East Harlem Tutorial Program Interview Questions
& Process

So the hiring process includes three steps: First you apply and if accepted, a phone interview is conducted (30-45 minutes), and finally an in person interview. The whole thing takes about 2-3 months. For the in person interview, you need to prepare a 5 minute lesson plan to teach. You also have to read 2 articles beforehand and be ready to do a writing response and group discussion about them. It was really concerning to see mostly white staff and very few minority teachers and staff when I walked in. I'm a person of color, and there was a white female, but we were the only candidates who showed up out of at least 10 invited. During the first part of the interview, you're surrounded by 5-6 staff members, and only one was a person of color; the rest were white or Asian, mostly female. Given that the students in East Harlem are mostly Latino and African American, it's concerning that the teaching staff disproportionately consists of white middle-class females from fancy schools. This means students don't see many adults who represent their community in the classroom, but rather staff who might not understand their realities. I hope the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigates this non-profit's hiring practices.

The whole thing took like a month. First, I had a phone interview, then a take-home task that took me about 4 hours of my personal time to finish. After I sent that in, I had to go in person for more interviews with the Data Ops team, and also a surprise interview with the Principal. I also had to do another task there onsite. The task itself was easy, but the computer I used was super slow and kept freezing up. Luckily, I managed to get it done. Then they asked for 3 references. A week after I followed up, they told me I didn't get the job because they hired someone internal. Total waste of my time.

I applied for the HR Coordinator role on October 4th and the same day got an email to schedule a phone interview. I had the interview on October 6th. After about 20 minutes, the recruiter told me the next step was to complete an on-boarding task and send it back by noon on the 11th. I did that, but two weeks later they told me they were going with another candidate. I felt the process was impersonal and not great because they didn't offer an in-person interview or feedback on the task. It seems like it's for the best that I didn't get the job, given how they run things.

I applied online and heard back about three weeks later via email for a phone interview that lasted about 30 minutes. The next day, I was informed about an activity with three parts that was due by the end of the week. After I submitted it, I received a call a day or two later to assess my Spanish speaking skills with the current elementary program manager. That was a quick 5-minute conversation. Although I felt I did poorly on the Spanish part, the next step was scheduled to be an in-person interview.