The International Schools Review Forum

I'm prepping for applying to ISs in Asia, and have been hearing all sorts of conflicting opinions on what and what not to include in my resume. Could someone give me an opinion on certain parts that I am uncertain about, based on their IS experiences ?

I'm currently an American secondary math teacher, and will probably apply for either a math or science position. I'm certified in math, chemistry, and physics in the US, and recently got the QTS for the UK. I've already got two years of teaching experience by now. I know that my degrees, certifications, and current education experiences are required for my resume. I know that I need to include my own photo, and personal contact info.

Wasn't sure if I need to include a paragraph about my teaching philosophy or what I'm looking for. I had been told in the past those sections were a waste of space, but am not clear if these parts are necessary for an IS application.

Education isn't my first or second career choice, and so my resume has a bunch of non-education related stuff. I don't mind including them as long as they don't damage my application. My resume's already at a maximum 3 pages. Here's what I have:

tutoring (math, science, economics at college level),
brief online tutoring (secondary math and chemistry),
volunteer community service in different medical settings (eg: hospitals),
leadership roles during college (club officer positions, mentor, tutor),
science research and publications (biotech stuff, DNA manipulation, etc),
summer camp counselor roles (teaching secondary students physics, robotics, computer aided design, basic
engineering)
hobbies and interests (sports, languages, Toastmaster),
awards received during college

What else are ISs looking for in an applicant other than classroom experience, teaching philosophy, familiarity with certain curricula and technology, experience with english language learners, and ability to adapt to overseas situations ?

I'm certainly no expert but will throw my two cents in. To start I would say that 3 pages for what amounts to a two year career seems long.

Teaching philosophy is not generally included in a resume. You could include that type of information in a cover letter that would accompany your resume. While on the subject, int'l schools generally will be requesting a curriculum vitae (CV) rather than a resume (although some people will say there isn't much difference). You can google the difference and decide for yourself if what you have needs to be adjusted. For us, we basically used a resume format and included things like citizenship, marital status, dependents and a picture which are required by many int'l schools and not generally included in US resume (and were able to get interviews, jobs, etc). We always talked about revamping what we used but never got around to it. Now we are with the Dept. of Defense (DoDEA) school system and no longer really need resumes.

While I can see that you want to include experience beyond your two years of teaching, most schools will not really care that much about experience beyond the classroom. The exception to that would be actual experience working in your field of certification (especially in the sciences). If your other experience is part time, volunteer, occasional etc you may want to leave it out or greatly condense it. As for college leadership, tutoring, awards, etc, I would greatly thin it or leave it out unless it was something truly remarkable or unique (publications should be included). Any specific training in things like IB, PYP, AP etc would be useful.

Just my opinion. Others may have different input. Good luck!

Thanks, wrldtrvlr123 !

In that case, I'll make a resume and a CV, and get rid of unrelated and short-term stuff. Would an IS ever ask for a CV ?

WT gives good advice here.
I never understood the difference between a CV and resume, and since I've been hiring and evaluating CVs for over a decade, I reserve the right to use the terms interchangeably.
Max length is 2 sides of 1 page, with realistic font, margins and enough white space so I don't feel claustrophobic. Philosophy goes in your cover letter. Pre-teaching experience can be a single line in your employment list:
"2005-2012 Employed within the fields of banking and finance".
If they care, they can ask for more info. They won't care.
Be choosy with the info you give about your work in education. Don't mention the basics that all teachers do, like holding parent conferences, planning assessments, etc. This is all known without you mentioning it. Only mention special things like "Led whole-school redesign from parent conferences to student-led conferences, including professional development for teachers and community outreach to prepare families".
If you don't have those special things yet, that's ok. You've only got two years. Say something about how you've been working with mentors to hone your craft, even give some examples. My own CV says only that in my first teaching post I "taught grades 7-9". Not much more to say for me (now that I have another 20 years experience to prattle on about), though you should say something.
With your experience, 1 to 1.5 pages should suffice.
Good luck.

You do not include an objective in an IT resume. You should either identify the position in your intro email both in the subject line and in the body of the email or it should be in the first sentence of your cover letter. The assumption is if you are applying for the vacancy than your objective is to be appointed to the position.

You do not waste space in your resume for teaching philosophy or statement of intention, etc. These are typically separate documents that you maintain and provide on request or as part of your application package.

Photos have two differing opinions, one is to include the photo directly into the resume in a corner of the document. the other is to include it as a separate attachment.
Your contact information should be the very first block of information in your resume, do not save it for the footer of your resume.

You have far to much and too long a resume for IE given your experience:
- All of your tutoring should be aggregated under one item.
- Volunteer community service should be removed, save it for a line in your cover letter.
- Your "leadership roles" in uni are nothing more than club memberships, remove them.
- research if published is worth a line item on your resume. You should reference a separate list of publications and make it available on request.
- Camp Counselor should be removed, nobody cares unless the vacancy is a camp like environment.
- Hobbies and interests are irreverent unless an IS can schedule them and they are marketable. They are worth a line item under the heading Skills.
- Awards received during Uni should be removed, no one cares.

At this point in your career your resume should be no longer than a page. I strongly concur with @SID the typical tasks that are part of the general IT/DT job description like creating lessons, evaluating student work, etc. are assumed to be part of the job and do not go into a resume. You should have about one bullet point per year of experience in a position and no more than 5 total per any one appointment.

A CV is the entirety of your professional life, its everything that isnt specifically personal. It covers your entire work and education. Its your life history. A resume is a slice of the CV specifically attuned to the profession you are applying to. As an IT nothing past what youve done in a K1/KS classroom matters much, and education focuses on your Uni name, major/minor and degrees earned.

Those items are essentially it. Many ITs are very nondescript from one another.

I find I can fit my teaching and a good deal of non-teaching experience, skills, qualifications, and interests onto a single one-sided sheet. This includes my headshot and normal fonts/margins. It's easily scanned by a recruiter, who can quickly see enough to get an idea of my experience/qualification as well as information about which they can ask further questions.

Seriously, principals and heads of school (not to mention HR folks) are busy. They aren't going to read your philosophy or even the details of your jobs. Bullet points and lists can get you pretty far!

I have my contact info and headshot at the top. Below that I have my education (just degree, institution, years, nothing before Uni). Then I have my jobs, most recent first, along these lines:

Certified Teacher, Blabla IS
Courses/Responsibilities: IB Whatever, Produced 8th grade play, etc.

Whatever Related Job, AwesomeCompanyName
Brief, bulleted reason it's relevant to teaching in my field

Then I have my Skills/Recognitions, interests (only insofar as they might be useful to the school), volunteer work (as relevant), and any other information that might set me apart from other candidates.

I can fit all of that onto one sheet. It's really not hard--just decide which elements are relevant and set you apart from other candidates.


I do realise this is a resume and not a CV, but most recruiters don't differentiate, and they do seem to appreciate the brevity. Plus it saves on printing costs, and when hubby and I apply together to two jobs, we can put them both on one two-sided sheet.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks to all of your advice, I've downsized my resume down to one and one third of a page with all the relevant details and condensed everything down to just teaching two different fields of math and biology.

@Ouroboros

Cut it more, two years of IT experience your resume should fit on less than a page, not a page and a third. This is an issue of credibility, once the recruiter realizes you only have two years experience they arent going to flip to the second page. Everything past half a page in your scenario is fluff. ITs with business card ichiros with 5 times your experience can communicate their qualifications in three bullet points.

The bulk of my resume consists of my profile, contact info, the classes I teach (I've been given 4 to 5 different classes per year), my degrees (~5), my certifications (~3), and my interests (3 languages, multiple subject tutoring, and stuff that could translate into coaching extracurricular activities). I don't think I could throw anything out.

Then reformat. That should still be 3/4 page. Fill the last bit of a page with the most relevant earlier jobs. Again, I can fit a 10 year, multi-school and multi-level teaching career with a range of certifications, degrees, and extra roles onto one page and still include courses taught, a few other jobs I have held, and skills and interests.

I rarely agree with PsyGuy, but in this case I do. Cut, cut, cut. Let your resume be a checklist or guide that admin can quickly scan, then let your cover letter, your interview, and your references fill in the gaps and do the bulk of the talking.

I've abbreviated everything and fiddled with the headers and formatting (all unnecessary spaces downsized to size 4)...and I've shortened my resume down to 3/4 of a page.

Perfect! Now add back in the most relevant work experience to make it a nice, pretty full page document, and you are reads to go!

Good luck in the job hunt!

@Ouroboros

I wouldnt abbreviate too much, you should avoid the use of too much education professional jargon. Just state your accomplishments plainly, you dont need to get expositional or wordy. "Provided high quality lessons in higher level diploma maths and Advance Placement in calculus, algebra and statistics" is really just "IBDP/AP Maths/Algebra, Calculus, Statistics". You dont need to cite lower secondary or foundation courses for example, and you dont need to sell each entry. You dont need to include year 9 Algebra, or year 10 geometry or year 6 maths concepts.

Dont fiddle too much with the headers and introduction, who you are and how to contact you should be prominently displayed on your resume. Its needs to be readable and easily identifiable.

I disagree with @Thames Pirate dont go back and just add another 3/4 of a page of fluff, your career is going to grow, and your wasting recruiters time with fluff. Be succinct, and direct, your resume in IE is not a work of art its a checklist of highlights that establish your credentials, qualifications and experience, thats it.

I didn't say add fluff, I said make it 1 page so it's tidy by adding back relevant experience. This can later be cut as the career grows.

@Thames Pirate

Yes you did, "make it 1 page so it's tidy by adding back relevant experience" means adding fluff. If it was relevant it should be there in the first place.