Resumes and Opportunities

I graduate in 9 and a half months. In January, I'll be a real grown-up (hopefully) with a job! In my excitement, I started the job hunt. First, I looked at where I want to go. Then, I looked at the schools in the area to do a bit of research. Lo and behold, there was a job listing for my dream job: Middle School Math Teacher. Now, this job is for next school year (2014-2015) and I won't be able to work until 2015...but it seemed like a good idea to just put out a resume and see what came of it.

Unfortunately, the website wouldn't let you submit a resume unless you have a Bachelor's degree, and I can't lie about these things to my future employers (ok, I'm really crossing my fingers on this one), so I will have to wait and see if they post another job next year.

With this experience, I realized that I need to improve my resume. Resumes are a sneak peak of all the wonderful things you've done in your life. But since it's a sneak peak, you only get one page and about 30 seconds. So how do you fit it all in?

You don't. You have to break it up so it is pleasing to the eyes and the important information stands out. Based on the profession, different things are important. Of course, my education is important, but I can only say so much about a degree in Mathematics Education. "I learned a lot of math and a lot of education..." Not such a great line. Are prior jobs really important? Maybe if they're related to your career, but otherwise they might not need as much space. So there was my quandary: what IS important on a resume to become a teacher?

Story time! Right when I was wondering about all these things, BYU hosted a lovely dinner with a whole bunch of principals. Unfortunately, I had to leave work early and rush over and got to dinner right when the opening speeches were getting started. In fear of embarrassing myself and making a scene, I snuck around to the back and found a table with an open seat. The fates were on my side! I sat right next to a principal of a high school and she had formerly been a principal at a junior high!

When I asked her what things principals look for from the glance of a resume, she gave me two things:
1) She looks at how they did in student teaching (if they're a new teacher), and
2) Their interests.

I hadn't even thought of the importance of interests! It makes sense. Some professions may not value this, but in a school, she expressed how they look for people that are able to do more things than "just" teach. Obviously, it is most important to be an effective teacher, but it is also good to see who could coach a sports team, or be the head of a club?

She even told me I could list things I'd done in High School! While I generally consider myself fairly boring, I realized I have so many interests! I love Cross Country, Track and Gymnastics. I play the cello. I did Math Team (and even spent my summers at Math Team practices and traveling to a National competition). Do I want to be a coach? I'd love to! Let me coach sports! Let me start a Math Team and coach that! I'd love to do more! And since I want to do more, my resume should reflect that.

I want to be the best teacher I can be and I want to contribute as much as I can to the school and community. The hard part: packing all this in to the resume. The easy part: loving what I do and being excited for who I'll become and help students to become.