The School District of Philadelphia Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was pretty straightforward: I attended a job fair, made contact with a school representative, and arranged an interview. Following that, I had an interview with a group of school employees and got an offer on the same day.

I had a Zoom interview with a group of teachers and administrators during Covid. They picked someone else first, but that person turned down the job, so they offered it to me. This is a stressful role and the best people usually get their first choice.

It took about a month for them to get back to me after I applied. First, they had me do a week-long take-home project which was pretty cool. Then, we had a one-hour Zoom call to discuss the project and how I built it. About two weeks after that, I went in for an in-person interview that felt really positive and easy-going. But then, it went silent. When I reached out, they told me I wasn't selected to move forward. I was surprised because I thought it went well technically and we seemed to connect. It's funny, though, because they re-posted the same position, making me question if they actually want to hire anyone. Biggest red flags were the lack of a clear interview process – you don't know how many steps there are or what's next. It seems like they really don't know what they're doing if they're willing to have candidates spend 50 hours on a project, followed by an hour on Zoom, and then an in-person interview. I have over 10 years of experience and have never encountered anything like this before. I get that the market is tough and there are many applicants, but that doesn't give them the right to waste people's time, especially when my history shows I can do the job. The fact that the position opened up again just adds insult to injury, as if neither I nor anyone else was good enough. What's even worse is that they might not even intend to hire anyone, thinking it's okay to put someone through this whole process just to reject them and then keep looking. This feels like abuse, and I want to warn others not to get their hopes up. While I did like the assignment, their real hiring intentions are questionable. I suspect they're not serious and are fine with wasting people's time.

The interview process involved a significant amount of performing. Candidates were expected to demonstrate proficiency on their major instrument, secondary instruments, piano, conducting, and rhythm reading using snare techniques. Additionally, there were discussions about general pedagogy, such as how one would approach teaching a beginner on a particular instrument their very first lesson.