Let’s talk about interviewing for a minute. I see far too many talented musicians shoot themselves in the foot in interviews. So here are my hard-won Secrets to Acing the Interview.
Trust me, it’s better not to learn these the hard way: it took me bombing a few interviews before I realized I needed help.
The most common interview mistake musicians make?
Failing to practice. Or practicing the wrong way.
I know. For musicians, this sounds strange. Practicing is our “thing.” But when it comes to interviewing, I find that the majority of musicians think that interview practice means going through mentally (or under their breaths) what they think the committee wants to hear.
WRONG.
Rehearsing answers alone often leaves people sounding robotic, rattling off canned responses that create distance instead of connection. Worse, most musicians don’t anticipate the questions they’re likely to be asked until they’ve been blindsided by them in actual interviews. (Ouch. Been there!)
If you only practice on your own, you don’t know how you’re actually coming across to others. Like your music itself, interviewing improves with expert objective feedback.
The Art of the “Mock”
Here’s what I recommend: set up a series of mock interviews. It’s OK to do a dry run first with a friend. But the actual mock interviews need to be done with experienced professionals—a faculty member, advisor, mentor, or a coach. These should be people who’ve interviewed and hired musicians for jobs like the one you’re going for—and can coach you toward success.
So skip practicing with your spouse, partner, or relatives. (They’re not going to be objective or candid enough for what you need.)
Do your mock interviews via Zoom. Record them and watch the play back so you can see how you really come across. For an important opportunity, schedule 2 or 3 mock interviews. You can’t get better if you don’t get a chance to work through the feedback and implement improvements.
Having done many mock interviews with musicians who were looking for teaching and/or arts admin jobs, what I can tell you for sure is this: with coaching and practice, you will improve.
Let’s role play
Here’s how I do mocks: in advance, I ask musicians to send me the job description along with the application materials they submitted for it—PLUS the questions they think they’ll be asked, indicating which ones give them the most concern. This lets us zero in on what needs the most attention.
In looking over musicians anticipated questions, I’m checking to see that they understand the employer’s priorities and perspective. Often, what’s missing from a list matters more than what’s on it. If a musician is looking for a college teaching job and doesn’t realize they’ll be asked about how they’d recruit students or about their teaching philosophy, I know we need to discuss this.
In the coaching session, I assume the role of the employer and we pretend we’re meeting for the first time in an interview. We then go back and forth through the questions and discuss the responses, working on improvements to build the musician’s skills and confidence.
Here are 2 interview tips to help:
Tip #1: Take a Beat to Collect Your Thoughts
In interviews, most of us dive into answering questions before we’ve really heard what we’re being asked. We’re enthusiastic, nervous, and want to jump in with the “right” answers.
That’s a mistake.
Instead, make sure you listen to the question and really hear it. Take a beat and breathe before answering. The pause will feel longer to you than it does to them. Take it anyway.
In that moment when you’re breathing, think what key point(s) you want to make in your answer. Organize your thoughts so you don’t ramble and lose your focus.
Taking a moment to organize your main points can help you be more concise and clear. If the question is about how you’d recruit students, for instance, and you have three recruiting tactics to respond with, it’s great if you can illustrate at least one of these with your own experience and the results you achieved, keeping it brief.
Tip #2: Stories in Your Hip Pocket
One of the best ways to prepare for an interview is to think of 2 or 3 short anecdotes you have that demonstrate your effectiveness as a teacher. Let me be clear: a story isn’t a list of events from your career.
A real story has a protagonist, in this case you, a challenge, the action you took to deal with it, and the result, including what you learned in the process.
A teaching story outlined might go something like, “In my private studio work, I once had a student who . . . [detail the challenge] and to overcome this we [describe the creative approach you took]. . . and after [how she responded] she was able to do [results achieved] and this [how it changed your teaching].”
Stories bring your experience to life for the search committee.
With effective stories, search committees can visualize and understand how you work and who you really are as a person and music educator.
Favorite Story Example
One of the most memorable and compelling teaching stories I ever heard was a clarinetist describing how he’d worked with a student with autism: a child who didn’t read music and didn’t speak.
At the time, the clarinetist had no training in working with neurodiverse students, so he had to effectively create his own curriculum. He designed a musical call-and-response approach—he would play an improvised musical gesture or phrase to the student who would them respond musically to the call.
In that way, they improvised an ongoing dialogue, responding to each other’s input. That’s how the teacher connected with the student and engaged him through sound and shared attention. So each lesson was a creative exploration for both teacher and learner.
When I asked the clarinetist what the results were, he explained that the student’s mom told him that the lessons had made a huge difference in her son’s life and that he’d been able to begin connecting with others thanks to this experience.
That story spoke volumes about the clarinetist’s care and intelligence, about his values and skills, and the qualities he brought to his teaching.
Your stories may not feel as dramatic as this. They don’t need to be. They just need to be real.
I hope these teaching tips help you walk into your next interview grounded, prepared, and confident.
Find more help on interviewing HERE and HERE.
If you’d like expert help fine-tuning your interviewing skills in a mock session with me, Let’s Talk.
Dream Big, Plan Smart, Live Well
