UKED Magazine Jun 2014

myself fully and feel confident there was nothing more I could do. Thankfully I also got the job!

Obviously, through various forums, blogs and educational website there is now more advice than ever on questions and interview lesson advice. This can help greatly with preparation, allowing you to consider all possible eventualities for the interview day.

Caution I participate in a very active subject specific group on Facebook where someone posed a question in relation to the high number of requests for interview lesson help. They suggested that maybe the potential employer would also be in the group and make judgments on a teacher asking for help. This is a very real possibility; caution must always be used when blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, even professionally. You need to ask yourself what an employer, or potential employer may think of you and your postings.

My personal view is that if I saw a potential future employee using social network appropriately to seek help and professional advice, it would actually work in their favour.

No-one can teach that lesson for you, and a resource is only as good as the teacher using it.

A resourceful colleague who knows where they can find information online can only be of benefit to the school environment; working more collaboratively is hopefully the future of good teaching.

The Future Social networking does not seem to be going away. If it can be used to save money and target excellent candidates, then perhaps schools will be using social media and their own social media presence to greater extent in the future.

However it must be considered to what extent it is limiting the field to only a small percentage of teachers and leaders. Yet as the job advertising market becomes more fragmented with more and more schools looking to a whole variety of websites, publications and agencies, will a whole new approach be needed anyway?