Having a great resume is essential when you are looking for online teaching opportunities. At one time if you had decent grades, the right degree from a respectable academic institution, and were not socially inept, you could obtain a well paid job teaching in a college, on a tenure track. In many fields those days have long gone.
When a new opening is posted (and sometimes even before it is posted), the people on the search committee will receive many applications, sometimes even hundreds of them. In order to make your application stand out you will need a well prepared resume.
There are many styles of resume. You can start by preparing a chronological resume starting with the last work experience you have first, and listing the jobs backwards in time. You can also prepare a version of your resume with the order reversed.
That type of resume makes it easy for the person reading it to follow how your career and educational training have developed over time. There is no one right way to write a resume, as people’s backgrounds are different, one will look better with one format than another.
Besides resumes that focus on chronology, there is a style of resume that focuses on skill sets and successes. If your career is just getting started, your resume may look more convincing if you use that style.
Three Tips for Resume Writing
There are three important factors in writing a resume to apply for online teaching opportunities –content, presentation, and accuracy. You want to deal with content first. You can start by making a list of educational institutions you have attended.
If you have just finished your masters degree, and have little work experience, then I would take this as far back as high school. If you have more other material to fill the resume then you only need to go back to when you started college.
Did you take extra seminars that will make you look like a better candidate? Add them into your Education Section. If you have a substantial amount of continuing educational courses, then you will want to make a separate Continuing Education Courses Completed section. Remember to list any academic honors or awards you may have received, in your Education Section.
Repeat the process with your career experience. If you have some hobbies or special interests that may make your application standout, you can include these at the end of your resume. Some evaluators like to see these and others feel that they are just wasted space.
Should you include your career goals? My feeling is that this is better saved for inclusion into your application letters rather than your resume, as it is much easier to individualize them for a particular opening. How long should your resume be?
Generally two pages is best, but if you have a long work history, you can go to three or even four pages. Those just starting out may only need one. Once you have all your content, I would suggest writing all three of the different types of resumes for online teaching opportunities that have been outlined above.
Now do a quick proof of your spelling and move on to improving your presentation. Experiment with bold,with all capitals, and with different types of alignment until it looks good. Now proof it more carefully for spelling, at least five times. If you get a chance, find out which format the resume screener prefers and send that version.
When you are looking for teaching opportunities online, it is essential that you write a top quality resume. Remember, your resume provides a prospective employer with a first impression of your professional qualifications, so make sure it is visually appealing and contains no spelling or grammatical errors.
