Basics

I can just hear you thinking to yourself: "Why on earth would I need a rebranding?" Signs that you might need a rebranding include the reality that you are invisible to prospective employers and, almost as bad, your credentials have begun to look kind of 2000-ish. Rebranding. Makeover. Facelift. Call it whatever you wish. But it all amounts to the same thing. Or does it? Rebranding, you see, is intrinsically much more focused than a simple makeover or a facelift. Let's see what is involved.

What is rebranding?

Rebranding sounds like something Proctor and Gamble might do with a tired soap brand. The product does a great job, but it has lost the appeal it once had in the marketplace. Are you beginning to see how this might have some relevance to a private school teacher? Rebranding yourself as a dynamic teacher with vision, expertise in her subject and the skills to create excitement in the classroom will push your candidacy for the position you want to the front of the pack. Or you can leave things as they were. The choice is yours.

Remember: it is a fiercely competitive job market in the second decade of the 21st century. Schools have hundreds of highly qualified and experienced candidates from which to choose. Why should they look at you? They should look at you because the rebranded you seems fresh, relevant, and perfect for the position they have open.

Who is a candidate for rebranding?

Unless you have

You thought that you were doing a good job. Your students seemed to like you. You interacted well with parents. However, everything changed when you received that dreaded letter stating that the school would not be renewing your contract for the coming academic year. Unfortunately, since private school teachers are not unionized, you have no recourse. Obviously, you need to make sure that you leave with good references if at all possible. It will do you no good to leave with negative references.

Most teachers like to teach. But many teachers don't like to market themselves. Unfortunately, that is what private school teachers have to do these days. Nobody else is going to market them. Most teachers don't belong to an agency that exposes them to schools looking to fill a vacancy. Because the job market is so very competitive, teachers have to sell themselves or risk losing out to a more competitive candidate. Here are five things which you can do to prevent that non-renewal letter from arriving in the first place.

1. Show that you love teaching young people.

I mention this in the first slot because this is why the school probably hired you in the first place. Occasionally a school will hire a displaced college professor. Why does that matter? Academia has been shedding jobs for many years as colleges realign their programs to changing market conditions. As a result, hundreds of very well-degreed graduate students are looking at all their options. Teaching in

Conducting a job search for a private school position via the Web is efficient and practical compared to the way we used to have to do it years ago. These days you can find job listings on the Web, gather information, apply for jobs, and even interview. Let's explore these options in more detail.

Find Job Listings

Without a doubt, the advantage which job seekers in the 21st century have over previous generations is being able to do it online. The Internet allows you to learn about any job opening the minute it is posted online. The same applies to niche employment such as teaching and administrative positions in private schools. At the very least, most schools will have an employment link on their sites. There may not be many listings depending on the time of the year. However, bookmark the employment links for schools in which you have an interest. Job boards and agencies provide online listings as well. Bear in mind that there are peak times in the private school job search process. Typically, November through February is the time when your colleagues are out in force there looking for jobs as well. Most private schools like to have contracts for the next academic year signed and sealed by the beginning of March. As a result, you will probably find the highest number of online listings beginning in the fall.

This video discusses finding a teaching job. While it is aimed at public school teachers, the

It can be very frustrating and demoralizing to search endlessly for a job and not find one. That's the reality, unfortunately, of this post-recession job market. Common sense would tell you that well-qualified, credentialled, experienced teachers should be able to find a teaching job in fairly short order, say 90-120 days, right? Wrong. That's the sad truth about the current economic conditions. Here's why.

Many school districts have cut teaching positions.

It has been hard to avoid hearing reports in both national and local media about cutbacks in public school district teaching staffs. Public school districts depend on real estate taxes for most of their revenues. They also expect their state legislatures to contribute additional funding. However, these traditional sources of revenue have been shrinking at an alarming rate. Even with the usual kind of accounting maneuvers, such as delaying expenditures for maintenance projects and upgrades of systems and infrastructure, school districts still find themselves in the uncomfortable and extremely unpopular position of having to cut teaching positions. Increasing class size is another outcome of these financially hard times.

As a result, thousands of teachers are actively looking for jobs. Market conditions have intensified the competition for the limited number of jobs available in both the public and private school sectors.

Colleges and universities have reduced their teaching staffs.

A quick scan of Inside Higher Ed will reveal the tough employment environment in higher education. If you are tenured faculty, hopefully, you still have a job.

Finding a private school job was fairly simple years ago. You kept your resume and curriculum vitae up to date, did a bit of networking, attended a couple of professional conferences and that was pretty much it. News of job openings would come your way. You followed up with your application, were interviewed and, hopefully, won the appointment. It doesn't work that way any more.

As a result many teachers and administrators used to doing things the old way will look askance at the idea of using online sites and online tools to conduct their private school job search. I would suggest that you might want to think twice before you cast aspersions on these new ways of finding a job. You just might be on your way to becoming a digital dinosaur. Now, you wouldn't want to be a digital dinosaur, would you?

First of all, understand that online tools are simply that - tools. A chisel in the hands of a novice makes clumsy cuts and produces amateurish results. The same is true of most online tools and social media. You need to learn how to use them effectively to land the job you really want. Each of these tools and applications is effective when used by itself. But for the best results I recommend that you use all of them. Using these new tools effectively takes practice and patience. You cannot realistically expect results within hours of your first posts. Give it time.

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