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Free Teacher Resume Template and Tips, Plus 21 Teacher Resume Examples

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Whether you’re searching for your first teaching job or you’re ready for a change, you’ll need a solid resume. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there on how to write a resume that will land you an interview, so it’s worth taking some time to review teacher resume examples first. We’ve rounded up examples for pretty much any kind of educator and assembled tips for how to write a strong modern teacher resume.

Best of all, we’ve got a free, fully customizable teacher resume template to get you started quickly and easily. Fill out the form on this page to grab your template, then use our tips to start building your resume today.

Teacher Resume Tips

Teacher resume examples.

Resumes have changed a lot in recent years, so do your research to find out what the latest trends are. For instance, while an “objectives” section used to be a resume standard, people often drop this section today in favor of more space to highlight their accomplishments. Start with these general resume tips, then get more advice for completing our free teacher resume template, section by section.

General Tips

• Keep it to one or two pages. Hiring managers don’t have time to read overly long resumes. Put the most important information up front, and remove anything that doesn’t truly strengthen your application.
• Be honest. While you want to highlight your strengths and achievements, don’t go overboard. If you exaggerate your experience but are unable to perform certain tasks, you may put your future job at risk before you even get started.
• Skip the gimmicks. Some people will tell you the way to make your resume stand out is to use fun fonts or a “creative” design. The fact is, people who are hiring want an easy-to-read, clear presentation that highlights your achievements and credentials. That’s what will land you an interview.
• Tailor your resume. Keep a standard resume document that you can customize for the specific job you’re applying for. That might mean moving sections around, highlighting specific skills or experiences, or deciding which parts of your career deserve to be placed up front. Take a close look at the job description, and tailor your resume accordingly.
• Don’t try to circumvent the system. Years ago, people would tell you to ignore requests to send your resume and instead show up in person. Our advice: Don’t do it! Application systems are nearly all online these days, and for good reason. This helps hiring committees by organizing information efficiently and ensuring they meet all anti-discrimination laws. So just send your resume and application using the method requested.
• Don’t forget a cover letter. A great cover letter really can help your resume stand out. Learn how to make your teacher cover letter special here.

Contact Information

On today’s resumes, your mailing address is optional. In fact, if you’re looking for a job outside of your current geographical area, it can sometimes be helpful to leave it off. This way, employers won’t worry about whether you’re willing to relocate for the job.

Email addresses are not optional. This is the way most schools will contact you today, so be sure to provide yours. You might want to take a look at your address to make sure it sounds relatively professional too. Ideally, it simply contains a version of your name (e.g., “[email protected]”); don’t forget you can grab a free email address from sites like Gmail if you need to. But other addresses are fine too, as long as there’s nothing questionable. “[email protected]” is fine. “[email protected]” is not.

Professional Objective/Summary

As mentioned earlier, resume objectives are used less and less today. Recent college grads or those transitioning to teaching careers might still decide to include a professional objective statement. Those with more experience have replaced objectives with a summary statement that provides an overview of their career. It’s also OK to delete this section altogether if you’d like more space in the Relevant Work Experience section.

Education and Certifications

Include your undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as any certifications or licensures you hold. Note: It’s up to you whether you include your graduation date. Some people worry it can open them up to age discrimination. You’ll likely be asked for this information if you continue in the hiring process, so they can verify your degrees.

Related Experience

This is the real meat of your teacher resume. You can list jobs chronologically starting with the most recent, or choose to place your most relevant experience first. Either way, include your employer’s name, dates of employment, and the position/s you held. Then, highlight your experience and achievements. Strive to make your statements measurable and quantifiable rather than just a listing of your job duties.

Weak statements:

• Taught fifth grade science and math
• Prepared students for standardized math tests
• Oversaw annual school science fair

Strong statements:

• Instructed 100+ students each year in fifth grade science fundamentals, including human anatomy, electricity and magnetism, and earth and space science
• Improved standardized testing math scores by an average of 8% over a period of five years
• Organized seven annual school science fairs by coordinating 200+ participants, finding qualified judges, and arranging for prizes donated by the community

New college grad? You should definitely include your student teaching or internship experience in this section!

Additional Experience

You can use this section to include jobs you’ve held that aren’t quite as relevant to the one you’re applying for. If you’re new to the working world, it’s OK to include non-teaching jobs here. For those with longer careers, it’s probably not necessary to list every job you’ve ever had. Just highlight any experience that helps support your application or fills any employment gaps.

Professional Honors and Leadership

If you’ve received awards or honors related to teaching, share them here. The same goes for any leadership roles you’ve held in educational professional orgs.

Professional Affiliations

If space allows, you might want to include a short list of respected professional organizations you belong to. You should definitely include them if you play a very active role, have been invited to speak as an education expert at a conference, etc. Otherwise, this section is optional.

Other Teacher Resume Sections

Here are some sections you might consider adding if you have space, and a few to skip altogether.

• Professional skills: Don’t include this section if your skills are simply those expected of any teacher. But if you’ve built up any unusual and relevant teaching skills through experience or professional development, you could include them here. (Fluency in multiple languages, for example.)
• Community involvement or volunteer work: If you’ve been heavily involved in community organizations that work with children or education, consider highlighting those achievements on your resume.
• Publications: Have you published articles in an educational or professional journal, or had your work featured on a trusted, well-known website? Include any relevant articles and links.

Here’s what you don’t need on your resume:

• Hobbies or “unique” unrelated skills (like “juggling” or “Cordon Bleu chef”).
• Any information about religious or political affiliations, or your marital status, gender, race, or age. These could lead to potential bias or discrimination in the hiring process.
• References: Most people leave this section off their resume these days, as job applications or hiring committees will ask you for them separately. Line up your references and gather their contact information, but hang onto them until you’re asked to provide the info. You don’t even need to put “References available upon request,” since hiring managers already assume that.

As you complete your teacher resume template, use these examples for ideas about what to include and how to word it.

1. First-time teacher

This is a great resume for teachers with little to no experience.

2. Another first-time teacher example

Here’s one more example of a great teacher resume for those with limited experience.

3. Experienced elementary teacher

This one allows you to showcase your skills in a compact, visually appealing design.

4. Another experienced elementary teacher

This is one of those teacher resume examples that work best for those with some experience but who are still early in their career. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

5. Summer school teacher

Use this resume to highlight the unique skills of summer school teachers who work with students who are either repeating a course or trying to get ahead for the following school year.

6. Assistant teacher

Applying for an assistant teacher job will be much easier using one of the five fantastic teacher resume examples through this resource.

7. Special education teacher

As a special educator, your responsibilities may change from minute to minute and your skills need to adapt. This template helps you simplify your experience in a one-page resume.

8. School counselor

This resume will help you showcase your excellent mentoring, counseling, and leadership skills.

9. School guidance counselor

As a guidance counselor, your role is to guide students through academic development as well as personal growth. Use this template to show you how to highlight your unique talents.

10. Library media specialist

Showcase your ability to collect and maintain the valuable resources needed to foster a strong learning environment for students.

11. High school English teacher

Use this guide to create a great English teacher resume that will highlight your communication, interpersonal, and planning skills to edge out the competition.

12. Technology teacher

Emphasize your commitment to the ongoing professional development necessary to continue integrating the latest technology into the existing curriculum, and coming up with new lesson plans for today’s classrooms.

13. Music teacher

Share and showcase your love of introducing music to students with this straightforward teacher resume.

14. Drama teacher

This resume example is simple but perfect for drama teachers who want to emphasize their experience as well as their knowledge of acting techniques and production.

15. World language teacher

Establish yourself as the ideal candidate by demonstrating teaching skills, language proficiency, communication, and organizational skills.

16. Sports coach

As a coach, this template will help you demonstrate your ability to manage teams and sports programs as well as encourage academic performance.

17. ESL teacher

This teacher resume example allows you to highlight your classroom management skills, as well as your commitment to empathy, patience, and cultural awareness. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

18. Math teacher

This clean resume template showcases a math teacher’s ability to break down complex math concepts through patient, meaningful engagement with students.

19. Pre-K teacher

It takes a special person to be a great pre-K teacher. Working with young children while creating lesson and activity plans, monitoring progress, and providing quality supervision takes patience and kindness.

20. Business teacher

Put your best foot forward with this business teacher resume that emphasizes teaching methods and a commitment to ongoing professional development.

21. International school teacher

Use this resume to let hiring managers know that you’re not only motivated to help students learn but uniquely qualified. Be sure to highlight any experience living or traveling abroad as well as foreign language skills.

Get Your Free Teacher Resume Template

Just fill out the form on this landing page for instant access to a free Google Doc featuring a fully customizable teacher resume template.

Plus, check out tips for teacher job fairs and the most common teacher interview questions.

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25 Teacher Cover Letters Examples To Help You Get Hired

Your guide to a killer cover letter that will get you that interview. Continue Reading

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Teacher Resume Example for 2024 [w/ Free Template]

You’re a teacher. You teach and inspire the next generation.

You help children to learn.

But when it comes to writing your own resume , you need advice from someone else.

What does a good teacher resume look like, anyway?

In such a competitive industry, you can’t leave any questions answered. 

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

• A job-winning teacher resume example
• How to create a teaching resume that hiring managers love
• Specific tips and tricks for the teaching job industry

Here’s a teacher resume example, built with our own resume builder :

Follow the steps below to create a teacher resume of your own.

How to Format a Teacher Resume

Before you can educate the recruiter on your skills and experiences, you need to choose the most suitable resume format for teaching.

You see, even the best applicant needs a resume format that is easy to read and follow. 

With “ reverse-chronological ” being the most common resume format , we recommend this format for teachers. It highlights your most recent work experience first, and then works back through your history and skills.

You could also try the two following formats:

• Functional Resume - This format focuses on your skills, which makes it the best format for teachers that are highly-skilled, but have little in the way of classroom experience. 
• Combination Resume - This format mixes both “Functional” and “Reverse-Chronological” formats, which means it focuses on both your teaching skills AND teaching experience. 

Stick to a one-page teacher resume. This shows that you’re able to information brief and precise. Feel free to check out our one-page resume templates for inspiration.

Use a Teacher Resume Template

As a teacher, you will likely work with Microsoft Word on a daily basis. 

However, this is not one of those times.

The program is best avoided if you want to avoid formatting issues. 

Use a teacher resume template for a resume that stays structurally strong. Any of the following templates can be easily tailored for a teacher application.

What to Include in a Teacher Resume

The main sections in a teacher resume are:

• Contact Information
• Work Experience/Teaching Experience

For a teacher resume that stands out from other applications, add these optional sections:

• Awards & Certification
• Volunteer Experience

Interests & Hobbies

Keep reading to find out how to ace each of the above sections.

For an in-depth rundown on which sections to use, check out our guide on What to Put on a Resume .

How to Write Your Contact Information Section

When grading papers, you know that every word or digit matters. This is also true with your contact information section. Any mistakes made in your phone number or email can render your whole application useless. 

For your contact information section, include:

• Title – Align this to the job title , which is “Teacher”
• Phone Number – Ensure there are zero errors
• Email Address – Make sure to use a professional email address ([email protected]), and not your 6th grade email address ([email protected])
• Location – Applying for a job abroad? Mention your location
• Optional - relevant social media profiles.
• Rose Hunt - English Teacher. 101-358-6095. [email protected]
• Rose Hunt - English Language Guru. 101-358-6095. [email protected]

How to Write a Teacher Resume Summary or Objective

Here’s a question for the class:

How long do you think recruiters spend reading through the average resume?

If you said less than a minute, you would be correct.

This means your resume needs to really impress within this short timeframe. 

The nest question is, what can you do to make the most important easy to see and consume?

Simple: use a resume summary or objective .

These are punchy paragraphs that go on top of your resume, just under the contact section. 

The main difference between the two sections is that:

A resume summary is a short summary of your teaching experiences and achievements. It is the best option for teachers who have taught for multiple years.

• Passionate English Teacher with a focus on American literature seeks a permanent position at XYZ School. Highlights from five years of teaching experience include improving college admission success rate by 40% at ABC High School. Excited about leveraging 5000 hours of teaching experience to give an inspiring classroom experience for your students.

On the other hand, the resume objective focuses on your professional goals and aspirations. It is ideal for entry-level teaching candidates or individuals who are seeking a change in their professional career. 

• Motivated English Literature graduate seeking the role of English teacher at ABC High School. Experience includes supervising classes at XYZ Middle School for 60 days over a 3 month period. Skills include classroom management, grading to strict time restraints, and utilizing whiteboard technology. 

So, which one is best for you? 

Well, a summary is suited for teachers who have a lot of classroom experience, whereas an objective is suited for those who are new to the world of teaching (student, graduate, or switching careers).

How to Make Your Teaching Work Experience Stand Out

The best way to prove your worth as a teacher is with your previous work experience .

Sure, the recruiter will want to see that you have lots of subject knowledge, but nothing builds confidence more than your professional experience.

Follow this layout in your experience section:

• Position name
• Company Name
• Responsibilities & Achievements

Elementary School Teacher

Hinchley Wood School

04/2017 - 01/2021

• Kept pass rates above 80% from 2017-2020
• Improved attendance by 12% in the first school year
• Graded classroom papers for 12 classes of 30+ pupils

As you may notice, the above example focuses on the candidate’s best achievements.

So, instead of saying:

“Taught children for three years”

“Kept pass rates above 80% from 2017-2020”

The second statement goes into specific details that show you’re a great teacher.

Use the job description to help you. Look to see if there is anything in the job description that matches your work history. If there is, include it in this section.

What if You Don’t Have Work Experience?

Maybe you’re a graduate who hasn’t worked before?

Or maybe you want a career change?

Whatever your situation, there are options. 

The main option is to use a portfolio. 

Here are several ways to build a teaching portfolio (and get paid for it):

• Use a freelance platform (e.g.: UpWork ) to pick up some private tutoring gigs
• Use social media to offer your teaching services to friends & acquaintances 

For the students reading this, you’ll enjoy our guide on how to make a student resume !

Use Action Words to Make Your Teaching Resume POP!

Look through a pile of teacher resumes, and you will see these words repeated again and again. 

Do you want your resume to look like all the rest?

Of course not! 

This is why we recommend using some of these power words instead:

• Conceptualized
• Spearheaded

How to List Your Education Correctly

The next section in any good teacher resume is the education section.

Now, there’s a few different paths you can follow to become a professional teacher. 

All you need to do in this section is describe your educational path to date. 

• Degree Type & Major
• University Name
• Years Studied
• GPA, Honours, Courses, and other relevant achievements 

Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education

Boston State University

2015 - 2018

Relevant Courses: Foundations of Education, Early Childhood Development, Physical Sciences, Computer Literacy, Classroom Engagement & Development

Right, let’s answer some of the most frequently asked questions:

What if I’m still studying?

• Whether or not you’ve passed all of your teaching exams, you should always mention every year that you have studied to date.

Should I include my high school qualifications?

• Only include your highest form of qualification. If that’s a qualification from high school , then go for it.

What comes first, education or experience?

• If you’re an experienced teacher, your work experience should come before your education.

If you still have questions, you can check out our guide on how to list education on a resume .

Top 10 Skills for a Teacher Resume

Every great teacher has a certain set of skills.

It’s these skills that the recruiter wants to see when short-listing applicants.

You may be the best teacher in the world, but it’s vital to make your skills clear to see on your resume. 

It will depend on the specialist subject, but a teacher should have some of the following skills:

Hard Skills for Teachers:

• Computer Skills
• Literacy skills
• Disciplinary action

Soft Skills for Teachers:

• Classroom management
• Time management
• Organization

Want the most comprehensive list? Here’s a mega-list of 100+ must-have skills .

Other Resume Sections You Can Include

If graded, your resume should now be able to pass the test…

But what if the other applicants have scored top marks?

Add additional sections for an A+ resume that can’t be beaten.

When competing against an experienced field, the following sections may be the deciding factor… 

Awards & Certifications

Do you hold Coursera certifications?

Were you awarded during your studies?

Whatever the recognition, awards and certifications make the difference.

Awards & Certificates Examples

• Learning How to Learn – Coursera Certificate
• Motivating Gen Z Learners – Coursera Certificate
• Educating Deaf Children – Teaching Lab

Now, you may not be teaching Spanish, but it can be good to know another language.

Whether or not the teaching job requires you to speak a second language or not, it is still an impressive skill that you may want to include on your resume. 

Order the languages by proficiency:

• Intermediate

Now, you may be wondering, “why is my weekly book club worth mentioning when applying for teaching jobs?”

Well, because it says more about who you as a person.

It shows that you have a life outside of teaching. 

You’re someone who the other teachers could relate to.

If you want some ideas of hobbies & interests to put on your resume, we have a guide for that!

Match Your Cover Letter with Your Resume

Oh no, more writing!?

We feel your pain, but it’s for great reason.

Cover letters still play a vital role in the application process.

This guide has taught you how to build the best teacher resume possible, but even that may not be enough to secure your dream position.

By not writing a cover letter, you are simply missing out on an opportunity to communicate with more depth and personality. 

Even better, the recruiter will know that you want this position at this school .

Just like with the resume, the cover letter needs to be structured correctly. Here’s how to do that:

And here’s what goes in each section:

Contact Details

Your personal contact information, including full name, profession, email, phone number, and location

Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

Full name, position, location, email

Opening Paragraph

It’s important to hook the recruiter with a powerful introduction. With this in mind, mention:

• The specific teaching position you’re applying for
• Your experience summary and top achievements

With the recruiter wanting to know more, you can go through the rest of your work history and personal background. You may want to delve into:

• Why you want to work at this specific school
• Anything you know about the school’s culture
• What are your top skills and how are they relevant for the job
• If you’ve worked in similar industries or positions before

Closing Paragraph

This is where you:

• Wrap up any points you missed in the body paragraph
• Thank the recruiter for their time
• End with a call to action. Something like, “I’d love to further discuss how my experience as an X can help the school with Y”

Formal Salutations

To keep everything professional, use formal closing, such as “Best regards” or “Sincerely.”

Creating a cover letter is a craft. But don’t worry, you can call on our how to write a cover letter for guidance.

Key Takeaways

*Rinnnnnggggg!!!*

There goes the bell to end today’s lesson.

We hope that the advice in this guide was taken onboard. If so, you’re now in the perfect position to create a job-winning teacher resume. 

Before you go, let’s quickly summarize what we have learnt:

• Select the correct format for your teacher resume. Use a reverse-chronological format, and follow the best layout practices to keep everything clear and concise.
• Use a summary or objective to capture attention to your resume
• Focus on your achievements, rather than your responsibilities.
• Match your teacher resume with a cover letter that follows the best practises 

Suggested Reading:

• How to Answer “What Is Your Greatest Strength” [4 Samples]
• CV vs Resume - What is the Difference? [+Examples]
• How to Write a Cover Letter - Full Guide

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How to Craft Your Teacher Career Change Resume + Ace Your Interview

Once you’ve decided that you want to leave the classroom, the next big question on your mind is, “What career am I going to pursue?”  Well, there are two different ways you can go…the employee route or the entrepreneur route.

The entrepreneur route means that you go into business for yourself. Maybe you start a website , a boutique , a virtual assistant business , an online tutoring business, a photography business , or a TpT shop . The career is irrelevant; the important thing to note is that as an entrepreneur, you are going into business for yourself.

The employee route means that you choose to work for another individual or company. Again, we are less concerned with who hires you and more interested in how to get you hired for the job of your dreams.

So in today’s episode, we are going to focus on the employee route and how writing a teacher career change resume will help you land some of the best jobs for teachers outside of education. The cool part about what I’m sharing is that these tips will help you in getting hired for ANY position.

But we are going to spend the majority of our time unpacking some of the specifics you might not have considered when you began thinking about landing the best jobs for teachers outside of the classroom .

So let’s discuss the 15 things you need to do to design a winning teacher career change resume and land your dream job outside of teaching.

Creating Your Teacher Career Change Resume

1| write specifically.

Everyone has a resume, but there is a lot of difference between a “leaving teaching resume that includes all of your teaching experience and literally nothing else” and a well-planned, well-executed specific resume.

Think about it like this. There are dollar store pens and then there are flair pens…I rest my case.

The whole point of writing a resume is to give the applicant board as much relevant information as possible in as little space as possible.

So you want your transition out of teaching resume to be unique and a nice reflection of you while still being completely tailored to the position for which you are applying.

Your resume shouldn’t be generic. I know this may feel frustrating when you’re applying for a lot of positions at once, but I promise it will pay off in the long run. You definitely want your resume to reflect specifics of the field and position into which you want to move.

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Discovery call.

Understanding what you need to include in your resume is crucial if you plan to leave the classroom. Let me give you personalized insight into your next best steps!

2| Research transferable skills

Be sure to listen to Episode #5 where we discuss the top transferable skills that teachers possess that makes you a prime candidate for any job you want. Think about what types of transferable skills you have that apply to the particular field you are interested in.

The most important part about this is remembering that each field of study and each niche has its own language. So you want to take time to figure out which of the skills are your strengths and then translate those into the niche-specific buzzwords that particular community uses.

Then add those words onto your teacher career change resume so the application board knows you have the skills they are seeking.

3| Use niche-specific language

I mentioned this in tip 2, but you want to make sure that you speak the language of the people in your potential career. Most professions have a “lingo” and you want to be sure that you know the lingo of your chosen field of interest.

Think about teaching. We use words and acronyms like social-emotional learning (SEL), individualized education plan (IEP), and curriculum-based assessment (CBA).

If you stopped people on the street and asked them what these acronyms meant, most probably wouldn’t have any idea what you were talking about. However, if you are a new teacher wanting to get hired, these acronyms are important for you to know.

This same rule applies for other fields. If you want to break into a community or niche outside of the world of education, you need to learn the lingo. The best way to do this is by using Google and type in common acronyms for (fill in the blank of the field).

Once you understand the common acronyms for that field, you will want to compare these to your transferable teacher skills and see which ones are similar. Then research the buzzwords in the niche of the job you hope to pursue to find even more gold to add to your teacher career change resume.

4| Be prepared

You would think this would be supremely obvious, but according to my husband, who does interviews regularly for his job, the number of individuals who come to interviews completely unprepared is staggering.

So after researching the lingo (including buzzwords & acronyms) of your potential profession, make sure you research the specific position you hope to get as well as the company you want to join.

Make certain that your career goals align with the motto and beliefs of this particular company . You don’t want to go through the trouble of interviewing, getting offered the position, and working for one day only to realize you don’t agree with the company’s position on an important issue.

Once you determine you are a good fit for the company, take some time to look online for interview questions related to your chosen field and formulate answers as a way to prepare for the questions you might be asked in an interview.

This will instill confidence in you and help you get into the mindset of someone who already has the position…before you ever walk through the door of the interview.

5| Reach out to someone at the company

If you want to be prepared for a potential interview, then you need to know about the company and also the workers there.

You can call the company and ask to speak with someone in the department to which you are applying or ask to speak with the supervisor about the position.

Be respectful of this individual’s time and ask if he/she has 5 minutes to answer a couple of quick questions about the position. If the person is busy, let him/her call you at a more convenient time because the last thing you want to do is be a nuisance.

Ask a few preselected questions that will help you understand more about the work environment, the position itself, and the supervisor. Remember, to write these ahead of time so you don’t waste time trying to think of them on the spot.

The point of this exercise is to get a little extra insight and to get your name in front of the individual early.

do you Need a

Resume refresh.

A comprehensive + uniquely individualized overhaul of your current resume, as well as the knowledge you need to replicate the process, resulting in an eye-catching document that secures the interview with your dream employer. 

Nailing Your Teacher Career Change Interview

6| know what you’re interviewing for.

This may seem ridiculous, but there are so many people who just saunter into interviews with no idea what they’re even interviewing for. My husband sees this all the time.

He is always astounded by how many individuals step into an interview completely clueless about the position. Ultimately, the interviewee is simply wasting everyone’s time.

This is a very frustrating situation…especially when an interview panel has a full day of interviews. Make sure you’ve spent time studying the position and dissecting the job requirements and duties so that you can answer the questions in an interview well.

Think about the specific skills you bring to the table that will allow you to be an asset to the company and how those skills set you up as the perfect candidate for the position.

7| Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses

In every interview, there is always the obligatory “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” question. While it may be phrased in a number of different ways, this is the moment for you to shine.

You want to spend time talking about what you have to offer the company that makes you the obvious choice of candidate. Then you want to be honest about your weaknesses in a way that does not make you look like a liability. Let me give you some examples.

Instead of saying this…

• I’m a terrible speller.
• I hate people.
• I’m OCD about organization.

Say this…

• I appreciate spell check as spelling isn’t my strong suit.
• I work best independently as I tend to be introverted by nature.
• I thrive in a tidy workspace . I’m not a fan of disorganization.

The point here is for you to admit your weaknesses, but in a way that doesn’t take you out of the running for this particular position.

8| Don’t assume anything

You cannot assume the interview panel knows anything you don’t say or that you haven’t told them during the meeting. You may have written something in your application or even in your resume, but you still need to mention it during the interview as needed. 

This is especially important if you happen to know someone on the interview board or you have worked at this particular company before. They are only able to write down things you say during the meeting and if you don’t say it, it might get overlooked elsewhere.

Also remember to avoid the word etcetera.

This is something people say when they’ve been asked a question that they aren’t fully prepared to answer. They will say “etcetera” to fill in the space of those things they can’t think of during the interview.

But remember, the interviewers don’t know what etcetera covers unless you clarify it. So just leave it out of the conversation completely.

9| Answer ALL of the questions

Another issue that my husband sees frequently in interviews is candidates not answering all of the questions. For example, the interviewer might ask you something like this…“Name some skills that you feel would be important to have to do this job effectively. Then tell us your strongest skill.”

Potential candidates answer with their strongest skill while completely ignoring the first part of the question. This isn’t an encouraging start for interviewers because they want an employee that actually listens.

So listen carefully to the questions asked and answer ALL of them as succinctly (and thoroughly) as possible.

Now what I just said might seem a bit like an oxymoron. How are you supposed to answer a question succinctly and thoroughly? Think of it like this…

You want to include as much information as needed to answer the question(s) completely without talking in circles and repeating yourself 53 times. You want to prove that you have a thoughtful answer while also being respectful of the interviewers’ time. 

10| Dress Appropriately

It doesn’t matter if you are applying for a non-profit, a grocery store, or a Fortune 500 company, you want to dress appropriately. Think about the old adage…Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have!!

Even if the place you’re interviewing at has “Casual Fridays” and you happen to be getting an interview on one of these days, you are not yet an employee and those rules don’t apply to you. So think about how a professional would dress and dress accordingly.

Men should wear a suit and tie or at the bare minimum a polo shirt and nice slacks. If you come in with wrinkled khakis and a shirt 2 sizes too small, you are not going to make a good impression.

Women should wear a nice pair of slacks or skirt with a MODEST dressy top or dress if you feel more comfortable. Leggings (unless under a dress), low cut or revealing tops, and bra straps make a terrible first impression.

Remember, you will be the face of this particular company to the world and they don’t want sloppily-dressed individuals representing their brand. And even the best teacher career change resume will not cover up the negative impression a poorly dressed applicant gives during the interview.

11| Don’t fidget

When we get nervous, we do annoying things without even realizing it. We tend to tap our pencils, shift in our seats, click our pens, or clear our throats because we literally don’t know what to do with ourselves. 

But this is super-distracting to the interviewers. That’s why practicing with someone prior to your actual interview can be really helpful.

You can simulate the interview environment (including paper, pen, or pencil on the table) to see if you have any fidget or annoying habit that will cause the interviewers to be distracted. After the simulation, the person can give you feedback on things you are doing well and things you need to work on before completing your interview.

12| Show interest

It is sad to even have to mention this, but another thing my husband has mentioned that amazes him is how little people seem to care about the job for which they are interviewing. There have been times he wanted to ask the interviewee if they actually even wanted the job.

To avoid this, be forthcoming with all of the information you have to share and don’t make the interview panel prod you for answers. This doesn’t make a good impression and since the goal is to land this job, you want to show interest.

If you don’t feel like you’ve had the opportunity to truly express why you want the job, at the end say something like…

• “I want this position because…”
• “I would like the opportunity to work here because…”

Then mention anything you gleaned during your conversation with the supervisor in your pre-interview phone conversation. This may be exactly what they’ve been waiting for someone to say!

13| Don’t be afraid to ask questions at the end

In many interviews, you will be given the opportunity to ask questions of the panel. Be sure to take advantage of the time and ask any clarifying questions.

You want to make sure you’ve already determined the types of questions you want to ask BEFORE you step into the interview though so you don’t forget them when you get nervous. You might even want to write them down and pull out your note at the end.

This will allow you to show the panel how serious you are about the position and also give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you would like answered related to work environment, their favorite things about working for the company, and how long they have been with the company.

Staying Front of Mind

14| send a thank you.

This is such an important part of the interview process. You want to thank the supervisor for the opportunity to interview for the position. This can be done “old school” style by sending a physical thank you note or card or it can be sent via email.

Make sure you are specific so that it doesn’t appear to simply be a canned response that you send to everyone. This is also one more way for your name to stay in front of the supervisor’s mind.

15| Ask for feedback

After you have sent your thank you email, you will find out whether or not you were chosen as the candidate for hire. If you did NOT get hired, don’t be afraid to reach out to the supervisor and see if he/she could give you a little insight into why you didn’t get the position.

This isn’t a power move; it’s simply a way for you to determine what you could have done better. But if you are going to go to the trouble of asking what you could have done better, be sure to listen carefully to feedback given to you.

Then take the time to turn that feedback into  better interviewing skills. And who knows? You may be able to use this insight to secure a different position with the company in the future.

These 15 tips are designed to help you create an amazing teacher career change resume and deliver an awe-inspiring interview that leaves the company begging for you to work for them.

You are an extremely enticing candidate, but it is your job to show these companies just how badly they need you on their team.

So take time to create a standout resume designed for the position to which you are applying, prepare for the interview, arrive at the interview dressed professionally and confident that you are the best candidate.

You can do this!

If you know you need some help designing a teacher career change resume and strategic interview coaching, I can help! As a coach, I love helping clients leave the classroom ready to begin their new career with confidence. Click the button below for your free 30 minute Zoom call.

Jennifer is a former elementary school teacher (M. Ed.) turned literacy interventionist, blogger, podcaster, TpT author, and homeschooling mom. When she's not with her husband & boys, she's sharing her love for Jesus, designing websites, helping other teachers pursue online businesses, organizing ALL THE THINGS, or watching New Girl. Read More >>

• Teacher Career Change Resume Example

Resume Examples

• Common Tasks & Responsibilities
• Top Hard & Soft Skills
• Action Verbs & Keywords
• Resume FAQs
• Similar Resumes

Common Responsibilities Listed on Teacher Career Change Resumes:

• Develop and implement career change strategies
• Research and analyze career options
• Identify and assess skills and qualifications
• Develop and maintain relationships with employers and recruiters
• Develop and maintain a professional network
• Create and update resumes and cover letters
• Prepare for job interviews
• Provide career counseling and guidance
• Develop and implement job search strategies
• Provide career transition support
• Conduct research on job markets and industries

Speed up your resume creation process with the AI-Powered Resume Builder . Generate tailored achievements in seconds for every role you apply to.

Teacher Career Change Resume Example:

• Developed and implemented career change strategies that resulted in a 30% increase in successful job placements for clients.
• Conducted extensive research and analysis of career options, providing personalized recommendations that led to a 25% increase in client satisfaction.
• Established and maintained relationships with employers and recruiters, resulting in a 20% increase in job opportunities for clients.
• Provided career counseling and guidance to individuals, resulting in a 40% increase in career clarity and direction for clients.
• Developed and implemented job search strategies that led to a 35% increase in client interviews and a 25% increase in job offers.
• Conducted research on job markets and industries, providing valuable insights and recommendations that led to a 30% increase in client success in targeted industries.
• Prepared and updated resumes and cover letters for clients, resulting in a 50% increase in interview callbacks and a 20% increase in job offers.
• Provided career transition support to individuals, assisting them in successfully navigating career changes and achieving their desired outcomes.
• Identified and assessed skills and qualifications of clients, resulting in a 40% increase in client confidence and marketability in their new career paths.
• Career counseling and guidance
• Development and implementation of career change strategies
• Research and analysis of career options
• Relationship building with employers and recruiters
• Job search strategy development
• Knowledge of job markets and industries
• Resume and cover letter preparation
• Career transition support
• Skills and qualifications assessment
• Client satisfaction and success tracking
• Personalized career recommendations
• Understanding of job placement strategies
• Ability to increase client confidence and marketability
• Knowledge of targeted industries
• Ability to increase interview callbacks and job offers
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong problem-solving abilities
• Ability to work with diverse client populations
• Proficiency in career-related software and online platforms
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.

Top Skills & Keywords for Teacher Career Change Resumes:

Hard skills.

• Curriculum Development
• Classroom Management
• Lesson Planning
• Differentiated Instruction
• Assessment and Evaluation
• Technology Integration
• Special Education
• Classroom Technology
• Behavior Management
• Parent Communication
• Data Analysis and Interpretation
• Professional Development

Soft Skills

• Communication and Presentation Skills
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
• Time Management and Organization
• Empathy and Compassion
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Patience and Understanding
• Creativity and Innovation
• Leadership and Mentorship
• Active Listening and Feedback Incorporation
• Emotional Intelligence and Relationship Building
• Cultural Sensitivity and Inclusion

Resume Action Verbs for Teacher Career Changes:

• Facilitated
• Collaborated
• Implemented
• Demonstrated

Generate Your Resume Summary

Resume FAQs for Teacher Career Changes:

How long should i make my teacher career change resume, what is the best way to format a teacher career change resume, which keywords are important to highlight in a teacher career change resume, how should i write my resume if i have no experience as a teacher career change, compare your teacher career change resume to a job description:.

• Identify opportunities to further tailor your resume to the Teacher Career Change job
• Improve your keyword usage to align your experience and skills with the position
• Uncover and address potential gaps in your resume that may be important to the hiring manager

Complete the steps below to generate your free resume analysis.

Related Resumes for Teacher Career Changes:

Career coach, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, special education teacher, teacher aide, teacher assistant, transitioning teacher.

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22 Teacher Resume Examples That Worked in 2024

• Teacher Resume
• Teacher Resumes by Grade Level
• Teacher Resumes by Subject
• Teacher Resumes by Type

Writing Your Teacher Resume

Teachers are the backbone of society. You spend more time with the children you educate than their parents do! And effective teachers like you are compassionate, intelligent, and organized, among hundreds of other things.

It can be difficult to highlight all your experience and skills on your teacher resume, and you’ll want to save some for your  teacher cover letter .

These 22 teacher resume examples are helping teachers with varying levels and types of expertise land jobs in 2024 . They’re a great place for you to get started building or  updating your resume .

Please note that this guide is geared toward educators in the K-12 space. If you’re applying to teach at the college level, you’ll likely need to  write a CV . 

Teacher Resume Example

or download as PDF

Why this resume works

• When listing your student teaching experience, focus on what you contributed instead of your responsibilities. 
• Since you want to make the resume reviewer’s job as pleasant as possible, clearly state the subject and grades you taught in a resume bullet.
• When you go to make a cover letter , this is your ticket to dive deeper into how you helped your students achieve greater success in the classroom.

Daycare Teacher Resume Example

• If you’re a pro at integrating play-based learning like building blocks or water play into your daycare environment, do more than list it in your skills section. Use your work experience to show your skills in action.

Elementary Teacher Resume Example

• Include licenses or certifications in a dedicated “Certifications” section on your elementary teacher resume. Our  user-friendly resume templates  and  Google docs resume templates  let you add a section just for certificates and licenses.
• For example, “Improved students’ passing rates on the statewide annual exam by 13%” effectively shows competency through an estimate.

Middle School Teacher Resume Example

• Including a  career objective  can help explain why you’re a strong candidate if you have limited work experience or if you’re undergoing a career change.
• Certifications are typically required qualifications for teachers, so it’s best to list any relevant certificates you’ve acquired. 
• Projects can be a great place to highlight experiences not technically work-related but still highly relevant to your passion for teaching. 
• An activities section is the spot for interesting, quirky experiences or  hobbies on your resume ; just be sure you can explain  why  they’re relevant when you get an interview! 

First Year Teacher Resume Example

• Succinct, to-the-point, and intriguing are everything your career objective should be-it should be two to three sentences summarizing your teaching career goals and demonstrating your readiness to help the hiring institution attain its objectives. Weaving in mentions of past relevant experiences like a teaching internship can leave a solid impression that gets you hired.

High School Teacher Resume Example

• The “Education” section of your  high school teacher resume  should list the degree you’ve earned. No need to list high school since that’s a given.
• For example, instead of saying, “Prepared students for standardized exams,” say, “Helped improve standardized testing performance by 3%.”
• If you list “collaboration” as a skill, then somewhere in your resume’s work experience bullet points, it should be clear that collaboration is part of your repertoire.

PE Teacher Resume Example

• Save a small section on your resume’s side column for role-relevant tertiary educational background, much like how Amanda flaunts her bachelor’s degree (Physical Education) from the University of Central Florida. It’s about showing you’ve put a great deal of work into amassing the necessary knowledge and skills.

Science Teacher Resume Example

• You see, few other things piss off hiring managers as much as a resume littered with grammatical mistakes, from typos, punctuation errors to awkward phrases. And that brings us to the essence of staking the time to meticulously proofreading yours before hitting the send button. Better yet, involve a second pair of eyes, be it a friend, family member or career coach.

Math Teacher Resume Example

• Such unique achievements make your math teacher resume shine and grab the attention of your dream employer. Identify such feats in your career and let them take center stage in your application.

Art Teacher Resume Example

• Your also have to prove that you go beyond the curriculum to offer students more opportunities such as through showcasing their work to the world.

Social Science Teacher Resume Example

• Ask a friend, colleague, or even a co-worker to proofread your resume. If you’re low on time, invest in a spell-check system like Grammarly or run your resume through our  resume checker  to catch any typos or comma errors. 
• All our example resumes include the essential sections, and you can add your own sections to customize your template to your specific needs.

English Teacher Resume Example

• Summaries are two to three-sentence paragraphs that can be thought of as a recap of your best self on your resume. 
• Purely optional, you can include one if you have years (10+) of experience in your field.
• Summaries work best to showcase your tried and tested years in the education field and any specializations you’ve honed, such as teaching AP-level courses.

Foreign Language Teacher Resume Example

• Why?  Hard skills are more specific to your profession and easier to demonstrate throughout your resume. Plus, they show school admin that you’ve already got some technical know-how for the job. 
• Aim to include six to eight specific skills, emphasizing hard skills (like “bilingual” and “lesson planning”) over soft skills (like “organization” and “caring”).
• If you’re hoping to switch from teaching German to teaching history, you don’t need to include many details on your strategies for teaching verb conjugation, for example.

Experienced Teacher Resume Example

• It’s perfect time to turn to your technology skills and how you’ve tapped them to solve everyday teaching challenges. Show how you’ve leveraged Zoom and Google Classroom for virtual teaching, Quizizz for tailored tests that improved average students score, and so on.

New Teacher Resume Example

• Also, show how it has been a lifelong process for you, and how you are ready to bring in your set of pedagogical skills in the learning environment.

Student Teacher Resume Example

• Schools know you have to start somewhere, so what they’re really looking for is that you show the promise and potential to step inside their classrooms and successfully manage and teach a class.
• If you’ve volunteered as a teacher after school, provided tutoring or homework help, or even assisted in a teacher’s grading load, you have valuable experience to add to your resume.

Teacher Assistant Resume Example

• Instead of vaguely stating, “Worked with assistants and teachers,” give concrete details, like “Worked with 2 assistants and teacher to provide instruction to 60+ 2nd graders with IEPs.”
• An objective is valuable if you’re light on experience and need to fill some white space, but it loses its value if it’s not customized.
• Tailor your objective by mentioning the target school by name and sprinkling in some keywords from the  teacher job description , so long as they honestly describe you!

Substitute Teacher Resume Example

• If you’re a certified substitute teacher (or teacher) in your state, include that in a dedicated “Certifications” section on your substitute teacher resume. This will help you stand out from other applicants, as this is not required in every state.
• Any prior subbing experience should highlight maintaining a disciplined classroom. One of the toughest aspects of being a sub is commanding a classroom, so demonstrating your strength will increase your chances of getting an interview.
• Another way to impress is by  formatting your resume’s  work history in reverse-chronological order; it lists your most current and relevant experience first, so the admin can glimpse your best stuff first.

Collaborative Teacher Resume Example

• Choose one or two key areas, such as section titles or your header, to include a pop of conservative color.
• Use two contrasting fonts on your resume template . Just don’t pick anything hard to read—remember, recruiters scan resumes within seconds, so it has to be understood at a glance.
• Even if your projects aren’t teaching-related, highlight skills you used or developed, like working with kids, collaborating with co-workers, or taking a leadership position.

Special Education Teacher Resume Example

• Does your resume take up the entire page?
• Does it have half to one-inch margins? (Either half an inch or one inch is fine.)
• Does your resume include separate sections for contact information, education, skills, and work experience?
• Start each bullet point with action words, like “spearheaded” or “brainstormed.” 
• Either end all bullet points with a period or none at all. Be consistent with punctuation.
• Write your work experience in the past tense.
• Avoid using personal pronouns like “me” or “I” on your resume. We’re pretty sure the employer already knows you’re writing about yourself!

Assistant Teacher Resume Example

• Consider a certifications section in which you proudly spotlight credential like Child Development Associate (CDA), just as Matthew does. Of course, a proven understanding of early childhood education best practices is sure to get a nod from the hiring manager reading your piece.

Teacher Aide Resume Example

• Begin by spotlighting your most recent, senior position (paired with key quantified achievements and relevant tool applications) and backtrack through your junior roles. This technique is golden for illustrating your career progression in a resume and should show an increment of responsibilities and wins as you go up.

Related resume guides

• Teacher Assistant
• Preschool Teacher
• Elementary Teacher
• Substitute Teacher

Formatting Your Teacher Resume

Formatting ensures your teacher resume is readable, logical, and complete. Imagine understanding a book without chapter headings or margins and no discernable organization. It would be a nightmare to parse out any information when nothing follows a clear structure and doesn’t lend itself to being read correctly. It’s an extreme example, but it proves the necessity of formatting. 

Just as you create lesson plans to help your class learn best, format your resume so your qualifications are conveyed and understood. We’ll cover three important formatting elements in the following sections: resume formats, your contact header, and resume readability for ATS.

Three resume formats

The most popular  resume formats  for 2024 are reverse-chronological, functional, and combination/hybrid. Here are some of the pros and cons of each:

• Reverse-chronological : This format highlights your career progression in an easy-to-scan list, making it ideal for recruiters and ATS. However, this format exposes time gaps and can be repetitive if you’ve held the same position at multiple schools.
• Functional : This format focuses on your skills, ideal for limited teaching experience or gaps. However, it’s commonly known to confuse potential employers and ATS.
• Combination/hybrid : This leverages an in-depth skills section and a small experience section to accurately summarize why you’re the best candidate for the job. However, it’s easy to structure this poorly, and it can look like you’re hiding a lack of work experience.

We advise the reverse-chronological format for your teacher resume because it proves you have practical knowledge and a steady career. This format tells the story of your teaching career in under  six seconds , which is how long recruiters will take to read your resume.

Include the right details in your contact header

Your contact header should be easy to locate and read. Some suggest not adding contact information in the header, but that’s why formatting your contact header properly is so important. With good formatting, none of your information gets buried, and it can distinguish you from other applicants. You should include:

• Job title you’re seeking
• Phone number
• City, State (optional)
• Professional links (optional)

Per industry standards, place the header in either the top left-hand corner or centered beneath your name. Not enough space? Remove the optional elements or go down a font size. Choose a sans-serif font that’s no smaller than your resume’s body text. 

Like the example below, you can put your header in a color block to grab attention quickly and add personality. It’s best not to use obnoxious colors (neon green would be a hard no), and always double-check that the color works well with black body text or white font. 

Sometimes, the ATS won’t read your resume properly despite having a beautiful header. That’s why we recommend submitting it as a .docx (friendly for ATS) and as a PDF (friendly for employers). 

We have plenty of  excellent resume samples  you can check out for inspiration on your header, and if you’re rushed, choose one of our  free resume templates  to start and finish your teacher resume in record time. 

Ensure the ATS and employers can read your resume

To ensure your resume reaches principals and department heads, you’ll need to pass muster with the ATS. The good news is formatting for the ATS also results in a resume easy to read by employers. 

Resume tips to steer you on the right path:

• Not only is a one-page resume faster for recruiters and ATS to scan, but it forces you to be concise and include only what’s relevant. 
• Most ATS don’t recognize documents in Open Office, Adobe Pages, HTML, or PDF (on occasion). The wisest option is to submit your resume as a .docx and  as a PDF to give employers options if one doesn’t work.
• The standard 10–12-point font is the best readability range for employers and ATS.
• Even at a reasonable size, some fonts are hard to read, unprofessional-appearing, and ATS-unfriendly. Stick to standard sans-serif fonts like Helvetica or Arial.
• One-inch margins are standard, but you can be flexible. Avoid going smaller than a half-inch or larger than one inch to keep your teacher resume professional and tidy.
• You may confuse the ATS and the school if you have odd header titles. Use standardized headers, as you see in our resume samples , to make each section easy to find (and comprehend). 
• ATS uses keywords to determine your eligibility, including skills (Google Classroom, modifying lessons, parent communication, etc.) matching what’s in the job ad. 
• If your resume sections aren’t in the recommended order, they may confuse ATS. Yet again, it’s best to stick to the standard. Try using our  resume builder  to ensure your structure is logical and readable. 

Writing an effective resume  may feel daunting, but it’s far more manageable if you take it section by section. You may even want to use one of our  fresh Word resume templates  designed just for teachers. Let’s dive into each resume section you’ll want to consider:

Does an objective/summary on your teacher resume matter?

Teaching history, top skills for educators.

• Listing education, certification, and optional sections

Customize your teacher resume for the job

Revise and edit your teacher resume.

Principals and their hiring teams may see hundreds of resumes across a wide array of teaching roles, so it’s crucial to showcase your talents and personality quickly. Objectives and summaries can work as excellent introductory tools, but many end up being generic, boring, or vague. 

First, consider whether you’ll use an  objective or summary statement (or neither). An objective highlights your interest and qualifications for the role, while a  resume career summary  distills your specialized skills and experience in a few lines. Use an objective if you’re seeking your first teaching position or switching from teaching one subject to another. On the other hand, veteran teachers may opt for a summary (or no statement at all).

Regardless of your circumstances, if you use either of these introductory statements, you should always tailor your message to the position. Let’s look at specific examples to contrast a D+ resume objective with one worthy of an A. 

A generic, vague objective tells recruiters nothing about you beyond the bare minimum:

New high school teacher seeking employment at a local high school closer to family. Talented at communicating with teenagers and teaching. Received many compliments and letters at last place of employment.

The above objective lacks personality and neglects to mention anything specific. This next objective, however, is focused and tells the principal about the applicant’s skills:

Compassionate algebra tutor with 4+ years of experience. Excellent at coaching students in formulas and helping them develop analytical thinking skills and mathematical competency at all levels of ability. Seeking to use my communication and interpersonal skills to build meaningful student relationships and improve their mathematical abilities at Joaquin High School.

Like the visual example below, the above objective works because it details the applicant’s experience and how it’s relevant to their new goals within the classroom. 

With summaries, it’s difficult to narrow down years of experience into one paragraph, so they often end up looking like this:

Skilled and experienced teacher who loves working with littles. Adept at communication and care. Excited to use my skills for Sunnyside Elementary. 

For starters, repeating “skilled” and “experienced” won’t tell employers anything. A good summary should sell your experience and qualifications, making principals wish they’d had the chance to hire you years ago:

Elementary education teacher with 12+ years of experience managing 25-30 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders’ classrooms. I am a patient, personable, and compassionate professional eager to bring my expertise to Sunnyside Elementary. Awarded Teacher of the Year in 2020 and 2021 for creating online individualized lesson plans for over 65 students during the height of the pandemic.

This summary works because it tells the recruiter their specific qualifications, namely personalized lesson plans and classroom management, and their skills (in this case, two awards). 

It’s tempting to list every job you’ve ever had to prove you’re qualified, but this becomes either overwhelming or redundant. It also means you can’t include much about each position, which won’t inspire principals to hire you. 

Instead, pick two to four of your most relevant teaching positions. Quantify your responsibilities and incorporate skill keywords to improve your ATS score with each. 

No teaching experience yet? Add internships, student teaching, volunteering, or other special projects like the example below that can highlight your soft skills like leadership. Certifications and awards are helpful additions, too. 

How to write your job description bullet points

Whether you’re describing a past job, an internship, or a college project, you’ll need to craft your bullet points with care. Every word counts, so use active verbs, definitive language, third-person pronouns, and consistent verb tenses. Pay careful attention to consistency with punctuation—using periods at the end of some bullets while none for others is sloppy.

Based on these resume writing tips , here are some examples of well-crafted bullet points suited for a teacher resume:

• Taught mathematics, English, general science, art, geography, and history to 60+ 3rd grade students
• Collaborated with parents to discuss student performance and options for an improved learning experience, such as individualized instruction for students with learning disabilities
• Hosted annual fundraiser to raise $6,500 for 10+ teachers to attend the RAISE conference and led yearly trips to RAISE meetings, resulting in overall more effective teaching strategies and a renewed passion for academia

These bullet points work because they’re descriptive and results-oriented. Strive for conciseness and specificity with your job description bullet points.

Maximize your classroom impact with numbers

From an employer’s mindset, metrics cement your abilities by proving that your actions resulted in a desirable outcome. If possible, include metrics on 50 percent of your job description bullet points to showcase the results of your effective teaching. 

When talking about past teaching roles, it’s a good idea to discuss the following metrics:

• Increase in test scores, passing rates, or grade point averages
• Number of students/classes taught
• Increase in student participation/improved behavior

The following examples use the metric types listed above to describe a teacher’s impact further: 

• Co-founded a S.T.E.M. club with the aid of 4 fellow teachers, increasing student passing rates in science and mathematics by 13%
• Established weekly one-on-one student conversation sessions to intentionally build student-teacher relationships, resulting in a 15% overall increase in classroom participation and attendance
• Hosted monthly Write-Til-You-Drop sessions for high school students struggling in English and offered expertise for outlining thesis development and argument structure, which resulted in 31% higher essay scores for participating students

The  skills section of your resume  is a quick guide to what you bring to the table as a teacher. That means choosing the right skills for each job is crucial. You might be organized and great at time management, but if employers want to see that you’re compassionate and great at lesson planning instead, your resume may be set aside. 

Since teachers fulfill many roles, employers will want to see a host of varied skills, including soft, hard, and technical capabilities, such as these:

Common teacher skills

• Collaboration
• Problem-solving
• 1:1 communication
• Organization
• Class management
• Active listening
• Lesson planning
• Google Classroom
• Parent communication
• Gradebook software

These skills demonstrate aptitude and support the responsibilities a teacher must complete on the job. Remember that while the above list outlines common and popular teacher skills for your resume, defer to what the job description is explicitly seeking. 

Education, certifications, and optional sections

You’ll need to include different elements on your resume depending on your education level, years in the workforce, and any specializations or concentrations you possess. All teaching positions require a bachelor’s degree, and an increasing number of teachers hold a master’s. Also, ensure you’re up-to-date on your state certifications, like the California candidate below.

If you hold many certifications, you don’t necessarily need to include them all if you’re applying for one specific role. For example, suppose you’re an ESL-certified teacher with a graduate ESL certificate seeking an ESL role. In that case, you’ll need to include  that  certification either in a summary/objective, in your work experience, or in your education. 

This candidate’s education speaks volumes with a classic bold font and color.

While including education and certifications is required, a projects section is optional. If you’re a drama teacher, for example, new to directing but experienced with leading drama camps, including a projects section to describe the drama camps you’ve led or assisted with can add a relevant impact. List and discuss projects on your resume, just like a paid position.

Additionally, consider adding  interests and hobbies to your resume . Most teacher resumes should save room for other information, but it’s a good idea to add these sections when the job you’re applying for stresses the importance of school spirit and culture.

Choose your interests that reflect the school’s values. However, be picky about what you include. Finding every Easter Egg in the entire timeline of Zelda games might be your favorite pastime, but that doesn’t mean you should list it on a resume (unless you’re applying for Nintendo, in which case this might be appropriate, and you’re reading the wrong resume guide). 

It’s up to you whether you include any optional sections on your resume, but always be sure to be as specific as possible. Your interests should also be specific. “Reading” doesn’t say much about you, but “leading classic book clubs” is far more likely to get you a job as an English instructor.

Generic resumes are easy to spot and will likely get tossed. To avoid the trash, tailor your resume to every position you apply for. This tells principals you’ve researched the school and the role, and you genuinely care about the position.

To customize your resume, scan the  job ad  to know what responsibilities, accomplishments, and keywords to include in your skills section and your bullet points. You should also tailor your objective/summary (if used) to have the school’s name and speak to anything unique about the school that particularly interests you. Check your resume against the job description to ensure you’re addressing their concerns. 

As a teacher, you already know the pitfalls of submitting drafts before they’re revised, so don’t let minor mistakes slip through the cracks. Instead, take a break and hand your resume off for peer review. You can also use our free resume checker  to get tips from our AI software. 

After a day, return to your resume and consider the constructive criticism you received. Edit and check for errors, inconsistencies, or gaps. Read through your resume at least twice more, one for content and one for proofreading. Once you’re sure it’s error-free, you can submit it proudly. 

Start Setting up Your Classroom (Almost)

Go ahead and celebrate because if you’ve made it this far, you’re well on your way to that A+ resume! By spending more time throughout each phase of the writing process, you’re vaulting yourself closer to your next teaching job. It’ll be time to turn in a simple resignation letter at your current job and start setting up your new classroom before you know it!

If you’re not quite satisfied with your current resume, upload it to our  resume checker  for our AI-powered tips. If it’s time to start from scratch, use our  resume builder tool  to work with our AI from the ground up. We can’t wait to see you land your next teaching role!

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How to Make a Career Change from Corporate to Teaching

Transitioning from a business career to teaching doesn’t have to be highly challenging if you identify your transferable skills and relevant accomplishments. After identifying these key components, you must communicate them in your resume and cover letter.

Conduct a self-assessment and determine your motivation for the job change, assess your qualifications, and evaluate the skills you possess and need in the desired position. 

Communicating your transferable skills and accomplishments in your resume and job interview is vital. These skills could include organization,  leadership, communication, problem-solving, adaptability, time management, etc. 

Over the last 20 years, I have worked with many non-education professionals who switched careers to teaching quickly and easily.

If you wonder if a career transition is right for you, there are warning signs to indicate it’s time for a job change.

Quite a few people move from a corporate position and join the teaching profession because they believe changing careers can be gratifying and exciting. Various reasons can bring on a desire to change careers. Job seekers could be looking for something more rewarding. Or, maybe it was a profession they longed to be a part of but never got a chance.

Whatever the case, changing careers to teaching can be challenging if you’re not prepared for the job transition. Research the teaching/education field and explore various roles and requirements, such as licenses, certifications, etc. Figure out your true passion and what grade levels you wish to teach. 

Tips to Move from a Business Career to Teaching

You assume many roles as a teacher, such as a classroom manager, counsellor, role model, and disciplinarian. These functions need skills not always taught in college. Developing these skills to enhance your career takes time and usually happens over several years. Teaching requires an appropriate temperament, passion, skills, and personality. Be willing to go the extra mile for your students.

As a teacher, your workday doesn’t end when the students leave for the day. A conscientious teacher will stay behind after hours to assist the struggling students, grade and assign homework, and participate in after-school meetings and committees.

Teacher training programs are present in every state. Various online courses and degree programs are available for those who cannot enroll in classes. Be attentive when deciding which program to take because many options are offered. Select a program with a strong base, regardless of whether you prefer to teach at the elementary, middle, or high school level.

Questions to Ask About Moving from a Business Role to Teaching

When considering embarking on a career change to the education sector, ask yourself some questions to ensure it’s the right job transition. Plus, follow specific guidelines to make the switch easier. First, do some self-reflection. Take the time to identify why you want to make a career change. Weigh the pros and cons of the new job and make a logical decision.

Research different types of careers to aim your choice of jobs to your passions. The amount of research you’re doing should match the career change that you will be making. It is essential not to make drastic changes that might frustrate you instead of being excited.

It would be wise to scrutinize your transferable skills from your corporate career and use them to target your teaching resume. Uncovering and communicating relevant, transferable skills will be critical to marketing yourself in your career documents and during a teaching interview.

Follow practical guidelines and smoothly transition from a business career to teaching. Thoroughly research before making the change to prepare yourself for everything a new job in education can offer.

You may be interested in our popular teacher resource guides as a new teacher. They contain information on various education subjects and will help you get your teacher job search moving forward.

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Transferable Skills Teachers Have: 4 Tips for Translating Your Resume

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When communicating with teachers regarding their transition out of the classroom, the most urgent question I receive is for guidance about what transferable skills teachers have. When teachers feel it’s time to go, the first thing they need is help translating their skills into corporate lingo. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, don’t worry. You are definitely not alone.

If you need help leaving the classroom, check out the  Teacher Career Coach Course .  This step-by-step guide has helped thousands with a transition from teaching. Save time and get support with every step of picking a new path, rewriting your resume, and answering tricky interview questions.

Teachers often see job postings without realizing how the requirements meet their experience. For example, if you see a customer-facing trainer position – think of your classroom as the clients and you as the trainer.

Sometimes thinking this way may feel like a stretch, but ultimately it’s how your skills translate into corporate lingo. You most likely have skills you’ve never ever thought of. Practicing this career-ready mindset is essential when you are looking to transition out of the classroom. That way, when you interview, you convey the confidence that you are capable of doing the job at hand.

Transferable Skills Teachers Have

Transferable skills  are any  trades  you possess that are beneficial to employers across various jobs and industries. There are countless different transferable skills in teaching: time management, managerial experience, curriculum development, and training, in particular. Below, we’ll discuss how each of these skills you already possess are comparable to skills hiring manages look for in new employees.

Transferable Skill #1: Teachers Have GREAT Time Management

As a teacher, you are in charge of adhering to a time schedule. Whether it’s delegating how long you’ll study an objective for your benchmarks or how much time to allow for social studies lessons, time management is a major transferable skill teachers have.

Time management skills  include organization, prioritization, goal-setting, planning, and communication.

Many positions require time management skills if you are in charge of major projects. When you are writing your resume, you’ll want to emphasize long term projects that you were in charge of. Anytime you are writing your resume, try to use the specific time frames and success rates when possible.

Skill #2: Managerial Experience

I understand you probably think I’m crazy at this point. Maybe you’re rolling your eyes at the screen. Me? A manager?

But, when you begin to think about your duties, managerial skills can also apply to you. For instance, were you in charge of building a schedule for your Teacher’s Assistant or the After School Program? Did you manage a new teacher, mentor, and help them with their onboarding?

All of these duties should be addressed in your resume to prove your leadership skills. In addition, consider any time you were asked to take charge of an event or manage a team.

Transferable Skill #3: Curriculum Development

As far as transferable skills, teachers have a leg up on positions related to curriculum development. This one should come as no surprise: many teachers have created their own curriculum and lessons to supplement the materials they are given in the classroom.

Being capable of creating quality curriculum is no easy feat, and it comes naturally to teachers. Many places looking to hire teachers value that educators often take the initiative to develop their own digital brochures, PDFs, PowerPoints, etc. If this is a skill your future profession is explicitly looking for, start working on creating a digital portfolio today while you are still in the classroom. Additionally, you can begin to fine-tune your graphic design and make all of your resources look polished and professional.

My advice? One of the best motivators for me personally is $$. If you are looking to fluff up your resume with curriculum development skills, consider doing so in a way that earns you additional income at the same time. Side hustles such as freelancing, part-time curriculum development for major education company, or starting your own TPT store will help keep you enthusiastic about learning and growing as you begin to branch out.

Related: Business Ideas For Teachers: 5 Simple Start-Ups

Transferable Skill #4: Training

Another transferable skill teachers have is their capacity to train (or teach) almost anything. Public speaking and breaking down information into shorter, easy-to-digest chunks is something that’s always been natural for me. When I left teaching, I worked as an educational consultant (public speaking and Professional Development seminars). I then went on to work as an Instructional Designer (creating eLearning resources and curriculum for teachers to learn educational products). My teaching experience was something that helped me get my foot in the door for both of these positions.

You can demonstrate yourself as a valuable asset to any corporation that needs a new hire onboarding program. Even something such as helping 4 or 5 teachers on using a new technology program after school can be written down as experience. Furthermore, if you have ever trained other teachers on the curriculum at your school, write this on your resume as implementing train-the-trainer model lessons.

Other Transferable Skills Teachers Have

From managing inventory (curriculum and supplies), keeping accurate data records, to analyzing results of student progress over time, you most likely have a ton of transferable resume experience. Perhaps you’ve worked with the PTA on their budget (budgeting experience) or helped marketing efforts for a fundraiser. Coordination of field trips and other more significant events can be written in (even if you weren’t the sole contributor, you could write this as a group effort and state you were a valuable addition to the team.)

The truth? The transition out of the classroom can be tough. You have a limited time to do it if you are working around a strict contract. It’s essential to produce your strategic game plan now. If you still have the remainder of the school year, build skills to your resume to fit the experience you’ll need for your next career.

Next steps to a new career

One of the biggest mistakes that we see teachers make is that they try to  navigate this process alone . Often, they put off “researching” until the very last minute. Which sets them up for a very stressful application season. I want to help you get some clarity in the options available to you. To know EXACTLY what you need to do (and not do) in order to get your foot in the door. You don’t have to do this on your own. With the help of an HR expert with over 10 years of experience and a team of former teachers, I’ve created a guide to support you in the early stages of your transition out of the classroom.  Tap the button below to learn more .

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Transitioning Out of Teaching Is Hard. Here’s What I’ve Learned

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Nearly a decade ago, I left what I thought would be a lifelong career as an educator after just a few years in the classroom. Although there was much I truly cherished about my career as a K-12 teacher, I didn’t find the professional respect, work-life balance, and compensation I needed to thrive both personally and professionally.

I’m hardly alone in this. Even veterans of the classroom with decades of experience are contemplating an early departure from the profession , driven not by a lack of love for teaching but by a system that fails to compensate them fairly, protect their well-being, or set reasonable expectations for employees. In recent years, stories of educators asked to clean school buildings or restrooms on their off days or being involuntarily reassigned mid-school year underline the profound disrespect many teachers face.

The lack of upward mobility or opportunities for advancement in the teaching profession can also contribute to teachers’ desire to leave the field. I pursued national-board certification and then found a ceiling—there was nowhere to go in the school system. For professionals like me who desire continual career growth, this ceiling can drive us to look outside the teaching profession.

The professional journey of a teacher often lacks the lateral mobility enjoyed in other professions. For those working in other industries, professional boredom or unhappiness may mean moving to a new company or taking on a new role altogether. They have opportunities to build new skills and populate a robust resume.

In contrast, career-advancement opportunities for K-12 teachers are limited, primarily confined to administrative roles that do not appeal to many teachers. Furthermore, these positions require a different skill set than classroom teaching.

This lack of mobility within the profession, coupled with inadequate exposure to the culture of job-getting outside the education sector, can leave teachers at a disadvantage. When teachers are unfamiliar in the art of negotiating positions or adapting to new office politics, they lose out on these fundamental elements of professional growth.

The world of teaching alone also leaves many teachers feeling pigeonholed, their years of dedication to education paradoxically becoming their biggest barrier to exploration beyond it.

Teachers are often told that leading a classroom is the world’s most challenging and complex profession, but that sentiment doesn’t help them translate their teaching experience beyond the classroom. Many find the skills that define them as educators do not neatly translate into the resume language valued in the corporate world. Their expertise in people management, data analysis, and problem-solving, honed over years of managing classrooms and nurturing young minds, seems lost in translation when it comes to the corporate job market.

Instead, a teacher’s resume often reads as a static record of their employment history, devoid of the dynamic skills and achievements that could make them attractive candidates in other sectors.

For me, transitioning out of teaching required me to learn new skills. I took on volunteer and freelance work to broaden my skill set. Those experiences working outside the education space also gave me the opportunity to interact with a broader set of professionals in new spaces and apply the skills I had cultivated in the classroom beyond teaching.

Yet, hope is not lost. The pathway out of the classroom and into new professional realms requires a paradigm shift in how teachers and employers view teachers’ skills. The journey involves reimagining the resume not as a mere record but as a strategic tool that highlights the transferability of teaching skills to a wide array of sectors.

In my work developing a platform to support teachers’ career transitions, I help them understand how to translate their teaching skills into the language of various industries. It’s about recognizing the value in the competencies developed in the classroom—competencies that are desperately needed in the broader professional world.

I myself initially assumed that the skills I honed in the classroom were irrelevant outside it. This mindset kept me confined to education-focused roles for years before I realized the transferability of my teaching expertise and learned how to talk about the value I would bring to an organization.

We must also make systemic changes beyond what is in any one teacher’s control. First, districts need to create pathways for growth as teacher-leaders or other roles within schools that help them build a diverse skill set—and resume. No worker’s trajectory should flatten once they enter their chosen profession.

Secondly, schools of education could better support the professional growth of teachers by preparing education degree-seekers for an array of roles beyond the classroom. They should make students aware of the teacher-turnover rates, provide direct instruction around how to build skills valued in the workplace more generally, and advise on how to talk about their capabilities.

By offering courses that expressly focus on building transferable skills and building awareness of the array of career options for educators, these institutions can better equip graduates for the reality of their career trajectories. Teachers who end up choosing to transition out of education need to see how to translate what they’ve learned on the job.

Teacher-preparation programs can also support students by establishing partnerships between schools, businesses, and industry associations. These efforts—such as industry-sponsored projects, mentorship programs, or even guest lectures—would provide teacher-candidates with essential networking and skill-building opportunities.

Experiential learning opportunities, too, such as job-shadowing programs and internships can expose prospective teachers to the culture of job-getting in other industries. Such collaborative initiatives can bridge the gap between teaching roles and the broader landscape of available jobs for education professionals.

Teachers aren’t stuck, but they do face a Herculean task when they want to make a career pivot. It’s time we better support those who raise their hands to do the complex work of teaching and advocate a system that values their professional growth. We must recognize their potential not only in the classroom but in the wider world.

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How to write an MBA resume and make sure it stands out in the stack

Applying to business school, or an MBA program, can be nerve-racking. You’ll need to lasso together transcripts and test scores, fill out an application, and likely ace an interview—but perhaps the most critical piece of it all is an MBA resume. This important document will list out many of the same elements as a traditional resume, such as your educational background and work experience. 

But an MBA resume also has a different primary function than the typical resume you might submit to try and land a job: It’s designed to land you a spot in an MBA program. If writing an MBA resume feels intimidating, knowing what to put on it, and some other framing tactics, may help calm your nerves.

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Mba resume vs. a job resume  .

As noted, an MBA resume should feel familiar to many prospective business school students. 

“An MBA resume is very similar to a job resume,” says Kaneisha Grayson, the founder and CEO of The Art of Applying , an MBA admissions consultancy. She adds that both types of resumes will, or should, comprise a single page, incorporate clear, professional formatting, and lay out an applicant’s educational and career accomplishments. 

“I’d say one difference between the two is that I advise our clients to put their education at the top—whereas with a job resume, you’d see education at the bottom,” Grayson says. She recommends this variation because an MBA resume’s specific aim of landing an applicant at an educational institution. 

So, in that sense, there may not be a whole lot of differences between an MBA resume and a job resume, but there will be some additional focus on specific aspects of your background, all in an effort to win over an MBA program’s selection or admissions committee. 

How to write an MBA resume

Again, writing an MBA resume shouldn’t differ a whole lot from writing a traditional resume, but you’ll want to try and keep your end goal in mind, which is landing a spot in an MBA program. As you write your MBA resume, keeping that goal in mind should prove helpful, because it can help you parse out the information you’ll want to include, and the things you won’t.

“An MBA resume is very specialized toward the application cycle,” says Ellin Lolis, President and Founder of Ellin Lolis MBA Consulting . So, again, keep the end goal in mind. “Your education section is going to be important,” Lolis says, “but we mostly want to see your career focus.”

As for the nuts and bolts of writing an MBA resume? Keep it simple by deciding what to rope in, what to leave out, and how to structure it all so that it’s easy to read. 

What to include in your MBA resume

The main elements that your MBA resume should include are an education section, a job experience or professional experience section, and a portion that details a bit more about you, personally, such as your hobbies and interests. 

You can leave out photographs, information related to your high school, and even most of your contact information—that’ll be included on your program application, the experts say. 

Again, do your best to keep what you include to one page. The only time you could probably get a pass for using more than one page is if you have extensive professional experience, and are applying to an executive MBA program. A good rule of thumb? “When you have more than seven years of full-time, post-college work experience,” says Grayson. 

How to structure an MBA resume

As for structuring an MBA resume, do your best to contain most elements to the aforementioned sections: Education, professional background and experience, and a section dedicated to your personal hobbies, interests, skills and certifications, and community service work.

List the schools you attended and the degrees you earned, perhaps with any relevant coursework and GPAs in the education section. Your professional section may differ depending on your specific experiences and industries you’ve worked in, but try to frame it as a sort of professional “story,” which can showcase how an MBA can help you take the next step.

Professional background

“Generally speaking, the MBA is not a purely academic degree, as a majority of people are going to earn one to get a better job,” says Lolis. “They’re doing it to boost their career—and at that point, the most relevant thing is your recent job and your professional track record,” she says.

Get into the weeds, too, about your accomplishments. “Don’t just reiterate your job responsibilities,” says Grayson. “Communicate the results of your efforts. Quantifying the results is much more significant and meaningful—describe the impact,” she says.

Hobbies, interests, and more

As for the more personal portion? “One of the main things that’s different from a job resume is that they want you to share some of your hobbies and interests,” Lolis says. “Be very specific,” adds Grayson, “because 90% of people will list ‘travel’ as a hobby. “But that’s not interesting—maybe something like ‘slow traveling to find the best street food.’ That’s interesting.” This, she says, can help spark a conversation, or help your resume stand out from the pile.

In addition to specific hobbies or interests, you might include, add volunteer or community work as well, and perhaps relevant technical or language skills. Again, this may help tip the scales in your favor by showing you have specific know-how related to a given industry or task. Any applicable awards you’ve earned may be good to include, too, as they showcase that you’re capable of excelling in a given area.

Should you customize your resume for each business school?

Experts generally don’t recommend changing up your MBA resume when applying to different schools. Instead, look for specific instructions relayed by the school, if there are any, and make any needed changes accordingly. So, unless you have a really compelling reason, you can probably use the same resume for a number of applications.

Also, don’t go overboard in terms of design to make your resume stand out. “Just stick to traditional formatting,” says Lolis, since that’s what most admissions teams are used to seeing, and are generally looking for. Let the contents of the resume speak for you—not the design.

Where to go if you need help  

For many prospective MBA students, piecing together a resume shouldn’t be terribly difficult, given that it’s mostly the same process as writing a traditional resume. However, if you need help, you can reach out to consultants, or even check out some of the resources schools make available to help you along the process. 

• Consultants : There are many MBA consultancies out there, including the firms that Lolis and Grayson founded. They can help create, review, and critique an MBA resume and get it into shape. 
• Examples and templates : Some schools even make templates available , and example resumes to help students create their own. 

The takeaway  

In all, you should write an MBA resume in the same way you’d write a traditional resume, with some slight variations. The resume should focus on your professional background and previous education, while also detailing some of your personal interests, too. Stick to classic resume formatting as well, and keep it to one page, if possible.

It’s also important, experts say, to use some basic formatting and style—use 11 or 12-point font, a normal font style (Arial, Times New Roman, etc.), and overall, keep it professional. And remember: don’t go overboard trying to score style points with the resume’s design or other elements.

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A Software Engineer Shares the Résumé He's Used Since College That Got Him a $500,000 Job at Meta — Plus Offers at TikTok and LinkedIn In 2021, he applied to Meta after learning about the company's "crazy" pay packages on tech forums.

By Shubhangi Goel • May 1, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Hemant Pandey shared the résumé format that has helped him land several software-engineering jobs.
• He keeps job descriptions short and includes points that make for good interview stories.
• Pandey emphasized the growing importance of personal branding in the job market.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider .

Hemant Pandey's software engineering career was off to a good start.

After an internship at Amazon during his graduate program, he landed a full-time software role at Tesla in 2018. The pay was "top-notch" and it was a dream company.

Pandey, who grew up in India, even invited his family to visit him in California that summer.

Two weeks after they visited, he was laid off.

"It was my first job and getting laid off meant having to build rapport all over again in just six months," he told Business Insider. "I needed to prove myself again."

He didn't feel comfortable telling people he was let go and worried companies might see him as a bad performer and reject him before interviews.

But he was proactive about looking for new opportunities and landed a job at SAP within a month.

After a year, Pandey switched to Salesforce, where he stayed for two years. In 2021, he applied to Meta after learning about the company's "crazy" pay packages on tech forums.

Here is the résumé format that Pandey has used since college. It got him a $500,000 senior software engineer role at Meta and offers from TikTok and LinkedIn. BI has verified his employment history and compensation, which included both cash and stock.

The résumé Pandey has been updating since completing graduate school in 2017. Hemant Pandey via BI

Making conscious résumé decisions

Looking back at his résumé two and half years into his job at Meta, there are a couple of things Pandey said work well and he would keep the same.

Limiting descriptions: When it comes to summarizing work experiences, "I like to keep it very ambiguous," Pandey said. In an interview, "if people ask me what I did at Salesforce, I can help them know more by explaining rather than writing a paragraph." He uses one to three bullet points for each role.

Including GPA: While his master's GPA is not very "impressive," Pandey chooses to include it and sees it as an opportunity to share a story during an interview. "I generally share how I bombed my first semester and was intimidated," he said about getting a low GPA and almost losing an internship he was offered. He talks about how he had to push himself to keep up with more experienced students and eventually scored better in the following semesters. "This makes a good growth and learning-from-failures story."

Ability to do basics: As engineers move to more senior roles, Pandey says the job becomes less about coding and more focused on leading teams and delivering projects. "But if I still interview for a startup, they don't really care about how I'm leading or shipping products," he said. "They care about if I can write code, if I'm tech savvy enough." To showcase his technical skills, Pandey lists projects and links to his past coding work.

There's only one change he would make to his résumé if he were to revamp it today:

Personal brand projects: "Your personal brand is now more and more important," Pandey said. "I write actively on LinkedIn and have a newsletter with around 4,000 subscribers," which he would list on his résumé's projects section. He would also include that he mentors students. Those additions "will start to matter more than just my tech skills and certificates."

Pandey is part of a growing group of workers and business owners who embrace personal branding as a way to boost their careers.

Quynh Mai, the founder of a digital creative agency, decided to embrace personal branding nearly 10 years after she began her business. Once Mai began giving talks and promoting herself on LinkedIn and other forms of media, she said potential customers trusted her experience more, she previously told BI.

"Building a personal brand connected to your business is more important than ever because people won't do business with anyone they don't trust," she said.

Some people in 9-to-5 jobs have adopted similar practices.

Sahil Dua, a senior machine-learning engineer at Google in Zurich, told BI that personal-branding projects have given him an edge in job interviews and have boosted his career.

"Tech-speaking experience actually helped quite a lot in advancing my career and came up a lot in interview processes that I was going through at the time," Dua said.

If he were to revamp his résumé today, he said he would add his experience speaking at conferences and a book he wrote in 2020.

"I would change that section to make sure I highlight that I've given these TED Talks to increase my credibility and to say, 'Yeah, I know some stuff," Dua said.

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How to Answer an Open-Ended Question from a Job Candidate

• Marlo Lyons

Five strategies for interviewers.

Interviewers should prepare for interviews just as thoroughly as candidates do. Being equipped with compelling stories and setting aside dedicated preparation time, such as 30 minutes beforehand, allows interviewers to mentally prepare and be fully present during the interview. Like with candidates, it’s not only the content of what is said that matters, but also the manner in which it’s conveyed. Demonstrating enthusiasm for the company and the position can leave a lasting impression on candidates, instilling confidence and enthusiasm in their decision-making process.

While interviewers often assume they hold all the power during the interview process, candidates are increasingly asking more insightful questions to assess whether they should make a move to a new company. Just as candidates prepare for interviews, interviewers need to be ready to answer open-ended questions from candidates because the responses could either ignite their enthusiasm or dampen their interest in the opportunity.

• Marlo Lyons is a career, executive, and team coach, as well as the award-winning author of Wanted – A New Career: The Definitive Playbook for Transitioning to a New Career or Finding Your Dream Job . You can reach her at marlolyonscoaching.com .

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A woman said her tattoos got her rejected for a job, but experts say personality is far more important

• A tattooed content creator sparked a debate about hiring biases after being rejected by T.J. Maxx.
• Experts said tattoos could influence hiring decisions, especially in customer-facing roles.
• But overall, personality and cultural fit are more important, they said.

A TikToker, Ash Putnam, was frustrated after T.J. Maxx denied her application — and she said she thought her tattoos were to blame.

Some of her designs that are visible when she's dressed are a skull with horns on her neck, solid black patches on her arms, and a pattern on her forehead. Putnam, 23, also has multiple facial piercings , including a large silver ring hanging from her septum.

"I hate that my tattoos are such a defining factor for me getting a job or not," she said in a recent TikTok. "Just because I have tattoos doesn't mean I'm not going to be a good worker."

Putnam, from California, said she went into the store to ask why she hadn't gotten the job and that the hiring manager told her she didn't have enough experience. The hiring manager also denied that her tattoos played any role in the rejection, she said. T.J. Maxx did not respond to a request for comment.

She wasn't convinced and took to TikTok to complain. Many commentators claimed her attitude may have been to blame, rather than her tattoos. Others said they thought her body art likely played a role in the rejection.

While the jury is out over whether tattoos can damage your prospects of being hired, experts told BI that the personality of a candidate was likely more important for recruiters.

Putnam's story went viral

Putnam's video amassed 7.4 million views, and it struck a nerve.

"HR supervisor here," one person commented. "There is no way any company would put you in front of customers like T.J. Maxx."

Another commenter, who said they used to be a hiring manager for the store, said: "I will tell you it's the facial piercings and tattoos."

@ashxobrien I want to know who is also having a hard time finding a job right now! #jobs #jobmarket ♬ original sound - Ash🖤

Some fellow content creators criticized Putnam's approach.

Ivy Johnson, for example, who also has many tattoos, said she worked in corporate America as a hiring manager before starting her apothecary business.

"Your tattoos are very aggressive," she said. With customer-facing positions, she said, "that doesn't always go over well."

Johnson said she also thought Putnam had "a really bad attitude."

"If you had come into my business after an interview, or even applying and chatting on the phone, even if I didn't even know that you're a heavily tattooed person, I'd be like, 'Yo, bye, there's the door,'" she said.

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"You have to put your best foot forward in an interviewing circumstance, no matter what you do, what you're applying for, or what you look like," she added.

@svvampfae #stitch with @Ash🖤 #heavilytattooed #tattoo #facetattoo #hiring #jobtips #job ♬ original sound - svvampfae

It depends on the role

Almost one-third (32%) of US workers in a 2023 Pew Research Center survey said they had a tattoo, and 22% said they had more than one.

Some studies have suggested that tattoos can affect someone's career progression. In a 2018 LinkedIn survey, 40% of respondents said they had rejected a candidate for a job because they had a visible tattoo. Eighty-eight percent of recruiters and human-resources professionals who responded said they thought tattoos limited a candidate's prospects.

However, research from the University of Miami that same year found tattooed job seekers were no less likely to be employed than those without.

The stigma of tattoos is lessening every day, with many employers no longer having an issue with hiring tattooed employees, according to Indeed .

There may still be a line, though, and some of Putnam's viewers argued that she crossed it. Putnam declined to comment for this article, but she told the UK publication The Daily Star : "I am not going to change who I am for minimum-wage jobs."

Adam Collins, the founder and CEO of Ignite SEO, told BI that as someone who hired people to work at his company, he thought "tattoos can make a big impact on how a candidate is perceived."

"I wouldn't say that tattoos make or break an interview because it depends on the role," he said. "A candidate applying to be an account manager for our clients and is supposed to speak to our clients directly should definitely appear trustworthy and clean-cut, so face and neck tattoos would affect that."

On the other hand, with someone who isn't directly working with clients, appearance is less important.

In technical and operational roles, for example, "it's not a big deal," Collins said.

Michelle Enjoli, a career coach, told BI the visibility and type of tattoos someone has could make a difference.

"Tattoos are personal and typically represent something for that person," she said. "People represent companies, and therefore if a tattoo represents something that a company would not want to be associated with, it can definitely be an issue for a hiring manager."

How likely it is that a tattoo will determine the course of an interview depends on how visible they are and what they may represent, Enjoli added. Tattoos are nowhere near as much of a taboo as they used to be, but some people still hold judgment over them.

In Putnam's case, her tattoos were considered extreme, Enjoli said, and "seemed to be a big part of her identity."

"In other cases, where someone might have a smaller tattoo on their arm or visible area, it might not matter as much as it is less obvious," Enjoli said.

"I think a company demanding that an employee not have any tattoos regardless of visibility or meaning is definitely outdated as they have become a big part of the modern culture."

Personality matters more

Justina Raskauskiene, the HR team lead at Omnisend, told BI as tattoos had become more common, it's likely recruiters and hiring managers barely paid attention to them "unless they are offensive or distracting."

"Sometimes hiring managers may even prefer an employee with a tattoo because it can be evidence of an interesting personality," Raskauskiene said.

"Discriminating against those people would mean missing out on some talented people in the industry."

Rachel Pelta, a hiring expert who is the head writer at the virtual-work-experience platform Forage, told BI that overall, hiring managers were looking at skills and abilities.

"The thing is, everyone who's interviewing probably has the skills and abilities I'm looking for," she said. "So then it comes down to, how well are you selling yourself in the interview? Are you making the case for why you're the best person for the role? If you're not doing that, you won't get the job."

As for tattoos, piercings, or anything else that could be considered unusual, such as bright hair colors, hiring managers "shouldn't evaluate a candidate on their appearance," Pelta added.

But some companies are traditional or conservative, and for them, these things could be a "big deal."

"Unless you're willing to cover or remove them, you'll have to keep searching until you find a company that accepts you as you," she said. "And they are out there. It just may take you a bit longer to find one."

Watch: I got faux freckles tattooed

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