Should I Include Non-Teaching Jobs on My International Teaching CV?
The answer depends largely on your level of teaching experience, how relevant the role is, and how you frame it.
Firstly, ask yourself:
‘Do I Currently Have Teaching Experience?’
If you already have teaching experience: Prioritise it. Your CV should showcase your classroom practice, curriculum knowledge, and teaching experience. Non-teaching roles are unlikely to add much weight or relevance unless they directly connect to education (e.g. youth work, tutoring, coaching) or they highlight valuable, relevant experience (e.g. you’re applying for an IT teacher role and you have a background of working in the IT industry).
If you don’t yet have teaching experience: Including non-teaching jobs makes sense. In this case, highlight transferable skills that demonstrate you can manage a classroom, communicate effectively, take on responsibilities and be adaptable.
This can also be further broken down into:
‘Am I an Early Career Teacher or Experienced Teacher?’
Early-career teachers may need to lean on non-teaching jobs more heavily to show transferable skills, especially if your practical experience is limited to teacher training placements.
Experienced teachers should usually only list teaching-related roles unless a non-teaching job provides a unique strength or helps explain a gap.
Still not too sure?
A good test is to ask yourself:
‘Will this experience be valuable and relevant to refer back to in an international teacher interview?’
If the answer is yes, because the experience demonstrates transferable skills that are relevant to education or the role you are applying for, then it could add value to your CV.
But if it’s only there to list every job you’ve ever had, it may distract from your teaching background.
So, How to Present Non-Teaching Experience on your CV?
If you decide that including non-teaching roles is appropriate and will add value to your CV, the way you present them also matters:
Keep it concise: Keep non-teaching jobs as a brief part of your teaching CV. Teaching experience is always the main focus!
Use a separate section: For example, an “Other Experience” can be useful to avoid overshadowing your educational experiences.
Emphasise transferable skills: Instead of describing tasks, frame the role in terms of what international schools value: organisation, communication, problem-solving, adaptability, management, teamwork.
Be very selective: Not every part-time or temporary job needs to go on your CV, even in an ‘Other Experience’ section. Choose recent roles that add credibility and context.
Explaining Gaps
Sometimes, non-teaching jobs can help explain CV gaps. In this instance, it can be better to include the role so a school can clearly understand your employment history as soon as they scan your resume.
However, always keep in mind that this CV is for a teaching role application, and anything not linked to teaching or education really doesn’t need to take up much space on your CV at all! To explain career gaps with non teaching jobs, keeping it short and sweet is best e.g. “Customer Service Assistant – Company Name, London, 2015–2016.”
Overall:
Unless you have little or no teaching experience, non-teaching jobs generally don’t belong at the centre of your CV. Remember, this is your International Teacher CV, meaning that everything presented on there should clearly and specifically highlight why your strong educational experience makes you a great candidate for this role.
Keep your CV as focused as possible for the job you are applying for, and only include non-teaching roles if they demonstrate transferable skills, explain a career gap, or add unique value to your profile. The goal is always to make it easy for recruiters and principals to see you as a strong, credible teaching candidate!