As you know, the resume is one of the most important parts of your application to any job. Your resume should highlight your qualifications and tell the story of your experience applicable to the job you are applying for.
Three of the main things school leaders will be looking for in your resume are: 1) you are certified to serve in the role you’re applying for, 2) you have experience working with youth in an urban, diverse environment, and 3) you have experience executing the responsibilities of the job you are applying for.
While there are many different ways to style your resume, a couple DOs and DON’Ts from our experience as recruitment fellows where we screen hundreds resumes and candidates:
Three of the main things school leaders will be looking for in your resume are: 1) you are certified to serve in the role you’re applying for, 2) you have experience working with youth in an urban, diverse environment, and 3) you have experience executing the responsibilities of the job you are applying for.
While there are many different ways to style your resume, a couple DOs and DON’Ts from our experience as recruitment fellows where we screen hundreds resumes and candidates:
Do:
- Include your name and contact information at the top
- Include your certifications at the top (if in progress, just indicate so next to each)
- List applicable work experience with position, location/workplace, dates of employment
- If you have many work experiences, try to pick the most relevant and recent ones to include on your resume. Your resume doesn’t need to include every single job you’ve ever had.
- Include 3-5 strong and concise descriptions of your responsibilities (see resource here for action verbs you can use)
- Include certifications and skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for (the job description would be a good place to find these)
- Make the entire resume about 1 page, 2 pages ok if you’ve been working for 10+ years
- Make sure your formatting is consistent (font style, font type, line spacing, bullet points, spaces between sections)
- Save your resume in PDF form with your name in the file name
DON'T:
- Include your references in the resume; the BPS application has a place for you to input them in and if someone needs your references, they will ask for them
- Bury your certifications anywhere but the top of the resume; those are one of the most important things school leaders want to know about you
- Make your resume more than 1 page
- Include so much information that you dilute the quality of your resume and hide the really good stuff
- Include anything else in your resume like the cover letter (to be honest, we’re not sure how many people read those anymore…)
- Have typos, spelling mistakes, or sloppy formatting (even if it might not be true, it indicates negative qualities like lack of attention to detail)
- Include every single job, volunteer activity, professional presentation, and publication you’ve ever done (only include what is directly relevant to the job you are applying for!)
- Have random spaces on the page or use a format that is overly decorative - make sure your resume is nice to look at but not distracting!
Example resume
Not the perfect resume by any means, but here’s an example resume