A resume is a marketing summary of your relevant talents, experiences, and contributions you can make to a school district. It provides a synopsis of who you are as a professional and what value you can bring to the education community. Your goal is to create a content-rich resume that will stand out above the rest, secure a job interview, and ultimately win you that desired dream teaching job.

In today's fast-paced world of time crunching, potential employers and hiring managers can't evaluate all the resumes they receive in great detail. Most give the stack of resumes a hurried glance and toss the lot aside where they ultimately find their way to the "round" filing cabinet. Don't let this happen to yours.

How do you ensure your resume is strong and captivating? Writing eye-catching sentences that effectively describe your talents and achievements can be one of the most difficult things you do when preparing your resume - some find this impossible. To achieve the highest impact, you must begin your bullets with action words. Action words are verbs ending in "ed" that descriptively communicate an achievement. Here is a small sample of descriptive action words that will add some liveliness to your resume:

Accomplished
Investigated
Revamped
Demonstrated
Reviewed
Designed 		Delivered
Achieved
Launched
Adopted
Lowered
Revised

When writing your skills and achievements bullets, make them attention-grabbing and brief. You can add descriptive adverbs and adjectives (e.g., creatively, regularly, patiently, concisely, etc.) to sell the reader on how well you did the task and bring the statement to life. You don't need to add an adverb to every achievement bullet, but do so occasionally.

Writing success stories is best achieved through concise bulleted lists, beginning with action words that accentuate compelling and relevant points. When developing your bulleted list of accomplishments use the C.A.R. approach., ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What challenge have I faced or what problem have I resolved?
  2. What action did I take?
  3. What was the result of the action that I took?

The answers to these three questions provide proof to a school district interviewer that you successfully solved a problem or overcame a challenge to achieve success. The more specifically you describe your skills, strengths, and the situations and where you demonstrated them, the stronger the impression you will make.

Below are some examples of before and after bulleted accomplishment statements. If you were an employer, which bullet would immediately engage your curiosity?

Before:

  • Used Language Arts, Math, Writing, Art, and Social Studies in developing a thematic unit on "Community."

 After:

  • Effectively integrated Language Arts, Math, Writing, Art, and Social Studies through the development and implementation of a thematic unit on "Community," providing students with the opportunity to learn through diverse learning modalities.

Before:

  • Managed the classroom using various methods.

After:

  • Successfully maintain effective classroom management by establishing clear, consistent behavior guidelines, creating an organized classroom, promoting mutual respect, and making learning exciting through engaging lessons and activities.

Now that you recognize the importance of descriptive action words and how to use them to create an engaging and eye-catching marketing document, you are on your way to job search success.

You can also review our education resume samples to get an idea of how action words are incorporated into the resume. If you require more information or have any questions - Contact Candace at A+ Resumes for Teachers by clicking here or call toll-free 1-877-738-8052.

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Success Stories

"I know it's been a while. I've been really busy. I finished my visual arts course last week and also started getting calls for interviews last week too. Because of the Board/Union negotiations, the principals were only allowed to start making calls last Wednesday., so I got calls for 3 interviews on Wednesday., went for the first one on Thursday afternoon, 2 more on Friday; had 4 booked for XXX but accepted a job offer after the first one on Monday and cancelled the other 3.

So, basically, I got a job with the XXXXX.. It was the school at the top of my list after the interview. Intermediate school, grades 7-8, French, not too far from home. I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole process but, let me tell you, after the first 2 interviews you don't really care as much anymore (still presenting yourself very professionally, of course). I am very happy with my choice so far.

I want to thank you for all your help and support; and will definitely be in touch with you throughout other important steps of my teaching career. Thanks again and have a great summer."

A. M.

***More Success Stories***

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Looking forward to working with you in the future,

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Candace Davies ACCC, CRW, CIC, CPRW, CEIP, CECC
Find out more about Candace here.