I really like what I do for a living, I love my job. I just wish that I was earning a living doing it. Teachers in general do not make the money that they deserve, but private school teachers earn even less than the average public school teachers do. (Read: I make next to nothing.) This, my friends, is a complex problem that I have been dealing with for the past four years.
The ideal solution to this problem would be to find a public school position similar to the one that I currently hold in the private school. This seems as though it would be any easy problem to solve, but as many of you know it is not easy finding a public school teaching position. (Or maybe it is and I am just doing something wrong.)
In the past I have tried different strategies. My first year I applied for any and all public schools within driving distance for any and all teaching positions that I thought I was the least bit qualified for. This seemed like a good strategy getting my information out to as many school districts as possible, but it unfortunately I was unable to find a public school job.
The next year I started going to job fairs and narrowing down the districts and positions that I applied to. I thought that the meeting face to face with districts letting them get to know me would be better than applying for a million positions online. This seemed like a good idea, but nothing really came of it.
The following year I did was even more specific about where I applied. I cleaned up my resume and spent more time on application essays. I ended up getting a couple interviews. I thought about how other people I knew were getting jobs and realized that the majority of them were getting jobs through networking.
This year I have worked on my resume even more and have started networking with other teachers. I have gained more experience and have joined professional groups. I am going to hopefully be finished with my masters program this summer and I will have then earned an advanced degree.
As much as I do I realize that there are a lot of people and circumstances that are involved in me getting my dream job. There have to be jobs to be had in the area and districts that I am interested in. Those districts and principals have to be interested in me as well.
I don’t think that this problem has been solved yet due to a lot of factors. At first I don’t think I was doing a very good job of searching and applying for jobs. I also did not have experience or any idea what I wanted. I didn’t have good contacts or good interview skills. I am working on all of these things and hope that my luck in finding my dream job turns around this year. Wish me luck!
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