teacher's Assistant job at a primary school and I'm bloody nervous :o

Anyone ever had a similar interview? any ideas on questions that could crop up?

I'd be grateful for ANY help :o

Thank you.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Matty. The most important thing is to be yourself. I was a school governor at an infant school for 5 years and on the personnel committee. Confidence is good,as well as the ability to articulate properly.

Do a little research into the school and know what they are about.

Good luck!

[hammy]

Good luck Matty, let us know how you get on

[Cowlinn]

Matty. The most important thing is to be yourself. I was a school governor at an infant school for 5 years and on the personnel committee. Confidence is good,as well as the ability to articulate properly.

Do a little research into the school and know what they are about.

Good luck!

I went to the primary school, and did my year 10 Work experience there so I know a lot of the staff, which makes it even worse! :o

Thank you :beer1:



Good luck Matty, let us know how you get on

Thank's mate, I will do :o

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I went to the primary school, and did my year 10 Work experience there so I know a lot of the staff, which makes it even worse! :o



Why? If you know and get on with the staff, then it's to your advantage.

[Cowlinn]

Why? If you know and get on with the staff, then it's to your advantage.

True. It just seems weird that my year 6 Head Teacher is now interviewing me :eek: :D

[Mark Wild]

Be honest, confident, look the part, be well mannered and you can't go far wrong in my experience. Do some research on the school too, background achievements of it etc, just in case a question along those lines pop up. All the best with it !

Out of interest Matt, what was the £175,000 P.A job you applied for, teacher's assistant is a bit of a nose dive with regards to pay isn't it?

[Cowlinn]

Be honest, confident, look the part, be well mannered and you can't go far wrong in my experience. Do some research on the school too, background achievements of it etc, just in case a question along those lines pop up. All the best with it !

Thanks :beer1:


Out of interest Matt, what was the £175,000 P.A job you applied for, teacher's assistant is a bit of a nose dive with regards to pay isn't it?

Lol! That was just a bit of a laugh, I thought no harm in trying ;) The job was Marketing Director I think, can't remember TBH, it was through Monster.co.uk. This is a bit more realistic :D

[Charlie Brown]

You'll be fine.

I agree with Darren - you're ahead of the game already if you used to be a pupil!

As well as being yourself, tell them some things you think they would like to hear. I don't know anything about kids or school but something like this...

'I enjoy working with children of all ages. I find it very rewarding helping others out and watching them achieve and excel - it gives me a buzz. I think you need to change your personality and technique, depending on the age group you're dealing with. Year 6's don't like to be patronised. They are the oldest in the school and think they've properly grown up. You need to be clever with how you communicate with them whilst maintaining that teacher and student relationship'

That's complete rubbish (probably) but don't just talk about yourself - tell them how you would like to work etc without sounding like a goon.

:)

[Cowlinn]

You'll be fine.

I agree with Darren - you're ahead of the game already if you used to be a pupil!

As well as being yourself, tell them some things you think they would like to hear. I don't know anything about kids or school but something like this...

'I enjoy working with children of all ages. I find it very rewarding helping others out and watching them achieve and excel - it gives me a buzz. I think you need to change your personality and technique, depending on the age group you're dealing with. Year 6's don't like to be patronised. They are the oldest in the school and think they've properly grown up. You need to be clever with how you communicate with them whilst maintaining that teacher and student relationship'

That's complete rubbish (probably) but don't just talk about yourself - tell them how you would like to work etc without sounding like a goon.

:)
Lol, thanks! Tbh that paragraph sounds pretty good!

[Charlie Brown]

Lol, thanks! Tbh that paragraph sounds pretty good!

Well, yeah and make more stuff up!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

If you went to the school and did work experience there etc then it can only be positive for you. If you know some of the teachers, they may well be impressed with the fact that you want to do something like this and especially going back to the same place.

Unless you were a little :Censored: at school!!?

[Cowlinn]

Unless you were a little :Censored: at school!!?

Haha no, I was a goody two shoes :D I got on very well with the staff tbh.

[STEVE HANLEY]

Good luck tomorrow Matt. Slightly off topic, but didn't your signature on here a while back something like: Full time DJ as of .. May 2011? Or have I had too many vodka redbulls again?:daft: :daft: Hic:D

[Charlie Brown]

Yeah, what are you doing mate or are you like me and don't know what to do?

[Paul S]

Matt,

Depending on the type of questions you get asked, you may be confronted with something along the lines of "Can you tell us about a time when...... (anything could go here)", eg "when you had to deal with conflict". If they've been to the same recruitment school as my last employer they will be looking to see an answer in the STAR format.
Situation - what was the situation you found yourself having to deal with?
Task - what were you tasked with trying to achieve
Action - what action did you take to achieve that task
Result - what was the eventual outcome.

Also look at the job description, it should list some core behaviours or competencies that the recruiter is specifically looking for, this could also give you a clue as to what questions to expect. Think of some core (and true, nothing worse than getting caught out in a lie) experiences where you've found yourself in different situations that you've had to deal with and work out how you could adapt them to different questions. Also if you're going to use examples that have happened while you were on work experience with them then don't over exaggerate, it wont take too much for them to go back to the people involved and ask for their version of events.

Also for one of your examples or one of their questions they could talk about failings, when something went wrong. It's OK to admit that things do go wrong, don't say that nothing you ever do doesn't go wrong as a) they wont believe you and b) might perceive that as arrogance. But when talking about failings don't dwell on the failing too long, spin it around and talk about what you did to overcome that failing, new steps you've put in place to make sure the same mistakes don't happen again. They will want to see learning from those mistakes, not that they were someone else's problem.

Good Luck

Paul

[Cowlinn]

Good luck tomorrow Matt. Slightly off topic, but didn't your signature on here a while back something like: Full time DJ as of .. May 2011? Or have I had too many vodka redbulls again?:daft: :daft: Hic:D

No you haven't had too many bevvys :D Ideally I would do what I do full time, although it's not exactly viable ATM, with outgoings increasing and me having big plans etc :D.



Yeah, what are you doing mate or are you like me and don't know what to do?

Partly that. I've always been interested in teaching however.


Matt,

Depending on the type of questions you get asked, you may be confronted with something along the lines of "Can you tell us about a time when...... (anything could go here)", eg "when you had to deal with conflict". If they've been to the same recruitment school as my last employer they will be looking to see an answer in the STAR format.
Situation - what was the situation you found yourself having to deal with?
Task - what were you tasked with trying to achieve
Action - what action did you take to achieve that task
Result - what was the eventual outcome.

Also look at the job description, it should list some core behaviours or competencies that the recruiter is specifically looking for, this could also give you a clue as to what questions to expect. Think of some core (and true, nothing worse than getting caught out in a lie) experiences where you've found yourself in different situations that you've had to deal with and work out how you could adapt them to different questions. Also if you're going to use examples that have happened while you were on work experience with them then don't over exaggerate, it wont take too much for them to go back to the people involved and ask for their version of events.

Also for one of your examples or one of their questions they could talk about failings, when something went wrong. It's OK to admit that things do go wrong, don't say that nothing you ever do doesn't go wrong as a) they wont believe you and b) might perceive that as arrogance. But when talking about failings don't dwell on the failing too long, spin it around and talk about what you did to overcome that failing, new steps you've put in place to make sure the same mistakes don't happen again. They will want to see learning from those mistakes, not that they were someone else's problem.

Good Luck

Paul

Thank you so much Paul, I will have a really good read through your whole post later, and take in as much as I can.

Some really useful info there thanks a lot :beer1:

[Cowlinn]

All done! :thumbsup: It went OK. I will here by the end of the week so I shall keep you posted.

Thanks to everyone who commented in this thread.

[Booche]

Good luck Matt and lets hope you HEAR good news ;)

[Cowlinn]

Good luck Matt and lets hope you HEAR good news ;)

Shut up, I'm still nervous! :D:D

[Charlie Brown]

Is it work experience or a proper role?

Is there training required beforehand?

[Charlie Brown]

Have you heard back buddy?

[Cowlinn]

Have you heard back buddy?

Oh yeah, sorry. I wasn't successful :)

[Charlie Brown]

Ahh, something else will crop up.

[Cowlinn]

Lets try again :) I've got an interview here tomorrow http://www.nockolds.co.uk/

The advertisement I read said you needed 2+ years experience, which I don't have. But hey ho!

Wish me luck, I'll need it... :beer1:

[Charlie Brown]

They must like the sound of you buddy. Surely you had to submit a CV which would state how many years of experience you've had? They've ignored that and decided to give you an interview!

[Cowlinn]

They must like the sound of you buddy. Surely you had submit a CV which would state how many years of experience you've had?

Yeah yeah, gave them my CV.

[Charlie Brown]

Yeah yeah, gave them my CV.

I've edited my post above. It's a good thing - they've accepted you for an interview knowing you've not had any experience. If that makes sense? :o

[Cowlinn]

I've edited my post above. It's a good thing - they've accepted you for an interview knowing you've not had any experience. If that makes sense? :o

Yeah yeah. Well fingers crossed :)

[Corabar Entertainment]

What's the job?

[Cowlinn]

What's the job?

Job title is "Administration Assistant" not exactly aiming for the stars, I know. But gotta start somewhere :o

Just seen the advertisement on the website, doesn't say anything about experience there, so you never know.

[Corabar Entertainment]

:thumbsup:

:luck:

[Cowlinn]

:thumbsup:

:luck:

:thanks: