I am here today asking that teachers spend the time to create and maintain a LinkedIn profile. The reasons are disparate, but crystalize into these: I have not found a teacher’s profile that resonates as so many other professionals’ pages do. Teachers stay in their own networking bubbles and talk among themselves. I understood the site to be “Professional Facebook,” but knew nothing beyond that. Teachers, for the most part, don’t have LinkedIn profiles. Those who do don’t seem to maintain them: teachers’ profiles are usually lackluster shells that include a meager list of schools and education. When I developed my plan to find a non-education career, I turned to LinkedIn in a half-hearted attempt to boost my network. I knew about LInkedIn because my husband and daughter both have profiles. Teachers know other teachers because they work together. I know many other teachers in different schools because our instruction and coaching has aligned. I am two to three degrees of separation from any teacher at any high school in the Denver Metro Area. Yet, none of these ties really matter in my “real-world” job search. My network of colleagues could get me into schools, but none of them can get me an interview in a downtown marketing firm. In this world, humans don’t read resumes- applicant tracking systems do. Hiring managers don’t understand how to translate teaching experience into relevant work skills. Years of teaching do not equal years of experience. It’s nearly impossible to clearly transmit how coaching students though a day of lessons aligns with project management or team building requirements.Īnd even more discombobulating is the lack of networking teachers have. The job-seeking world outside a school is vastly different and disorienting. I knew the process and made my way successfully through it several times. For a few jobs, I had to ask for another teacher’s reference or words of good will, but my navigation from school to school was usually seamless and easy. If you’re a teacher, your career journey probably mimics mine. I taught in five schools and found each job in the same manner: complete an application for the school district, attach a resume, wait for an interview call, interview, move into the school if it all went well. Every year, I returned with renewed enthusiasm and intentions. Teaching was my life.īut now I’ve left. The circumstances of my exit are complicated and frustrating and not that important to this conversation. It’s just important to understand that teaching will no longer be my occupation, my calling, my identity. I’m turning my attention elsewhere. Like most teachers, I felt called to teach. I endured low pay, reduced benefits, radicalized school boards, and insecure administrators because I loved being with kids. Watching them grow as writers and thinkers made the endless hardships bearable. After twenty-two years of teaching high school English, I’m not walking into a classroom in August.
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