Interview Preparation: What to Bring

Long time, no post.  I know, it is the pitfall of any new or new-ish blogger- we have a flurry of ideas at the beginning and then we see something shiny and our attention is gone.  Such is life.  Not to make more excuses, but I am a week from graduating!  Another exciting piece of news, after completing a slew of interviews, I accepted a position within Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia.

It is school counselor interview season and I plan to do a couple of posts about what has helped me 1) get interviews and 2) prepare for interviews.  If you are looking for a one-stop-shop for this kind of information, I highly recommend reading Danielle's post over at "SchoolCounselorBlog" with great interview tips.  I started searching counseling blogs and ASCA Scene last November in preparation for the whirlwind interview season...so, if you are reading this, I highly recommend checking those web resources.

Some of my cohort-mates have been asking me about what I bring to interviews.  First of all, I bring my A-game.  I make sure to read as much as I can about the school, district, and the people that will be interviewing me.  Many schools have counseling websites where they post photos and short biographies- it is funny because at interviews, it feels like you are meeting celebrities when you get to meet the other counselors... maybe that was just me.  Checking school counseling webpages helped me get a feel for the school before I even stepped a foot in the door- look at the program's missions/visions, services offered, student data... many schools have it all right there!

Now, what do I actually bring to the interview?  The School Counseling Fellows program at Johns Hopkins University requires all students to complete an e-portfolio that addresses the eight parts of CACREP.  Since I was doing interviews pretty early, I didn't have my e-portfolio done, but I would have gladly shared it with prospective schools/districts if I had.  Here is a link!  

In lieu of the e-portfolio, I had a nice folder/portfolio that I got from an office supply store for about $4.  I thought of interview materials in two categories: (1) "credential" materials that show your educational background and other professional credentials and (2) "work" materials that show what you can actually do.  For "credential" materials, you want to bring a copy of your resume, references, and business cards if you have them.  I had different references sheets depending on where I was interviewing because some my references had stronger connections depending on the district I was interviewing.  I also always brought copies of my four letters of recommendation and transcripts from my undergrad at the University of Minnesota and my up-to-date transcripts from Johns Hopkins University, just in case the interviewer or committee wanted to see it.

Did you get all that?  Here is a "credential" checklist:

1. Resume                                                       
2. Reference Sheet                                          
3. Business Cards
4. Letters of Recommendation
5. Transcripts (undergrad and graduate)

I brought multiple copies of all the aforementioned materials.  Even if I was not asked to provide the materials, I always offered them at the end of the interviews (good way to be on top of your stuff, eh?)

For "work" materials, I made sure to bring examples of work that show my ability to fit the multiple and varied capacities that counselors fulfill:

1. A lesson plan (I like to use Understanding by Design templates) and a classroom counseling lesson I did with career clusters on Naviance.com.  I like to use a lesson plan template to show my full conceptualization of what the students already know, what I wanted them to learn, my delivery methods and my assessment tools.
2. SMART Goal Worksheet- I created this worksheet for my everyday "counselor tool kit."  I have used in in classroom lessons but also pull in out when working individually with students to help them formulate specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timely goals.  Obviously the concept of a "SMART" goal already exists, but I wanted to show how I could create my own documents to define my own practice.
3. DATA- I brought several data sets (complete with spreadsheets, graphs and PowerPoint presentations I presented to classmates and school personnel) to show how I evaluate my interventions and how I completed grade-level needs assessments through my internship and practicum experiences.  As graduate students, we learn data, but I like to show how I can actually use it.
4. Other materials that show off my specific skills.  I am a pretty techie guy.  I digitized my internship site's school registration packet.  Since the school had Promethean Boards in each room, students and families could view relevant registration, scheduling, and college readiness information by following the simple prompts.  I brought a copy of the presentation and used it as a talking point to show off what I can do.

Everyone has different skills and completes different projects through their practicum and internship experiences.  I suggest finding your top projects, make sure they address varying levels of intervention, and bring them along.  You may not get to show them off, but at least you have them to back up what you are saying.  

Again, I just went through this process over the past couple of months.  I am not a voice of authority on the subject of getting hired, but I think it is valuable to share what worked for me.  Good luck if you are in the process!  Keep an eye on this blog over the next couple of weeks as I share some of my other "lived experiences" from the interview process.  Make sure you leave a comment if you have any specific questions about other things I did!

PS.  I got a dog!

I really need to learn how to rotate pictures on here...

PhotoVoice--The Final Product

You may remember back a month or so when I wrote a post called PhotoVoice Project...Well, I presented some of my photos today via the following YouTube video:

The photo narrative is meant to help me understand how I see the world and leadership through the camera lens.  The difficult part of the presentation process is that each photo has its own story and meaning to me but the viewer may just be like, "Cool, a picture of a bus..."  So, take it with a grain of salt.  Short post but thought I would share...

Conference Anticipation: How one intern/graduate student/job-seeker prepares.

The Maryland School Counselor Association's annual conference is scheduled for this coming Friday.  In late February, I got an email calling for graduate student volunteers.  The conference organizers wanted four graduate volunteers to monitor the presentation rooms, hand out session evaluations, etc.  As a personal rule, I try to not miss any opportunities for professional engagement so I responded and was offered one of the volunteer spots.  I am particularly excited to attend the MSCA Conference because it will be great practice for the American School Counselor Association's National Conference in July where I will be speaking about my advocacy projects and internship experience as a member of a graduate student panel.

Description of my group's presentation at the ASCA National Conference- Scheduled for July 2nd (1:30pm-2:45pm)

With all these conferences coming up, there are a few ways for people like me, graduate students/interns/counseling-position-seekers to prepare.  Here is how I plan to network and present myself professionally:

1.  "Get a haircut, Hippie!"
Okay- I can grow a beautiful mane fit for horse or a Dothraki (I've been watching a lot of "Game of Thrones" lately...), but sometimes I just have to suck it up and keep that mop cropped, short, professional and neat.

Now, my hair wasn't this long... but I just felt the need to give some historical reference of how big my hair can get.  Sophomore year of high school.

The day after my haircut, I couldn't walk down a hallway at my internship without student/teacher/administrators telling me how much better my hair looked... Point:  Dylan, keep the hair professional.

2.  What to wear?
As a counseling conference newbie, I had no idea what to wear... do I go all the way and wear my suit or do a pair of khakis and a button up suffice?  I thought I needed a little back-up here and reached out to my professor who is the former director of counseling for a very large school district in the Southwest.  Here suggestion:

"Typically you would dress up a little more if you were presenting – dress slacks and a jacket.  Most conference attire is business casual – a nice pair of slacks and shirt.  The east coast conferences tend to have higher dress standards than the west coast.  You will be pretty safe if you wear dress slacks, but you may find that some conference attendees are in jeans.  You will see a wide array of clothing choices at ASCA J "

Thanks for the help, Professor!

3.  Be a card-carrying member.

I read other counseling blogs.  Whether it is a hobby or an obsession, I love learning more about the profession and picking up tips.  Danielle Schultz over at School Counselor Blog wrote a post about business cards.  In January, I followed her advice and ordered my own set of cards.  For a grand total of about $10, I got professional cards printed, which I now carry with me everywhere.  A simple card with my name, email, education, and a link to my LinkedIn helps me quickly and easily share who I am professionally.  

The cards are useless without a desire to network, talking to other professionals is a great opportunity to extend my connections.  If I can't talk to other professionals, handing out cards is next to impossible.  There are a lot of great counselors out there doing incredible things.  I hope to meet more of these individuals who can help me push myself in the future.  

Watch out conference attendees... I've got cards, a haircut, and a professional wardrobe and I am NOT afraid to use them.

College Counseling: Going Beyond the College Tour

This may be obvious-but-TECHNOLOGY IS AMAZING.  Here is the story:

The second week at my internship, when I was still developing my sea legs, I joined my supervisor as we explained PSAT  results and SAT study options to an SAT Prep class of about ten sophomores and juniors. They logged onto College Board's website to explore their personalized study profiles, again-technology is really cool.  The students were receptive during our classroom counseling lesson and asked many questions about topics other than standardized tests.  Given some classroom time with two trained counselors (well, one trained and one in training), the students asked about college admissions, how to research schools, financial aid, and housing.  We did our best to quickly answer their questions, while re-focusing them to the tasks at hand. 

At the end of the class period, I approached the teacher and asked if I could continue coming in once a week to do college-oriented lessons.  Since she has a pretty loosey-goosey SAT Prep curriculum, and welcomed my suggestion.  Now I teach one fully class period every Wednesday.  I have lead lessons on financial aid, Naviance college searches, career interest inventories, and goal setting.  A couple of weeks ago, I asked the students to complete a survey that would help me orient the next couple of lessons.  From that survey, I found that only one of our students had ever toured a college and only one ever talked to an academic or admissions counselor.

Lightbulb moment.

One of the great things about being a school counselor these days is that we are taught to embrace collaboration, reaching across disciplines to advocate for our kids.  Our school has a frozen budget so a bus to a college tour was out of the question...and the teachers are very busy preparing our students for the HSA, a state mandated test, which students are required to pass to graduate-so getting time for a tour is not likely. Then it dawned on me: I have a good friend who is finishing her graduate studies in Higher Education/Student Affairs at a university in Ohio.  Though she couldn't be in our classroom in the flesh, a host of web-based video chats exist to facilitate an open exchange.  The teacher was into it, the students were into it, and my friend, Ms. Amanda, was into it.  This got me excited, people!

Cruddy quality photo-but you get the picture...get it?

A few weeks prior to our virtual college advising session, the students and I sat down to generate a list of questions to guide the discussion.  Here is a list of what we came up with as a group:

Questions:

"Other"

• Is it hard for people to live off campus and succeed academically?
• What can I do now, as a high school student, to prepare for college?

Freshman Transition

• Do freshman struggle with classes as they transition?
• Which classes usually cause the most problems?
• If I am struggling with a class, what do I do?  Who can help me and how do I find them?

College Seeking

• How do you find a college that is right for you?  What should we be considering when looking at different options?
• What is the average cost for college and how can I pay for it?
• What options are there if my grades are average and I want to go to a 4-year school?

Admissions

• What do colleges look for most when looking at applications?
• What kind of students are colleges looking for?

Academic/Career Advising

• Is there someone to help me decide on a major?
• Is there someone to help me find a job after I graduate?
• Do we get to choose our classes, if yes, how?
• Do juniors and seniors choose classes first--> younger students take whatever is left?

I know that I could have answered most of the questions on my own, but I wanted to give the students the chance to talk directly with an "expert" like Amanda.  After the session, I asked the students to complete some simple surveys.  The students responded positively in all categories.  Using technology and measuring its effectiveness via simple surveys helps me not only advocate for my students, it helps me advocate for the role of the school counselor.

Stepping across academic and professional disciplines, as well as employing technology in the classroom helped me bring college to the kids.  I would love to hear from other counselors about how they step outside the box to advocate for their kids in innovative ways.  

I Wish I Were Spiderman.

For some reason, on multiple occasions, various students at the high school where I am completing my internship tell me that I look like Spiderman.  It happened first a couple of weeks ago.  As I walked past a group of students in the hallway who were speaking with the school's principle on my way to speak with a teacher, a student yelled out, "Hey, look! It's Spiderman."  I took another step as I realized they were talking about me.  And BAM!, I crouched down and posed with a "web-slinging" hand gesture that I learned through my various viewings of the "Spiderman" films.  Without a word, I stood up and kept walking to my original destination.  On my way back to the school counseling office, the group of students apologized for calling me Spiderman.  I used this opportunity to introduce myself as the new counseling intern and ensured them that I was not offended; rather, I was just playing.

No "Spidey-Senses" here.

Again, today as I walked a student back to their class after we had a short meeting, an entirely new group of students passed me in the hallway.  This time, a young female student said out loud as I passed, "There goes that guy that looks like Spiderman."  I thought I would spare them my impression since we had already passed each other.  For some reason, I feel like I should be flattered by the suggestion that I could be a superhero, but the fact is that sometimes I really wish I was a superhero.  Those special powers could really come in handy when advocating for students!

My counseling SUPERviser told me two weeks ago that stuff in the counseling office was about to get crazy.  I scoffed off the warning...If I only knew then what I know now.

Many scholarships are due during our students' spring break holiday.  When making a scholarship headquarters in our counseling office (including a binder full of local scholarship opportunities as well as direct scholarships from local political delegates) I failed to realize how much work it takes to ensure that I send off scholarships correctly.

Scholarship Headquarters: complete with a binder full of scholarship opportunities for all students.

My supervisor was not kidding, today was off the chain.  We had students applying for SATs, registering for classes, applying for scholarships, and stopping in to talk about other issues all at the same time all day.  While I cannot sling webs or climb up walls, I realized that I can keep kids organized... a very important skill!  I may not have "Spidey-Sense" but I do believe I possess the coveted "scholar-senses" which allow me to believe that each student has the opportunity to succeed.  Wrapping this up:  it was an overwhelming day but I am learning and realize that school counselors ARE superheros!

Photovoice Project

I am in an accelerated school counseling program.  So, my school counseling program is not only CACREP and focused on working in inner city schools, it is also 48 credits in thirteen months...  I think this is great because I am never allowed to forget anything from class to class, I never see my learning in a vacuum and as students, we bring our knowledge from one classroom to the next (which all students should do).  While the coursework can be daunting at times, I wouldn't change anything about the way my program is put together. This is exactly what I need-and I know other students who feel differently.  School Counseling programs are all about fit.

As I am completing my 600-hour internship at a Baltimore City high school, I am also in my "School Counseling Leadership and Consultation" course several hours a week.  One of our major cumulative projects in the course is something called a "Photovoice."  During the course of the semester, we, as students, are encouraged to share our cultural worldview and perspectives of leadership through a camera (or in my case an iPhone) lens.  The project is a qualitative, action research technique that allows us to photograph our perspective.  We then write short narrations about the photos to give context and periodically share what we are learning about ourselves and our leadership perspectives in class.  I attached a photo I took below...

Still learning Blogger...sorry about the lack of correct photo orientation.

My classmates and professor were a bit confused about my photo choice, especially because I am a pretty vocal vegetarian.  Then I read my narrative:

"The picture on this page is a McDonald's sign.  The story behind it really has nothing to do with the very successful restaurant chain; rather, I prefer to focus on an eye-opening conversation I recently had with a student at my internship site.
 I am a vegetarian.  I have been for almost a year and am comfortable with my choice.  I often bring salad to my internship for lunch.  A couple of weeks ago, I was helping a student complete her FAFSA. Over the course of three days, she came to the counseling office right after her lunch period, when I would be eating my own at my desk.  On the third day, she asked why I always eat salads, to which, I explained that I don't eat any meat.  Somewhat concerned, the student asked what I order when I go to McDonalds.  "I do not eat at McDonalds," I responded.
"Why not," she questioned.
"Well, I don't like the way I feel after eating there.  I mean, how do you feel after eating that food?" I responded.
"Full."
 I have no idea if the student knows what impact that short conversation made.  As a counseling leader, I am forced to constantly evaluate the way I speak about certain subjects so I do not reveal my own biases.  She also forced me to further consider my own privilege and choices.  I live in a world where I can afford to be concerned about nutritional content of the food I consume.  As I continue my leadership journey, I hope students continue to call me out and require me to evaluate myself as I hope to push them to do the same."

Ultimately, I will be required to string together all of the photos I take for a 10 page paper about my counselor-leadership development.  This photovoice project allows participants to really tell there story and would be beneficial while working with psychodynamic groups or to gain insight about an individual student's life.  If you want to read more check out PhotoVoice.org.  There you can find examples and a "how to guide."

I used to blog.

I used to blog.  And you know what, I used to get paid for it.  Once I left my former job doing public relations for a large corporation (and by "doing public relations" I mean driving a giant vehicular hot dog) I hung up my blogging gloves thinking those days were past.  Even before driving the "big dog" I had a work study job at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where I represented my undergraduate major via paid blog content.  Honestly, I didn't know how much I liked the darn activity until I stopped.

Former blogging alias="Dyl-icious"

Almost a year later, with nearly a whole 48-credit graduate degree under my belt, much like the mythical phoenix, I rise from the ashes of my burnt-out-blogger-self the reinvent my compositional identity with reinvigorated gusto and new perspective. 

Or...I just write about my thoughts/feelings/impressions/learning regarding my eventual ascent into professional school counselor-dom.  Can you tell I am excited?!  And did I mention that I am currently looking for a job for the 2013-2014 school year?  Because I am...

Before I get to the deep thoughts and embarrassing newbie counselor anecdotes- I want to walk you through some of my previous blogging lives...basically, I am trying to prove to you (and myself) why I should continue to blog.

Examples:

1) I can do accents...and videos.

"Big Bun Turns 1000 Miles-HotdoggerBlog.com"

2) I celebrate the little things.

"Buns in Motion-HotdoggerBlog.com"

and 3) I try to have fun with it.

"Stretching our Buns"-HotdoggerBlog.com

I don't have any of the posts from my undergraduate blog since they deleted my profile when I graduated (all of those memories gone in a simple stroke of the 'delete' key), here is a link to the blog of the person who took over for me.

Now, who and what has inspired me to come back to the blogosphere?  Well, while doing my PR job, I got pretty familiar with the world of social media.  I was constantly looking for impressions that we had made while traveling the country to report back to my bosses-basically to show that we were doing our job.  Some of those social media mining habits/rituals/obsessions have spilled over into my new work/life-dedication as a transformative school counselor and I was so happy to find the following "inspiration" sites.

1) School Counselor Blog

This school counseling blog is simply great.  The moderator, Danielle, is a young school counselor who has been sharing her insights since 2009, when she was a counseling intern.  She shares information about job searches, suggestions for working with specific situations, and basically serves as a conduit for many of the school counseling web resources out there.  Super helpful for us youngins in the field.

2) Pikesville High School Counseling Department

Kind of a weird pick since it is literally a high school counseling web site, but I use the resources on this site often in my own internship work at a Baltimore City high school.  This site is thorough and broad.  I wish every high school had counselors with the resources and know-how to create accessible content for all of their students like this.

3) The Diary of a School Counseling Intern

This is the blog that really got me going recently.  I found the blog via some Twitter connections and found myself reading post after post.  Here I am reading the content and then I stopped and said to myself, "HEY, wait a minute-YOU ARE LIVING THIS TOO!"  I have a cohort of 9 in the School Counseling Fellows at JHU (and I am the only male), but it certainly is nice to gain some perspective from another student 1000 miles away... and it is definitely nice to know that I struggle with some of the same things.

Anyway, here I am-breaking the champagne bottle on the side of this blog's figurative ship hull to christen my maiden voyage.  Any suggestions, questions or comments will not go amiss.