When trying to find a teaching job, should I call them to follow up?

Question

I'm looking for high school teaching jobs across the entire state. I think I'm doing something wrong because I'm not getting called for any interviews. Should I call them and follow up? How long should I wait before doing that? How long do I wait before pronouncing it a lost cause? I know that annoying the human resources people would be bad, so any advice you can think of would be helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes, yes yes you should call! Call within a week after sendingyour paperwork. Just say something like, "Hi. This is __. I recently sent you an application packet and I'm I am calling to be sure you received all the necessary paperwork."

As for other advice-- I think you should, in addition to sending your application to HR, send a copy to the principal of the school you want to work at. Just a send him or her a short, polite letter and a copy of your resume. If you do this, the principal is guaranteed to know your name. Many times principals (who do the hiring) won't receive all the applications from HR. They just ask HR to send them 10, 20 candidates. If you write a letter directly to the principal, you're more likely to get an interview.

Someone above said it's thewrong time of year-- it is NOT. This is the perfect time of year to be applying. The school I work at is interviewing in a couple of weeks.

I talk about the teacher job hunt in my eBook: Guide to Getting the Teaching Job of Your Dreams: http://www.iwantateachingjob.com Maybe the book can help you?

Answer 2

If you do not hear anything in the summer then I would look at a different game plan.

How is your cover letter? Does it grab the attention? Sometimes they say nice paper makes someone pick up the resume and read it. When they are getting hundreds and hundreds I have seen them just toss them in a pile to be filed by the secretary without even looking at them.

Try some of the online application programs. I helped hire a teacher with my principal and we did not even go through the applications that were mailed in. We looked at the online applicants only.

If you still do not get calls then check maybe with the school where you did your student teaching. Ask the principal if he can take a few minutes to look at your resume and offer suggestions or advice. Maybe there is something you can learn from him that will help you.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

I always heard that the resumes were hand carried so as to present yourself and possibly line up an interview. Send a reminder / thank you note.
It's the wrong time of year. Most attrition and subsequent hiring happens during summer break.

Answer 5

I'd say you will appear annoying?? I'm waiting for an answer myself and will sit it out with no contact as they said they would contact me with a yes or no? P.S. Your already giving me signs your excitable... (no offence intended)

Answer 6

I was a math and science chairperson for a high school and did the interviewing and basically decided after the interview rather or not to hire someone. We generally started the process about the first of April. Scheduling for the next year was usually finished the second to third week of March and if any teachers were not being rehired they had to be given notice within 60 days of the end of the school year. So for the most part our staffing needs were know by April first. Sometimes a teacher might resign in the summer, but we preferred to have the hiring done by the time school was out.

We had to go to personnel for the district to go through applications. In math and science there usually were not very many, so I generally looked through them all. However, if I looked in the file for English or Social Science applicants there were usually several drawers full. So what would be helpful is if you could find out who actually does the hiring or interviewing process and contact that person. Just let the person know that you sent in an application and would appreciate an interview. Even if you called personnel at our school district, there were no notations made on the file so I would not know that.

Almost everyone I hired in the 7 years in the job, were hired because of some kind of a personal contact. Either a personal phone call or someone who knew someone would call and say a friend had applied and would I look at that application. It always helps to have someone on the inside speak for you. Also, make yourself available in different areas. At times a teacher would be asked to teach in other subject areas, but certification was necessary. If you are certified in more than one area, it gives the administration more flexibility.

In summary, talk to the person actually hiring and interviewing, use any possible connections you may have and get cross certified.

Answer 7

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