Career Change: The Application and Interview Process

This is the 2nd blog in my "career change blog series."

As I mentioned in my first blog, I had decided to apply for a teaching position within a teaching corps (specifically Teach for America), in the hopes that I would be able to quickly jump start my career change.  Teach for America is a highly competitive teaching corps.  "In 2010, the organization received more than 46,000 applications resulting in 4,500 new corps members. These applicants included 20 percent of the senior class at Spelman, 12 percent of all Ivy League seniors, 7 percent of the graduating class at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and 6 percent at the University of California-Berkeley [see this press release for more information]."  I was going up again the best of the best that this country has to offer.  To say I was nervous is a complete understatement.  If I wasn't accepted by Teach for America, it would be back to square one and, with an acceptance rate of less than 10%, the odds were not with me.  I had the additional problem of having a background in English when most corps are in desperate need of math and science teachers.  [deep breath]

Starting in late September 2011, I began the Teach for America application process - a process that would take nearly 4 months to complete and could be derailed at any given moment.  The prerequisites for joining the Teach for America teaching corps are:

• Hold a bachelor’s degree by the first day of assigned summer institute (June 2012) - Check
• Undergraduate cumulative GPA of at least 2.50 on a 4.00 scale - Check (3.86)
• U.S. citizenship or national/permanent resident status - Check

The initial application to the corps needed to be completed by mid-October 2011 which included personal, academic and professional information, a copy of my current resume and a letter of intent on why I was applying for the corps.  Easy enough.  I then waited to hear if I would be invited to continue the application process.  By the end of October, Teach for America invited me to the next two phases: the "online activity" and phone interview.  Quite frankly, I don't remember too much about the online activity phase.  What I do remember is that it consisted of a few teaching scenarios and my responses to those situations. The phone interview was a standard interview with a current corps member in which we discussed my educational and professional backgrounds and why I was interested in teaching and Teach for America. Both of these phases occurred in early November.  After completing these two phases, I waited to hear if I was accepted to the final step. A couple of weeks after my phone interview, I was invited to continue on to the last portion of the application process: the Final Interview.  Yay!  I was one step closer to becoming an educator.

The final interview took place in late November 2011 on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and it was by far the most interesting part of the entire process.  In addition to meeting some prior corps members and other TFA applicants, I received a more thorough understanding about the Teach for America structure and how it supports its corps members.  Additionally, all applicants were required to present a 5 minute sample lesson.  Have you ever tried to teach anything in 5 minutes?  It's harder than it seems.  I chose to teach a scene from William Shakespeare's, Hamlet and it went quite well - if I do say so myself.  The other applicants' lessons ran the gamut from physics to basic ABCs.  Then I met with a Teach for America staff member for the final interview - a grueling and thought provoking interview.  In addition to the final interview, I needed to have submitted to Teach for America my official college transcripts, citizenship documentation, coursework information, assignment preference form and a list of recommenders.  For the assignment preference form, you have to indicate which 6 areas of the country you are most interested in teaching; indicating which one of these areas is your first preference.  My first choice for assignment was the Greater Boston area (having just spent a great deal of money moving to the Boston area, I was loathe to move again).  After that, my additional preferences were Rhode Island, Connecticut, Phoenix, Colorado and Los Angeles.  Upon completing the final interview and getting all the documentation finished and recommendations in, another waiting game commenced.  I was to receive the final decision by mid-January 2012.  It was the longest 6 weeks in recorded history...okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it was a loooooooooooooooong wait!  

Finally, mid-January rolled around.  Huzzah!  I received notification that I was indeed one of the lucky few who was invited to join the 2012 Teach for America corps.  Additionally, I had been accepted to my first preference area - the Greater Boston teaching corps and would be teaching English.  I would not have to move and would be able to teach a subject matter that I LOVE!  I was excited beyond belief.  Now began the hard work (and the subject of my next blog) - the Onboarding Process.