After a modern class I taught, a young trainee (we will call her Beth) approached me and asked if I would spend a minuscule time with her regarding her job search. She told me she had heard and read a lot of advice on this topic, but she wanted my idea as to whether she was on the right path. After listening to what Beth had been doing, I can only say that it was a story I had heard many, many times before. She had basically thrown a wide net, applying to as many positions as she could find that somewhat applied to her certification and areas of concentration....in other words, the "scattergun" approach. You know something? I bet I have heard this tale of woe a hundred times if I have heard it once! Now, for my true confession......it was exactly the same strategy I had used some 3000 years ago when I was looking for my first teaching job. Who knows, you might even be using that arrival yourself. But the deal is; we just have no real plan of action; no strike strategy; no marketing plan. Maybe then, this is a good time to look at a few better ideas and re-engineer how we market ourselves and conduct our job search. There is a lot of advice out there on this topic, but today I will recognize just three concepts and offer them for your consideration. It's not too late. After all, this is the prime interview season!
Target your market! plainly throwing your name onto job boards, monster.com, or some other professional "fishing ground" is no way to derive the kind of position you want or find that solid professional fit. Statistically, the results of such activities in the teaching field are dismal at best. I suggest you begin with a more deliberate plan. Ask yourself a few questions to by comparison the kind of school you think would be "ideal." What geographic area suits you? Do you want an urban, suburban, or rural setting? Do you want a larger or smaller school? Do you have definite school features that attract you? Such features might comprise things like grade-level teams, strong gifted and talented programs, block scheduling, and so forth. What is of most significance to you? Once you have these key school characteristics in mind, then you should begin your search. You can look on county websites, personel school websites, newspapers, or whatever coarse advertising sites are ready in your geographic region. Do you know teachers or parents in any of your target areas? Talk with whatever who might be in a position to know of openings you might want. When you have identified the schools looking for a trainer with your credentials, you should then plump those most in line with the priority characteristics you identified for yourself. They come to be your target market.
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Get connected and build networks. You know something; I can hear some of you saying right now, "Gee thanks, but I've already done a lot of what you suggest and I pretty much came up with buptkis for schools fitting my profile and needing teachers." Yep, my friend; I feel your pain; same thing happened to me back in the day. Ok...so what's that mean? We go look for a greeter's job at WalMart while we wait for good things to happen?! Gracious! No, we get off our dead duffs and begin marketing ourselves while we continue to quest all of the above for a hereafter opening. Maybe we widen the quest radius. Maybe we knock off one or two of the lesser criteria. But most of all, we begin to widen our own exposure. A great way to market ourselves is to build a network of similar professionals and growth the probability of connecting with man who can lead us to a great job opportunity. Get on a website such as LinkedIn.com, post your resume, write a philosophy statement, feature a sample of your work, or post whatever you think a prospective hiring officer might find of interest. Look through the site and link up with other professionals who might have a line to school officials or other caress people. These group networks have come to be one of the most mighty tools ready in the job-search process. Once you begin to build your online network, you will be amazed at how many distinct population in your life know each other and can potentially supply great leads. Get hooked up and network, network, network!
Actively market yourself in the group arena. When other teachers or school officials know who you are, you have a obvious benefit if an chance occurs in that school or district. For this intuit you should look for educational conferences, professional organizations, substitute teaching opportunities, or other ways to get into the enterprise of educators from your target areas. You might also consider non-educational groups like Rotary or other civic organizations because these comprise local leaders who would be great additions to your network of friends. As you might have guessed, shut-ins, group misfits, and teachers living in mom's basement rarely get hired for anything. So, come to be a man who is actively out in the educational community; get your name and face known!
As you can see, my recommendation is for you to form a farranging arrival to marketing yourself and your skills. This arrival needs to be viewed as an ongoing campaign; a job in and of itself. We need to outperform our competition. Most of that competition will be doing just what Beth and I did; send out a bunch of boiler-plated cover letters and resumes to whatever and all things that even looks like a possibility. One might find a teaching job that way, but it's a hit or miss proposition, and looking that ideal job is less likely. The better arrival is to define your marketing strategy, then work it every day until you find that great professional position you deserve. Now get moving!
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