The latest Forbes estimate is that 46% of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years. While the politics of how teachers are treated is a topic unto itself, there’s good news for teachers everywhere: you’ve never been more hire-able!
If you’re a dissatisfied teacher who is hungry for more from your career, check out these four resume tips for transitioning out of teaching from the 2013 eBook, Life After Teaching:
Upgrade Your Email
Before you create and send a resume or complete a profile on a job search site, go online to get an email address that includes your initials and last name. About 70% of resumes are sent to HR professionals digitally, so it’s time to use email as your main tool for job searching.
Already have one? Ensure it’s suitable for a job search in a corporate setting, as most HR professionals are unlikely to respond to hotchikk88@ or mrmoney4ugirl@. Use a free email service to set up a professional, permanent email address with your initials and last name. (Tip: Using your initials instead of your full name can help you reduce targeted spam and keep your privacy safe.)
Translate Your Teacher Skills into Corporate Skills
As a teacher, you know you discovered and honed a variety of skills and abilities. But do you know how to translate them for a different career?
Whether you learned these skills as a student in college or earned your knowledge by jumping right into teaching, you developed competencies that apply across careers, such as basic customer service, multi-tasking under pressure, and tracking data.
As you create your new resume, call on those competencies that you developed as a teacher to show hiring managers just how well you will perform in a new career. Here’s an example of translating traditional teacher tasks into resume-ready administrative tasks.
- Entering grades into a grade book or computer program becomes Perform manual data entry
- Observing other teachers and administrators becomes Observe teammates and offer constructive criticism for best practices
- Monitoring absences for make-up work, missed lectures, discussions, group activities, and media presentations becomes Create and manage systems for tracking large amounts of data
By translating your skills ahead of time, the Human Resources department won’t have to do a lot of work to imagine you in the position.
Make Your Goal Statement Relatable
Your goal statement or highlighted qualifications should speak to your next career, not your next “job”. Starting your resume with a phrase such as, “Seeking full time employment in the field of radiology,” is not an attention-getter.
Instead, make the most of this space by highlighting where you intend to go in your career path. A better goal statement would be, “Seeking to transition from the field of education to pursue engaging, creative work in the industry of editing and writing”. Something that is specific and true will speak deeply about who you are and immediately address the fact that you are transitioning from a different field.
Keep Your Cover Letter Honest & Short
Cover letters can be intimidating whether you’re transitioning into a new career or not. Instead of feeling overwhemled, use the following standard cover letter guidelines to help you write a short and simple cover letter:
- Paragraph 1: Who are you?
- Paragraph 2: What have you done?
- Paragraph 3: Where do you want to go with your career?
Make sure that your contact information appears in the form of a signature line that includes your name, phone number, and email address, and get ready to be called back for an interview!
Are you a teacher trying to transition out of the field? What is your biggest fear?
Were these tips helpful? Access the full version by clicking on the image above, or visit www.LifeAfterTeaching.com.