How To: Market Yourself As A Teacher (With Expert Insight!)Including insight from Leading Your International School CEO, André Double
At Totally Teach, we’re always keeping ourselves up to date with the latest trends in recruitment. The job market in China has been tough this year, with competition for roles rising, requirements getting higher and the overall standard of excellent teachers always increasing.
So, alongside having the right qualifications and experience, what else can you do to make your profile as an applicant stand out from the crowd?
Marketing yourself as a teacher may not seem like the obvious answer. Skills and experience should speak for themselves, right? We agree, but when studies suggest that 67% of hiring decision makers use social networking sites to research potential candidates, it’s clear that how you are perceived online can be a big factor in increasing your chances of employment.
If you’re really looking for a way to give your attractiveness as a candidate a boost, stand out, leave a good impression, unlock opportunities and utilise the power of smart self promotion, then a bit of strategic marketing can go a long way.
Here’s what you can do:
Define Your Personal Brand:
What makes you ‘you’ as a teacher?
Your personal brand is how you present yourself, in real life and online. It’s an easy way for someone to understand exactly what you’re about, what your strengths are, and what makes you tick. In other words, what amazing skills and expertise can you bring to a school?
Showcasing your personal ‘brand’ is about clarity, consistency, and authenticity. Do you specialise in early childhood education? Are you passionate about tech in the classroom? Sustainability in schools? Inclusivity in education? The list of potential specialisms is endless, and wholly depends on you and your teaching philosophies.
To define and present your personal brand:
Pick a niche or focus area and highlight it consistently in your resume, cover letters, and online profiles.
Create an attractive tagline or ‘identity’ for people to associate with you. For example: “I help young learners build confidence through creative storytelling.”
Look for and create opportunities in which you can make an impact in the area you want to be associated with. All about holistic learning? See if you can run an after-school forest school session. Passionate about community outreach? Can you get your students involved in volunteering programs? It’s important to show that your personal brand isn’t just talk, but backed up by meaningful actions and experience!
Remember to showcase any kind of experience or achievement you make within the area of your personal brand on your CV, LinkedIn, or online profiles, to clearly establish yourself within this field.
Clarity, consistency, and authenticity are the keys to building a strong, marketable personal brand!
Leverage LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is far more than just a digital CV; it’s your professional stage! It’s also not just for corporate jobs. Recruiters, schools, and agencies will regularly headhunt for teaching candidates (of all levels) through LinkedIn, so having a well-crafted profile is key to making valuable connections.
To get the most out of LinkedIn:
Ensure your profile information is complete and up to date with a professional photo, bio (highlighting your personal brand!), endorsed skills, and clearly displayed work history.
Be an active LinkedIn user by sharing relevant articles, posting updates, and commenting thoughtfully. Connect with fellow educators, recruiters, and schools to start building up an online network (more on this later!).
Consider your profile from the point of view of a prospective new employer. Does it clearly define your areas of expertise? Don’t just list job duties; talk about achievements too! This is what will help to market you as an educator who cares, is proactive, and makes a real impact.
Use Online Platforms Strategically:
LinkedIn is the go-to website for professional networking and jobs, but don’t overlook the potential of other online platforms that can also boost your marketability levels. Beyond LinkedIn, there are several other platforms that you can use to showcase your expertise and make yourself more visible to recruiters and schools:
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are great for sharing visual content, connecting with an audience, and highlighting your personality, passions, and interests as an educator. You can share short clips of lesson plans, classroom hacks, teaching materials, and activities. Some teachers who do this even go on to become full-time, educational content creators - you never know where it might take you!
Another way to market yourself with online platforms is to create a personal website or online teaching portfolio. This is a basic site with your resume, sample lesson plans, and teaching philosophy that can act as a digital CV and set you apart. Especially useful for creative subject teachers, but it can be utilised for any kind of teaching role and is an easy way for a potential new school to learn who you are beyond your CV. You can highlight student or parent testimonials (ensure you have permission to do so first), PD certifications, and career achievements. The best part is, you can structure your online portfolio however you want to match your best skills and qualities.
‘Please note, if you decide to use online platforms to help market yourself as an educator, it is ESSENTIAL to be in keeping with safeguarding regulations.’
Networking Networking Networking!
In-person and online networking is a crucial part of any kind of marketing strategy. As they say, it’s all about who you know!
If you’ve built a strong online brand and profile for yourself, then a well-connected and growing network is essential for getting the word out there and getting opportunities in return.
You can network through Professional Development courses, conferences, online webinars, professional networking events, and school fairs. Keep an eye out for upcoming opportunities, and be ready with a good self-introduction and an easy means of communication if someone wants to connect with you.
Consider online memberships to organisations such as LYIS, which host regular PD events with education industry professionals. Find them HERE
Why should I do all of this?
You might be thinking, “I’m an experienced teacher. Isn’t that enough??”
It is more than enough. Teaching isn’t about who has the most followers or a flashy LinkedIn profile.
From a recruitment perspective, we see the market, competition, trends, and requirements changing each year. Marketing yourself doesn’t mean being fake or flashy; it’s about being discoverable, memorable, and easy to recommend.
By taking some time to define your brand, build your network, and present your value online, you increase your chances of:
Getting noticed by schools
Landing interviews faster
Being considered for different roles
Building a long-term career in international education
It’s worth bearing in mind that our tips for marketing yourself as a teacher aren’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Regularly uploading TikToks might not be your thing, but other steps, such as updating your LinkedIn profile and defining your personal brand, can be manageable, easy to implement, and overall improve your chances as a standout candidate in a competitive market!
Ask Yourself: ‘Why You Do What You Do’
In the application process, never underestimate the power of being clear to yourself and clear to others on the ‘why’ of what you do. If you are working in Career Counselling Guidance for example, is your role to open up access to the world of further education (inclusively), or to secure placements at the world's best universities for a select few (exclusively)? Or is it a combination of both, with a genuine aspiration to increase aspiration and access universities to a wider base of students? Can you bring communities together when doing so? If you are working in Pastoral Care or would like to, is your aim to provide the highest standards of practical welfare to students? And, if you are a homeroom teacher, consider how far your role is to nurture students who make the world a better place in which to live.
A personal mission can be an extra layer of individual motivation. Remember, less is often more, so avoid verbose and lengthy statements and instead focus on what your aim in life is to do. The International School of Paris’ slogan, ‘Educating for Complexity,’ is a very powerful call to action to inspire your own personal mission. Your personal Education mission should be able to align with and support your school’s overall mission. Nowadays, there is nothing wrong with explaining what you do to support your family and make sure that, first and foremost, they are your primary legacy. Happy teachers make better teachers, and if a school understands you are emotionally secure and you value your wellbeing and that of others, it is a very positive sign indeed.
An awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be an asset to you in the application and interview stages, as you can relate how your work supports larger global challenges and priorities. With such knowledge.
If you are asked ‘Why do you do what you do?, how should you answer? Hopefully, students will be at the centre of your answer. This may be to build peace, to develop critical thinkers capable of thinking at a system-wide level. It might even be to build a leadership pipeline. You might want to consider how many of your students who have gone into teaching itself, and whether the reason you do what you do could indeed be to inspire others to follow in your teaching footsteps. The world certainly needs it.