What Actually Happens in a Principal Interview

One of the things I don’t think people talk about enough in administrative preparation programs is how you actually get the job.

We spend a lot of time preparing aspiring administrators for the work. We learn about instructional leadership, school culture, data, special education, equity, school law, family engagement and all the other things that come with being an administrator.

But then you actually start applying for assistant principal and principal positions and realize: Oh. The interview is a whole different thing.

Leadership interviews can be some of the most intense interviews I’ve ever experienced. And they aren’t always really “interviews.”

• Sometimes you’re analyzing data.
• Sometimes you’re walking classrooms.
• Sometimes you’re presenting.
• Sometimes you’re sitting in front of a panel of teachers, students and community members.
• Sometimes you’re role-playing an angry parent.
• Sometimes you’re being asked to respond to a teacher who disagrees with you.

And sometimes you’re doing all of that over several different rounds.

So if you’re getting ready to apply for your first administrative position, here’s what I wish someone had told me.

You are probably going to have to show them you can actually do the job

My first assistant principal interview had five different rounds of performance tasks and interview panels. Five.

The first part included pre-work where I had to pull data from my previous experiences as a teacher, dean and instructional coach. I had to explain what I had done, why I had done it, and how my actions had influenced student outcomes and staff perception.

That was probably one of the most valuable parts of the process because it forced me to really think about my leadership.

It’s easy to say: “I led a team.” “I supported teachers.” “I improved instruction.” But when someone asks you, “Okay, how?” you need to be able to answer.

• What was the problem?
• What did you actually do?
• Who did you work with?
• What changed?
• What evidence do you have?
• What would you do differently?

That is a lot harder than simply listing your leadership experience on a résumé.

You might have to demonstrate instructional leadership

In another interview, I walked classrooms with the principal. As we walked, she asked me what feedback I would give different teachers and what high-leverage action steps I would prioritize.

This one definitely made me think. As a teacher, you’re usually the expert in your own classroom and content. As an administrator, you have to be able to walk into classrooms across the school.

You might be an English teacher walking into a math class. You might be a social studies teacher observing science. You might not know every standard or every detail of the content. But you still need to be able to look at what students are doing, look at what the teacher is doing, and identify what is working and what the next step could be.

That doesn’t mean pretending you know everything.

It means knowing what good instruction looks like and knowing how to ask good questions.

And honestly, I think this is where instructional coaching experience can be really valuable for aspiring administrators. You’re not necessarily there to tell the teacher exactly what to do. You’re there to help the teacher think about their practice and identify where they can grow.

Then there are the people questions

Another round included a panel of teachers, community members and students. They asked me questions about how I would lead, how I would handle different situations, and how I thought about challenges facing their school.

This part of the interview is really about relationships. Because you can know a lot about instruction. You can know how to analyze data. You can have a great résumé. But you’re going to work with people. A lot of people.

And those people are going to disagree with you sometimes. They’re going to have different experiences. They’re going to have different priorities. Some people will be excited about a new initiative and some people will absolutely not be. Some people will trust you right away and others will need time. That’s part of the job.

So I think interview teams are trying to figure out how you work with people when things aren’t easy.

• Can you listen?
• Can you communicate?
• Can you handle disagreement?
• Can you explain your thinking?
• Can you build relationships while still holding people accountable?

Those are very different skills than just being a really good teacher.

And then there are the role-plays

My final interview included scenarios and role-plays. One was an upset parent who wanted to speak directly with the principal. Another involved a teacher pushing back on curriculum implementation.

Role-plays are weird. There’s really no other way to say it. You’re sitting there pretending that someone is angry with you while a group of people watches how you respond. And you have to somehow make it feel natural.

But I actually think these are some of the most useful parts of the interview because school leadership is full of moments where you have to respond to situations you didn’t plan for.

The point isn’t necessarily to have the perfect response. It’s to show how you think.

• Are you listening?
• Are you escalating the situation or de-escalating it?
• Are you asking questions?
• Are you trying to understand what happened before jumping to a conclusion?
• Can you hold a boundary?
• Can you still make someone feel heard even if you’re not going to give them the answer they want?

Those are leadership skills.

I didn’t nail every part of my interview

I think it’s important to say this because sometimes people assume that successful administrators walked into their interviews and absolutely crushed every single question.

I didn’t. My parent role-play wasn’t great. And that’s okay. I was still hired.

What I think mattered was being reflective about it. I could recognize where I could have handled it differently. I could think about what I would do next time. And I could acknowledge when I didn’t know something.

I think aspiring administrators sometimes feel like they need to prove that they can handle everything. You don’t.

Because here’s the reality: You cannot do this job alone. There will be things you don’t know. There will be situations you’ve never dealt with. There will be days when you need to call another administrator and say, “Hey, can I run something by you?”

That’s not weakness. That’s leadership.

So how do you actually prepare?

1. 1

   Know your own experiences.

   Think through the leadership work you’ve already done. Don’t just think about your title. Think about the problems you’ve helped solve. Think about the people you’ve influenced. Think about the data. Think about what changed because you were involved.

2. 2

   Get comfortable with data.

   You don’t have to be a data scientist. But you should be able to look at a data set and talk about what you notice, what questions you have, and what you might want to investigate further.

3. 3

   Practice giving feedback.

   Go into a classroom, watch a lesson, and practice identifying one high-leverage next step. And don’t just practice what you would say. Practice how you would say it.

4. 4

   Practice scenarios.

   Have someone give you a parent situation, a staff conflict, a student discipline situation or an instructional challenge. And then talk through your thinking. What would you do first? What information would you need? Who would you involve? What would you document? What would you do immediately and what could wait?

5. 5

   Know what you believe about leadership.

   You should be able to talk about why you want to be an administrator. You should be able to talk about what you believe students deserve. You should be able to talk about how you think about teachers, families, accountability, equity and school culture. You don’t need a perfectly rehearsed answer. Actually, I think overly rehearsed answers can sometimes hurt you. You need to be able to explain what you believe and connect it to what you’ve actually done.

The interview is really a preview of the job

Looking back, I think that’s what I appreciate most about the administrative interview process. It gave me a glimpse into what the actual job would require.

• You have to analyze information quickly.
• You have to make decisions with imperfect information.
• You have to communicate with different groups of people.
• You have to navigate conflict.
• You have to understand instruction.
• You have to think about systems.

And sometimes you have to do all of those things in the same day.

You don’t have to walk into an interview proving that you know everything. You have to show that you can learn. That you can listen. That you can reflect. That you can collaborate. And that when you don’t know the answer, you know how to figure out who you need to bring into the conversation.

Because being a principal means being a little bit of a jack of all trades. But it doesn’t mean being an expert at everything.

The best preparation you can have is knowing what you bring to the table, being honest about where you still have room to grow, and being able to show that you know how to work with other people.

Because ultimately, you aren’t interviewing to prove that you can run a school by yourself.

You’re interviewing to show that you can help lead a school community.