I’m excited to share that I landed a high school assistant principal position for the 2023-2024 school year!
Before we celebrate, let me tell you about this assistant principal interview. It was INTENSE! For background information, I was interviewing with a district that was out of state, so I had to complete the process via Zoom.
To start the interview, I was sent a writing prompt via email from the director of human resources. I had thirty minutes to respond to the prompt and send it back. Thankfully, the prompt was scenario-based and didn’t require resources or APA citations, something I am constantly stressed about in my doctoral program.
I was able to finish responding to the prompt in the allotted time. I sent it back to the director of HR, and then I hopped onto the Zoom meeting to answer their questions.
This is a relatively small school district, so there were a lot of big players in the room, including the superintendent, associate superintendent, director of human resources, and the entire high school administration team. Here is a live look at my internal reaction to seeing who was in the room:
Once I took a deep breath, I answered their questions to the best of my abilities, staying concise and clear. The interview itself took almost an hour, so you can imagine that I was WIPED by the end of it. I wasn’t super happy with some of my answers, and I thought maybe I had blown the interview. I could only hope that was me being over-critical.
As always, I followed up with thank you emails to all the participants. (Side note: always send a follow-up thank you email. It may seem silly, but it does make a difference)
I was excited about the opportunity to work with these people, so I eagerly waited by the phone. Luckily, they called me the next morning and offered me the job. I was over the moon.
I accepted the job and will be relocating to a new state come this summer. As I start my new journey as an AP, I will continue to update you on my highs and lows, things I will have learned, and obviously, all the funny stories.
Until next time, go be great!
– Kelsey
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I, too, just landed my first assistant principal job in a small district, and my experience was also a bit grueling, even though I already worked in that school and district as a teacher and knew most of the key players in the interviews. I am grateful to have gone through that, though, because it will make me appreciate where I am more. I wish you the best in your first year, and look forward to hearing about your journey.
Congratulations on landing our first AP position, Natalie! Best of luck!