Top 5 Tips for Writing a Teach Abroad Resume
Compiling a resume for a teaching job abroad needs to be carefully considered as it’s the first step in the application journey, and could make a big difference in securing an interview for your dream teaching role – particularly when there are many other good candidates. Here are our top 5 tips!
1. Remember to tailor the content of the resume!
This is top tip number one as it applies to every resume, for every job out there – it’s simple; tailor the content to ensure it is relevant to what you’re applying for. We suggest beginning with a personal summary, explaining why you are interested in teaching abroad, and what makes you the ideal candidate. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate enthusiasm and motivation.
2. Highlight skills relevant to teaching
If you do not have direct relevant teaching experience, it’s so important to articulate on your resume the in-direct experience you DO have. So, have you tutored, been involved in a mentoring program or helped a Professor with classes? Maybe you’ve done sport coaching, or volunteer work? Have you got experience of childminding? Within any of this, have you had to plan content and give feedback? Think about the skills you gained during these experiences that you would bring to and apply to the classroom – and be willing to talk about these in a structured way during a skype interview.
With other professional experiences, although you may be proud of this, keep it brief, and highlight where you have trained, motivated or inspired others – as well as skills in excellent communication and presenting ideas.
3. Structure
How you structure your resume is a personal choice, but key is ensuring it’s presentable and easy to understand, and shows off your education, experience and skills.
A good way to structure would be a personal summary, followed by a section on your education (keep this brief), and then followed by a list of prior roles and experience. Experience can be split in to ‘Teaching Related Experience’ and ‘Other Professional Experience’. Remember, with prior non-teaching roles don’t get too descriptive with previous jobs; focus on the skills gained and how these will contribute to you being a great teacher. When it comes to ‘Interests’ or hobbies, consider how these could add to the life of a school, for example if you’re musical, sporty or love acting then say so!
4. Oh, remember to spell check…
It sounds obvious, but check your resume for spelling and grammar. We often receive resumes with glaring mistakes, which looks sloppy, and doesn’t present the best initial professional image – particularly for someone who is seeking a teaching role!
5. Consider how the document would read to a non-native English speaker
It may well be that the school’s HR staff member looking at your resume may not be a native English speaker – so it’s important not to use overly complex or colloquial language, or be too subtle in explaining your experience.
Want to learn more? Read our full guide to Resume Writing for Teachers, and you may also be interested in our Skype Interview Tips for a Teaching Role in China.
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