Writing your resume might not be that tough a job for you, but think about the resume for the position of a university lecturer.
A career in teaching though considered prestigious and revered all over, needs you to impress the recruiter in one go with your skills, talents and of course, an unbeatable resume and cover letter!
Unfortunately, applying for and getting selected for a teacher’s role is not as easy as it used to be earlier when your studious look and attire, your grades in exams and your pleasant demeanour were the only necessary credentials; just like corporate jobs, you have to wander from one college to another carrying your resume and have to apply to many colleges online simultaneously for a really long time until you finally are asked to come for the interview!
Your teaching resume will take you from good to better to the most reputed colleges, only if it showcases that you are adaptable, tactful and have good communication as well as presentation skills. This may sound easy but it would make you re-examine and relearn what you have already learnt while writing resumes.
So, let’s take a look about how your teaching resume should look like:
Coloured Pages or differently-shaped papers would not make your resume unique:
Using bright-coloured papers or bigger-sized pages would not help the administrator put your resume on top of the stack or get a valued recommendation. The best you can do is using a slightly off-white or lightly textured paper, however it is the content that will make your resume grab eyeballs.
A Mention of additional qualifications is quite the smart move:
The educational workshops, seminars and children educational activities that you have participated in should receive a worthy mention in your resume. This would do wonders for your job application as adding your additional educational qualifications would mean you are passionate, serious and committed to your field of interest. The tuition classes that you have taken and the student workshops you have attended should be mentioned here, howsoever small span of time they might have been for.
Your Teaching Capabilities and Specific Interests in Teaching Area Need To Be Chosen
If you have been an active member of volunteering organizations for teaching, it needs to be mentioned along with your professional goals and ambitions in your resume. However, some of them you can also specify during the interview. The number of students you can or have handled in the past and the particular subjects that you like to teach should be given in your resume and you should also repeat the point during your interview. Working with power point and other form of presentations should be a must-given forte. So, if you are not acquainted with them, you must start right away. You can also offer to carry a DVD of your presentations for further perusal by the principal.
Teaching Experience – Both Paid and Unpaid
Those Sunday afternoon classes or practical invigilation that you have conducted should also receive a mention in your resume, even if they were unpaid for, as this would show that you teach as it is your passion and interest, and not only because of the money involved. Teaching is a profession that involves much genuine interest, passion and dedication towards shaping lives and enabling students to have a bright future. So, if you specify your volunteering experiences or teaching and helping school students, document the time and year to give a detail picture of your teaching experience, apart from the one in a college classroom set-up.
Give Your Resume a Professional Touch
You must make your resume look professional and keep away from unusual, whacky fonts which are sure to divert the recruiter from the actual content of the resume. Proofread your resume before submitting it and check for any spelling/grammar errors. Your contact details should be right at the top as you want don’t want the recruiter who might just be the head of a department or the principal to waste time on looking for your name and contact number while calling you for the interview or asking you to give presentations. And yes! For those of you who have had several years of experience in the field of teaching, beware! You might have to present your ideas on a certain subject, thinking that you are presenting a lecture to the class filled with students during the interview, which you might not be so accustomed to, keeping in the mind the earlier techniques of job application and interview tactics, especially for a lecturer.
Why a cover letter and what must it include?
Your cover letter too must reflect your passion for teaching and the necessary certification you have for the position. A mention of why you have chosen this profession and what makes you love teaching, in your cover letter is a must. You also need to give a little insight into the work ethics and rules you follow, for instance, helping students in other extra-curricular activities and projects apart from the regular classes and introducing innovative and interactive methods of teaching would help the administration and the principal know about your commitment and creativity-oriented approach towards students.
Your achievements and experiences and the success you have acquired so far in this field and the documents that go to prove your mettle in the field, all need a worthy mention in your cover letter. You can relate anecdotes and other examples of where your efforts were higher in leaps than other teachers or how you led the students to have an outstanding performance.
In your cover letter, you can also give a brief input on your mentor or a teacher who is your favourite, elucidating the reasons too. This would also lead the principal to believe that you understand the importance of the role a teacher plays in a person’s life. A background research on the university you are applying to and what it is known for can be a plus point to your cover letter when you show your interest in involving yourself with such programmes in the college.
The methods using which you wish to mentor your students, if specified in the cover letter will get instant attention and you will suddenly be an edge above other candidates. If you can communicate to the principal the type of job profile you are looking for, the reason you should be hired and the interest you have in their college, you are very well in his/her mind for an interview and soon will be inside the college premises as the Professor.
Happy Teaching!
