TEACHER CANDIDATE INTERVIEW DAY

Transcription

1 TEACHER CANDIDATE INTERVIEW DAY 36th Annual Edition Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds & Conference Complex, Danville, IN WHAT IS TEACHER CANDIDATE INTERVIEW DAY (TCID)? TCID is an annual event of the College Career Center Consortium, an organization of 12 Indiana colleges and universities. Only aspiring teachers who are a) graduating during the current academic year, b) who are competing for the first time in the teaching job market, and c) who have not previously held a full-time professional teaching position, are eligible to participate. TCID provides an opportunity to make contact with recruiters from a variety of school districts and schools inside and outside of Indiana. WHEN IS TCID? TCID is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, 2013, from 8:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. However, check-in begins at 7:30 a.m., and it s a good idea to arrive before 8:00 in order to have ample time to get familiar with your surroundings, look over the materials that will be provided to you at TCID, and to prepare for the opening networking activity starting at 8:30 a.m. It is also possible that your day could extend a bit past 3:30 p.m. if you find yourself interviewing or networking with school district representatives after the official close of the event. Be sure to let your student-teaching site supervisors know well in advance that you will be off work for this event. Most will certainly understand. WHERE IS TCID? TCID takes place at the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds and Conference Complex in Danville, Indiana, 13 miles west of I-465, off of U.S. 36 west. The exact address is 1900 East Main Street, Danville, IN Details and directions may be found at: WHO ATTENDS TCID? Every year teaching candidates from the 12 sponsoring colleges and universities and recruiters from schools and school districts participate in TCID. If you are a current, soon-tograduate student or recent, fall semester alumna/alumnus of an accredited teacher preparation program at the following institutions, then you are eligible to take part in TCID, and we certainly hope that you will: Anderson University, Butler University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Franklin College, Hanover College, IUPUI, Marian University, Saint Joseph s College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Taylor University, University of Indianapolis, Wabash College. WHY YOU WILL WANT TO ATTEND TCID: Where else can you connect with so many schools and school corporations in a single day? TCID represents one very important way to get your teaching job search off to a roaring start. Sign up! Take part! Talk to your campus career center or education department staff/faculty liaison who is or has been involved with TCID in the past and learn how valuable an event this can be. Most people seeking professional employment for the first time need to get accustomed to introducing themselves to hiring officials, presenting their credentials, talking easily about their qualifications, and making a good, overall impression. What better opportunity to practice your networking and self-presentation skills, in addition to connecting with numerous prospective employers!

2 HOW AND WHEN DO YOU REGISTER FOR TCID? In order to attend TCID, you must register online specifically for this event. The process is simple, and registration opens in early to mid-january, when the current-year site goes live. Simply access the College Career Center Consortium s TCID website at and click on Information for Candidates. The deadline for submitting your TCID registration information is March 27, 2013, but please don t delay (remember, registration begins in mid-january). In addition to signing up for TCID online, you should also register for services with you own college or university career center. This is critical to your preparation for the TCID event and your employment search overall. HOW IS TCID STRUCTURED? TCID is an all-day event and you must be open to attending the entire day. There are three parts to this fair: The open networking sessions from 8:30-9:30 a.m. and from 12:50-1:00:15 p.m., which give you time to touch base with many recruiters and to schedule interviews with them. The one-on-one interview appointments that begin at 9:45 a.m. and continue until the lunch break at noon, and pick up at 1:15 p.m., following the second open networking period. Special presentations by school officials and others, introducing their schools/school districts, and addressing miscellaneous topics around the teaching job search. HOW YOU CAN PREPARE FOR TCID: Some of the Consortium career centers hold a TCID orientation session on their campuses or immediately prior to the event at the job fair site to insure that their candidates fully understand how TCID works. Others simply provide a lot of written information. You can educate yourself about TCID by just continuing to read what follows and by going to the TCID PowerPoint available at the CCCC TCID website. Here are some basic tips: Update and polish your resume and have it reviewed by someone in your education department, career center, or elsewhere someone you trust to point out errors and needed improvements. However, don t wait until the last minute. Do this well in advance of the event. Also, you ll want to bring plenty of resumes to TCID (30 is not too many, just in case). Keep in mind that there is no way to have copies made at the job fair site. It might also be appropriate to bring your miniemployment portfolio. However, realize that your time with any one recruiter will be limited and there may not be sufficient opportunity to share the portfolio with him/her. Research the schools and school districts that are registered for TCID. Check the site more than once in search of additional registrants. Also visit Idea Net, a service of the Indiana Department of Education. Idea Net offers basic information on Indiana school corporations and links to their websites ( Another site you can access is the American School Directory site for basic information on schools outside Indiana ( Show the TCID school representatives your initiative and eagerness to be considered by applying to your most desirable school districts ahead of the event. When they direct you to their online application system, you can happily let them know that you have already been there! Chances are they will note this on your resume or in their recruiting records.

3 Be prepared to show your stuff! Have your self-introduction down pat. Practice answers to possible interview questions. Be ready to offer lots of examples of how you have prepared interesting lesson plans, managed and disciplined students, catered to individual learning styles, consulted with fellow teachers and parents, utilized technology, etc. Also, have some good questions ready for the interviewers. At the end of the interview, be sure the recruiter understands how interested you are in his/her school/district. Remember to explicitly convey this and to thank him/her for attending TCID and choosing to interview or speak with you. Make sure that smart-looking interview outfit is ready to go clothes pressed, shoes polished and that you are well groomed and properly accessorized (nice pen, small attaché or leather notebook). For further detail, go to the TCID PowerPoint presentation on the CCCC TCID website. Finally, if your college or university does not provide a copy to you, order the American Association for Employment in Education s Job Search Handbook for Educators, a complete guide to the teacher job search ( HOW TO MAKE TCID WORK FOR YOU Important Day-of Details and Tips: Arrive early (7:45 a.m.), but please do not approach recruiters before TCID officially gets underway at 8:30 a.m. (they need this time to orient themselves to the event, read their event materials, post job notices, and grab a cup of coffee). Check in at Hall B (refer to map on the CCCC TCID website). IUPUI students will check into classrooms A, B & C, taking an immediate left upon entering the southwest doors of the building. Pick up your copy of Participating Schools/Districts Directory. Also, pick up an Interview Appointment Card, an employer table chart for the Expo Hall where the recruiters will be, and a generic nametag, if you don t already have one. Find a seat in Hall B in the area reserved for students from your college or university. By remaining in this general vicinity when not networking or interviewing, school officials and event staff will be able to locate you and communicate with you more easily as needed. Once you have settled in, look over the materials provided to you, especially the Participating Schools/Districts Directory or employer booklet. It will be helpful for you to mark the schools/districts you wish to contact first during the initial Open Networking Session, and to study the Expo Hall recruiter table chart so that you can get to them quickly when the time comes. Next, you may wish to visit the Job Posting Boards nearby, where the latest vacancy information from TCID recruiters will be available. From time to time, you will also want to check the Message Boards at your college or university s check-in table, in the event there is a message from a school district that is interested in meeting with you (based on the information they ve seen in the TCID Candidate Directory given to them upon their arrival at the event). If such a message is posted, you may move to the head of that particular school/school district s line during the Open Networking Sessions. Be sure to take your message slip with you. Listen for the announcement over the public address system letting you know that TCID is officially underway and that you may begin visiting recruiters at their tables throughout the Hendricks Power Exposition Hall adjacent to the conference center. Event staff will be on hand to direct you to the Expo Hall. School/school district stations are arranged in alphabetical order, though some larger ones may have been moved out of sequence because of space needs. If you

4 need assistance in locating a particular school corporation, ask a Career Services event staffer who will be sporting a name ribbon-draped name badge. The Open Networking Sessions are meant to give you the chance to touch base with the schools and school districts of interest to you. The idea is for you to introduce yourself, speak briefly about your qualifications and interest in the recruiters schools/systems, and to present your resume. The recruiters, on the other hand, are looking for candidates with the teaching credentials they think best meet their anticipated staffing needs. Therefore, you may or may not be offered an interview. However, you will have the chance to communicate your qualifications to hiring officials from Indiana and elsewhere. Most teacher employment interviews will take place after TCID, as a result of your ongoing networking with TCID employer-participants and other schools and school systems. Visit with school officials who have few or no candidates waiting in line. You just may find the conversation to be beneficial. You never know where information about an opportunity of interest to you may surface. School officials talk with one another all the time about the really great candidates they meet. Recruiter A may not have a position open right now in his/her district for someone with your credentials but may be aware of an opening in a nearby school system that a fellow administrator not attending TCID, Recruiter B, is trying to fill. Also, use your Interview Appointment Card to keep track of any interviews you schedule. After the Morning Networking Session, please return to Hall B and await the announcement for the start of the first interview of the day. When you are not interviewing, generally, you will need to wait Hall B. However, your career center advisor can suggest ways in which you might be able to connect with schools/districts of interest to you when they are not busy. Follow through on the interviews you schedule. It s unethical to drop one appointment in favor of an appointment that becomes available with a school district that you view to be more desirable. Keep in mind that when a recruiter grants you an interview, he/she has withheld this opportunity from another candidate who may have been similarly qualified. It may also be detrimental to your search. The world of education is smaller than you think, and school administrators know and share information about candidates with each other. After TCID, you ll want to send out thank-you notes or letters. Many students use the down time between interviews to write these notes and then mail them a day or so following TCID. Be sure to get the recruiter s card whenever you can. HOUSEKEEPING AND OTHER DETAILS: We re sorry, but there is no internet access available at the TCID venue. Of course, if you wish to bring your laptop, you may find time around your meetings with school officials to do some job search, student-teaching, or other work. Lunch is on your own, to bring or to grab at one of the restaurants in Danville. A list of possibilities is provided at the CCCC TCID website. Unfortunately there is no food available on the Hendricks County 4-H Complex grounds. You will have 50 minutes to eat, from noon until 12:50 p.m. (the start of the second, short Open Networking Session), unless you can get away a little earlier, which we would suggest you do. The snacks you see in the Expo Hall are for recruiters only. Yes, they are tempting, but your TCID priority is to make a dynamite impression on prospective employers and you don t want to be walking around with crumbs all over that new interviewing outfit. We recommend you eat a

5 nourishing breakfast before coming and tuck away an energy bar of some kind to help you get through the day if needed. Feel free to bring a beverage as well. Again, be sure to let folks at your student teaching site that you will be at TCID in April.