Sample Interview Plan

Georgia Stucki
COMM 1010
Raymond Bingham
February 27, 2018

Dress: Since the interview will take place at a coffee shop, I plan on wearing a simple pair of
jeans, a nice blouse and a matching jacket along with my brown boots.

Opening: Hi (smile and handshake). Thanks for taking time out of your day to meet with me. I
really appreciate it!

Orientation: As I mentioned on the phone, I’m doing this interview for my communication class.
I want to find out more about being a teacher and the little things that people don’t always know,
but a retired high school teacher will.

I have three topics I’d like to ask you about this morning: some facts about the business, what
your working schedule is like, and how this job affects your life. As I mentioned on the phone,
the interview will be less than 30 minutes.

At the end I will also ask you to fill out a short evaluation on my performance as an interviewer.

We talked on the phone about me recording this interview, so I don’t miss out on important
facts. Would you be okay if I set the recorder on the middle of the table, so it can hear both of
us?

Do you have any questions for me before we start?

Body
Facts about the Education
1. Why did you choose to teach high school students instead of either middle schoolers or
elementary? (primary, open). My subject that my teaching certificate in is not taught in
elementary or junior high. I knew this from the beginning. The subject of medical anatomy and
physiology is not taught to younger kids because it is too detailed. No interest in teaching
younger children. I have a degree in health and know that it was something I would never
consider. Offered multiple jobs in multiple high schools so I got to chose where I taught.

2. How did you get introduced in this profession and what made it interesting to you? Got
introduced first by a lady named Arwella Jensen, my health teacher who taught with the boys
teacher while I was in girls class. Admired her, she was my mentor. I got a phone call from my
mother in law that she had talked to somebody in the school district that was looking for a
teacher for the high school and I went to the interview. After the interview I got the job at both
East and Highland. (Primary, Open). • How much money did it take to get through school? Lucky
because my parents paid but I think each term at the University of Utah was 2,500 dollars but
can’t be real close on the estimate because my parents paid for it. (Secondary, Closed) • Would
you recommend a specific school to go that you found had the best program? Registered
nursing degree from BYU. Health education degree and secondary teaching certificate from
University of Utah. Master of Education degree from West Minister college. (Secondary,
Bipolar)

3. What skills and education? Need a degree in the subject you will be teaching. Elementary or
secondary teaching certificate and I did the secondary teaching certificate with Medical
Anatomy and Physiology. I have a degree in nursing and health, with the nursing and health
degree, I taught health, anatomy physiology, medical terminology and advanced health science.
(Primary, Open) How did you acquire those skills and education? You must go to a college or a
university. (Secondary, Open)

4. What advice would you give to someone getting started in a teaching career? The way that
today’s education and student population is, I think everyone needs to really have emphasis on
student behavior. I think more and more teachers need to know about things like autism,
Asperger’s, depression and anxiety. (Primary, Open) Did you ever find that technology was hard
to learn? It was for me at first but with teaching and education you aren’t through at the end of
the school you, you must take courses in subject matter and classes to learn how to use better
and fast technology. During the summer, in order to keep your teaching certificate, you had to
keep learning and going to school. It is required to take the classes to stay eligible to teach.
(Secondary, Open)

5. What related fields could you easily enter if you wanted to change jobs? Go into career and
technology education. CTE. Could have taught nurse assisting, medical assisting and home
health aids. Taught all medical classes until I got my health education I taught those class. I
would go till 3 until 7 at the BLA hospital and take care of patients. Was there ever a point
where you wished you had picked a nursing career instead of a teaching career? I had the best
of both worlds. (Secondary, Open)

Working Schedule

1. What do you do during an average day of work? I worked at East in the morning and
Highland in the afternoon. First two periods at East and then would run to Highland and teach
fifth and sixth period, not seventh because too many students were involved in sports. How
much time during the day and night do you prepare your lessons? If you average it out I
probably did 2-3 hours every night after class preparing for the next class or correcting papers
or tests or scoring. (Primary, Open)

2. How flexible is your schedule? No, flexibility when you teaching. You must be there 15
minutes before and after school. Going to the bathroom was the biggest problem because you
were not allowed to leave the students in the classroom alone. (Primary, Closed) • What do you
need to consider if you want to take time off? You can’t take time off. Vacations are summer
orientated. Some teachers don’t do that and would add on their sick days and then take them.
Arrange for a substitute. You must arrange for your own substitute and you must leave a lesson
plan for the substitute. Even when you weren’t in the classroom, you oversaw it. (Secondary,
Open) How did you like not working summers and having most holidays off? Some teachers
teach during the summer for a secondary job or even just a secondary job. I worked at the
hospital, so it wasn’t too bad. One summer I took it off to take care of my kids. Did you find you
didn’t want to take certain holidays and days off but were forced too? Always had to take
holidays off. One nice thing about teaching is you are on the same schedule as your children.
You get to spend a lot of time with them. Get all holidays.

3. How did not working summers affect your relationship with your grandson? I got to have
Julien every summer and he would live here every summer. He would move in during the
summer and it was so nice spending that much time with him. He lived with us during the
summer because we had the same schedule. (Primary, Open)

Effects on Your Personal Life

1. What did you like most about your job? (Primary, Open) • What did you find most difficult part
about your job? Students that speck a different language are hard to teach because I can tell
how much they want to learn but they don’t understand the language. The difficult thing was
trying to keep them entertained. Emotionally going through something, high level kids and
English as a second language. All classes have their own flavor. One class would not talk, one
knows everything and participates and other classes that are neutral. (Secondary, Open) Did
you find it difficult working with high schoolers ever? You don’t just teach your subject you have
to understand your students. Be able to recognize when your students are under stress and
going through something. Then the hardest part is getting them to help. I was lucky because in
my health degree I was already trained in talking about depression and anxiety. Students would
come to me because they trusted me and my back ground. How did you overcome the
difficulties of working with them? I had a student who was specifically put in my class for health
and they put him in my class because no other teacher would take him. His behavior was so
offensive that no other teacher would take him. The principal asked me if I would take him into
my class. I could tell he had a lot of psychological problems. I was able to get a communication
and relationship with this kid and I thought that he was living on the street, but he was living
with an older girlfriend in an apartment. The summer after he graduated he killed a guy and
stabbed him to death.

2. Can a person make a consistent living with this career? Yeah, you aren’t going to be rich. You
can’t drive a way nice car or big mansion, but you can support a family. (Primary, Bipolar) •
What does it take to have a reasonable retirement off your salary and how long you worked for
the district for? With education you get a pension plan. For every year you work you earn 2% of
your salary. Education has a good retirement plan. Like fireman, policeman and teachers. You
don’t make a ton of money but you get a pension plan. (Secondary, Open)

Clearinghouse Question

1. Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you think I should know? The hoy of teaching
comes from from seeing the light turn on when they grasp the subject and what you have been
teaching them. Having that light turn on makes the whole thing so much better. It made it all
worth it. (Primary, Bipolar) Did you think of anything we haven’t discussed that you believe we
should? Parents. Parents need to be involved in their childs education. You have both sides, a
parent who is not involved in their child’s life and parents that are way too involved and
pressure their kids.

2. Is there anyone else you would recommend I speak to about this career? A counselor or an
academic advisor. (Primary, Bipolar)

Closing
1. Would you please fill out this evaluation on my performance as an interviewer? Your
evaluation will not affect my grade, but your honest feedback will help me improve my
interviewing skills. I’ll wait till you finish so take your time. 2. The last thing I need is a photo of
us together as evidence I did the interview. 3. Thank you for your time. I have really learned a
lot. 4. (Handshake) Good bye.

Now head to your car as fast as you can and write down the fuller answers to your interview
question while they are fresh on your mind. If you wait until you get home, most of the
information will be lost. Even if you recorded the interview, don’t risk having a technical glitch
and losing the data without any paper copy back up.