YES! Cold emailing got me two interviews. Both were for jobs that had not yet been advertised, so I was the first to interview. So nice to get in before the deluge of applications that they'll get when it's advertised. Both were at religious schools, btw.
Wow! Most of you live in and around some awesome districts! I tried for 3+ years emailing principals - researched the particular school's philosophy on education and their location in regards to SES so I had an idea of what the student body might look like...customized my emails to align with their standards - these emails took me a long time to craft. I even became ESL certified hoping that might make me a better qualified candidate, in turn granting me an interview. Anyway, 95% of the time I got no response and when/if I did it was to say the position had already been filled. Never once did I get an interview from sending an email. I FINALLY got hired outside of an ISD through a charter school. These people interviewed practically EVERYONE who applied which I thought was very admirable. All I wanted was for someone to sit down, talk with me, and listen to what I had to say. I didn't get that chance for years until about a month ago.
"Dear Mr. Principal, I am writing to follow up on my application for the blank position. I have x number of years experience in grades blank through blank. I remain very interested in this position and would be delighted to meet with you to discuss my qualifications at any time. I have attached my cover letter and resume for your convenience. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Sincerely, rainbowbird I figured that keeping the email short would be best and they can get further info. from the attachments. I think that in my case, the principal had not yet seen my application in Applicatrack because I applied late in the process. I then attach a personalized cover letter and my resume.
Thank you so much, Rainbowbird!! That sounds good and straight to the point. Thanks again!! and congrats on the upcoming interview... good luck!!
Well, for cold emails, I usually put my cover letter in the body of the email, with my resume attached. Instead of writing that I'm applying for the XYZ (advertised) position at ABC School, I just write that I'm applying for any ELA/ESL positions that may become available at ABC School. Good luck!
oh yeah- and something that impresses me about their school, so it doesn't seem like I'm just sending out mass emails.
You're welcome! Good luck to you, too. You never know who will call you back. I was not expecting a response from this p. because I got an out of the office auto reply. Also it is an extremely high-paying district in an affluent community. I kknow they get tons of applications. So aim high, because you just never know what may happen!
I sent out 30 e-mails yesterday. I have a few more to do. Hope to hear something back from at least some of them!
Thank you!! I heard back from one today. He said whenever I am in the area to let him know and we could set up an interview!!! WOO!!!
It's the middle of July, folks. If you're looking and haven't yet sent a copy of your cover letter and resume to EVERY SINGLE public, private, charter and religious school within an hour's radius, I've got to ask: why on earth not???? Do NOT wait to see an opening. Right now, Sunday night, start emailing!!!!!
In fact, right this very minute, at a school 16 minutes from your house, a teacher is emailing in a letter of resignation. (It's her "dream school" but her husband was just transferred to London.) Tomorrow morning when the principal checks his email, he'll see her resignation. Will he also see your cover letter and resume???
I have sent out 67 e-mails between yesterday and today! Aliceacc, are you proud? I hope I hear ANYTHING. Even if it's just a "We don't have any positions available, but awesome cover letter, we'll keep you in mind!" I'll let you know! And good luck Jamie, I second Aliceacc...GET DOWN THERE NOW!
Good for you!!! Fingers crossed that it gets you that job. So, folks, that's 67 principals who will know tomorrow morning of Melissavio's qualifications. How many will know about yours?
Just found this thread, I'm trying this myself to see if I will have any luck! I've sent out around 12 emails as of this morning, have about...oh, a LOT more to go? Haha. So far, I've only received one email back from a principal thanking me, but saying there were no positions available. What is the etiquette involved when receiving this type of response....should I just say thank you, or something else? Or should I not respond, will a response just annoy the principal?
I'd say a simple "Thank you for letting me know. Please keep me in mind for any future openings." wouldn't be a problem.
What's the trick to being so prolific with these messages? I truly don't understand how people are legitimately coming up with figures like "30 letters yesterday!" or "67 emails in the past 24 hours!" I think I have a pretty good framework for my letters, but in order to work in why I'm a good fit and what about a school impresses me, I feel like it's important to spend a certain amount of time doing research and thoughtfully wording a personalized message. I just sent out two emails to a school - one to the principal, the other to the department chair (they were not carbon copies of one another) - and it took me something like an hour to produce a polished version of each. What do I need to do to become more efficient at writing these?
This e-mailing principals thing really does work!! I received 3 interview offers because of principals seeing the e-mails I sent them I am so glad that I read this thread!! Thank you, everyone!
I did. I emailed the P directly and she set up an interview with me. Eventually they offered me the job and I will start in August.
E-mailing the P miiiight have worked for me. I didn't receive a reply to my e-mail directly, but it may have made me stand out a bit more. I was one of 12 chosen to interview out of 100+ applications. It could also just be my straight-up awesomeness, though.
Probably a combination of both The fact that they actually read your resume let them know just how awesome you are!!
How long on average did it take for you all to receive a reply from a principal (mainly, a reply saying they wanted to interview you)? So far I've only received that one email I mentioned yesterday (which said no positions available), and nothing else. I know I should be patient, but it seems like everyone is getting all these replies quickly and I end up refreshing my email and finding nothing new. Is it just me, or did anyone else not receive a reply for awhile?
I have not heard anything back yet either. Then again, I only began sending anything out yesterday. That hasn't stopped me from refreshing my email obsessively, unfortunately...
It took a few weeks until I started getting any good responses. Most didn't reply, or just said "Thank you for your interest in our school..." I have been checking my email constantly too. Just try to be patient (I know it's hard... Im not patient at all!)
Emailing principals definitely helped me get my job. In fact, I was emailing principals for jobs that I knew I technically was not qualified for, but did it anyways since I was getting so desperate. One of the principals I emailed informed me of a job opening for a school in the county that met my certification but had no been posted yet on the school website. I emailed the principal about the job opening before it was even posted, and guess what...I got the job!
