If you walked into my office right now and asked me what you should do to get that job or promotion, I would give you these five tips:
The reason I can give you these tips is because I have been a teacher for 30 years. During the last 5, I was promoted twice.
1. Talk to People Face to Face
You have to talk to managers and decision makers face to face. You don’t just send your CV in and you definitely do not just email it to the school. It will be buried and deleted.
If you are lucky and it is printed at all, then you will find yourself at the bottom of a very high pile that’s aging and that gets recycled after a year or two.
You need to walk into the principal’s office with your mooi-mooi’s on and you have to go and talk to her/him.
Here’s what you must do:
Go to the school/company’s office and convince the secretary or the receptionist that you just want to hand the principal your CV. You just want to shake his or her hand and introduce yourself so that they can see your face. You tell them that you are an English teacher (or whatever) or that you are applying for a position.
Do it face to face, do it quickly, don’t hang around, don’t socialise, and make sure that you get out as soon as possible after giving the CV to the principal or the deputy principal if you can. They are very busy and they don’t want to have a long chat with you because they have 10 things to do and there’s only time for 4.
2. Start Working on Sundays
REALLY?
Yes. The second thing I would do is start working on Sundays. Especially if you are aiming for a promotion at your current institution.
First, it is still Sunday, so have a sleep-in, go to church if you can, and go and have lunch with Mom. Then … you take your bag, your books, and your laptop and go – to – school.
As you sit there in your classroom or in your office (if you’re a HOD) calmly and purposefully sort out your “stuff” Monday.
In other words, do your filing, throw away those scraps of paper that are all over the place, empty the inbox (the real one) that have been filling up… (usually it’s a sagging Typek box cover, isn’t it!) and get rid of all the clutter.
- Make sure that your desk is neat and clean.
- Get your diary up to date and know what to say on the Monday morning.
- Know who’s going to open, know who’s going to do the talking, know what you want to get done early that week.
- This will help you be prepared. It can be quite startling how much more confident you will feel. And you don’t have to fake it – you really are … actually … prepared!
- This ensures that you don’t start the work week by being overwhelmed.
TRUST ME: Someone who comes across as in shape on a Monday morning gets a lot of kudos from the managers.
The reason is simple: It is because you don’t look as shocked by the Monday syndrome as others. The message is, “If he/she looks like that on a Monday, surely he/she can handle the pressure on any day!”
Again: go to work on Sundays … and I’m not talking about marking or doing some kind of admin that can wait. I’m talking about getting yourself ready for the Monday by going to school on the Sunday afternoon. Spend 3 or 4 hours. I promise, it’ll make all the difference.
3. Keep Work and Home Separate
The third thing I would do is I would definitely stay after school and do my schoolwork at school and my “homework” at home. In other words don’t mix your work life with your home life. Homework in this context is living real life – spending time at your place, with your people. Your pets, your TV.
The couch misses you! Don’t neglect it.
I think there should be clear boundaries. When you are at work you are all dressed up and you are busy working. Just work at work. Don’t fu*k around on Facebook!
But, when the day is over – it will be so good for you if you can – dust off your shoes … get into the car … go home and, if you’re lucky enough to have a family and children or someone that is waiting for you, be with those people and go and be there with them.
4. Learn the Technology at the School
The fourth thing I would do is I would learn the technology at the school. In other words if there’s an a SA SAMS-like system and you are not familiar with how to print a report, you can’t expect to get promoted.
You have to know how to go into that LTSM module 14 and sort it out because the principal is going to ask you to do the textbooks next year.
You have to know how to send a message on D6. If you’re using The System, you can’t ask the secretary or the lady in the office, as they say, or the tech support dude, to send a letter out to parents. You shouldn’t be struggling to get into the discipline system.
When it comes to dealing with technology, using technology, reading messages and answering your emails and your WhatsApps, please make sure that your notifications are off. Make sure that you are not busy with little messages and emails all day long and that you actually can get onto the corridors and go and do some real help by getting the kids into classes.
Go and talk to people in the corridors, get them to move along. Talk to the learners – especially the student leaders, and then, when you go back to your office or your classroom, you focus on the work. It’s all about focus, maximizing your time, maximizing effort, and prioritizing.
5. Make Your Application Complete
And lastly, when it comes to the interview or starting the process, make sure that your application is complete. Make sure that you fill in, in your own handwriting where possible, the complete list of your skills and abilities.
Go on to another page and fill in four or five pages with everything significant that you can do. Do not forget to list your computer skills or your personal achievements and sell yourself actively.
Be an agent for yourself.
You need to be able to present your case. The principal and the governing body of that school are going to spend no more than 1 minute each on that CV of yours, if that much, maybe even less. It needs to be complete.
The people at the district office are going to look at the CV and they’re going to scrutinize it, and your qualifications must be there.
- There must be a decent cover letter.
- You must have your details on the first page.
- Don’t make them look for what you can teach.
- Tell them on the first page what you teach and what your experience is.
- What they want to know is: Is this guy a matric teacher? Can I use him? Is he going to be able to take that difficult Grade 8 group?
- Is this woman going to be able to take the netball team that we’re struggling with or can she develop the cricket for the girls and things like that?
Don’t be tentative when it comes to putting your CV together.
6. Be Friendly and Enjoy the Process
And here’s a sixth bonus tip for you. When you are in the process, be friendly and be kind, make a joke, enjoy your day, be a little bit entertaining, and don’t be so serious and afraid.It puts people off if you come accross as afraid. Be scared; don’t show it!
Think of yourself as an adventurer on a trip, someone who’s busy with a trip.
If you’re going to go see the Eiffel Tower, get up, dress up, go to the actual structure, and enjoy being there. Don’t be complaining about the weather on your way there and don’t be negative when you are standing in line.
You are seeing the Eiffel Tower!
You are standing there and you’re going to go up the lift and you are excited. Let the adrenaline pump and enjoy it. Let your promotion journey be like that.
Now is not a good time to come across as traumatized and someone who is struggling to deal with a little bit of cortisol and adrenaline.
You will never make it in this job or after actually getting that promotion if you can’t handle the interview.
Enjoy it, have fun. You’re going to get paid a little bit more. You’re going to get a little bit more responsibility. Be worth it.
7. Accept That You’ll Have Fewer Friends
The very last thing I’d say is this: If you want to make it and get promoted, accept the fact that you’re going to have fewer friends.
Accept that you will have people turn on you, that they will be gossiping about you, and that you will lose your friends that you used to spend time with in the smoking area.
But it’s okay. They were never great friends to start with. Get some new friends. It’s not easy, but it is time you lifted that game too. That is one of my challenges now. So the journey continues.
To learn more about how you can get ahead in teaching as a profession, get The Teacher’s Bullet-Proofing Toolkit.
NB: I just realised that the name “Bullet-Proofing Toolkit” might be inappropriate in a world where schools are plagued by shootings and gun violence. Accept my apology if this offended you. I will actually change the name if you comment below.
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