Job Interview / Presentation

[ElDamo]

Hi All

You may remember me as damienharrison (I have tried resetting my user account to no avail) after 4 years working in the NHS I have an interview lined up for a secondary school as an ICT Network Manager.

For the interview the day is planned as follows:

• An Interview with the school council
• Tour of the school
• A meeting with the school admin team
• Presentation
• Formal Interview

As it has been a number of years since I worked in the education sector I am after any advice you lovely people care to send my way, about any changes and developments that may be worth mentioning in my interviews.

The presentation is as follows:

‘The school has a stable IT network, we also have a number of ICT devices, AV equipment and print solutions which we are able to draw upon. It is our feeling that we are not maximising these to their best potential or in a way that would benefit pupils, staff, parents and governors.

How would you go about integrating these and other ICT solutions so that they can help drive forward whole school development.’

I am going to mention my ITiL qualification and how I would use the ITiL framework and project management methodologies to ensure that anything I do meets the requirements of the school and improves the quality of teaching and learning.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts and Ideas any of you may have and should I be successful becoming a participating member of Edugeek again.

Kind regards

Damien Harrison

[elsiegee40]

Hello Damien

Firstly, congratulations on the interview. That plan for the day looks very standard; exactly what I'd expect to see at the secondary where I'm governor.

Our school council has been trained and would have half a dozen questions that they pose to every candidate. They score each candidate amd their opinion is taken seriously. They regularly detect the same strengths and weaknesses that the main panel does

Make sure you are comfortable with Safeguarding. The school's duty of care on the premises is obvious, but the school has a diuty outside as well and must help the students to keep themselves safe outside. (I'm not interviewing until Thursday, so you won't get my facebook for school staff question )

From what you describe, they are after some means of ensuring that staff, governors and students have full access to data and contacts both in and out of school. I'll let others develop that. Good luck

[witch]

It does sound pretty standard to me too (also a governor)
Are you actually going to recommend anything to maximise their use of ICT? - do they have wireless for example? Quite easy to give a few reasons why wireless is a good idea. What about a VLE? Or a website that parents, pupils and governors can access and have a dedicated area on? Free software is a way of using computers in a better way without spending any money..and so on. I'm sure you have some ideas, I am just concerned that telling them that you will use ITiL is fine but what will you do? In my experience interviewers will actually want to hear some actual ideas.
Your tour is ahead of your presentation so I would expect you to incorporate some of the things you have seen around the school in it if possible.
I was also going to mention Safeguarding as you are very likely to be asked a question like " A child comes to you and tells you xxx" or, " you are in the ICT suite and you overhear..." The answer is almost always that you would tell the person responsible for Child Protection as soon as possible.

[ElDamo]

Hi witch/elsiegee40. I was having a few ideas about doing just that, I was going to mention use of social media (G+ hangouts, youtube), VLE, Website improvements etc....thank you both for your help I am really looking forward to the interview.

[jimmy_2k]

Thats pretty standard, though we haven't done any Support Staff posts with the student council being involved. Looking at the criteria for the presentation, I would go with better use of Wireless and the introduction of a "guest" network which intergrates with AD so students and staff can have BYOT and bring in their own devices. With print solutions these might use a swipe card so you could say that you would intergrate cashless catering and door control on one system in the future. ICT areas might be improved by classroom layout and AV devices improved (depending on what they have already) by creating rooms which have fixed IWB's and projectors. ITIL I would say isn't relevant to the interview but you could say when asked "how could we improve the systems" to ask the question "what would you like?" Explain how you would meet with heads of department and collate ideas around IT teaching and turn these into a solution and how changes would be phased in over a 18 month period rather than an immediate transition overnight, just to ensure any issues are ironed out early on and that staff can be trained etc. The rest of it is down to the day and what other candidates are also going for the job.

[pcstru]

‘The school has a stable IT network, we also have a number of ICT devices, AV equipment and print solutions which we are able to draw upon. It is our feeling that we are not maximising these to their best potential or in a way that would benefit pupils, staff, parents and governors.

The most recent Ofsted report would probably be worth reading - is it a high or low performing school? That phrasing suggests communication and parental engagement might be high on the agenda (look at their website, VLE, methods of communications, remote access).

[elsiegee40]

The most recent Ofsted report would probably be worth reading - is it a high or low performing school? That phrasing suggests communication and parental engagement might be high on the agenda (look at their website, VLE, methods of communications, remote access).

I agree

Hi witch/elsiegee40. I was having a few ideas about doing just that, I was going to mention use of social media (G+ hangouts, youtube), VLE, Website improvements etc....thank you both for your help I am really looking forward to the interview.

Schools may not be keen on using social networking within school. Remember the minimum age for accounts on Google+ is 18 and the minimum age for facebook, etc is 13 (Year 9). They will want to know exactly what safeguards could be put into place and how it could be policed without risking reputation damage to school, students or staff.

It's use also has to balanced against the practicalities of keeping the little darlings on task during the school day. Only yesterday, there was a thread on here about students using iMessage on their set of iPads when they should have been working!

[damienharrison]

Schools may not be keen on using social networking within school. Remember the minimum age for accounts on Google+ is 18 and the minimum age for facebook, etc is 13 (Year 9). They will want to know exactly what safeguards could be put into place and how it could be policed without risking reputation damage to school, students or staff.

That is why I presented the 'social' idea here first to see what others thoughts are on the subject, cheers elsiegee40 .

[glennda]

Could go for mentioning Edmodo a social network designed for schools and controlable by schools.

[elsiegee40]

Could go for mentioning Edmodo a social network designed for schools and controlable by schools.

What they could well be after is more to do with 'any user, anywhere, any platform'. Don't get too hung up on social networking as a solution.

So staff, students and governors (I'm trying to get this last one sorted at my governor school) all have access to their stuff when not in school.

As governors, we desperately need access to our documents (minutes, meeting submissions) and other documents that are shared with the school (policies ) without having to cut down rainforests. It's a challenge as ability ranges from me to 'hasn't got a clue about computers'... (not huge then ) And it's not my network!

Do ask questions about everything and anything on your tour. You may need to think on your feet to tailor your presentation. TBH the content is probably less important than ensuring you've met the brief, thought about users, security and cost .. and proving you can talk convincingly to those holding the purse strings. The less geeky you are the better IMO!

Inclusivity of access without much expense!

[damienharrison]

Hi everyone Dos_box has re-activated my old account, thank you all for your comments ill definately take them onboard.

Cheers

Damien

[damienharrison]

Hi everyone, unfortunately didn't get the job as it went to someone working in the role at a school down the road. But received some good feedback and told to be more succinct when answering questions....

[elsiegee40]

Hi everyone, unfortunately didn't get the job as it went to someone working in the role at a school down the road. But received some good feedback and told to be more succinct when answering questions....

I'm sorry about that.

However, it sounds like you got useful feedback, so you can chalk this one up as 'interview practice'

[witch]

Yep, you can always take away something that will help you next time. Did they give you any feedback on the presentation?

[jslate]

Hi Damien
It was nice meeting you at the interview. I guess the person who got the job, with him moving schools there might be another ICT Network Manager role coming up in Redcar. So keep your eyes open. Though from his views about his school it sounded like they did not invest much money in ict.

Jon