Finding a Teaching Job--What's Worked For Me Jun 11 '01    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line It's all about personal contact--send those letters to principals! There're plenty of reviews about finding a job here at Epinions. But most of them deal with finding a job in the corporate world. Anyone who's ever searched for a job in teaching knows that the education world does not work the same way. Within this editorial are the things that I've done that have resulted in a teaching job, as well as a comparison of how finding a teaching job differs from finding a "corporate world" job. Background I graduated from college in 1998. I taught at a school in the same area as my college for two years. This year, I moved to Columbus and taught at a school in this area for a year. Next month, I will be moving to Dallas, Texas, and I have succeeded in securing a job in that area. Job 1 As I began my last semester before college graduation, I started making lists of districts in which I might be interested in teaching. In about March, I sent for applications. I filled in the basic information, but many districts required essays, which I finally got around to finishing at the beginning of April. All told, I probably spent about 40 hours on applications. In addition, I decided to send a letter and resume to some of the Catholic schools in the area, as they didn't seem to have an "overall" application. I sent out eight letters and resumes. I used the same basic letters, but personalized it as I could. The whole process probably took three or four hours. The results: District Applications Number of applications returned - 15 Number of interviews - 1 (and they made me come back from vacation early to have it) Number of job offers - 0 Letters to Individual Schools Number of letters sent - 8 Number of interviews - 3 Number of job offers - 2 Number of interview offers after I'd accepted a job - 3 It is obvious which method was more effective. Job 2 I moved to Columbus after my second year of teaching. I was a little frustrated with the teaching profession, and thought I wanted to try something else for a year. (I think this was a result of my idealism trying to adjust to reality.) However, I couldn't find anything else that sounded interesting. Then I saw a teaching job in the classified ads that sounded good. I sent a letter, got an interview, and got the job. Job 3 I knew finding a job in Dallas was going to be more complicated, as I didn't know the area. I researched districts on the internet and sent for applications from the ones surrounding the city where I'm going to live. I sent in eight completed applications, totalling about 30 hours of work. After sending them in and waiting about two weeks, I had heard nothing. But one of the little "we got your application" cards said that I was free to contact individual schools. Knowing that I had to find a job or be homeless (my apartment complex wouldn't give me an apartment if I didn't have a job), I put together a cover letter and copied and sent out 67 letters and resumes. Two (mail) days later, I got a call from a principal who interviewed me over the phone. Four hours later, I was offered the job and accepted it. Within the next two days, I received four more calls from principals wanting to interview me. The Common Element My 23 applications over two years have netted me a grand total of one interview with a district. Every batch of letters I've sent to individual schools has resulted in at least one job offer. If you're searching for a job in education, fill out those applications. In most cases, a district can't hire you unless you do. But follow up to applications with letters to the schools you'd like to work in. Some districts allow principals to do their hiring directly, such as the district where I got hired after interviewing over the phone. If the district doesn't allow this, then the principal can mention your name to the personnel director as someone he/she would be interested in meeting. Teacher Job Hunt vs. "Corporate" Job Hunts A few months ago, my boyfriend was searching for a job that would allow him to use his newly-acquired engineering master's degree, so I had the opportunity to observe his job hunt process. It's about as different from the teaching job process as could possibly be. Here are some differences. Teaching jobs, and decent schools to work in, are everywhere. Other jobs are not always everywhere. He had five interviews in five different parts of the country, while I counted 95 schools within commuting distance of my new apartment. While his companies flew him in for an interview, schools will never do that! Any traveling you must do for interviews will be financed by you. While we're on that topic, schools will not pay for apartment-finding trips or moving expenses, as his company did. Start saving your pennies. Your interview will not be a day-long event, where you get introduced to everyone and their brother, who each talk about their function within a company. Your job description will not be explained in much detail. The interview will be conducted wherever there's an open room, whether that be in the teacher's lounge, in the principal's office, or behind two kid desks. (I once had an interview for an after-school program job while sitting in the school stairwell, the only unoccupied space at that time.) You will meet anyone you happen upon in the hallway. Your job description won't require much explanation beyond "You'd be teaching two classes of fifth grade English/Language Arts and Social Studies." People who get flown to interviews get nicely typed up offers and a couple of weeks to think things over (and receive and compare other offers). Teachers aren't afforded that luxury. When I was offered my second job, I asked for some time to think it over and heard, "Sure. Think it over tonight and call me back tomorrow." If you choose not to accept a job, you have no way of knowing if another offer will come in. You don't have the opportunity my boyfriend had to compare the offers side-by-side and choose the best one. A Word (or several) On Timing For the best chance of getting a job, try to complete your applications and send out your letters by mid-spring. Principals generally try to complete their hiring as soon as possible after school gets out (if not before) so that they don't have to worry about it all summer. If your resume doesn't get to them before that, you may be out of luck in some cases. (Of course, there are always last-minute changes in teaching staff where jobs become available later.) I was cutting it pretty close by sending out my letters near the end of May (but it's very hard to teach full-time and put in the work necessary to find a new job, too!) Plan ahead, and plan for everything to take longer than you think it should. In Conclusion Finding a teaching job is a whole different ballgame from finding other kinds of jobs. Be aware of this going in. Happy hunting!

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