Hello other educators! I graduated about a month ago from my college teaching certification program for PK-4. While student teaching I attended a few teaching job fairs and I had a few screening interviews, but no jobs panned out. Since graduating I've done more applications and reached out through email to schools with vacancies, yet I still haven't had much luck besides a Skype interview three weeks ago. I'm not sure what to do. Student teaching went great for me, so I have awesome references. My GPA was a 3.99, my resume is really good, and I feel like I am an overall strong candidate. I'm just feeling really anxious about finding a good job before the school year starts since it's already mid-June. So if you have any advice or even know of openings on the Eastern side of the country (my license is in Pennsylvania but I'm super flexible about location) let me know!
If you're flexible on location, I'd pick a state you're willing to move to that PA has reciprocity with, get their license, and start applying there. Getting another state's license will cost you less than $100 in a lot of cases, and will help you immensely in getting interviews because you can show you're serious about moving. I know VA is supposed to be an easier place for teachers to find jobs, just to give one example- obviously you're going to want to do your own research. I've always heard that PA is a rough place to get hired. I had a teacher friend who moved there for her husband's job last year and she's still only been able to get maternity leave positions. Early elementary is also going to be the most saturated as far as candidates no matter where you go.
Northern VA is almost impossible - high pay, great districts, very few vacancies because no one leaves. Southern and Western VA yes. Southern VA - Hampton Roads, has a high military percentage, so a lot of turn over there, plus, not to speak ill of our schools, because we have a lot of great schools, we pay less than other areas, and we have some tough districts. However, our competition is still tight, especially in elementary. For example, in my district, which has 12 elementary schools, there is only one elementary opening currently.
My cover letter is also really good. I had my college's career center read it a few times, and one of my professors in the department said it's one of the best she has seen.
That's really good to know. One of the job fairs I went to was in Fairfax, VA. I had three interviews at the fair that led to a second round Skype interview, but other than that no other Fairfax schools have contacted me.
Since someone else mentioned cover letter, I'm going to mention that your resume may seem good to you (and to colleges, apparently), but is lacking in the key elements or wording that schools may zoom in on. I've told the story before that my son graduated with a supposedly "great" cover letter and resume. He applied everywhere, to no avail. He was taking care of everything, so he didn't share the resume and cover letter with me. When nothing transpired and he was in despair, he finally shared it with me, and I was livid that a university would say that the cover letter and resume were "great", because they were far from adequate, forget about great. I'm an educator, too, and I had my resume written by a service found online. I told my son that my gift to him would be a professionally written resume and cover letter, but I needed to see and approve it, since not all writers get it right on the first try. Fortunately, after a couple of less than stellar rough drafts, his work got bumped up to a writer with more experience. The results were amazing. The next year, with the new resume and cover letter, the interviews poured in. When he finished his MEd., I once again gifted him with a new resume to play to his new strengths and skill sets. It was exceptional, and is the one he uses today. It has been modified by us when significant skills are acquired, or experience gained. This whole experience with a university sending out students with less than professional sounding resumes left a bad taste in my mouth. Many writing services will work with you until you approve it, and have reduced fees for new grads. Some people can write their own resume, I'm sure, but in a highly competitive field, such as elementary teaching, I would insist on something that rings all the right bells and grabs attention. If you can't get the interviews, you can't get the job.
I know it is really frustrating. You may still be able to land something right before school starts, but I would be prepared to sub or be a teaching assistant. That is how I got my first teaching job when schools were not hiring teachers. The few teachers who did get jobs were in the right place at the right time (had subbed for the school before or had been a TA at the school, so they had connections). Good luck!
I don't know much about the east coast but often rural areas have a harder time finding teachers. Make sure you are checking out the little districts and not solely the big ones. Also try applying to charter schools if you haven't been already.
It is a good way to get some student loans paid off which is why some opt to teach in rural and critical needs areas.
Additionally, many districts now use websites that are 3rd party vendors, dedicated to filling jobs for several districts. They use a template to retrieve data. Your resume may be great for face-to-face interviews, but not fit the bill for auto-generated websites designed to pull out key data, and could be tossed out in the first round. ETA: Your former college or university job placement office is the place to go to get a quick do over of your resume. Doesn’t cost a dime .....part of your status of being an alumni!! In addition if you haven’t already done so, I would definitely look into their online career search website. Set up your profile, upload your resume and check for school openings, and other alternate jobs in education. It’s an excellent resource, and they have job fairs and mock interview sessions too!
Subbing is an excellent way to gain experience, get exposure, learn new trends in technology and standards, and network as well. You can see jobs posted before the public has access. And the more assignments you take , the more admin/principals get to know you and they will definitely be seeking you out. Especially for long-term assignments, and most importantly - expanded classrooms due to enrollment. You are already there! I signed up for every district in my area, and it is a great way to keep steady income between jobs.
Dont loose hope. Keep trying. I applied to 100 openings when I was a new science teacher. All you need is one yes.
Look through the Job Seekers postings of a decade or more ago, futuremathsprof: the job market was brutal, and Geologygirl's effort was more nearly the norm than the exception.
This makes me sad and I feel lucky that I graduated into an excellent job market. I can’t imagine having to go through years of unsteady employment. That would be extremely stressful...
In my district, and many others around me, almost all new grads can expect several years of subbing before being able to land a contract position.
Same here for most new elementary grads, unless they are willing to work in the low-paying city district or at a charter school (which typically don’t have good reputations here).
Our exception is French qualifications. I just checked posting for external candidates--there are 7 for my board of over 224,000 students--3 are for French, 2 are for Indigenous Language teachers, and the others are for night school.
This is to be expected for new elementary grads as the market is way, way over-saturated. There are just too many teachers trying to enter elementary and not enough trying to become middle-school and high-school teachers.
That’s horrible. How soon were you able to find another job? Were you teaching then or were you still a VP?
I think part of that is, for career changers, it’s difficult to add on a teaching certification if your undergrad degree wasn’t in an area that leads to secondary certification, such as math, English, history, or one of the sciences. For example, my undergrad degree was in a unique field called recreation, sport, and tourism. When I decided to become a teacher after two miserable years in that field, the only career change program I qualified for was elementary and special education. It took me two years to get my teacher certification and masters degree in those areas but would have taken nearly double to become certified in any sort of secondary area. I’m not suggesting that this is the only reason that elementary is over saturated, but it doesn’t help.
I was still teaching. The district hired me back shortly before school started. I believe it was late July when they offered me a contract. Many of my colleagues weren’t as fortunate and weren’t rehired until the following school year. I had to take a middle school ELA and Social Studies position (it was a take-it-or-leave-it type of situation). Those were tough years. Droves of teachers were getting laid off each year (from around 2008-2010/11). Many fully credentialed teachers who were new to the profession had to substitute teach, relocate to remote areas of CA, or work at a parochial/private school in order to secure employment.
That is just insanity! The economy was tough back then (I was a sophomore in high school in 2008)! I’m so glad you were able to salvage your situation even though it was less than ideal.
You should look into K-12 positions such as Physical Education, Librarian, or some sort of specialist if you can get the endorsement through testing only.
Oh, I’m happy where I’m at now and don’t have any desire to move to a different level or area, but I do appreciate the advice. My sped certification and reading specialist certification are both K-12 already. And, in my area, finding a PE, library, or specialist job is even more difficult than finding an elementary job. There just aren’t enough of those roles to go around.
That's really the only advantage of being in a low income teacher shortage area. The environment is horrible, but getting an actual job is basically "would you like this? No? Ok, we have this available. No? Hmmm.....how about this?"
More like I was highly motivated to move out of the Los Angeles area to a place where I could afford a home, and start a family..
