Competition for the best teaching jobs is intense. When the schools in which we serve as a principal and an assistant superintendent of schools advertise vacancies, hundreds of teachers typically apply for a single job opening. Ninety percent of the cover letters and resumes we receive go directly to the reject pile because applicants do not use these crucial documents correctly. Of the candidates who advance to the interview round, another ninety percent are disqualified within minutes after they walk in the room. In spite of national statistics portending a shortage of teachers in specific subjects and geographic areas, most candidates are disappointed when they try to get the teaching job they want.

This book will provide you with job-hunting skills and strategies you need to overcome the odds and obtain a teaching job in the type of school, community, and geographic location you favor. In more than twenty-five years of experience reading thousands of resumes and sitting on the opposite side of the interview table, we have discovered that most candidates are ill-prepared for the final, decisive steps necessary to reach their career goals. Time and again, we encounter candidates who achieved superior grades in college and garnered rave reviews while student teaching, but lack the know-how to navigate the unfamiliar territory of the hiring process. We know that in comparison to innumerable hours teachers have dedicated to learning their craft, they have received scant training, and sometimes misleading information, about how to obtain the teaching job of their choice.

We believe there are four explanations why prospective teachers are inadequately prepared for the job-hunting challenge.

1. They do not invest enough time. Candidates naively underestimate the time they must devote to the job search process. The skills needed to successfully land a desirable job are markedly different from mastery of classroom teaching for which candidates assiduously prepare.

2. They listen to the wrong "experts." Much of what candidates learn about job-hunting comes from fellow students, college placement offices which do not specialize in the unique field of classroom teaching jobs, and education professors who are experts in pedagogy but lack an insiders’ knowledge of the job search process. To put it simply: you need advice from seasoned school administrators who know exactly what is demanded of prospective teachers and why so many candidates fail.

3. They confuse boardrooms with classrooms. Friends, family members and countless books offer advice about job-hunting from the business world perspective, but businesses operate much differently than schools. Generic job-hunting books really pertain to the business market. People seeking business jobs purchase these books, and the authors are definitely not school administrators. The generic books neglect the specialized requirements of job-hunting in education and are often responsible for spreading misinformation.

4. They do not recognize that times have changed. Dramatic changes have taken place in job-hunting for teachers over the last decade. Computer-designed resumes, interview committees, and demonstration lessons, all uncommon in the recent past, have become standard practices. You need counsel from experts within the field who have current, practical knowledge.