School Counselor Interview Questions

Samples of Interview Questions for School Counselors

This blog is part of a series of videos on https://www.youtube.com/, and you can find the playlist by clicking here. The first time, we discussed the role of the School Counselor and some sample interview questions for the School Counselors. You can find a lot of questions in the newsletter. A website to look at before the meeting or the interview is https://www.greatschools.org/

-Look for the demographics, scores, students ratio per counselor, and more

-Look at the previous Counselor in Google, look at her roles and compare.

Questions Role of the School Counselor is our video Part I

1. The first question that we talked about was 
2. Tell me a little about yourself as a professional, as a human, your strengths, and why you wonder why you’re seeking a counseling position.

2. What is the most effective use of the counselors’ time?
3.  What do you think are the most important characteristics of a school counselor? What is the essential characteristic school counselors have that supports a caring/supportive School climate for all students?
4. Describe your ideal school counseling program. Include specific examples of what it will include or how the school counseling progresses toward a school’s School Improvement Plan? A school with an Improvement plan is considered a school or an Achieve 180 School. This type of school has particular needs, and usually, they are low-income based.

Video #2 What should you bring for the School Counselor Interview?

***Electronic devices and hard copies of documents to provide specific examples.

1. Updated Resume
2. Brochure of your program and services
3. Calendar Template
4. Referral forms (parents, teachers & staff, student self-referral in different languages, based on your campus needs)
5. Website- How you can connect with your families, students, and community
6. Examples of your program divided into pieces
7. 7-10 hard copies for all people participating in your interview

More questions and resources:

In video #3, we talked about the strengths and interest

1. What influenced you to be a school counselor? What’s your journey to becoming a school counselor?
2.  What do you know about our school that you consider a strength? A weakness?
3. Tell us about a successful (satisfying) case that you have handled? And, one that was not so successful; what would you have done differently? Tell us about a time you helped a student be successful.
4. How would you address cultural differences in a school setting?
5. What is something new that you can bring to the campus and our program?
6. How do you handle criticism? How can criticism improve one’s work?
7. How can you connect with our population? 
8. Are you available to work in the evenings for functions such as parent programs, student programs, etc.? Working in school often includes extended hours. How will you balance work-life demands?
9. How do you handle stress? Stress is part of schools. How does the ASCA National Model help to manage it? School counselors are confronted with a lot of stressful circumstances and stories. How will you maintain your professionalism and personal Wellness when faced with these?
10. What is your experience with parenting programs? What support will your counseling program offer two parents? What instructional Services can you provide?
11. Depending on the needs of the campus, they can ask questions like: What has your experience been working with students of color? LGBTQ students?
12. How do you keep yourself organized?  

Your Program:

Step 1- School Counseling Program: Define

1. What is your school counseling/educational philosophy?

Step 2 – School Counseling Program: Deliver

1. How do you develop a positive relationship with students in individual counseling? How do you connect with them? Small group counseling? What’s the role of a school counselor to student relationship in individual and group counseling question marks?
2.  What are examples of evidence-based strategies addressing student attendance?
3.  What are evidence-based strategies that you use in your counseling program?

Step 3 – How to manage your School Counseling Program

1. How do you use data in a School Counseling Program? How does your school data inform the school counseling program?
2.  How do you gather your data? Provide some examples.
3. How would you divide your time between meeting the immediate needs of the students and keeping up the paperwork? How is your use of time spent to address the condition of all students? How will you effectively plan and manage your time as a school counselor?
4.  Provide specific examples with your calendar, Outlook calendar, emails, papers, document, phone calls and voicemails, emails, Google forms, and more.
5.  Maybe they can ask you what technology applications you see as practical in your work? Or they will tie up this question for the virtual students and how you do your guidance lessons, communicate with them, and more and more.

Step 3 – School Counseling Program: Assess your program

1. How will you assess the school counseling program?
2.  What type of data would demonstrate an effective School counseling program?
3.  How do you use the data to reflect the school on the school counseling program goals? 
4.  How do you measure your program?

Advocacy

1. How have you advocated for students?

Collaboration

1. What is the school counselor’s role concerning teachers, parents, administrators, and other counselors?
2. During the interview, they can ask you: how do you react when you’re overwhelmed? How would you know that you’re overwhelmed and you need help?
3. How would you address an angry parent?
4. How would you address a passive or uninvolved parent?

Meeting #3

Scenarios

What would you do if…

This portion of the interview is essential because of both leaders in the panel and yourself. It will help you find some guidance about the needs of the campus, and you can gather more informal data about the inside of the school. Usually, each campus will ask you those essential questions they may have, and they will see if you are the right fit for their campus. 

If they ask you specific questions about 

• Behavior
• Guns
• Aggressive behavior
• Physical altercations
• Guidance lessons
• Uninvolved parents
• Bullying or friendship issues
• Self-care for teachers
• Presentations for parents, teachers, and students
• Home visits
• Students abusing drugs and alcohol
• College choices 

You can find all these questions and more information in ASCA, the American School Counselors Association webpage