Time really flies and it has been more than 4 years since I last visited this thread. I remembered browsing this thread when I submitted my application to MOE and like most members here, was nervous about the interview.
I'm writing to share my experiences about teaching and hopefully someone can gain some insight into the job and make better decisions for themselves.
The dreaded interview
When I was called up for the interview, I was offered PE and English. The way the interview was conducted was true to what had already been mentioned to death in this thread. There was the short presentation and I was interviewed by a panel of four people. Of course, there was also the short essay.
I remembered being rushed into the interview room before I finished the essay because the interviewers were tired of waiting for the admin to be done. Luckily, I was almost done.
The presentation was prepared beforehand. My suggestion is to pick something that is related to your teaching subject and at least demonstrate that you have the potential to deliver the content. It's a really short presentation so no worries there.
After that came the question and answer. Questions were really HR related questions like why did you choose to teach English. Note that you can't really prepare for this as questions do change depending on the interviewer. In my case, since I was already a mid-career change applicant, they asked me why I chose teaching as my second career. Also, be mindful of questions that test you on integrity issues - e.g. what would you do if you discovered a colleague leaking exam questions? Just think on your feet and come up with sensible answers and you'll do alright.
By the end of the interview, I kind of knew the interview was a success as they told me to quickly go take the fitness test.
The fitness test for PE teachers (skip this part if it doesn't apply to you)
The fitness test cannot be underestimated. I was in my late thirties when I took the test. This is NOT IPPT or NAPFA. Getting a gold in NAPFA does not guarantee a pass. Test takers have been known to fail the gymnastics and agility run component. Be sure to practise for those components on your own before taking the test.
Badminton as long as you can stroke and move well round the court you'll do alright. For the ball game, just run into space and keep communicating with your teammates. For swimming, there is no time limit. So just enjoy a relaxing swim.
Life in a secondary school
Life in school wasn't really bad. As a contract teacher, you are not really loaded with lots of duties. Of course, if you go through NIE to become a trained teacher, you will get more and more responsibilities. Your HOD will brief you on these details.
From my observations, teachers do indeed need to handle a fair bit of administrative work. About 60% of the time, they are engaged in operational issues - form teacher duties, CCA, marking, entering data, setting papers, manning special programs, etc. This isn't a bad thing if you enjoy these activities but they do take up quite a fair bit of your time.
As a result, teaching kind of takes a back seat. If you are looking purely to focus more on teaching, private tutoring is a more appropriate route. Besides, it's sometimes not within a teacher's control as to the type of students that they get. In most classes, there are always a handful of bad eggs that spoil the broth. They are hyperactive or have boundary issues and just disrupt lessons - thus making teaching less feasible and enjoyable.
I preferred to have more freedom in my teaching methods and spend more time teaching than handling operational issues. So I opted to go back to private tutoring after my contract stint.