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Teaching Profession Opinion

Ramp UP Your Search!

By AAEE — August 31, 2011 1 min read
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Tomorrow is September 1st. In many parts of the country school has started or is just about to start. This is the time of the year that many unemployed teaching candidates feel despondent; that there is no chance for a job. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Many schools find themselves in need of last minute teachers for various reasons: turnover, enrollment, budget, and unexpected leaves of absence.

Just yesterday, I was contacted by a local charter school who needs 4-5 new teachers immediately and was organizing a last minute open house. A simple search on Indeed.com shows over 1700 new teaching jobs posted in the last 24 hours across the country.

This is the perfect time to ramp up your search.

1. Pick up the phone and call schools in your area to see if there are any last minute openings (they may not have time to post the jobs online!). You may even consider dropping off resumes at some local schools.

2. Call and email people in your network:
• Contact that “friend of a friend” of whom you have been too shy to reach out to or haven’t spoken to in months.
• Many times professors and college administrators receive requests from local schools seeking referrals!
• Reconnect with cooperating teachers, principals and teachers in the schools you worked in previously. If they don’t have openings they may know of schools that do.

If people in your network haven’t heard from you in awhile they may assume that you found a job!

3. Look at your college’s online job board for last minute postings and reconnect with your college career center for advice and information on hiring needs in the area and any upcoming events.

4. Join Linkedin and create a professional profile. Conduct a search on teachers and education employers in your area.

5. Search out charter school and private school organizations that may have online directories and/or job boards. Make a phone call! Many schools are managed by the same organizations and might be able to refer you to other schools if they don’t have a need.

6. Reconnect with professional memberships and related websites.

7. Do a last minute blind mailing/mass mailing to schools.

The search continues this month!

Suzanne Dagger
Director of Career Services
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

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