You know the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover?” Well, that doesn’t apply to resumes! Not getting the interviews you want? It may be the resume! Follow these makeover tips for teaching positions!
Q:
I’m thinking of buying a resume template. Should I?
A: Go for it! You can have the old school black and white resume, but in the world of digital applications, highly polished looking resumes do catch the administrator’s eye. You could get a free one at Canva. Etsy also has some great resume templates that are not at all expensive that you can use for the rest of your life so why not invest! Do buy one with a light background as hiring committees will often need to print out resumes and you don’t want to cost a bunch of toner!
Tip: Make sure if you are a teacher who applies to both elementary and secondary positions that your resume doesn’t skew too much on the elementary side of things. Better to go neutral/professional.
Q: What sort of template is best?
A: Get one with a bar along the side! This was the advice given to me by an assistant superintendent and now that I’m on the other side of the hiring table, I 110% see what she meant! The bar makes it easy to quickly see an applicant is qualified. At minimum, your bar should have:
- Contact information
- Certifications – include (pending) next to any cert you’re still waiting to hear about or currently signed up to take
- Expertise (if you don’t yet have a career or are only a couple years into your teaching career, label this as “Strengths”)
- Education
I would suggest putting it in that exact order. Certs are way more important than what your major was. I assume if someone is certified to teach, they have a bachelors. And if they are certified for library or some other masters required position, they have a masters. Mention any cert required for the position. Certs for PDs can be expressed in the expertise section or in a separate section.
Expertise is where you really get to highlight what you excel in. If an ELA teacher, I write “reading/writing workshop” if I was a department head I may write “Department Leadership” if I’m instructionally tech savvy, I may write “Instructional Technology” or “Blended Learning”. What 3-4 things could you mentor someone on? That’s what you include! If you don’t have teaching experience, that doesn’t mean you don’t have strengths. It may be during student teaching you were really good at building rapport with students. It may be that you are great at multitasking or having positive attitude or being patient.
Additional
sidebar topics: Presentation Experience, Accolades, Volunteer Experience, Published
Work, Trainings, etc.
Q:
How many bullet points should I put for each position and what do I include?
A: Add 4-6 skills (anything positions not really relevant 2-3) per position. We all know you lesson planned and taught and had classroom management. Don’t waste a lot of time describing what a teacher does. Instead think about what set you apart as an educator? Your description should show what you find important and what you are passionate about. For example, one of the things that is most important to me as an ELA teacher is that my class was a community of writers where they could take risks and straight up cry in front of each other.
Original: Managed a classroom of students and enforced district and campus expectations.
BORING!!! And no heart! Teacher, what drives you?
Revised: Built classroom communities and employed classroom management that focused on respect and trust.
Think about all the information I just gave in that description. I was able to convey some major information about my philosophy of teaching and shared with the hiring committee two important values I hold.
Write with heart! Have a hard time writing with heart? Write out a list of your values as an educator before you revise. Then as you revise think to yourself “how can I incorporate those values?” Like if a science teacher said an important value is creating students who wonder about the world. They would write something like “Facilitated labs designed to promote inquiry and foster a sense of wonder about the world” That really says a lot about a student-centered approach and who the teacher is in their heart.
Q:
All my positions are teaching the same grade level and content area. How do I
keep from repeating myself?
A: Don’t be redundant. Put your major points in your first description. And secondary points in your second description. Tertiary points in your third.
Q:
What do I look for when I revise my resume?
A: Now that you’ve written with heart, you will revise for job description. Print our your resume. Print out the job description. For each part of your resume that matches the job description, highlight it in the resume. For each part of the job description not in the resume, highlight it in the job description. Ideally, you would have your whole resume highlighted (aka everything is useful) and none of the job description highlighted (aka your resume addresses all parts of the job description). However, if there are parts of your resume without highlighting this may be something you need to delete. If there are parts of the job description highlighted, this is something you need to add.
You don’t have to add with a completely new bullet. Let’s say that the job description has something about communicating with parents. Look to see if you have a bullet already written where this could go perfectly. So if there is a bullet you wrote “Continuously monitor student performance and adjust lessons to meet the individual needs of students” you could add to that bullet “while communicating to parents where students are in their progression of acquiring skills”. It doesn’t have to be it’s own bullet.
Q:
What are rookie mistakes on a resume?
A:
Here’s the list:
- Grammar and spelling mistakes
- Not updated with the most recent experiences
- No resume at all.
- Your contact email is a district email you are trying to leave. *face palm* Get a neutral gmail account for free instead.
- Only being on a campus 1-2 years max before switching – if this is
a pattern on a resume I get concerned
- 3 pages long but you’ve only taught at 1 school – we don’t need
non-teaching experiences once you have teaching experience!
- Not including the campus you worked at
A:
Get yourself experience with that age group ASAP and put it on your resume. You
can do it as a job: summer camp for the age group, tutor, work for a place like
Kumon or Sylvan. But an easy way to build up experience AND show you have a
servant’s heart is volunteering! Volunteer as a youth leader at your church,
for a local summer camp, or as a coach for a local youth sports league. Even
call up local organizations or businesses that host camps/lessons for students the
right age with the right content area and ask if there are volunteer
opportunities. Those places love to host summer camps! And this could be a
great reference for you!
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