7 Strategies to Land Your Next Teaching Job

Teachers who start and end a 30 plus year career in one school are a rare type of breed. Most teachers will have moved within their district at least once. To a lesser extent, many teachers give up their tenured position to obtain a teaching job, one that provides a better teacher salary, at another district, private, or charter institution. Then there are teachers who have no choice, and must look for teaching jobs online, after being “pink slipped,”, i.e., dismissed due to a reduction in the teaching force. Whatever the reason may be for your need to land your next teaching job, I have seven strategies that will make you one viable candidate easy for any Principal to select. I interviewed over a hundred prospective teachers in my ten years as an assistant principal and the ones with the following attributes almost always got the job:

1. An impressive application. Do not confuse having a robust resume with having a robust application. The two are not the same. Unfortunately, many prospective teachers do the minimal amount when completing their online application. They shortchange themselves by not adding previous employment unrelated to teaching (veteran teachers). They respond to online questions (the ones with text boxes) poorly, and sometimes write as little as one paragraph. There’s no need for an essay, but at the same time, you must write so that the reader (the Principals sifting through all of the applicants) is drawn to your voice and places your application in the “interview” pile.


2. A resume full of active verbs. What have you done? You will want to write not only about your responsibilities (e.g., Taught 10th grade World History…) but also what you did that helps you stand out from the interview pool. For example, “Organized a field trip for all of my classes, including advocating for my trip to be approved by the Assistant Superintendent.” Be sure to include whatever projects you completed for your previous Principal and state the outcome: “Piloted a STEM program at the request of my Principal, and had 10 students successfully submit a prototype for a state contest.”


3. Know the school. Know the leaders. It boggles my mind how many teachers I’ve interviewed who knew very little about the school. You must go online and do your research. Also, Google the Principal and see if you can find positive info you can use at a key point in the interview: “Before I get started answering your first question, thanks for selecting me for this interview, and congratulations on starting your third year here at Valley School, Principal Snow. And how is the school-wide literacy initiative going?”


4. Work on yourself prior to the search. If you know you will be looking for a teaching job at the end of the year, start learning something new and potentially beneficial for a school, as soon as possible. Sign-up for Spanish at the local Junior College. Start your M.Ed. Seems risky but the competition is fierce today.

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