Career Coach: Clean Up Your Resumé
An alum who has reviewed 100,000 resumes for an organization that places educators in Title 1 schools tells how to avoid resume mistakes.
At OneTeacher, an organization that works to place teachers and administrators at Title I schools in Arizona, Nina [Glatt] Tinsley (Phoenix ’07) has reviewed more than 100,000 resumés while working as a director of outreach and now the senior director of marketing and development.
She also shares advice on the alumni platform TFA Connect Beta. The organization is currently hiring educators for the 2019-20 school year. We asked Tinsley: What are the most common resumé mistakes that you see?
A: One is a lack of data. I want to see numbers. It could be student achievement data, how you did on teacher evaluations, just something to show that you’re achievement-minded. One thing that raises questions is gaps in your job history. If you have taken a true leave from the workforce for a good reason, perhaps to raise a child, then put that in your resumé and explain it. You don’t need to be cute about it—manager of the home, domestic goddess—just explain it.
Also, we look for longevity. If you list all the jobs at one company separately, it can look at first glance as if you skipped from job to job. Put the company on one line, then list your roles there as subheadings. There’s also a mistake that TFA alumni in particular make. They include institute separately as “Teach For America,” then they include their teaching job during the corps without mention of their TFA corps commitment. It makes me wonder, did you quit after institute? You can do it a few different ways, just make it clear that you were a corps member who taught for the duration of the two-year commitment.
OneTeacher published an ebook specifically for corps members and alumni detailing the professional mistakes we make most often. To receive it, email me, ngtinsley@oneteacheraz.com.
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