School Admin Job - first interview in years

BargainJunky

My youngest son will be seven in November and I have been a stay at home mum for just over five years. Prior to this I was working part time and my eldest son was in nursery and before children I had reached PA level.

I have applied for a part time admin role at my sons school and to my delight I have been offered an interview. Does anyone know what I can expect in the interview? They have mentioned an 'in tray' task which I assume will be typing, filing etc and a formal interview.

I know the school very well (I attended it many many years ago) and last year I volunteered in my sons class helping the children to read etc. Just recently I have also become actively involved in fundraising for the school and to be honest I am loving it.

I am excited but scared in the same breath so any tips/advice would be appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

(I have just googled 'in tray' task and have discovered that there is a lot more to it than I thought - better get reading!).

mikecc

Congratulations!

Interviews are excting, a door to a new opportunity. It's normal to be a little nervous - healthy too. It shows you care about the opportunity and want to try your best.

1) In-tray exercises are just that. Something that might typically appear in your in-tray as an action item in a typical day. Depending on the admin job this could be typing up a letter, doing a bit of filing, some work on excel, etc. It will probably be something from the job description "essential requirements/duties".

2) Make sure you have reviewed your on CV and freshened your memory on the roles you have been asked previously. This serves 2 purposes - a) you'll be asked to talk about your previous roles so a partially rehearsed 20-30 second blurb will more easily roll off the tongue, and, b) you will be able to highlight key resonsibilities and duties from each role and match them to the requirements of the new position, so when asked to "give an example of a time you have performed x duty" you'll be able to think quicker.

4) Depending on the format of the interview, you'll probably be asked for examples of work you have done before. Questions may sound like: "Tell us how you have successfully improved a process" or "Describe how you have delivered above customer expectations". These are often referred to as competency/behavioural questions designed to make you talk through the full scenario and demonstrate how you have performed in a given situation.

Whatever you do - avoid giving hypothetical answers "What I would do is..." and equally responses like "Well I do that all the time" should be avoided. Instead, research the S-T-A-R (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method of structuring an answer. Useful guides are (Click to follow):

REED Guide

WikiJob Guide


3) Make sure you take some questions with you to ask at the end of the interview. Stuff that you genuinely want to know. Some examples may include
- Ask the interviewer how long they have been with the company and what they enjoy most
- What would be the key measures of success in your first 3 months - I.e. what are the immediate challenges
- Is there room for development in terms of qualifications or more broad/senior experience?

This shows you are seriously interested in the position, as well as gives you an opportunity to open up discussion and expand on their answers or sell yourself more, rather than just responding to the interview script.

Hope this helps. Please let us know how you get on, and good luck!

dave2

Try to demonstrate you are interested in both the position and that particular employer. Your PA experience should be good for the former (talk about ability to prioritise and working to deadlines, think up some examples when you've had to do that in case they ask for examples). Your 3rd paragraph puts you in a strong position for the latter part and there should be opportunity for it to come up naturally even if you didn't put it on your application.

The interviewer is also likely to be looking to see if you would fit-in well with colleagues. This probably just requires you being your professional self.

BargainJunky

Thanks both for the advice and for taking the time to reply to my post it is really appreciated.

Reading the job description I know I can do the job I just need to get them to believe that I can and that I really want it. So much time off with my son has knocked my confidence in the workplace a little but I am determined to get back out there.

Carfal

Expect questions about safe-guarding/ child protection (what do you understand by the term safe-guarding, what would you do if a child discloses x, y or z, or you notice a child ...) and confidentiality (how would you deal with a parent who asks you a, b or c in the street/supermarket/ on Facebook?)

BargainJunky

I would find the confidentiality one easy to answer - I dont 'do' Facebook apart from trying to sell my kids junk and as for parents asking me anything I would suggest that if they have any concerns or want to know something they either speak the relevant teacher or the Head Teacher.

In the past I have worked for the same company as my husband. I was a PA to the MD and never discussed anything confidential with my husband nor did I tell my boss any 'gossip' that I heard from my husband.

Re safeguarding would I be correct in assuming that if I suspected something or a child said something I would refer it to the 'appropriate' person immediately making appropriate notes etc?