Feeling beaten down

Let me start with this:

With all the evidence you have in front of you, showing to you that your interviews are not going really well, coupled with the fact that you have not been called back for a second second interview, and you still feel comfortable to the point where you feel you do not need to practice answering interview questions, that is your overconfidence speaking right there.

By now, alarm bells should have gone off, to the point, where you should be having a sit down with yourself and really look into yourself as to what is happening in your interviews. Chierro, in the very state you live, there is a teacher shortage - there are more openings, jobs available than there are teachers to fill them. And I am willing to bet the same is true in your local geographic area. This means, it should never take you the amount of interviews you have had, unless you are doing something inherently wrong.

If you did not do well in the first interview, second interview, because there are important aspects of interview preparation you did not do, something within you should have said: I need to start really preparing for them and take people up on the offers, because something is not working. The fact that you still feel comfortable is no longer a red flag - that's beyond it. After your fourth or fifth interview (the latest) you should have approached people and asked them to help you to prepare for for the next interview with a practice interview. Not even a second thought on that should be crossing your mind.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way Chierro. What you write, how you write it, is a reflection of you and how you approach things. Your very behaviours, attitudes to how you see world, your profession, even the schools you are applying to are going to come out in your writing. If your overconfidence is coming out here, it is coming out in the interviews. No doubt about that.

The way you also respond to suggestions in this thread shows that you are overconfident. At this point, after everything you have revealed, all the problems you have written about, the "controlled chaos" phrase for example, should not be rolling of your keyboard anymore. At this point, you should be asking the question, "do you have any suggestions on how I can change this?" "What are career research interviews, how do I arrange them?" - for example. The fact that you are not doing that, already provides insights into how you approach things.

You should not be using buzzwords in an interview. There is absolutely no need for them. If you use the buzzword, this is what the interviewers are going to remember not the fact that you can apply what you have learned in your studies. And when you use it, and at this point, I can quite easily imagine that your overconfidence is just beaming out from you - given the context of everything else you mentioned.

Looking back to an earlier post, you indicated that you have referenced some of your previous answers or points. That is another example of being overconfident.

Do you realise and internalise that you are sabotaging your own chances? You have mentioned that you could be sabotaging yourself, and that you know you are not perfect, but it does not seem to lead you to critically think about things. Because if you critically think about things and implement corrections or alternative ways of doing, saying things based on what you are discovering, you wouldn't have provided the answers you did in your last interview.

And this, is a perfect example of what your overconfidence is doing. It clouds your judgement, critical and analytical thinking skills. At this point, this should not be happening. Not at the 10th interview. At this point, you should be ready to go and provide an answer that highlights aspects of how you have used data in the classroom and emphasised that you have the knowledge and experience in using data. There is a reason why they are asking the question. If they would not use a lot of data, they wouldn't ask the question in they way they did.

So now, you have blamed the professor. That is no different than talking badly about your co-op, or about a past employer. The moment you start blaming someone, instead of taking responsibility for failing the final unit plan, and saying "this is what I have learned from it," interviewers, potential employers are going to be having a second thought as to whether they should hire you. The moment you blame someone for something that didn't go right, the employer is going to ask themselves, "is he going to blame us, if something for which the candidate needs to take responsibility, goes wrong."

I have never seen an employer coming back and offering a job to someone who blamed someone for something for which they should have taken responsibility.

Chierro, what you have mentioned in your last post, is why I said, you need to have a reset of how you approach your interviews, how you prepare for them, how you answer questions.

If you do not want to be a substitute teacher for the rest of your career, or perhaps even lose a job because you failed the performance evaluation - which can easily happen when someone walks into their job being overconfident, I strongly suggest that you start really thinking about what you are doing and how you are doing it. No ifs and buts and I didn't have the information or didn't know.

 

For what it's worth, Mirko's career is job placement and counseling. You couldn't get better advice from a highly paid placement consultant, as this is what he does, day in and day out.

At this point, Chierro, I really don't know why you're even responding to this thread. You've got much better expertise than you are likely to find anywhere else, for free, and you're arguing with virtually every point he is making... when he has an extensive track record of helping people get hired in various difficult circumstances including impacted labor markets and challenging cultural differences.

One of my great loves in the counseling field is Choice Theory, a comprehensive framework for understanding human behavior and interaction. Too complex to go into in great detail, but one of its cores is the Four Questions:

1. What are you doing now?
2. Is what you are doing working?
3. If it is not working, do you want to change?
4. If so, what change can you make to get things to work better.

From your first post, it sounds as though things are not working at all, and yet, it seems you show little to no interest in changing the strategies that do not appear to be effective, in that you are actively arguing with expertise and personalized suggestions that most people would feel really lucky and appreciative to have access to for hundreds of dollars per hour... and you're getting it for free. And for the most part, arguing with it and ignoring it.

So, while I can't speak for Mirko, it would seem that it doesn't serve much purpose to continue to try to assist you when it seems that you believe that almost everything you are doing is just fine. In which case, going back to the Four Questions, it would appear that the answer to #3 is "No, I'm not interested in meaningful change" and thus, it would seem you're left to continue with your current strategy. Which, of course, is absolutely your choice.

 

Yes, you need to be memorable, and you need to tell them why they should pick you over your competition, but you also need to do it in a way that gives them a reason to call you back. From the looks of it, you are memorable, but for the wrong reasons. I can only encourage you to figure out what they are.

At this point Chierro, I don't think anything further that I will say to you, is going to help.

I wish you good luck with finding a teaching position.

@Chierro

Edit: I am going to add a few thoughts but this is how far I will go.

As said, you need to figure out what is not working, be it how you come across, what you are saying, whether you are using the right examples, or whether you need to change the terminology you are using.

As you said, every school district, every school is different; hence, you need to tailor your answers. You need to be aware that some phrases, while they might work with one school, might not work with another. Sometimes, you have to be willing to let go of something that you like, that you are comfortable with - including answers, and try reformulating answers, using different terminology that explains the same idea or concept - in particular if you see that things aren't working out.

When things don't work out, even after you had some feedback on how you answered questions or managed yourself in an interview, you need to go back and be honest and say "I'm not making progress.Can we go through the interview questions I had and the answers I provided in my last interview, to see if there is something I need to change again." One question to ask yourself as well is: "am I applying the information I have received correctly or they way it is intended?"

The moment you realise that there are questions you could have answered better, this is where you call up Bob or a friend, or ask your parents for a moment to listen to the answers you have given and your revised answers to get the further feedback.

You provided a specific example when bringing things together - technology. This is generally a safe example; but if you are doing this with other answers that might be on shaky ground, that could be problematic. In other words, the context, and how you have answered a question to which you are tying other answers will determine the success of it. Depending on how Bob meant it in terms of "calling back previous answers" it is possible that you are bringing it too much together (if that makes sense).

If you are using strong examples Chierro throughout your interview, there shouldn't be a need for you to say "I answered a part of a question somewhat" to paraphrase. The moment you get a question - it doesn't matter what question - think about the repertoire of examples you have, and try to pick the strongest one right from the beginning. With all the interviews you have had, you should be able to go through your examples and pick out the best ones keeping in mind the questions you have had - the ones that allow you to really show what you can do, what tools you have used in your classroom, etc....

If you have a handful of examples that you can use to showcase how you meet the requirements of the position, and why you are a good fit for it, there will be some overlap at some point - which will bring it together for the interviewers on its own. At the end your interview is a story about you - your accomplishments, your skills, knowledge, the insights you have gained about yourself, what you have learned from the various situations you have found yourself in, and how you applied, or would apply what you have learned in similar if not the same situations (as they relate to the position you are applying to).

In terms of blaming the professor, I can understand as to why you are feeling the way you do - but then you also have to ask yourself, 'if I do use this example, how can I explain the situation without making it potentially sound that I blame the professor?'

If you find that you have too much anger towards the professor, do not use it under any circumstances - the blame, and anger that you still have, will make themselves known, which depending on how you communicate it, and how it is perceived by the interviewers might not work in your favour - the interview preparation should already give you a good sense as to whether or not this is an example to use at all.

At the same time, there is a part that you are owning up to - if there is something you have learned from that specific piece, and you can isolate it as an example, i.e. let it stand on its own, that might be something to consider to use (if you haven't yet) for the right question.

When it comes to the competition and the availability of opportunities, and as you are receiving interview invitations with having left school just recently with very limited experience, that should already tell you something about what the situation is in your state. If you think about as to how many people could be applying to the jobs you are applying, and you are getting an interview, that it turn should tell you something as well.