A teaching resume should include relevant volunteer or community service experience. Including these experiences are especially true if you are transitioning from a business position to a teaching job or if you are a stay-at-home parent.
Your first defense line is your teaching resume and cover letter in the world of job hunting in the education sector. If you want to receive a job interview, you need to include relevant keywords, accomplishments, strengths to get a competitive advantage.
Do you wonder how this is accomplished if you have no direct classroom teaching experience? The solution is to include volunteer experience in your teaching resume and cover letter. Here’s how.
Here are ideas to get your brain thinking.
First, choose a professional format for your teaching resume and do it yourself, or relieve stress by contacting us to write the perfect resume. Focus on the value you can offer a school community in a teaching role.
Reviewing teaching resume samples to learn more about the format and content will help you write your own. Don’t copy the resume examples you find on a website. Try to develop a unique way of presenting yourself in a most advantageous position, even with little or no paid relevant work experience.
Always ensure all your contact information is up-to-date. Remember to include your contact number at home, a mobile number if you have one, and your email address. It would be more practical to use a professional account solely dedicated to your job hunt. Do not use an email account with an unprofessional address like partygirl@xxxxyyy.com.
Include an opening paragraph with two to three sentences that inform the potential employer about some of your strongest points and qualifications that make you eligible for the teaching position. Significantly highlight your appropriate and applicable skills in what I call a professional resume summary.
If you have no work experience yet in the field of teaching, telling half-truths and putting embellishments on your resume is a mistake. To make up for your lack of education experience, including a list of your relevant volunteer experience and other community activities you took part in, regardless of whether it is related to your teaching career or not.
Documenting volunteer work will show work ethic, commitment to your community, and your other talents like sports, organizing events, and leadership which can come in handy in a teaching position. Even better if you have volunteer work teaching relating, like teaching at the library or Girl Guides.
Aside from your community work, you can also include a list of coursework relevant to the teaching position you want to apply to. Mention some of your significant academic achievements to mask your lack of experience and direct your employer’s focus to your skills and other qualifications.
Use this as an opportunity to explain how your excellent past performance will be an asset to the school community and how it can help improve your teaching skills should they decide to hire you.
These are some of the important points you need to remember when you want to compensate for your lack of teaching experience by including your volunteer work in your teacher cover letter and resume. Avoid the impulse to lie or embellish because it will certainly get you nowhere in your job search and negatively impact your chance of getting an interview.
