Careers advisor job interview - secondary school

[KarmaKameelion]

I applied for a careers advisor role not expecting to hear back as they were looking for someone with experience already. But I have got an interview! In my cover letter I outlined that I had a previous career in snr management with a global tech company prior to children. Since then I have worked in back office of a private school. Role is at a smaller private girls school.

any advise I what i might be asked? And without any experience is there any resources I could look at to maybe give me some insights?

Could you perhaps contact the Careers Advisor at a local school to pick their brains?

Are you familiar with the Gatsby benchmarks? No idea about private schools, but big in careers guidance in maintained schools.

A great idea but interview is weds morning so not a lot of time to find someone! The school I work at the careers advisor is on holiday

Agree re Gatsby. Good to be able to reference. Also UCAS and entry requirements for Uni. Alternatives such as Apprenticeships.

Great thanks! Back in my corporate days I did a lot of psychometric testing ect and similar frameworks but very much geared to those already in work so very different.

just had a look at the Gatsby framework and that’s super interesting!

DD is just leaving her Indie, so this is my slant on what they might expect:

Are you likely to just be responsible for helping kids find a direction/career preference (so organise talks/tasters/career fair show & tells from old students and parents from year 7-12)? or do you also need to sort work experience? Do you need to sort getting kids up to any local Uni and entering competitions for super-curriculars (or better still some scholarships)?

Would applying for degree apprenticeships and UCAT/UMAT/Interview practice and UCAS apps be the responsibility of another team?

Is there a pastoral lead in the school or would you be expected to cover thst sort of stuff too?

It's used by private schools too. This is my first thought - read through that big update document they've recently published for an idea of what excellent careers advice is supposed to look like

Also agree with other poster - be prepared to talk about (or ask about) your role in relation to organising work experience, and the relationship between careers advice and university guidance in the school.

Thanks - these are really great questions to ask! The job advert says 8-15 hours a week so would be really good to clarify what the expectations are within that timeframe

they might ask you about career guidance theory, if you're a member of the CDI or AGCAS, if you have the postgraduate diploma or masters in career guidance (teaching/counselling/HR is not the same)

Clearly you don't know/have these things and that's a worry. Careers advisors regularly argue for their profession to be the same as a registered teacher - no one else can do it unless qualified / registered.

In Scotland (and I believe Wales) as well as many other countries, you simply cannot get a careers advisor job without the above (and we get paid much higher as a result). You might have the title careers adviser, but you aint one.

Start reading up, and maybe find the time to do the actual qualification to improve your chances and really make a proper difference to these clients.

Look at platforms like unifrog and get familiar with them, and how schools may use/ could improve tracking.
Look into local opportunities and talk up how you network, eg you’d like to build up visits to local universities- and how you’d consider this for different pupil groups.
and yes…. Lots of gatsby knowledge!

Are they after a Careers Advisor (1:1 and group careers advice sessions with students, Gatsby requires at least 1 by end KS4 and another by end KS5) or a Careers Leader (probably leading all the initiatives to ensure compliance with the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks). Or is the role combining Careers Leader with Advisor ?

if its giving advice, have a look at the CDI and routes to becoming qualified as an advisor. They may be happy to hire someone not qualified if you have plans in place to become qualified.

They are aware I don’t have the qualification. I made that clear. I work at a private school and the career advisor does not have a qualification but it is working towards one and I am more than happy to do that

I started as a trainee careers advisor at a state secondary school in Oct. My interview had two sections - surprise task followed by interview panel with head of careers etc. The surprise task was looking at a fictitious student progress report for Year 9 and having to answer questions on how I would help them and what resources I would use etc. Interview questions were standard around what I knew about the school, its values, Ofsted with relation to careers,Gatsby benchmarks,knowledge of safeguarding and PREVENT and how I would cope with the challenges of working in a school environment. Speak to them about their expectations on how many appointments you will do. I was expected to do 6 to begin with increase to 8 over time once I got accustomed to the job.

Thank you all so much for your help! I had the interview today and it went really well but not holding my breath as they were interviewing other candidates that are likely more experienced.
the Head did mention she was pleased I had mentioned about AI changing the workplace in my in tray exercise

they had absolutely no concerns that I’m not qualified. Their last careers advisor was the business studies teacher and they now wanted someone who had lived experience so that was great although I’m sure someone with more direct experience would be beneficial