Determining what you want in a teaching job

Whether you are a new teacher or considering making a move to a different school, the process of finding the right fit can be daunting.   There are a lot of possibilities out there and it can be difficult to determine the best place to start.  This inspiration for a move can be from anything such as wanting to increase your impact to having a philosophical difference of opinion with your administrator.  Alternatively, you may be in the hunt for your first job and you are just exploring the waters for the first time.  Regardless, this is a very important decision that will influence your ability to impact kids and your career trajectory.   In fact, finding the right school for you will actually likely dictate whether remain in the teaching profession.  

As I’ve mentioned in a past post, teaching is an incredibly high turnover profession and much of it has to do with teachers not finding the right fit.  Thus, before getting started, I recommend establishing a sense of what you want and care about.

While there are a number of things that you can think about when making this decision, the following are few examples of things that you can think about when determining what is important to you in a new teaching job.

Leadership of the school: making sure you have a philosophical match and can maintain a good relationship with a school leader will have a great impact on how effective you will be as well as your own satisfaction.   Do you want someone that runs a very tight culture with a lot prescribed procedures and rules or do you want a leader that allows each teacher to determine their own approach?

Values: you want to make sure you fit in well with what your school believes and their approach to operating around these values.  Think about what is important to you in culture and philosophy.

Professional development practices: how a school develops professionals will have a substantial impact on your career.  You may want to think about your 5 year goals and what experience or learning as a professional you will need to do to get to a place where you want to be.

Leadership Opportunities: you should think about whether you want to grow into leadership roles down the line.  Whether it is to become a department chair or a school leader, thinking about where you want to go will determine if a school organization will provide you with the pathways to achieve the kind of opportunity that you are seeking.

Past results:  thinking about how the school is performing will give you a good sense of what type of situation you will be walking into.   You may be inspired to help a school turn around a situation or perhaps you want a place that is already on an upward trajectory. 

Governance: The way a school is governed can have a major impact on the teaching experience.  You should ask yourself how much freedom you want your administration to give you around things like budget and hiring.

Compensation:  You should determine what your salary requirements are for a job.  Understanding this will give you a big perspective on where you should be looking

Location:  Thinking about your willingness to relocate or even how far you want to commute on a daily basis will have a substantial impact on how you think about your search.  Defining this on the front end will help you quickly narrow down your possibilities

By determining on the front end what you want will save you a substantial amount of time as you navigate the process.