Your Resume Still Looks Too Much Like a School Document

Here's one educator's resume.

Look familiar? 😬

Nine bullets. Two start with "Responsible for." The last one says "Other duties as assigned."

I've read 500 educator resumes since spring. Most of them look like this.

Here's what a recruiter learns from it: this person teaches 7th grade science. That's it. 

The two best things this teacher did sit at the very bottom!

C'mon. We can do better than that.

Quick thing before we start...

Writing a resume today is different than it was 5, 10 or 20 years ago. The one that got you your teaching job was built for a school.

Plenty of great teachers have a resume that looks just like this one. That's okay. That's why I'm here. Your best pal Steph, doing the crosswalk with you, one line at a time.

Let's go line by line.

1. You wrote a job description.

"Duties and Responsibilities:"
"Responsible for planning and delivering..."
"Responsible for differentiating instruction..."

Your principal could have written these. They describe the job. A recruiter wants to know what YOU did.

Fix: Delete the heading. Delete "Responsible for." Start every bullet with something you did.

2. Your proof is about kids.

"130+ diverse learners"
"monitor student growth"

Companies hire you to work with adults. Customers. Coworkers. New hires.

A company can't do anything with a student count. They want to see your work with ADULTS.

Fix: Cut the student lines. Your title already says you teach.

3. You're speaking school.

IEP. 504. PBIS. PLC. LMS.

That's five acronyms in nine bullets. Most recruiters outside a school won't know what they mean. They won't look them up either.

Fix: Spell it out or cut it.

4. Big words, zero facts.

"Engaging." "Effective." "Utilized." "Safe and positive learning environment."

Every teacher in America could put these on a resume. So they say nothing about you.

Fix: Trade each one for a number or a name. How many? Which tool? What changed?

5. Your best work is buried.

"Served as 7th grade team lead"
"Assisted with rollout of new LMS"

This teacher ran a team of adults. This teacher helped an entire school switch to new software.

Companies hire for exactly that. Software companies that sell to schools have a job title for it: Implementation Specialist.

And it's sitting right above "Other duties as assigned."

Fix: Move it to the top. Add numbers. Change "Assisted" to what you did.

The after

NINE bullets became THREE. The two buried lines go first.

Team Lead | 6-8 Science Educator · August 2016 to Present

Riverside Middle School, Hillcrest County Schools*
• Led a team of 6 7th grade teachers for 3 years; ran weekly planning meetings and built a shared pacing calendar all 6 teachers used to plan every unit
• Trained 42 teachers on Canvas, the school's new learning management system, through 4 sessions and a step-by-step guide the school still gives every new hire
• Kept 130 families informed each year through weekly email updates, with conference attendance up from 60% to 85% in two years
*School/district changed for educator's anonymity

Now a hiring manager sees someone who led a team, trained 42 adults on new software and made the guide every new hire still gets.

The teaching didn't disappear. It's in the title.

It's your turn

Pull up your resume. Ask one question about every bullet:

Did I do this with adults or with kids?

Adults: move it up and add a number.
Kids: don't cut it yet. Dig first.

"But it was all kids."

I hear this one a lot.

The lesson was for kids. The work behind it happened long before a kid ever saw it.

You planned the unit.
... wrote the tests, the rubrics and the slides.
... built the tracker that showed who was falling behind.
... sat in data meetings and planning meetings. Plenty of them.

Now dig. What did you bring to those meetings? What did you make that someone else used?

Did a teammate borrow your unit?
Did your team use your tracker?
Did a sub or a new teacher run your plans without calling you?

Fix: Write down three things you made this year. Next to each one, write who else used it.

One exception: curriculum and assessment jobs. There, a strong student result can stay. Just put the adult work that got it right next to it.

The adult work on my resume is what got me hired outside the classroom. It's the first thing I'd fix on yours.

Tell me which bullet you're cutting first. Reading this in your inbox? Hit reply, I read my own email. Reading on my website? Send me a message on LinkedIn.

Companies hiring for roles like these run every Saturday in Jobs Jobs Jobs, my LinkedIn newsletter listing companies currently hiring former educators.

One more thing before you go.

The company list inside my Accelerator just got rebuilt. 1,800+ educator-friendly companies and job boards, every careers link checked this month and a brand-new Corporate Training & L&D tab with 180+ companies.

And through October 21, joining the Career Change Accelerator comes with First-Month Micro-Coaching: write to me five times in your first 30 days and get five answers, personally from me. Your actual situation, your actual questions.

The bonus is included with enrollment through October 21.

Steph

Find me on LinkedIn  |  Career Change Accelerator  |  Get on my 1:1 Waitlist

About Steph Yesil: Steph is a former K–12 educator who moved into corporate education companies in 2015 and built a career across curriculum, professional learning, content, and leadership. She founded Elevated Careers to help educators build successful corporate careers.