DH leaving teaching - how to make his CV less teacher-y?

[Yellowflowers7]

He had burnout as HoD as has handed in his notice, will be paid til start of Sept. Not ideal at all as we have a large family but no point in him being unwell and I earn a good salary and will have to hold the fort. He has had career counselling and has applied for some reasonably paid admin jobs but no offer so far. I’ve read his CV and in my mind it looks too teacher-y and I don’t think the amount of teacher content would appeal to recruiters who won’t be really that interested in burnt out teachers. Has anyone applied, as an ex teacher, for a non teaching role and how did you approach your applications if you were successful. Thanks

Multi-tasking, effective time management, co-operation with colleagues, meeting tight deadlines?

Formulate experience as transferable skills. HOD entails administrative tasks not specific to teaching - use/application of excel; system processes; conflict resolution; presentation of complex information in an accessible format.

I left teaching seven years ago. Not regretted it once.

Did he do any data analysis, work with IT, upload/download items from government websites, work with other agencies, take mental health first aid courses, supervise any staff, organise any trips and budget/plan financially for them? Did he conduct any surveys or research? Train staff in using packages? Lead on anything?

Good ideas, keep them coming, he’s applying for a job tonight and need to steer him in the right direction 🙈

I used to hire for a role in an education charity that was mainly filled by ex teachers. As someone who hasn't worked in schools I found the CVs were awful and indecipherable.

I think the main reflection I had was to stop listing the job roles and responsibilities (head of dept responsible for literacy or something similar) and instead focus more on how they did the work in terms of skills and behaviors. So working with data, line management skills, prioritisation of work, project planning... Something that education dunces like me would understand how he brings value.

Agree with PP about formulating it as the skills he used.
eg. HOD for x years, involved staff management, team working, recruitment, staff training, use of IT systems, data collection and analysis, report writing, multi-agency liaison etc

I did this in reverse for my ex who went from a role as an electrical engineer into teaching - look at the skills and experience listed for the role and then the n the cv cover letter craft his skills around what they’re looking for

other posters have given some great ideas - I’d add things like working as a team, problem solving, handling conflict, working confidentiality , prioritisation skills, managing budget s…….

Start the CV with a summary paragraph which talks about his strengths and transferable skills.

Put the CV through some AI checkers to make sure key words are picked up on auto screening - relevant to the role he is applying for each time.

Thanks I am reading these but also working to will respond when I finish flt the day, really helpful suggestions so far, will write down and present to DH when he gets home

Take a look at the Adventures after Teaching Facebook page. It will point you to resources with exactly what you need

In the meantime, on the front page make it skills based. Four sections eg Leadership/Communication etc which relate to job spec, and change language to say e.g.stakeholders instead of pupils

STAR - Situation, Task, Action (his), Result (impact). Reinterpret task in a generic way.

Look at the Life After Teaching Facebook group, there are some excellent files with examples of how to 'de-teacher' your language

I left primary teaching and went into a compliance role. I was quite junior for a year or so but rose quite quickly as I worked hard, always said yes and took on everything thrown at me. I can't remember my CV from that time but I definitely focused on the admin and working cross agency aspect of teaching, picking things up quickly, analysing large amounts of information and having excellent literacy skills. I would say he might have to accept quite a junior role to begin with but will move up very quickly. I have such a better work life balance now and I earn more so no regrets!

Great tips here, the main one is to make sure his CV is tailored to the role he is going for, use the language they use from the job specification. If he gets stuck then Did Teach has great CV writing courses and a Translating Teacher Speak which was on Exit the classroom, also a STAR method guide.
Best of luck

Exactly this. She does a great (free or cheap) CV course about transferable skills

What sort of roles is he applying for? I’d start from there. Look at what the criteria of their job ads are and assess how he can tailor his CV to best reflect that. You want to be using the right keywords to get through assessment software.

Lots of ex teachers are joining the civil service at the moment - they have good transferable skills. He could do worse than have a look on Civil Service jobs.

Suggest he drops his current cv and the job description into chatgpt and ask it to customise his cv for that role. Then edit the output to make sure it sounds like him, not ai.

By way of update, he got a job before the end of term, starting September! No commute, he can walk to work and no stress! So relieved!

"His CV" - is he not adjusting/rewriting for each application? Focusing on the requirements and emphasizing how his experience and qualifications meet them. Even for "admin jobs" a one-size-fits-none CV doesn't do anyone any favours (and misses the entire purpose of a CV).

What a lovely update

Thank you @Gassylady. It's a £20k salary drop (he was head of department)but new job can just be a recovery period and he can possibly try to find a better paid job. He already seems like a different person, he has been moody, over worked and tired for the last 15 years!

The mental health more important than the money though. My other half would not agree that he was burning out (another profession not teaching) ended up off sick for 12months and then retired very early. So much better to acknowledge the issues and take action at an appropriate time.