Resume building for educators seeking teaching jobs is essential for showcasing your qualifications, experience, and skills to potential employers in the teaching field.
Differences Between a Business Resume and a Teacher Resume
In business, a resume is typically used. In higher academia, a curriculum vitae (CV) is typically used. There are differences. A resume is meant to be a quick snapshot of a person’s relevant experiences/education that are specifically targeted to a position. It is usually a page long as a beginner and then expands to two pages for those with experience.
A CV is meant to list a person’s education, accomplishments, work experience, volunteer work, research, and publications. There is no limit to length. Pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators will use a combination resume. We will call it a resume, but it should not be as short as a business resume. It is fine to go beyond a page, but do not insert “filler” items that have no significance.
Important Sections to Include/Not Include in the Resume
Contact Information
This is vital information for the top of your resume. Be sure to include your phone number with area code, mailing address, and current email. Do not use your college email; instead, use your personal email as you will have graduated at some point and the college email will be inactivated. Districts keep resumes on file for years and it is best to keep your information current.
Objective
This is not necessarily needed in the education world. If you graduate with a degree in teaching, one will assume that you are applying for teaching jobs for which you are certified.
Education
Put the college(s) you have attended, the years you were there, and dates/expected dates of your degree as well as what that degree will be. It is very important to add the certification/license that you will hold. Do not leave out endorsements. Administrators don’t want to have to hunt for those. It is not necessary to put in your high school information.
Experience
In this section, put your experience in teaching jobs, subbing, aide, student teaching, and observing information. Put down the places and dates you served in each job, grade level, and subject area. It is unnecessary to bullet point the parts of the job you did that are expectations.
You should only bullet point an accomplishment below that item if there was something out of the ordinary involved.
Perhaps you had an exceptionally high number of students who exceeded achievement on a state test, or you had experience in co-teaching with a special education teacher. You could add training courses or workshops you have attended that are out of the ordinary. Those would be things to highlight. There is no need to say that you prepared report cards for students and had parent conferences. Those are expected things, not highlights.
Other Work Experience
Some colleges say not to add in any other work experience. I suggest adding your other work experience here that is not education related. It can show other skills you have that may not be highlighted in the education section of your resume. It can show that you have perseverance, loyalty, good communication, initiative, etc., depending on what the job was. Employers want you to have had work experience in the world.
Awards, Affiliations & Volunteer Work
This groups three categories into one. When you start out teaching, you may only have one item for certain categories. Making groupings is a way to get your achievements/experience in without having only one item under a heading. List any awards you may have gotten, any professional organizations you belong to, and volunteer work you have done. Employers want to see that you have given back to others.
Presenting & Publishing
These two categories are natural to combine, and it is rare for a beginning teacher to have much of this experience. Still, if you have anything for this category, use it. If not, remember to add this heading in future years when you have had more of these experiences.
References
In business, you will often see the term under this heading stating, “References Available Upon Request.” In the field of education and for teacher jobs, it is not a bad idea to actually list your references here along with a title and contact information. Administrators who are perusing resumes may come across a name they already have a connection with, and your resume may get pulled first for the teaching jobs because of that connection.
Personal
You do not need to list any personal information about yourself at all or even have a section like this on your resume. Remember, it is illegal for an employer to ask about marital status, race, religion, family plans, disabilities, etc.
The Cover Letter
When creating a cover letter, take the time to find out to whom it should be addressed. Do not put things like: “Dear Hiring Administrator”, “To Whom It May Concern”, or “Hi.” Address it to the principal in the building by name for the job you would like. If you are applying for multiple teaching jobs in a larger district, find out the name of the Director of Human Resources and use that. This letter is your way of telling people who you are and what you value. Do not repeat information from your resume!
Instead, use this opportunity to tell potential employers of teaching jobs what kind of person you are. Talk about your teaching philosophy, why you got into education, how teachers have affected your life, and why you think this job is so important. Tell them why you are a good fit. This is not the time to be shy or not want to brag. Speak to your strengths and sell yourself.
The Application
Most applications are now online and easily transferred between districts. Ensure all spelling and punctuation is correct when filling out the online application. Errors will be the first thing that is noticed. For the essay questions, be sure to do them on some other kind of doc and then cut and paste them onto the application instead of typing the answers directly there. That way, you can save and re-create for other districts. When you are listing your references, be sure that you are giving personal numbers and emails, not just general school emails/numbers. You want to make it easy for an employer to check references.
These tips can help you to be more successful in your job search for teaching jobs!
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