The Best Way to Actually Use That Ed Leadership Portfolio You Had to Make in Grad Schools

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

You did it! You got an interview for an educational leadership position! Your fabulous resume and poignant cover letter got you in the door, and now it's time to wow them with your knowledge and charm. You pick out your interview outfit, practice some potential questions you found online, and find a brand new 4 inch binder for that leadership portfolio you had to create in grad school.

Here's the thing about that binder: no one on your interview team really cares about it. They're certainly not going to use the interview time to leaf through it thoughtfully and say, "Hmm. Tell me what you were thinking here." And that's a good thing. You want your interview team concentrating on you; if they're looking through your portfolio, they might miss when you say something awesome.

"So, wait a minute," you might be thinking. "I was told this portfolio was incredibly important to demonstrate my leadership abilities and now you're telling me I shouldn't even bring it to my interview?"

What I'm saying is actually that while you can bring a select few key artifacts, but yes, leave the rest of the portfolio at home. Instead, make sure to link the portfolio on your resume, and it's more likely to help you GET the interview. The point of the interview, however, is to meet you in person, not to leaf quietly through a 100-page scrapbook. Here's how to choose what artifacts to actually bring:

1. You only want to bring about 1-5 artifacts with you. Think of them more as "work samples" rather than a "portfolio."

Your artifacts should fit in a professional-looking portfolio like this one. You don't want to walk into the interview looking like a pack mule. While you're at it, pack a couple of resumes as well. It's pretty unlikely that anyone will actually ask for your resume at an ed leadership position interview (they already saw your resume; it's why they asked you for an interview), but it never hurts to have one or two just in case.

2. Unless asked, resist the urge to bring technology or digital copies of your work samples.

Look, I'm all about the technology. But also: you don't have that much time in an interview. Setting up your laptop, establishing an internet connection, connecting to a projector...that all takes way too much time, and you want to spend that time impressing people with your dazzling intellect, not having them watch you fumble with adapters. Unless you are specifically asked to bring something in a digital format, go the old fashioned route and buy yourself some heavyweight 8.5x11 inch paper and print your artifacts. Bring 3-4 copies of everything, unless you are specifically told that there will be more people on the interview panel.

If you really have something amazingly cool that's only available digitally, put a bitly or QR code on your business card. People may or may not look at it after your interview, but there's a chance you'll get points for trying while also not wasting people's time.

3. Choose artifacts that enhance, not replace, what you are most likely to be asked about--and only if you think someone has to physically see it to understand its awesomeness.

Let's say that you created the School Improvement Plan template that is now used by all the schools in your district--by all means bring that in! If the topic naturally comes up as a part of the conversation, then go ahead and show people your awesome formatting skills and how well you remembered your Strategic Planning courses.

A couple of caveats here: only bring an artifact if it can be visually understood and its awesomeness assessed in about 10 seconds. And only bring it out of your portfolio and share it if it naturally comes up in conversation. For instance, if asked, "Tell me about a time that you dealt with a colleague you disagreed with you and how you handled that," don't say, "Well, I reminded the colleague of the values described in our school improvement plan, which I designed for the entire district, and oh by the way, I have a copy of that template." Instead of receiving kudos, you'll lose points for being off-topic.

4. Don't bring something that everyone else in your leadership preparation program could also bring.

So you created a professional development on phonological instructional strategies and you really want to bring in your 36-slide presentation? Even at 6 slides per page, it's too many. A better choice would be a one-page plan for the year-long book study that you facilitated with your teachers, especially if it includes an easy-to-read graph demonstrating improved student gains for that content in your school.


Keep in mind: even if you stick to these rules and keep your artifacts limited to just a couple of really high-impact things, it's likely that you still won't actually use them. Artifacts are more the staple of a performance review rather than an interview. In short, if you can easily put your hands on some high-value artifacts that distinguish you from others AND you are okay with the idea that you might not use them at all, it's fine to bring some copies. But don't do it at the expense of preparing for potential interview questions; that might actually get you more bang for your buck in the end.


Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

7 Crucial Steps to Write a Resume for an Educational Leadership Job

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

So you've finished your coursework, gotten your endorsement, and are now hoping to get an educational leadership position. A strong resume is going to be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. More than that, it can actually positively or negatively color how the interviewers see you when you walk in the door. A generic resume may be enough to get you an interview, but the interviewers may be less forgiving with any fumbling or nervousness on your part. A strong resume can buy you some initial goodwill.

Here's the hard part, though: because teachers generally have similar experiences, and because graduate coursework in educational leadership has the same requirements in order for colleges and universities to be accredited, a lot of aspiring educational leaders end up having almost the same resume. This means you have to go the extra mile to stand out from the crowd.

Now, there are some things that you're going to have to include to get your resume through the first round of review in HR. If you need an administrative endorsement for the job, you have to include that you have it or the expected award date. You need to include the name of the college or university where you completed your studies, etc.. HR will review the resumes and push forward ALL qualifying ones to the actual hiring team, which usually includes executive directors or other exceptionally busy people who find themselves needing to read through dozens or more resumes (while also doing all their other work) in order to whittle down the list to three to eight people they actually want to interview.

Below are some tips and examples to help your resume shine through the sea of generic resumes.

1. Always, always, always refine your resume for the specific job for which you are applying.

Print out the job description itself, and go through and highlight the portions of your resume that best meet those criteria. Reword things if you need to. You want to leave no doubt that you have experience in these areas. Even if you're only applying for Assistant Principal jobs, make sure you tailor the resume to the specific school district. This helps your resume get past HR.

For example, if the job description says this: Computer competency and familiarity with emerging technologies and their instructional management applications, then somewhere on your resume you need to have evidence that you meet this criteria.

2. Keep your resume to 2 pages. No, seriously.

Neither Human Resources nor the interview team want to read a book. I know it's so tempting to put down ALL THE WAYS that you're qualified, but trust me...go for quality over quantity here.  You need to make sure that you cover all the jobs that you've done in your professional life, and that you explain any gaps...but determine HOW MUCH information you're going to put based upon how well that particular role provides evidence of you meeting the job description.

Here's what I do: I keep a "resume template" for myself with EVERYTHING I've done on it, similar to a curriculum vitae. I pick and choose what to include for a particular job based upon the specific job description. In these days of digital resumes, you can always include a link to your curriculum vitae if it really kills you to cut out certain things. When I applied for my previous job (Professional Learning Coordinator), almost the entire resume was about my experiences with professional learning, and I only referenced technology as it related to being effective at coordinating training. When I applied for this current job (Director of Innovation & Professional Learning), my technology experience suddenly had a starring role alongside my professional learning experience.

Overall, it's better to have a shorter resume that gets read than a longer one that doesn't.

3. Lose the Job Goals and Skills section.

Space is at a premium here. I know that the Job Goals and generic Skills section are staples of many rubrics, but I personally don't see the point of them in educational leadership resumes. It makes sense if you're posting a generic resume to a site like Linked In or ZipRecruiter, but not if you're applying to be an assistant principal.

If your resume is tailored to the specific job description, then it's pretty obvious what your job goal is. Also, you applied to the job. We get it: you want to be an assistant principal. Don't waste space on a resume telling me that.

Moreover, the Skills section becomes almost redundant when so many teachers and aspiring leaders have the same skill-sets. Of course you're motivated and a self-driven learner. Who applies for an educational leadership program that ISN'T? And just because you TELL me that you're a good communicator doesn't actually give me confidence that you are; I'd much rather see specific examples of your communication abilities within the rest of your resume.

4. 10-point font and 0.5 inch margins are the smallest you should go (and no Arial Narrow!)

Look, most of us who are reading applications don't have youthful eyes, okay? We don't want to have to pull out our magnifying glass to read your resume. Even if I can technically zoom in on a digital resume, don't make me zoom. You want to make everything as easy as possible for me to get excited about you. Extra steps in an already involved process make your resume reviewers tetchy.

5. Simple formatting is better.

Choose a neutral font, like Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Tahoma. If you choose Comic Sans, I am going to raise an eyebrow, and if you get an interview, you're going to have to work slightly harder to convince me that it's because you've read that it's easier for people with dyslexia to read, and not just because you think it's "cute." If you choose Bradley Handwriting, you'll be lucky if I even read the resume.

Include enough white space. I want to be able to skim your resume and come away wow'ed. I do not want to read a two-page expose on everything you've ever done during your professional career. 

6. Bullets, narratives, past-tense, present-tense...it doesn't really matter what you use as long as it's readable, consistent, and correct.

You might think it seems silly, but I actually care if one of your bullets is a complete sentence and the other is a sentence fragment. If you choose to start one with an action verb in present-tense, and another with an action verb in past-tense (with no good reason why; it's just a sloppy error), I wonder how much you really want the job. One typo won't ruin my opinion; multiple typos make me think you didn't care enough to read it over several times and get friends and loved ones to read it over, too. It also makes me wonder if, when I hire you, I'll need to spend my own time proofreading your work and checking over your work.

One exception: make sure you vary your verbs. Sometimes I read resumes where the applicant "designed" something in every bullet. My eyes start to glaze over when this happens. If you really want this job, use a thesaurus and make your writing just interesting enough that it keeps me awake as I dig through those 20 other resumes.

7. I don't just want to know that you're qualified; I want to know that you're the BEST candidate.

I saved the best (and hardest) for last. As I said earlier, a lot of people have the same experiences during their administrative preparation programs. You were a summer school site coordinator? Yep, so were lots of the other people applying for this job. You observed teachers and provided feedback and a part of your course of studies? Of course you did...your program wouldn't be accredited if you didn't. As a teacher, you wrote lesson plans and ensured the safety of your students? I mean, I hope so.

In other words, you need to tell me why YOU did all these things BETTER than everyone else in this stack of resumes. It's not uncommon for HR and executive directors to read 40 or more resumes for only eight interview slots and only one position. Why are YOU a leader in these areas? After all, you're applying for a leadership position.

You want to be as specific as possible in providing evidence not just that you did something, but that you were extremely effective at it.

Let's take a look at some of the most common descriptions I see on resumes:

DON'T DO:
Summer School Site Coordinator

• Facilitated a culture of high expectations and learning

DO:

Summer School Site Coordinator:

• Facilitated a culture of high expectations that resulted in an average mean gain of 30 percentage points on a diagnostic assessment for all students in grades 3, 4, and 5.

DON'T DO:

Grade 3 Teacher

• Designed and delivered multiple professional development sessions focused on social emotional learning

DO:

Grade 3 Teacher:

• Recruited by division leadership to design and deliver two sessions on How to Talk So Kids Can Learn for the Teachers Teaching Teachers Summer Conference. Session maxed out the allowable attendance at 40 teachers per session; participants rated the relevance and engagement of the session as a 3.9/4.0 and a 3.8/4.0 respectively. Based on this, asked by principals of two other schools to deliver the same presentation for their staffs.

Who do you want to hire in each example?

Writing a resume doesn't have to be arduous, but it shouldn't necessarily be easy, either. A resume is your first chance to not only demonstrate your capability to do the job, but your passion to do it. If you follow these seven steps, I can't guarantee you an interview, but you'll certainly up your chances significantly, allowing you to get in the door and show the hiring team how amazing you actually are.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.