...Interview Strategy

We held UEL's Recruitment Fair yesterday. The day was organised to provide trainee teachers with all the information they needed to secure an ECT post by the end of their PGCE/School Direct programme. Having interviewed many candidates for training places and teaching posts, I was asked to contribute to a session entitled 'Answering Interview Questions'. This post shares a summary of the guidance I gave, a copy of the presentation I displayed (using Prezi), and a video I used to emphasize the need for decent preparation.

Rather than just dwelling on the questions that potential employers were likely to ask, I decided to discuss the interview process in broader terms and to provide trainees with a strategy for success. Apologies if some of the advice seems fairly obvious, but I've seen first hand the effect that a lack of forward planning can have on interview day... Get to work!

...Blogging

For a number of years I had been considering adding to the world's 152 million* blogs on the Internet. My introduction to twitter (encouraged by @sharoneden, 'Just start tweeting, Daniel!') meant that I was exploring the nature of self-broadcasting, & settled quickly & comfortably into tweeting & re-tweeting education-related posts, links & articles.

But what to blog? Continue to share (re-share?) other people's links?

Well, for me there seemed to be an initial, straightforward decision between personal or professional. Having said that, twitter already blurred this simple division of interests when I became aware that Stamford The Lion twittered. Also, I am aware that successful bloggers, & micro-bloggers alike, share a little personality... consciously or unconsciously.

For instance, Diana Adams' conversational easy-access style (example: trying to translate humour online) makes her writing highly consumable... share-able... re-tweetable... and of great value to novicebloggers like me!
 

* http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/ as tracked by BlogPulse

geek and poke: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/11/page/3/