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Job Search Strategies

for public school teacher candidates

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20-minute PowerPoint with voice-over narration.
Provides more complete discussion of all the issues.

So, you're looking for a teaching job! Whether this is the first time or you're an old pro at this, there are some general principles and specific resources you should be aware of.

Before we begin talking about the job search itself, we'd like to let you know about how we can help. The Boston College Career Center offers a number of services, including resume and cover letter critiques, internships and summer jobs in education, one-on-on career advising, Drop-In appointments, practice interviews and a campus recruiting program. We have one counselor on staff (Peter Hunt) who serves as the liaison with the Lynch School of Education, and some teacher candidates may want to work specifically with him. NOTE that several other career counselors in our office have served in this role. To make an appointment with a career counselor, call our main number, 617-552-3430.

Note that we also have resources for many types of teaching opportunities outside the public schools.


 Principles of the job search

What are administrators looking for in teacher candidates?

How can you set yourself apart?

1. Make personal contact at job fairs.
2. Make contact through personal connections and networks.
3. Make personal contact at the schools.
4. Long-term substituting can set you apart.
5. Other ways to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Timing / Calendar

Expand your search geographically

Finding job openings

Teaching options outside the public schools

   Principles of the job search

Do these sentences describe you well?

"I'm committed to teaching. I love working with children. And I want to get the best job possible."

If so, that's great! With hard work, you will probably be a terrific teacher (maybe you already are a great teacher). BUT - there are a lot of other candidates out there - especially in the Boston area, and especially at the elementary level - with the same commitment, the same passion, the same training as you. (Well, maybe they didn't go to BC, and so they weren't as well-trained as you....)

SO - one of the key questions you should ask yourself is this: Given that districts administrators and school principals will see hundreds of resumes from people with many of the same qualities and experiences, how can I set myself apart?

   What are administrators looking for in teacher candidates?

We asked a number of them, and this is what they told us:

  • Passion for education and for working with children.
  • A desire to do something important.
  • Maturity – can you hit the ground running in your first year of teaching? Can you take coaching, and are you willing to learn from others? Have you demonstrated that you can deal with adversity and problems in the classroom?
  • Teachers who will make sure that school makes annual progress – that includes an awareness of the state curriculum frameworks and their relationship to high-stakes testing.
  • Most administrators would like their first-year teachers to have experience in some or all of the following:
    • inclusion classrooms;
    • classroom management and behavior issues;
    • dealing with parents and their concerns;
    • collaboration with other teachers.

KEY PRINCIPLE: It's important that you not just state that you have these qualities, but rather that you can speak about specific experiences that demonstrate these qualities and these experiences. This is key not only to good interviews, but to good cover letters and resumes, as well.

   How can you set yourself apart?

First, remember that you already have a great advantage - you were sharp enough to get into and go to Boston College AND you received some great training to be a teacher.

  1. Your resume can set you apart. It should reflect your unique experiences as a teacher - that is to say, your resume ideally contains, for example, a description of some particularly inventive classroom unit you taught, or mentions an effective collaboration you had with another teacher.
  2. A good cover letter can set you apart. Ideally, a cover letter shows you’ve researched district (and school) AND highlights one or two of you key strengths as a teacher, with examples.
  3. In a moment, we'll talk about how personal contact with principals and other administrators can help set you apart.

   Personal contact with school principals and administrators can help set you apart.

Unless you have some sort of personal contact with the principals who can hire you or the administrators who can pass your application materials along to those principals, all you will be to those people is a few pieces of paper on their desk or their computer - along with the hundreds of other applicants for the job.

There are a number of ways to make that personal contact - and most teacher applicants never take advantage of them.

1. Make personal contact at job fairs.

Most education job fairs allow you to have conversations with school district representatives and principals. There may even be the possibility of having brief interviews at some fairs. Fairs are often run by groups of school districts or by a consortium of colleges, though some individual school districts do run their own job fairs. Most fairs are held from January through April.

NOTE: Job fairs run by the New England Association for Employment in Education (NEAEE) usually are preceded by a set of presentations by school administrators on job search strategies, resume hints and the like. VERY valuable.

Sources of information on job fairs include:

2. Make contact through personal connections and networks.

Now, before you freak out at the sight of those words - recognize that you already have a couple of networks at your disposal:

A. Your personal network of people you already know - this includes professors and staff in the Lynch School at BC; practicum supervisors; supervising teachers; other teachers whom you met or worked with during your pre-practicum and full-practicum teaching; and anyone who might know a teacher or administrator in a town where you are thinking of applying for a job.

How can your personal network of friends and acquaintances help you? In several ways:

  • They can suggest quality schools and school districts where you might want to apply.
  • They might be able to tell you what qualities or experiences those schools or districts most value in their teacher candidates.
  • They may offer you the names of administrators or teachers whom you might want to get in touch with, or they may be willing to make a personal recommendation and pass your resume along to an administrator they know well.

B. The Boston College Career Network – teachers and administrators who have volunteered to speak with you.

  • Face-to-face conversations (or by phone, if you’re looking out of state).
  • You interview them – have questions about the district/school; how to break in.
  • Don’t ask for a job.
  • Network.

A story - we heard from an alumnus of the Lynch School who got an interview for a school counselor job because his mechanic knew a member of the school board. The school board member called the principal of a school to put in a good word for the BC alumnus. Not every connection will come through for you in this way, but you never know who might know somebody who might know somebody who....


3. Make personal contact at the schools.



Though it might sound extreme to you, visiting some of the schools where you are interested in working can provide great benefits.

  • When you drop-in, you can ask the secretaries about vacancies before they are posted for everyone - be friendly, and get to know the secretaries on a personal basis. (When you call in to ask about vacancies, they may remember you and go out of their way to help you.)
  • You may get also be able to gather information about the school that you wouldn't find out just by looking at a website.
  • You may be able to sit in on a class while you're there.

Alternatively, you may want to try calling in advance to set up an informal conversation with a school principal or other school administrator. Most administrators are too busy to agree to this, but if you try this strategy when school is not in session, you may find some people who will meet with you.

NOTE that we recommend you not use the phrase "informational interview" - the term has been abused over the years and can have negative connotations for some people. Just say that you are very interested in working in that district and in that school, and you'd like to sit down with the principal and ask some questions.

4. Long-term substituting can set you apart.

If you have not yet had paid teaching experience in the classroom, doing some long-term substitute teaching can give you a big advantage at hiring time. Since the public school year usually extends into mid-to-late June, you may have the opportunity to work for four to six weeks after you have completed your own academic commitments.

Of course, not every school or district will have these opportunities, so if you should call a number of districts and let them know the dates that you will be available. (NOTE that even short-term subbing (a day or a few days at a time) can also be a good addition to your resume.)

5. Other ways to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Participate in the campus recruiting program and the Boston College Career Fair.

  • A number of Boston area school districts conduct on-campus interviews at Boston College, most during the spring semester. Recruiters coming to your home and interviewing you - this will never happen again in your life! Be sure to take advantage of it.
  • And the Career Fair attracts some school districts and other education employers. The fair generally takes place in late September. There are not interviews, per se, but it's still a good opportunity to make personal contact with administrators.

Done something out of of the ordinary?

  • One school administrator we spoke with says that many of the resumes from new teacher candidates sound the same. So he likes to see something unusual on a resume, something that indicates a sense of adventure, commitment or maturity - that you've lived abroad, or spent a year volunteering, or run a summer business, or run a book fair - really, anything that helps you stand out from the crowd.

Philosophy of education.

  • Other administrators have told us that they pay a lot of attention to your “philosophy of education” statement. Put time into that document, and remember that the best ones often back up general statements with specific examples from your work with young people. More information about creating a philosophy of teaching statement.

Sending materials to individual principals.

  • There are professionals in the education field who believe that sending some of your application materials to individual school principals (in addition to sending your entire application to the school district) will get you extra attention. They feel that a well-composed cover letter and resume landing on a principal's desk, independent of the applications he or she receives through the district office, will mark you as someone with initiative. If you decide to use this strategy, be sure to do your research on that particular school and use that research in your cover letter.
  • On the other hand, district administrators will almost always discourage you from sending an application directly to principals. The district has established procedures to organize the application process, to filter out unqualified applicants, and to save principals from dealing with the burden of extra paperwork, and central administrators don't like to see this process subverted.

Research and preparation for interviews.

As with any other job or career field, doing your homework before an interview will pay dividends.

  • Research the school & the district, through the web and through informational interviews with alumni or others working in that district.
  • Arrange a practice interview through the BC Career Center.
  • Practice your interviewing skills with friends. If possible, practice group interviews with friends. Your first interview for a public school job will likely be with the principal or other administrator, but make it past that round and you likely will be interviewing with a group that includes teachers, parents, administrators and possibly students.

   Timing / Calendar

Junior year

  • Spring semester, is a great time to attend some of the teacher job fairs around the Boston area. Since you won't be looking for a full-time teaching job at that time, you can gain a sense of how best to engage in conversation with school district representatives without having anything at stake.

Senior year

  • Start early! Get your resume together near the beginning of the school year.
  • Attend any workshops or events sponsored by the Career Center.
  • If you don't have a job lined up as graduation approaches, remember that many jobs come open during the last month of the school year, over the summer; and even in the early fall and at the end of first semester (retirements).
  • If you've applied to a school district and you haven’t heard back from them by mid-July, re-apply or call to let them know you’re still available.
  • Click here for a complete Timeline for Teacher Candidates.

   Be willing to expand your search geographically

The Boston-area job market for teachers is very competitive unless you’re in high-demand specialty. To counter this problem, you may want to consider one of both of these strategies

  1. There are many good school districts near Boston, in towns that many candidates overlook, within a 15-60 minute commute of BC. To identify these towns, and to compare school systems on a statistical basis, use the MA Department of Education map at http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/ . Once you've drilled down to a particular town, click on the name of the district and then the "Show All" link. This will give you statistics regarding that district's Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity; Plans of High School Graduates (what % are college-bound, etc.); Per Pupil Expenditures; Teacher Salaries; and more.
  2. Talk to current teachers and ask them what are the best districts to teach in.
  3. Don't forget about charter schools. They are:mission-driven, and they attract teachers and administrators who believe in that vision. These schools generally are afforded greater freedom to set the goals of the school, plan its operation, create the curriculum. They often offer strong mentoring of new teachers, and salary and benefits are generally comparable with the local district.

   Finding job openings

In addition to the strategies mentioned above (job fairs; networking; applying directly to the school districts, whether they have current openings or not), you will want to keep up to date on the current posted job openings. These are the best sites and resources for Boston College students and alumni looking for jobs in the Boston area. You may also want to look at our complete set of job sites.

   Teaching options outside the public schools

Private schools
Catholic schools
Public schools, without certification
Adult education
Alternative settings
Higher education - teaching
Higher education - administration
Teach K-12 abroad
Teach English abroad