How To Prepare Your CV for a Teaching Job

We’re sure you’re well aware of how important your CV is in the recruitment process for teaching jobs. If you’re searching for a new role and want to stand out from the crowd, your CV needs to be honest, articulate and memorable. 

Hiring managers spend, on average, six or seven seconds looking at a CV before they decide if they want to continue reading the CV, so it’s vital to pack yours with relevant information, skills and experience to encourage them to read on and want to interview you.  

In our latest blog, we delve into how to prepare your CV for your dream Teacher job. 

Tips on how to prepare CV for teaching job

Whether you’re a recently qualified Teacher, or you’re an experienced Teacher on the hunt for a new challenge which a new school can offer, there are 6 key things which you need to remember when writing your CV. These include: 

• Use strong and emotive language
• Get on with the job
• Verbs
• Avoid jargon and buzzwords
• Keep some things to yourself
• Don’t forget your personal statement
  
  

Use strong and emotive language

When writing your CV, it’s important to include powerful language that will pack a punch and highlight how impressive your experience is. For example, instead of saying things like motivated, taught and organised, you could say empowered, educated, and coordinated.

Other powerful words you should try to include in your CV include:

• Achieved
• Advocated
• Pioneered
• Defined
• Strengthened
• Facilitated
• Mentored
• Overhauled 
• Collaborated
• Initiated

It’s important to remember, though, that too many powerful words can devalue your CV and make it look cluttered. Aim for around three or four in total.

Get on with the job

Popular job vacancies have the potential to attract hundreds of applicants so, if possible, you should aim to submit your CV at the earliest opportunity. Job adverts that attract large volumes of applications have a higher chance of closing earlier than advertised, so get your application in quickly.

Submitting your application early could also demonstrate that you are proactive and enthusiastic about the job opportunity. This can leave a positive impression on the school and may increase your chances of being considered for the position.

Verbs

Verbs help to structure and strengthen your CV and keep content flowing in an articulate manner. You could include sentences such as, ‘Nurturing X helped me to…’, or ‘Mentoring Y gave me great job satisfaction’.

Other examples of how the use of verbs can greatly enhance your CV are:

• Collaborated with the Headteacher to implement new classroom policies and discipline strategies. 
• Implemented strategies to improve the behaviour of students in the classroom. 
• Monitored individual student performance in order to alter teaching strategies and their effectiveness. 
• Introduced educational software to optimise the efficiency of lessons by X%.

Avoid jargon and buzzwords

In a similar sense to including powerful language and verbs, you should also aim to avoid jargon and buzzwords. Including too much jargon can run the risk of your CV sounding obnoxious, and it could drown out your achievements and skills.

Naturally, you want to display your expertise but be careful to not go too overboard with cliches or overly complex terminology. Buzzwords to steer clear of are: 

• Expert 
• Gives 110% 
• Ninja
• Responsible for
• Hard worker

It’s important to remember that whatever you include on your CV, you should always give context or examples to back up what you’re saying.

Keep some things to yourself

When writing your CV, remember that employers may only take a few seconds to quickly scan it, so keep it short and concise. This encourages the hiring manager to continue reading the full CV.

You do not need to include any unnecessary information, such as irrelevant work experience, marital status, religious beliefs, salary details or sensitive information.

Avoid going into detail about why you left a previous school; if the hiring manager wishes to know that information, they will ask you at the interview stage.

Don’t forget your personal statement

When submitting your application, you should aim to include a short and punchy personal statement to compliment your CV. A personal statement should convey your passion for teaching and reinforce the value which you can bring to their school.

Latest Teacher jobs at Spencer Clarke Group

If you’re searching for your next Teacher job, why not take a look at all the teaching opportunities available with Spencer Clarke Group now? 

Alternatively, why not speak with one of our specialist consultants who can discuss any upcoming opportunities. We work with hundreds of schools across the UK and can offer a range of opportunities including temporary, permanent and to temp-perm positions. 

Who is Spencer Clarke Group? 

Since 2017, we've been changing the face of recruitment. From our employees, to the way we do business, to the culture within our office, we're determined to make a difference and create a positive impact on everyone around us.

Recruitment to us isn't just about matching candidates and clients; we’re passionate about finding candidates the perfect job which has the ability to boost their salary and standard of living, better their work life balance and improve their mental health. 

Similarly, we understand the impact which an experienced and skilled employee can make to a business and we love seeing clients thrive through the hard work of candidates which we have placed with them. 

We operate in two sectors:

Private Sector

Public Sector 

In eleven specialisms:

Accountancy & Finance

Education & SEND

Construction, Trades & Labour

Healthcare, Social Care & Nursing

Housing

Corporate Functions & Business Support

HR & Workforce Development

IT & Digital

Property & Asset Management  

Planning, Development & Regeneration 

Highways, Infrastructure & Engineering

If you’re searching for a new role, why not visit our job page to take a look at the latest opportunities? Alternatively, upload your CV and one of our experienced consultants will contact you when a relevant opportunity becomes available. 

If you’re struggling to fill a role, why don’t you give us a call on 01772 954200 to see how we can help? One of our consultants will be happy to listen to the challenges which you are facing and advise on the best possible solution for you.