Dear future school psychologist,
I will keep this page short and to the point. Here’s what I have for you today:
In the eBook, you will find multiple great answers to each of the following questions:
- What do you want to accomplish as a school psychologist?
- Trust is extremely important in this position. How would you gain trust of the students?
- What goals would you set for yourself in this job?
- How do you imagine a typical day in work?
- What do you expect from teachers, parents, school administrators, counselors?
- What would you do if a student shared their suicidal thoughts/plans with you?
- In your opinion, what are the most common mental and emotional problems children face nowadays?
- How do you cope with disappointment in work?
- What assessment tools do you consider most effective?
- What experience do you have with crisis prevention or intervention?
- Describe a time you demonstrated leadership in school, or in work.
- How would you decide whether a child is eligible for special education?
- Tell us about a time when you belonged to a successful team and describe your role in the team success.
- Violence is increasing at schools, including fatal incidents. What can you do about it as a school psychologist?
- What do you consider the greatest challenges school psychologists face nowadays?
- … and ten other tough questions you may face in your school psychologist interview.
Check the sample to see how this book can help you:
Sample from the eBook
Q: What do you consider the greatest challenges school psychologists face nowadays?
Hint: You can approach this question from two different angles.
The first one is about you—and your personal challenges. This includes burnout, school psychologist to student ratio (too many students), and overwhelming responsibilities. This is definitely a huge challenge we face in the job.
The second angle is about the challenges students face, and how they reflect in your job.
This means the increase of violence at schools, poor communication and social skills of young people (which makes your job difficult), child poverty on the rise, etc. In my opinion, you’ll make a better impression focusing on the second perspective.
Anyway, regardless of your choice, speak calmly about the challenges. Try to avoid being emotional, and ensure the interviewers that you aren’t afraid of the tasks that lay ahead.
Sample answers
– In my opinion, worsening level of communication and social skills in children is the greatest challenge we face as school psychologists. Unless we have a real discussion with a child, unless they give us at least a chance to build trust and to understand them, we can hardly make a proper diagnosis and start a therapy.
Then you have many issues they face outside of school, such as poverty, chicane, and family problems. They find it hard to trust anyone, and this makes our job extremely difficult. However, I believe to be quite good in gaining trust of a student, though it may take time. But this is just something we have to cope with in our job, and I am definitely not discouraged by it.
– I would say that a huge workload is the greatest challenge. We have so many responsibilities nowadays. Devising crisis prevention and intervention strategies and implementing them, lot of paperwork, counseling parents and teachers, deciding about an eligibility for special education, and of course the core of our job which consists in talking to children about their problems.
It is not easy to handle this, considering the ratio of students to school psychologists in an average school district. This can be very hard, both physically and emotionally, and one can potentially face a burnout. But I am aware of all these challenges, and a desire to have this job still burns within me.
If I wasn’t ready for a heavy workload, or didn’t see a meaningful purpose in my job, I would not apply for the position of a school psychologist. But here I am, ready to try my best to handle the challenges.
Q: How do you cope with disappointment in work?
Hint: Some children do stupid things. So do us adults… But it is definitely hard to see a child dropping out of school after you spent one year listening and talking to them, trying to convince them of the importance of education, or of their own worth.
But this simply happens. Your “patient” may drop out of school, harm someone, or even commit a suicide (which is obviously an extreme example, but it can happen).
Unless you have the right mindset and are ready to see your efforts ending in vain, you won’t be a good psychologist. And that’s exactly what they try to find out with their question.
Focus on your effort. It’s effort that counts and not the final outcome, especially in psychology. You know that you won’t succeed with every student. Unless you were ready to experience disappointment, you wouldn’t apply for the job…
Sample answers
– I have already learned in life that we can’t change anyone. We can just help them to find the right answers, to see a different perspective on life, and to induce the change on their ends. But that’s about all we can hope for as psychologists. The final outcome is not in our control. I am well aware of this fact, and I often remind it to myself.
When one is humble and understands their limits, it’s much easier to cope with disappointment. This is my way of doing it, and you can be sure that I won’t leave the job just because I can’t succeed with some students.
– I always try my best. The only disappointment I experience is when I know that I didn’t try everything, or got lost in my thoughts and didn’t give my attention to the student. But also this is a lesson and helps me to become better in work.
Of course I know what can happen. My patients can do stupid things, and I may even say wrong things to them, and the outcome can be fatal. But psychology is not an exact science. It’s not like math. If I wasn’t ready to see one of my patients doing something stupid, I’d not study psychology.
End of the sample
These are just two questions. You will find 25 in the eBook, including tough behavioral questions. But that’s not all.
To ensure you will get the job, I included in the book six principles you need to understand before you can ace this interview.
Without talking too much about them, let me show you another sample from the book:
Sample no. 2
Principle no. 3: Do your homework
People sitting in the hiring committee will know a lot about the school district, and the problems which local educational institutions face.
But you know what? They expect a good candidate for the position of a school psychologist to know as much as they do—or at least to care!
You should do your homework. Try to research particularly about the following:
- The vision and goals of the educational institutions in the district.
- Appointed school psychologists, or former psychologists working in the district.
- Major achievements of the institutions (recognition of teachers, students, prizes and awards the schools received in recent years).
- Things that make the institution unique, reasons why students should choose it instead of other, competing institutions.
- Problems and challenges they face at school(s), especially problems that relate to the job of school psychologist, that means problems that have a core in behavioral and emotional issues students experience.
- Any incidents of violence or suicide in the district in the last twelve months.
- History of the school, at least briefly.
- Expectations of local community, and the collaboration of the schools with other public institutions.
Luckily we live in 21st century, and you won’t have to consult dozens of people to find the answers. Online reviews, local news articles, social networks such as LinkedIn—all these tools, and obviously Google and the website of the school, will help you a lot with your research.
Make notes, print them, and read them before the start of your interview.
Good research will help you in many ways.
It will help you to find good answers to particular interview questions (questions that relate to the school and their problems), to calm down before your interview (since it is always easier if we feel somehow familiar with the place and the people we will meet), and to come up with a good question, once there’s an opportunity to ask a good question.
When you know a lot about the school, or even about the people in the committee, you will always find something interesting to point out, or discuss with them.
Ignorant candidates who rely only on their qualification and interviewing skills, and do not even look at the website of the educational institution before their interview, are rarely hired.
Do not make the same mistake. Spend enough time researching about the school. Make the unfamiliar familiar. It will help you immensely in your interview….
End of the sample
So that’s it. I do not want to waste your time with lengthy sales pages, fake reviews, or imaginary discounts, just like other people do on their websites, while selling various digital products.
You have read the samples, you know what the eBook is about, and surely you can tell whether it will help you or not.
I sincerely believe it will help you in your interview. And you can read it easily in two or three hours, it’s 12,500 words. Only things that truly matter, no secondary content.
Plus, of course, like with everything else we sell here on InterviewPenguin.com, you have a risk free sixty days money back guarantee. If you don’t like this eBook for any reason, or no reason at all, just let me know (email me at matthew[at]interviewpenguin[dot]com) within 60 days and we will give you a full refund.
Quick Summary
- Brilliant answers to twenty-five difficult questions you may get in your interview for a school psychologist job.
- Several sample answers to each question, so you can choose the one that reflects your values and experience.
- Six principles of acing your interview, things you simply need to know and understand, in order to make the right impression on the hiring committee.
- Instant download, .PDF format (you can read it on any device (mobile, kindle, PC), and you can easily print it).
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That’s it. Your interview does not have to be stressful, or difficult. You can interview with confidence, and give brilliant answers to all tough questions. Download the guide today, and succeed in your interview for a job of a school psychologist.
Sincerely,
Matthew Chulaw,
Your personal job interview coach
P.S. Feel free to send me a message if you are still not sure how this guide will help you to get a job, or if you have any questions. I try my best to answer all messages within twelve hours (matthew[at]interviewpenguin[dot]com).
