8th July 2020

How To Write The Ideal CV For Teaching Roles

Writing a CV can seem daunting – there’s so much advice out there for every profession. As education recruitment experts, we’d like to think we knew a far bit about what schools are looking for when they review your CV, so we’ve asked Joe and Georgia for some tips tailored specifically for teachers looking to land their dream role.

CV BASICS

• Your CV should be in reverse chronological order with your most recent role at the top. In most cases, your most recent position should include the most detail.
• The top section should be a Personal Profile, giving a brief overview of your skills, last role and what you are looking for in a new position. Try to avoid cliches or over-used phrases when writing your personal profile – keep it unique, relevant and concise.
• CV’s should be formatted using a plain, common font such as Helvetica or Times New Roman. Margins should be decreased and sections should be clearly divided. White space makes a CV easier to read for recruiters who may be looking at hundreds per day!
• Make sure you name your file appropriately – recruiters have hundreds of files called ‘CV’ so try to include your name and job role – “John Smith English Teacher CV” is easier to find in a hurry than “CV”
• Always send your CV as .doc or .rtf format, so that recruiters can quickly open and share your details.

Georgia Price Talent Acquisition Leader

Do’s And Don’ts

Georgia recruits and supports our candidates as part of our dedicated team of talent acquisition consultants. Her role includes guiding them towards becoming excellent teachers and leaders. She’ll often advise new candidates on putting their CV together, so here are her Do’s and Don’ts:

Do

• State MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY for each job role
• Write at least 3 bullet points about every relevant experience you have – this is easily digestible for employers
• Have clear information on your Education – keep each part short. School, what you studied, grades, years you were there
• Have a personalised profile at the top explaining a bit about yourself and why you are in the industry
• Try to make your CV 2-3 pages maximum anything longer can lose the interest of prospective employers

Don’t

• Only put the year you started and finished – this is unclear to employers how long you were actually there
• Have long paragraphs about your experience (other than your personal profile) – is hard for employers to pick out relevant experience
• Make your personalised profile too generic, this can make you stand out from other applicants
• Have text boxes on CV, this can move to the wrong places when sent and is hard to format for prospective employers

Highlighting your key skills and making sure they stand out to potential employers is one of the most important things that your CV needs to achieve.

Joe Raffell Head Of Education

Tailoring Tips

Joe is our Head of Education and Talent Acquisition with over 5 years of experience working within educational and commercial recruitment – know exactly what our partner schools need to see when reviewing your CV! Here are his tips for tailoring your CV to individual job roles:

1. Change your CV when applying for different roles

Adjust your personal profile to highlight skills specific to the job description. This will help employers to see how you could succeed in the role you are applying for.

2. Drill down the top five elements of your previous role

It might help to write down everything you did and select the most vital or relevant 5 to create a bulleted list under your most recent employment.

2. Be descriptive about your successes

Don’t just list what you did in your previous role, talk about how you did it and what the result was.

We hope these tips help you feel confident about creating a fantastic CV!