Over the past year, I have spent many hours applying and interviewing for teaching jobs during my year-long search. It was a long and sometimes frustrating process. The most difficult part of any search, aside from the days and weeks spent waiting for verdicts that may never come is the interview. No matter how much you prepare, there will almost always be that nervous feeling at the bottom of your stomach. For me, this always started with picking out what I would wear.
Back when I was a new teacher, fresh out of college and my student teaching, I used to think this meant I needed the dreaded skirt suit in black with a simple white blouse. You know, the clip art version of a businesswoman. I soon found that most of what I wore student-teaching - a nice blouse that covered my shoulders and a nice skirt or pair of slacks, and sometimes a cardigan - would work just as well. This is especially true when interviewing via a video-conferencing application, such as Zoom.
Over the past 9 years of my teaching career, most of my interviews have been conducted over the Internet. This past year, every single interview I had - all 40-something of them - was done over Zoom. This is largely due to COVID-19, but it has also become fairly prevalent when applying for out-of-state positions. The virtual environment only adds to the confusion on what to wear. What follows are a few tips I have learned from my experiences with virtual teacher interviews.
1. Wear something nice - from head to toe. Although the screen for a virtual interview really only shows from your chest up, it’s still important to dress the part on your lower half. There is always that chance that you need to readjust or move during the interviewing and that in doing so, your bottom half could enter the video frame. If you’re sporting the “business on top, party on the bottom” look, it could be quite inappropriate for your interview. Another reason to wear professional wear from head to toe is more psychological. Getting dressed up sets the tone, and there have been studies done to suggest that what we wear can impact our own mood and confidence, as well as affect the way others perceive us. Honestly, fashion psychology is quite an interesting area.
2. Wear something comfortable. Although a blazer is fairly standard for in-person interviews, it may not be the best for a virtual interview. I found that being in front of a screen for extended periods of time often generated quite a bit of heat. If I wore a blazer the whole time, I would often be hot and sweaty by the end of my interview, and I never felt as though I could take the blazer off. Blazers also tend to be a bit more uncomfortable in general and restrict movement. Since some teacher interviews can be quite long, particularly if you’re doing third round virtual school visits with mock lessons and conversations with multiple groups of people that last the whole school day, wearing a restricting suit or tighter, confining dress can be quite uncomfortable. So, make sure you will be comfortable with whatever you choose to wear.
3. Pay attention to the neckline. This is important in person as well, but perhaps more so in a virtual interview environment because of where the screen cuts off in a video call. If your neckline is too low, it can look as though you have barely anything on in the video. So make sure you have blouses with a more modest neckline and that the lower necklines have some of that negative space filled in with a necklace.
4. Avoid loud prints and colors. Again, this is true for in-person interviews as well. Remember that the point of the interview is for the panel to be focused on you and your words, not your leopard print. Wearing loud prints and colors can detract from your message and be distracting to your interviewer. If you have a loud personality, try to show it in other ways rather than through your clothes (or make-up) on your big day. However, you will also want to avoid wearing the same color as your background wall so that you won’t fade into the wallpaper.
5. Wear make-up. The screen can often wash out your face for virtual interviews, especially if you’re in a bright room. So, wear some make-up to make sure your facial features are visible on camera. Just remember that less is more, so stick to the natural shades.
6. Lastly, think about your surroundings. You’ll want to make sure your virtual interview is done from a quiet space. Close doors to keep pets and children out, and wear headphones to cut down on background noise. Air pods or other wireless headphones are great because they are small enough to not be noticeable in the interview.
You’ll also want to think about your background. Most likely, the interviewer will be focused on you, but in teacher interviews, it can be nice for your background to look more professional than your bedroom wall. If you’re allowed, you may want to consider interviewing your classroom. This can give the interviewer a glimpse into what your teaching - and even classroom management - is like without having to jump into a philosophy monologue. If your background isn’t the greatest, I would consider sprucing it up rather than using a virtual background. Virtual backgrounds are nice, except when the glitch and your face turns into beach waves. Not the best look for an interview. If you have a reliable green screen, you may be able to get away with a virtual background, but I would still opt for finding a suitable corner in your house.
The last thing to consider when it comes to your surroundings is the lighting. You’ll want to sit in a well-lit room, but avoid having a light source directly behind you as it will make your face quite dark. The best option is to set your space up so that you have a window to one side of you (but not next to you) and have lamps on in other spaces around the room to ensure that your face is lit up and not washed out.
A few examples of outfits I wore on virtual interviews:
Whether your next virtual interview is for a teaching position or not, the above tip will hopefully be quite helpful. Just remember that the interview is your chance to make a lasting impression, and though the interviewer will likely be far more focused on you than on what you’re wearing, dressing to impress is still important. Good luck!
Favorite Looks from the Week: