Hustle to the Start

Description

Congratulations on making your way to the beginning of the interview process!   This is a big step and one that, while discussed considerably in some courses, we rarely take the opportunity to practice in an honest and critical way.  The interview process is the ticket in the door!  It is the Olympic Qualifiers!  You cannot play the game until you’ve made it to the starting line, but BE CAREFUL!  There are only so many spots at the line, and to have one of those spots, you need to HUSTLE.  You need to make sure you are prepared, polished, professional, and so much more before you even get the offer.

Think about it… let’s say you’re in your first interview out of college.  Luckily, all goes well and you land your dream job.  How long do you have that job? 35+ years?!  All you needed to do to land that job was concisely and succinctly express how you, a candidate with no experience yet, was best suited for this position and the school’s students.  That is a big challenge to face!  But don’t worry! We are here to help!

The honest answer to how you can prepare for this process is just like anything else: through practice and preparation.  Polished and prepared answers are excellent, but they cannot be so structured that you aren’t able to navigate a few curveballs in the process.  In this book, we will give you some tried and true questions that are sure to arise in some fashion during your interviews.  Additionally, we will talk about how to navigate curveball questions that might come your way during the interview.

The question portion of the interview is like the main course so we have spent a great deal of effort finding exceptional and practical resources for your use. However,  beyond that, we will also explore the “befores” and “afters” of the process as well.  For example, building a positive and professional image of yourself covers everything from your internet fingerprint to the digital resume you submit.  Considering what you post and keep online, networking, as well as how to format your professional materials, and dress for interviews is addressed in this book.  Many times, future educators feel tied into what our college requires us to submit for our resumes, but the truth is much more simple than that.  We hope to dispel some of the misnomers regarding what a resume should include and look like for today’s educational landscape.

We also want to take an opportunity to consider your interview “audition” materials should include as well.  This book is tailor-made for aspiring music professionals, so we want to make sure we are paying attention to the considerations that are specific to your situations!  We will give you some helpful hints regarding what repertoire to choose, how many instruments to prepare, and some real life examples of what to do and not to do on the big day.

That is quite a bit of information, and whether or not you need all of it, the information is here for you.  No one can answer what the “complete package of you” looks like except for yourself.  All we hope to do is provide you with some hints and tips gathered from our own experiences on both sides of the interview table.

REMEMBER: As you dive into this book, you are taking the steps to create the most professional and marketable version of yourself in the career space.  This will take some honest critique of yourself as a professional being sold to a school.  We will help prepare you to be a confident and proud candidate so that employers will be proud and excited to choose you!

The entire contents of the book are listed below. Thank you for diving in and let’s get ready for that race!

• Discussion about the importance of…
  • Good  social media use
  • Networking  Tips
  • Saying  “Yes” to opportunities
• The Interview process timeline
• Breakdown  of how to write a resume specific to Music Educators
  • How  to list Education, Certifications, Field Experience, Extra-Curriculars, Leadership roles, References, and…
  • Much more!