India has over 1.5 million schools run by state governments and Union Territory administrations.
And there’re countless schools that educational foundations, community organisations, private organisations, and business houses, as well as religious groups, operate across the country.
At the same time, India is experiencing a severe shortage of teachers. There’re several reasons for this scarcity.
However, if you’re a teacher seeking employment, this is the right time to apply for a job. And as usual, you’ll have to send a resume to apply for a teaching job.
In this article, I will provide tips on writing that job willing resume for teachers and the best format writing guide.
To begin with, let’s look at the essentials to become a teacher.
Requirements to Work as a Teacher
Now, this might come as a shocker: teachers in India don’t require much qualifications. That depends upon the school, location and a lot of other factors. However, other schools require specific requirements.
- Graduate in any stream: Arts, Commerce, Science or others.
- Bachelor of Education B.Ed or Master of Education (M.Ed) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
- Knowledge of English, Hindi and preferably, the local language.
At the same time, other schools sometimes hire teachers with minimum Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) or equivalent for teaching basic literacy as part of adult education and free primary education.
Regardless of the school or education program, teaching skills are the most important factor in getting you that job.
Therefore, you’ll have to draft a resume that attracts the school administration or school owners.
Best Resume Format Guide for Teachers
Here I’m providing the best resume format for teachers. This might help you get an excellent job as a teacher at a good school.
Understand Format of a Resume for Teachers
The first step to write the best resume for teachers is to understand what’s the format of a resume. You can read this my guide about the differences between a Bio-Data, Curriculum Vitae and Resume.
It would provide you with a clear idea about what is the best resume format and how you should project yourself.
Highlight Your Education
Highlighting your education is the most important step to write a resume for teachers. That’s because you’ll have to teach different subjects to students if you’re applying to a smaller school.
The school management would definitely like to know about your level of expertise with various subjects. Hence, highlight your education with a special focus on subjects where you would excel at school and college, depending upon your degree.
Indicate clearly your scores in subjects where you would score high since those would be of particular interest to school management.
Experience v/s No Experience
Now we come to the trickiest part of writing your resume for a teacher job. The work experience. You could have a B.Ed or M.Ed degree. That would definitely help you bag a teacher’s job without much fuss. And regardless of your experience.
However, if you have no experience as a teacher, things can become tough. You’ll have to speak about the reasons you want to teach. Avoid grand words such as ‘noble profession’ and their likes. Instead, highlight how your skills on specific subjects qualify you for the job.
Interests & Hobbies
Interests and hobbies play a very major role on a resume for teachers. Why’s that? Because every school in India and around the world conduct different extracurricular activities for students.
Therefore, speak in detail about your various interests and hobbies. Mention in detail how these interests and hobbies are important to your life, their role in your life while studying and how they would prove useful to your students.
Sometimes, your interests and hobbies can get you the job of a teacher compared to education or knowledge about a subject.
Interpersonal Skills Are Important
Nowadays, interpersonal skills are important for almost every job. However, they’re most important for a teacher. Therefore, include interpersonal skills under the subhead ‘Other Skills’ on your resume for teachers.
Write in two or three sentences your ability to deal with people in a firm, polite and positive manner. Provide examples where possible. School management, as well as your interviewer, would definitely be interested in your interpersonal skills.
Creative Skills Come Handy
Your creative skills will also prove handy to get you a job as a teacher. And it’s essential to include them too on your resume for teachers.
Creative skills include painting, drawing, arts such as singing or dancing and others that are common at schools.
By showcasing your creative skills on your resume for teachers, you’ll be indicating your abilities to conduct drawing and painting classes too as part of the curriculum and extracurricular activities.
Social Initiatives & Memberships
If you’re a member of any organization that has taken social initiatives, include them on your resume for teachers. Also, mention clearly if you’re a member of any non-political organization or one that doesn’t have political inclinations.
Remember, schools don’t appreciate teachers with strong political leanings unless it’s run by a foundation or organization with similar manifestos.
At the same time, your political affiliations might prove handy if you’re applying at a school run by an organization that supports a specific party.
Mention Your Analytical Skills
And finally, include your Analytical Skills on your resume for teachers. Because these are extremely important for every teacher. You can learn about Analytical Skills, how they are useful in everyday situations and their importance from here.
Teachers are expected to have excellent Analytical Skills especially if you’ll be teaching Math and Science subjects. Often, students will come up with questions that you wouldn’t imagine.
In such situations, you’ll require excellent Analytical Skills to provide an answer and gain healthy respect from students.
Closing Thoughts
Before concluding, I’ll emphasize there’s a major difference between a resume and that for any other job. Every school or organization that employs teachers look for specific qualities and personal characteristics.
Therefore, drafting a resume for teachers isn’t the proverbial cakewalk by any standards. It requires a lot of thought and proper presentation of your education, skills, interests and other elements of your personality.
