Educators Already Use Corporate Tech. They Just Call It Something Else.

I hear this ALL THE TIME.

“I don’t have the right tech experience.”

FALSE.

You aren’t lacking tech skills. You're under-labeling the ones you already use every day.

Corporate hiring teams don’t hire for brand names.
They hire for systems experience.

And you already have it.

The real issue: naming, not experience

When a job posting lists tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, Tableau, or Asana, teachers assume they’re unqualified.

What they miss is this.
Those tools belong to categories, not magic clubs.

If you’ve worked inside those same categories in education, you already understand the work.

Teacher tech vs corporate tech. At a glance.

Find the tech you use in this list and see what it is called in corporate:

Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology
→ Learning Management System (LMS)

PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward
→ CRM + Data Management

Assessment dashboards, benchmark reports
→ Business Intelligence (BI) + Analytics

Remind, ParentSquare, family email logs
→ Customer Communication Platforms

IEP tracking, MTSS logs, service documentation
→ Ticketing and Case Management Systems

Shared drives, curriculum libraries
→ Content Management Systems (CMS)

Committee timelines, event planning docs
→ Project Management Software

Master schedules, coverage plans, rosters
→ Operations and Capacity Planning

Google Forms, approvals, workflows
→ Process Automation

Same thinking.
Same workflows.
Different labels.

Why hiring teams care about categories, not brands

A Customer Success Manager doesn’t succeed because they know Salesforce.

They succeed because they know how to:

• Track relationships

• Log activity

• Analyze trends

• Manage follow-ups

• Report outcomes

Those are CRM skills.
Teachers do that work constantly. They just do it with education tools.

This applies to literally every job a teacher can get outside of the classroom.

How to translate your experience fast

If you see a tool in a job posting you don’t recognize, don’t panic.

Ask this once.

Prompt you can copy and paste into GPT:

I’m a K–12 teacher applying for a [JOB TITLE].
This role requires experience with [TECH TOOL].
What category does this tool fall into?
Is it an LMS, CRM, BI, ticketing, or project system?
What teacher tools do the same type of work?

That’s it.

You’re not asking how to fake experience.
You’re asking how to name what you’ve already done.

How to write it on your resume or LinkedIn

Stop writing:
“I don’t have experience with Salesforce.”

Start writing:
“Used education data systems to track communication, follow-ups, and outcomes across 120+ contacts.”
This is CRM work.

Or:
“Managed assignments, deadlines, feedback, and reporting for 150+ users weekly using Google Classroom.”
This is LMS experience.

The bottom line

You are not non-technical.

You are:

• Systems thinkers

• Data users

• Platform users

• Process managers

You've just learned it in schools instead of startups.

Stop downplaying your tech.

Start naming it correctly.