A resume will not land a job for you. It can, however, open doors to interviews which in turn open doors to jobs. As your initial contact with a potential employer, your resume should give a good first impression. Your resume is one tool that showcases your skills, education, achievements, accomplishments, abilities, work experience, and honors.

Suggestions for Writing Your Resume

• Heading - Include your full name, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address in this section. You should include a permanent address and current address if you are a college student.
• Career Objectives - Make your career objective clear and to the point. It should be listed as the first item of your résumé. Identify the grades and certification areas you are willing to teach and items that make you more desirable as a possible employee, such as: your interest in supervising extra curricular activities.
• Summary - The summary provides support for the objective and leads the reader through the rest of the résumé.
• Education - List all college experiences starting with the most recent first, the name and location of the institution, your degree, and graduation date. If you have unique educational experiences, such as study overseas, you may want to include this information here.
• Student Teaching - Include student teaching, practicums and field experiences as part of your education section, or as a separate item. List the name of schools, locations, and dates, the number of students and/or classes, grade levels, subjects, etc. Then describe your experiences in specific terms. Also include extra assignments or responsibilities.
• Work Experience - Use this section to highlight underlying skills that you may have acquired during your working history. Many skills may be transferable to the teaching job for which you are currently applying.
  Remember to use action verbs, concrete nouns, and specific adjectives. Be sure that you include:
  • full-time work
  • part-time work
  • summer and volunteer work
  • internships
  • special projects
  • volunteer work
  • self-employment.
  • unpaid positions
  Include names and addresses of employers, dates of employment, duties,and major accomplishments. The job description follows and begins with verb phrases instead of complete sentences. The period of employment is usually listed after the job description. Keep in mind that all work experiences are not of equal value to potential employers. Give a more detailed description for those most closely related to teaching. List work experience in reverse chronological order.
• Extracurricular Activities - You may want to include college or community activities which indicate that you will be active as a teacher. Also, listing participation in school or professional organizations will show a commitment to the profession. An activity may deserve a description because you developed professional skills or accomplished a relevant objective. List other activities in which you have been involved during your college experience.

Suggestions for Formatting Your Resume

• Layout - Using at least ¾ inch margins and double spacing between paragraphs will bring greater attention to the information.
  • Use 12- point print size or 10 point if you cannot get everything on one page.
  • Limit your résumé to one page
  • Use bold-lettered or capitalized section headings and bullets to highlight items
  • Use only one type style in your résumé. Choose a style that is both easy to read and professional looking.
  • Use italic sparingly.
• Length - A rule of thumb is one page per ten years of work experience. Recent college graduates should limit their resume to one page unless you have unusual or extensive work experience that will apply to the position.
• Grammar and Spelling - Check your resume for errors yourself and then have a friend or colleague do the same. Any mistakes on your resume will reflect badly on your preparation and professionalism. Do NOT rely on your computer's spell check to catch all errors.
• References - Each reference should include name, title or position, address, city, state, zip code and telephone number. Always get the person's permission before you list him or her as one of your references.
• Reproducing your resume - Select a good quality paper stock. White, ivory or off-white 24 lb. smooth paper projects the best impression. Remember that the readability of your résumé is of primary importance. It's worth it to have your resume duplicated at a professional copy center or printed on a laser or ink jet printer.

Cover Letter

A cover letter should accompany your resume and should be addressed to the person responsible for the hiring process, if possible. Keep the cover letter to four paragraphs, keep it brief, to the point and well organized. Suggestions for content include:

1. The reason you are writing the letter, the position desired and how you learned of the position
2. Why you are interested in the position and your qualifications for the position. Highlight skills, strengths, and achievements.
3. Refer to the enclosed resume.
4. Your eagerness to discuss your qualifications in greater detail at an interview.