Resume Writing Tips for School Leaders

Though I am not a 'resume writer', I review them often to assess lived experience and how they align with an organization. Often, I find myself coaching talented school leaders, from novice to experienced, on how to best present their educational philosophy, identities, expertise, and impact, highlighting their added value to an institution and intriguing hiring managers to initiate a conversation. So, below are my 5 cents to make your resume stand out.

1. Spotlight your impact. Responsibilities in a position are expectations you should know and practice daily, but they are not your impact. Your impact is qualitative and quantitative accomplishments, results, and new initiatives achieved based on your performance. An example would be, 'increased staff retention by 20% by piloting a career pathway program and redesigning the salary compensation scale.' This statement underscores your commitment to delivering exceptional work, which has enabled your team, school community, and the organization to meet or exceed specific goals. Please note that your 'impact' does not list descriptives from job descriptions (an expectation). It answers those descriptives.

2. List your duration at specific campuses. Listing a general school network creates ambiguity about your experience (including school academics, culture, and student outcomes). Sharing the campus name provides employers with more context to understand how those experiences align with their model, beliefs, or strategy -- as schools, regardless of district or network, all perform differently. Now, I understand that there are reservations about sharing employment duration at each campus, as it can have a stigma on a commitment to a role or flexibility to learning new practices. I'm not going to lie; employers look at this. But good hiring managers know when to look beyond learned biases and assess for candidate match. They also know which schools need more work than others. Transparency from both the employer and candidate provides meaningful context and helps to establish trust.

3. Include language and affiliations that highlight your identity. If you have not noticed, I focus on finding school leaders who reflect their students and the school community to increase appreciation for their identities. So, include social and professional affinity groups, social impact work, and language that expresses the importance of self-pride and collective responsibility to inspire and create access for your targeted school community and students. This is an asset!

4. Organize your experience in chronological order. You want employers to clearly understand your career trajectory that reduces wonders about what you've done from past to current, and provides a clear roadmap of your career progress.

5. Spell check and proofread your resume. A simple, important, but often overlooked act that represents you and your attention to detail. We are all busy leaders who require a pause button to reflect, slow down, and process how we are perceived. The same level of investment in physical appearance and face-to-face engagement should be the same level of investment in your paper/virtual identity. Believe me, that time pays off.

I hope my perspective was helpful and that you'll spend my donated cents wisely! :)

#leadershiprecuitment #resumewritingtip #contextmatters