A Reader Writes... (Interview Prep - Part 3)

In response to the posts on interview prep, a reader writes:

"I disagree with the last suggestion, (if the interview committee has 12 people just leave). Better advice for the LYS’er is to meet the committee face to face, be you, and engage them in the interview process. What you learn from their questions, opinions, the way they phrase things, how they respond and their subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) body language in response to your statements, etc., etc., etc., will give you invaluable insight into the mind-set of ‘weak-leadership-organization’.

Those organizations represent the overwhelming number of districts in education and therefore represent what you are almost guaranteed to face for the rest of your career. In order to survive, the more you understand about their flawed paradigm, the better prepared (and more successfully) you are able to play the role of change agent.

If it helps, think of ‘THEM’ as the enemy, you have a golden opportunity to get to know how ‘THEY’ operate. Do not squander it.

“Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril…”Sun Tzu, 400-320 B.C."

SC Response
And people think that I won’t print a contrary opinion. I like your take on this. Observe the weak and flawed organization up close, in order to better understand it. I have to admit, my impatience with blatantly ineffective practices blinded me to pure academic novelty of the exercise. Now, I honestly want to find a huge interview committee to engage with.

I tell principal all the time that there is value in visiting schools; any school, bad to great. And that often times it is easier to find things that can immediately improve your craft at the bad school. The “broke” practice usually is very obvious. I can see the correlation with the bad interview process.

For me the enemy is the inefficient use of effort. Thanks for the reminder to continuously study that and its causes.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...