Transcript: Acing the Interview to Land an Online Teaching Position

RECORDING OF: YouTube Video Career Spotlight: Acing the Interview to Land an Online Teaching Position

TRANSCRIBED: June 1, 2017 

FOR: Walden University 

 

(Dina Bergren)
Hi, I'm Dina Bergren, Associate Director of Career Services at Walden University. I would like to introduce Veronica Kirkland, a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision student, who landed an online teaching position at a counseling graduate school.  Veronica shares how she gained an edge during the job search, aced her interview, and received a job offer.

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

My name is Veronica Kirkland, and I am currently enrolled in the Counselor Education and Supervision program; it's a doctoral program here at Walden, and my current position is adjunct faculty for Hazelden Graduate School.

 

(Dina Bergren)

Excellent! And how did you initially learn about your current position, and decide to apply?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

I learned about my current position through a job fair website called Career Jet, and I pretty much just did a search for counseling education positions or adjunct faculty positions, and I found several positions actually listed for adjunct faculty and counselor education faculty.

 

(Dina Bergren)

Excellent! And I know that when you applied, you also reached out to your network and asked about the position, and used your network to find out more about the position. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

Absolutely. Once I completed the application process, and was invited for an interview, I started to reach out to the individuals in my cohort actually in program, who had on-the-ground experience in counselor education, because this position was an online, mainly online position, so, I reached out to some of my colleagues who are already teaching, just to find out, you know, what their experiences have been, and, you know, how the interview process usually goes, and because I was in internship at the time of the interview, I was also able to connect with my triadic supervisor, who gave me a wealth of information about the interview process and what kind of questions would be asked, and, you know, different things of that nature, and how to respond, and then of course I, I worked with Walden Career Center, and talked to you extensively about the interview process and what to expect, you know, just different ways to prepare for the interview.

 

(Dina Bergren)

Excellent! And what are some specific ways and strategies that helped you ace?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

Well, you are wonderful in your help to me, I must say, but the main things that definitely helped me prepare, were researching about the organization and the people that I was going to interview with, so, I learned a lot about, you know, Hazelden information and, you know, how they, their vision, and mission for educating counselors. I also learned about the Dean that I was going to be... it was a formal interview, so I learned a lot about their work with Hazelden, their kind of career trajectory from...one of them went from an adjunct faculty all the way to the Dean of the school, so it was nice to learn about, you know, his different, you know, accomplishments and publications, and just his areas of interest, so, to be able to kind of speak to that in the interview, so, that was one important aspect of work that...so, getting to know the organization and getting to know the individuals I was interviewing with, but then also, you know, in doing that I used the CART method to kind of get to know me and, you know, because I think you go into these situations where you're interviewing for a position you've never done before, and you think, how can I - what do I have to bring to the table, and so, using the CART method that you mentioned, and I believe it was...can you remind me again what the acronym...

 

(Dina Bergren)

Challenge, action, results, tie-in; and - so you share your accomplishment and tie it into what you can do for the organization in the future. That's wonderful! So, you used the CART acronym to help you in that process. And how soon did the employer contact you with a job offer afterwards? can you tell us a little bit about that?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)
Sure, so, the employer contacted me as promised...by the end of the interview, that would be another great suggestion that you gave me, to ask them, what were the next steps, and so I had never done that in an interview before, but, you know, I asked them what were the next steps so, I had, you know, wasn't just waiting in vain, but I had kind of an expectation, and so they said that they would contact me within the next week, so the Dean who I had interviewed with contacted me the next week, but he actually wanted to give me more information about the program and the actual classes, that gave me a little hint as far as, you know, I may have gotten the position, if he was, you know, giving me more information and then the following week, so – in - in two weeks that's when they officially offered me the position.

 

(Dina Bergren)
Excellent! And so, tell us a little bit about what you're currently doing and what your next steps are as far as teaching?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

Well, I have done the onboarding process and the orientation, and gone through the different trainings, and I am in my classroom now, so, this is the second week of the semester, and so, I have nine students and we're rolling!  I'm teaching and it feels really good to be able to interact with the students, and have that confidence, and the confidence came from engaging in internship and good supervision, and that entire process, really...and, serving as a TA for Walden really prepared me to have the confidence that I have, and, to function in the classroom. It feels like – easy - so really, my next steps are to go back to the second part of internship, and use the resources that I have available to me through Walden...the Career Center, and my supervisors here at Walden, just to talk about how to go about, you know, teaching in this new field, you know, on my own in a classroom; but I love the fact that I'm entering this new space, but I also have the support of the Walden faculty and staff, to help me through that process.

 

(Dina Bergren)

Excellent! And Veronica what advice would you have for other Walden students who are seeking to advance their careers?

 

(Veronica Kirkland)

I would say the time is now, even if you feel like you don't have the experience or the skill, you know, I would say that, you know, definitely lean on the support that you have at Walden, and so I would encourage students to reach out...reach out to the Career Center, reach out to your faculty, reach out to your advisers.  I would have not gotten this job - I know it - if I did not reach out to the people that are here to support me, so that's, that's the best encouragement that I have, don't be shy, just, just ask for help, that's the best thing I could have ever done for myself, is ask for help.

 

(Dina Bergren)

I think those are very wise words and I want to thank you so much for joining us here today!

[This text is being provided in a rough-draft format to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings]