Getting a Job As a Teacher: Work Experience Is a Must

As a former administrator, I learned that one thing all prospective employers look for on a teacher resume is former work experience, particularly work experience involving working with children. When looking over a resume, principals look for the following:

The quality that employers seek above all else is a strong worth ethic. They want teachers who are energetic, dependable, team-oriented, and hard-working and set a good example to the community. Job experience with a positive recommendation is the best way to demonstrate you meet these qualifications.

Prior to my first job as a Special Education teacher, I had work experiences as I worked my way through college. I was a nurse's aide in a nursing home, did respite care for a foster child with autism, and worked in a group home for teenagers and adults with disabilities. In addition, I had numerous jobs from McDonald's to a work study job as a typist in my college department. In addition to being valuate to my obtaining a teaching job, these largely minimum wage jobs taught me a lot about the world and made me better able to related to people who work these jobs every day to support their families. As an administrator and teacher, this work experience made me more approachable to classified staff and families who live in poverty because I could appreciate the work they were doing.

All of these experiences played a part in me easily landing my first job as a teacher. Despite having graduated in November, I started a full-time job on January 3rd.

Admittedly, it is difficult to work and go to school at the same time, but it's not impossible. I worked up to 40 or more hours per week and went to school at the same time because I had to. If you can't do both at the same time, at least work during school breaks.

Job experiences involving children are particularly valuable. Such jobs can be babysitting, summer camps, tutoring, daycare, music lessons and more. Volunteer experience is also helpful, particularly volunteer experience with children who have special needs, who are English Language Learners, are socio-economically disadvantaged or from an urban area. Here are some suggestions of places to volunteer to gain these experiences: a children's hospital, Special Olympics, an urban league, a church or synagogue, a food pantry, or a family homeless shelter or soup kitchen.

Of particular importance to principals is your ability to manage groups of children so such jobs as summer camp counselor, daycare center worker, vacation bible school or Sunday school teacher look good on resumes.

Again, work experience, particularly work experience in working with children, is valuable to obtaining a teaching job. Make certain you are an exceptional employee with good recommendations. It will pay dividends.