I'm new to the IS scene, and have found these forums a wealth of information. One area I am not sure of is the cover letter. Do any of you seasoned professionals or recruiters have any tips on what schools need in a cover letter?
So far, I have been focussing on my experience, and how it can benefit the school, but I am wondering whether or not I need to include anything else.
Also, how long are your cover letters? I've managed to cut it down to an A4 page, but still not sure if it is too long/short.
Thank you!
Cover Letter
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Cheery Littlebottom
- Posts: 207
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 8:32 am
Dexts
Usually, the school you are applying to delineates the size of your cover letter. Some give words, some say one side of A4, some do not specify.
My advice for a cover letter would be to spend serious time researching the school via their website and any contacts you may have.
You should promote yourself as a good candidate for that particular, specific school (if indeed you believe you are! If you think you are not during the course of your research, well...) You should balance promoting your personal strengths and passions with suggesting what you can do for the school. It's not so much "what I am" as "what I can do for you" or maybe a bit of both
;-)
Include a short introduction to your circumstances (single, married, family) and background, then talk about recent, valid experience.
Address it to the correct person.
When we were recruiting, it would take us a couple of hours of research and at least an hour to craft the cover letter. The cover letter for the 7 schools we applied to was very different for each school.
Good luck!
Usually, the school you are applying to delineates the size of your cover letter. Some give words, some say one side of A4, some do not specify.
My advice for a cover letter would be to spend serious time researching the school via their website and any contacts you may have.
You should promote yourself as a good candidate for that particular, specific school (if indeed you believe you are! If you think you are not during the course of your research, well...) You should balance promoting your personal strengths and passions with suggesting what you can do for the school. It's not so much "what I am" as "what I can do for you" or maybe a bit of both
;-)
Include a short introduction to your circumstances (single, married, family) and background, then talk about recent, valid experience.
Address it to the correct person.
When we were recruiting, it would take us a couple of hours of research and at least an hour to craft the cover letter. The cover letter for the 7 schools we applied to was very different for each school.
Good luck!
Thanks Cheery.
Yeah, I have been doing pretty much that. It makes me a little uncomfortable to wax lyrical about how great I am, and I guess that because everyone does it, most recruiters would take it with a grain of salt.
Is there anything that you have done on a cover letter to make yourself stick out as candidate? Or is the cover letter simply a box to check, and an indication of your ability to articulate yourself?
Yeah, I have been doing pretty much that. It makes me a little uncomfortable to wax lyrical about how great I am, and I guess that because everyone does it, most recruiters would take it with a grain of salt.
Is there anything that you have done on a cover letter to make yourself stick out as candidate? Or is the cover letter simply a box to check, and an indication of your ability to articulate yourself?
I wrote a personal statement, and then write a detailed email. I have had interviews before the fair, but unless it is on my short short list, I wouldn't want a pre-fair job anyway. Thankfully i have just scheduled to meet the first day of the interview with the schools I have skyped and I get to interview other schools too. Cover letters are good for Cheery and her husband they have the resume of a teaching couple that other top schools snatch up. Us regular folks might get a skype and a fair meet, and will be applying to 30 schools and not just 7. Most of us do not have the time for all of that, and it probably will go into a pile anyway. So unless you are standout anyway... Really it isn't going to help tremendously.
Don't write them for the fairs! Schools do not like it.
Also visit the schools website before sending anything, they often explicitly tell you what they want. If it says a unique CL, then do it (if you want that school). I have seen that in some schools, and just didn't apply at all, or just sent them my finely crafted PS.
I also don't think you have to wear a tie to an interview either... Go figure.
Don't write them for the fairs! Schools do not like it.
Also visit the schools website before sending anything, they often explicitly tell you what they want. If it says a unique CL, then do it (if you want that school). I have seen that in some schools, and just didn't apply at all, or just sent them my finely crafted PS.
I also don't think you have to wear a tie to an interview either... Go figure.
Thanks Briz. Useful information. When you say personal statement, do you include your career objectives, or educational philosophy etc? I have a carefully crafted one page educational philosophy, and my cover letter always refers to the school by name, including how their values match mine etc.
This is my first time recruiting for international schools, and I am finding it difficult to gauge what exactly will catch a recruiters eye. I don't expect to be top of the pile, but I just want a look-in. I interview well, but getting that interview is harder than I thought!
This is my first time recruiting for international schools, and I am finding it difficult to gauge what exactly will catch a recruiters eye. I don't expect to be top of the pile, but I just want a look-in. I interview well, but getting that interview is harder than I thought!
Are you going to a search or iss fair? Either of the Bangkok or London has school presentations. GGGGOOOOO!!! Go to as many as you can! Talk after the preso, sell yourself for early interviews, meet ups etc. Hit the sign up with a purpose, know where your going, be realistic. Get that first IS job, suffer if you have to. Try to make it for a second contract (even if it is one year more). Go to all the pd's you can (don't do online if at all possible). Network. Start a website, blog, tweet, hope you have a 1:1 school, go above and beyond, be active, social etc... Network in your school. Make this first job all you can, then when you go to your next job search/ fair, you can call on all those people you know to help in bringing in your resume (not everyone is keen to help!). Hopefully you can work into a place you like, and has a good rep. Keep working hard, stay 5 years at least. Then... Work on your cover letter, because your resume will look good enough they might take time to read it, give you a few skypes and offer a contract before recruiting fairs begin... Just my opinion.
Thanks Briz. Yeah, I figured as much. That is the plan, more or less. Unfortunately unable to go to the fairs this year, but other than that, what you described is really what I had projected my career to be for the next 5 years or so.
I guess you're right, that at this stage cover letters don't mean much. At least not until you have loads of IT under your belt. Its a pity though, as I really do feel my experience thus far has prepared me well for teaching at international schools. Just difficult to convince recruiters of that in a letter.
I guess you're right, that at this stage cover letters don't mean much. At least not until you have loads of IT under your belt. Its a pity though, as I really do feel my experience thus far has prepared me well for teaching at international schools. Just difficult to convince recruiters of that in a letter.
I respectfully disagree with Briz a little bit, though on many points we see things the same way.
Superstar couples probably have LESS need of good cover letters than do the more 'regular' folk, for lack of better terms. If you believe you're in the main stack of typical candidates, you need to do whatever it takes to rise to the top. A good cover letter can help. Honestly, as a recruiter, I get so few truly excellent letters, that this alone could get me interested in you. Most letters are pretty white bread much of a muchness.
And we do like cover letters at fairs as well. We don't get many, and there's good reasons for that, but again, if you want to stand out, go for it. A short handwritten note can do the trick, or a longer formal cover letter.
Good luck.
Superstar couples probably have LESS need of good cover letters than do the more 'regular' folk, for lack of better terms. If you believe you're in the main stack of typical candidates, you need to do whatever it takes to rise to the top. A good cover letter can help. Honestly, as a recruiter, I get so few truly excellent letters, that this alone could get me interested in you. Most letters are pretty white bread much of a muchness.
And we do like cover letters at fairs as well. We don't get many, and there's good reasons for that, but again, if you want to stand out, go for it. A short handwritten note can do the trick, or a longer formal cover letter.
Good luck.
Sid, can you share what you would consider an excellent cover letter to be? What features would get your attention?
Part of my frustration is that I don't really know the reader. Am I writing for someone who is looking for a creative, idiosyncratic teacher, or am I writing for a more conservative recruiter, who is looking for someone who is able to communicate well formally? I write more for the latter, as I don't want the recruiter to roll his eyes and chuck the whole thing in the bin.
Part of my frustration is that I don't really know the reader. Am I writing for someone who is looking for a creative, idiosyncratic teacher, or am I writing for a more conservative recruiter, who is looking for someone who is able to communicate well formally? I write more for the latter, as I don't want the recruiter to roll his eyes and chuck the whole thing in the bin.
Thanks Sid, I think we agree much more than disagree. I could go so far as to say it might help to write a few letters (and I do) but only to my A list. All others I write a nice email, and I spent considerable time on my personal statement.
I think at a fair being able to get in front of someone and making your 2 minute pitch is better if you can do that. Not everyone has that skill, and it is not a teaching skill, it is a sales skill. If you don't have it, then that letter may be your saving grace.
The main thing I got from your comment is that there are just as many types of recruiters as their are individuals and what may impress one may be trash bucket material for another.
In the end this recruiting season and your search is a second job, so you have to balance your time, and focus on what you really want. How flexible are you? How much are you willing to teach out of your comfort zone to get into the school you want? How desperate are you to get any job (ie. no experience etc.). To me that is what dictates a special cover letter.
I wrote this when I could have been writing a CL... Anyone else get the irony?
I think at a fair being able to get in front of someone and making your 2 minute pitch is better if you can do that. Not everyone has that skill, and it is not a teaching skill, it is a sales skill. If you don't have it, then that letter may be your saving grace.
The main thing I got from your comment is that there are just as many types of recruiters as their are individuals and what may impress one may be trash bucket material for another.
In the end this recruiting season and your search is a second job, so you have to balance your time, and focus on what you really want. How flexible are you? How much are you willing to teach out of your comfort zone to get into the school you want? How desperate are you to get any job (ie. no experience etc.). To me that is what dictates a special cover letter.
I wrote this when I could have been writing a CL... Anyone else get the irony?
Try this link to something I posted last year which got picked up for an ISR blog. I particularly like the bit where they call me a director (I'm not).
http://internationalschoolsreviewdiscus ... directors/
There are other recruitment related blogs on ISR which merit exploration.
http://internationalschoolsreviewdiscus ... directors/
There are other recruitment related blogs on ISR which merit exploration.
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teacherguy
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Sat Aug 18, 2012 11:11 am
I'd agree with Sid that a not so cookie cutter approach to a cover letter can help, especially if you're not submitting a super CV packed with awards, teaching experience, etc.
Directors can get hundreds of letters for open positions every year. Something out of the ordinary might just grab their attention. At my current school 150 people applied for the position I was hired for. I do not have a stellar CV. How'd I get noticed? I wrote a very different cover letter. I showed my personality instead of just reciting the usual boring things that get put in professional letters. It got me noticed. In the interviews (plural- my school is careful, I had four hour long interviews, each time moving up the admin food chain) I still had to prove I had the teaching chops, but it was my letter that got the ball rolling.
The problem is that it's hard to do this if you're applying for a lot of jobs. No one has the time to carefully craft an interesting/fun/unique cover letter for 50 different schools. I didn't anyway. Last year I sent out A LOT of applications. Did the usual professional type cover letter for every CV I sent. Got almost no bites. The season was ending. A job popped up at a school I thought I had zero chance of getting hired at. So I decided to have fun with the cover letter. Imagine my surprise when I was contacted, interviewed, and interviewed, and interviewed, and hired.
Directors can get hundreds of letters for open positions every year. Something out of the ordinary might just grab their attention. At my current school 150 people applied for the position I was hired for. I do not have a stellar CV. How'd I get noticed? I wrote a very different cover letter. I showed my personality instead of just reciting the usual boring things that get put in professional letters. It got me noticed. In the interviews (plural- my school is careful, I had four hour long interviews, each time moving up the admin food chain) I still had to prove I had the teaching chops, but it was my letter that got the ball rolling.
The problem is that it's hard to do this if you're applying for a lot of jobs. No one has the time to carefully craft an interesting/fun/unique cover letter for 50 different schools. I didn't anyway. Last year I sent out A LOT of applications. Did the usual professional type cover letter for every CV I sent. Got almost no bites. The season was ending. A job popped up at a school I thought I had zero chance of getting hired at. So I decided to have fun with the cover letter. Imagine my surprise when I was contacted, interviewed, and interviewed, and interviewed, and hired.