I sent my application to the New York office. A few days later, I had a phone interview and the interviewer seemed welcoming and asked me some questions and scenarios of how I would teach. This was as far as their pleasant disposition went because I ended up "virtually meeting" (as they like to call it; they're all quite robotic there) 4 different recruiters in the span of a month. After this, I immediately realized that this company was a bit disorganized. After a recruiter was determined (Lauren Clarke), she then sent my application to a Middle School and a few days later was the in-person interview. I visited the school, had a tour, observed some lessons, had a "coaching" session, which was basically just me repeating the first line from the scripted lesson plan that they provided again and again, gave a 15-minute lesson, and then had the official one-on-one interview with the principle and the recruiter next to me taking notes. I knew from the very beginning that I didn't want to work there because of their strict environment, boot camp-like atmosphere, and their attitude toward people that speak up for themselves. Also, the recruiter, which was also my "coach", seemed completely lost half of the time. The scripted lesson plan was a math lesson, but ELA was my preference. I didn't question the reason for teaching a math lesson and didn't want to interfere because it was the weekend and the interview was scheduled two days after receiving the lesson plan. The recruiter also confessed during our phone conversation that she was not skilled in math and couldn't "coach" me on a math lesson as well as someone that has taught math in the past. This goes to show you how out of touch the recruiter was during the whole process. Despite all of these warning signs, I went through the whole process, and I must say that I gained great experience, as I've never interviewed at a school before. They're primarily looking for someone who complies with directives in my opinion, and that's not a healthy work environment because you need to be willing to listen to and/or accept different ideas or opinions to make the work environment more dynamic and rich. This was clearly not a good fit, but I don't regret any bit of it.

There’s an initial phone call that is first part of the interview, and then you complete the second part of the application where you answer interview questions via video. It’s not live but you record yourself answering the questions within a certain time limit. Afterwards, once you get accepted by the program you get an offer from a school and you do one final interview (supposed to be around 90 minutes with demo lesson, role play, questions about your teaching philosophies/techniques) with the school’s administration.