My Science Teacher Job Application Woes!

[user1497126393]

This is more to rant as use that as therapy more than anything but I am so frustrated and feel completely injusticed here!

I am applying via MANY agencies for a Science Teacher job in time for September this year and still looking/asking/hounding YET last year, last week; I hardly applied at all and got an interview and a job as a Science Teacher like that clicks fingers....yet this year DIDDLY SQUAT!!

I mean what the hell?!
I know i'm technically unqualified as I don't have the teacher training qualification but I DID try, last year and the year before! but guess what.....I was giving the choice of doing that (as I got in to the TT course) or JOB as a Teacher....of course I picked Teaching Job!!

I may not have teacher training (TT) but what I DO HAVE is a Bachelors and a Masters degree in the hard sciences and a handful of years experience in Science teaching!! AS an ACTUAL Science Teacher!

So this year, I didn't bother with even applying for TT Training course and NO JOB!!, NO JOB INTERVIEW!!! NONE!!!!!!

FRUSTRATED ISN'T THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This is my Cover Letter...that is my proof!

Not sure what response or whatever to get from this but, meh...i'm having a cup of tea now to chill out.

OBJECTIVE
“From the plethora of experiences and jobs I had gained, teaching is the much-desired choice and the career I feel passion for. I wish to continue dedicating myself to for years to come”.

EDUCATION
 7 GCSES
 GNVQ 1 and 2 + AVCE SCIENCES.
 BACHELOR OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE
 MASTER OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY & TEACHING

*I had won award for my teaching in late 2013.
*Wrote a 16,000-word dissertation on the connection between Alzheimer's and Aluminium.
*Wrote a 33,000-word dissertation on "HMG CoA Reductase Inhibitors and Hypercholestrolemia".
*Had taught as many as 44 participants.

linkedin.com/in/emily-t-bsc-hons-msc-4a07a327

July 2017

Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing for the Science Teacher vacancy.
I am interested in your educational institute as a Science Teacher.

I can offer 4 consecutive years of experience in teaching Sciences at KS3 +GCSE double/triple levels.
Successfully handled responsibilities of merit professionally executed, like: coordinating/marking of GCSE coursework; creating, teaching and coordinating a GCSE program and intensely worked with EBD students expelled for violence.

Keeps a cool head, eg: I needed to attend to ~300 anxious prospective students on enrolment day and rationally organized them into segregated queues.

I am also able to create detail-orientated lessons, delivered with raw innovation, passion and potency.
Thank you for reading this, enjoy my curriculum vitæ and visit my LinkedIn profile.

Then hopefully after further consideration perhaps you can ask me more in person, as I would be honoured to meet you.

Sincerely,
Emily.

[MaisyPops]

That's unlike any cover letter I've seen for teaching.
Obviously you're not a qualified teacher and having a 1st from Cambridge wouldn't automatically make someone a great teacher (though there are some great unqualified teachers out there).

Teaching jobs often require an application form and then a full letter in paragraphs outlining your strengths ad a teacher and what you can offer the school. Often that'll include outcomes for your classes, details of CPD you've attended, anything whole school you've been involved in. You need to address the person specification clearly with examples. Most of the person specification will be linked to teaching competencies and skills, not just subject knowledge.

[crazycatguy]

I teach and I've been part of the interview process from an employer perspective when I was HoD. I'm now SLT. A few pointers:

1. Make sure your CV is complete, has a short statement about you under the heading and emphasises the skills and experience you have. Any gaps in employment will be questioned at interview (this could be 'went traveling', 'raised daughter', 'cared for elderly relatives'.

1. Have a cover letter. Make it a page to a page and a bit long. Express yourself fully as you seem to have summarized in what you posted. In it you outline in full your experience, philosophy of teaching, what you can bring to the school. Include what extra curricular stuff you can do.

1. Update yourself on safeguarding legislation (and in your cover letter mention a commitment to it). You'll be asked a safeguarding question at interview.

1. It is a sad indictment of England's education system that in most schools now, a teaching qualification is NOT required and that one in four student experience teaching from someone without formal teaching qualifications. The independent sector has never been bound to employ people with a PGCE, and some of the best teaching I have ever seen has been in the independent sector (as has some of the worst teaching!).

1. Sciences in general are a shortage subject. In my local secondary it would appear that the only requirements to work there are a clean criminal record and a pulse. In my subject (which was never shortage) there are still vacancies on TES and a recruiter called me this morning about one at another school.

[BizzyFizzy]

Having looked at the OP's LinkedIn profile, it does not present her in the best possible light. Clearly, she has a lot of strengths, but her profile has too many red herrings that let her down.

She has listed every little supply job, and that's too many in the context of LinkedIn. Her teaching career looks like it is spread over 5 years, which is a long time to get a foot in the door. You can't hide the 5 years, obviously, but it needs to be presented as deliberate career choice rather than going from one desperate job to another. I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do, but LinkedIn or a CV is a place where the applicant is in control, unlike the Application form, where the school is in control.

By grouping experiences into a couple of blocks, it looks like you are in more control of your career, with clear objectives of what you wanted to get out of each placement. It's also a convenient way to brush over gaps at this first impression stage (which you can't do later, but get them to like you first).

As a returner to the profession after a very long maternity leave, I did two years of supply/block supply and it was immensely useful to me - a huge amount of diverse experience in a short time and the ability to experiment with teaching styles. When a permanent job came up, I was able to successfully communicate these benefits at interview.

Another presentation problem for the OP is her abundance of inappropriate punctuation. While dyslexia is challenging, and there are plenty of dyslexic teachers around, you would be expected to have this kind of stuff checked by someone else.