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Cover Letter Dos and Don’ts for Teachers Changing Careers
- Cat Moon
- Oct 28
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
"Shall I include a cover letter with my job application?" I hear you ask. If you are changing careers, then I would strongly suggest that you do. From my own personal experience, the interviews I had before landing my first non-teaching job all included a cover letter.
Why write a cover letter?
As a career switcher, you want the cover letter to acknowledge that you're changing careers, and to highlight that you have the skills necessary to do the job you're applying for. A cover letter could also be the difference between you and another candidate who didn't write one.
Generally, in your cover letter you want to explain why you've applied for the role advertised, the transferable skills and value you can add to X company, and why you think you'd be a great fit.
How long should the cover letter be?
There is no hard and fast rule here, but imagine you're a recruiter or hiring manager and hundreds of people have applied for a role at your company. In all likelihood, recruiters don't have the time to be sifting through a two-page cover letter for each potential candidate. They're going to look at resumes first and foremost, and then read the cover letter if there's time or they need a clearer story and background about you. For the non-teaching roles I've landed interviews for, I wrote a cover letter which was around 3-4 short paragraphs maximum and over one page. Do not go over two pages. I go into more detail about why one page is better than two in my blog post below:
Step 1: Analyse the job description
A job description comprises of two parts:
What you'll do (duties and responsibilities).
What the company is looking for (qualifications, skills).
Firstly, focus on the 'What you'll do' portion. The first few bullet points of the job description are the most important, and we need to make sure they are addressed in our cover letter. Start by highlighting the ones you have experience carrying out.
Next, take a look at the qualifications. Write down the ones you can comfortably meet and ignore any you don’t. Take a look at my infographic below as an example:
Top Tip: Qualifications are always negotiable and should not deter you from applying to a job. If, for example, a job advertisement states "3 years experience in instructional design', and you only have one, this is negotiable - and you can write about other transferable skills.
Step 2: Identifying what to include in your cover letter.
Create a 'T' table, with the column on the left for the highlighted skills you identified above, and the column on the right for how you match up to the specific role.
Here's an example of what your 'T' table might look like for an Instructional Design role:
Step 3: Why do you want to work here?
You like the sound of the role, and you know you'd be an excellent fit. Now is the time to convince the hiring manager of that.
In order to write a convincing paragraph explaining your why, you need to do your research on the company first. Find out:
What is the companies mission?
What problem are they trying to solve?
What's unique about this company in comparison to other companies?
What are some values the company highlight on their page?
A great way to start, is by looking at the companies website. Usually there is a page dedicated to the company values and/or a blog page dedicated to interviews or recent news and events. LinkedIn is also a great source of information- and will likely be even more up to date than their website as everything recent will be posted on there.
Check the companies socials to see if they have an Instagram or Facebook page. You'll be able to pick up on the language the company use and see what they share about their brand or company.
Step 4: How to set out your Cover Letter.
We're going to use the following format to start your cover letter:
Who you are, what you want, what you believe in.
Transition
Skills & Qualifications match
Why do you want to work there?
Closing paragraph
a) Who you are, what you want, and what you believe in:
Start your Cover Letter by emphasising your strengths and ideally mention something specific to the company. State who you are, what you want, and what you believe in.
Example a) "I'm an educator with over 7 years of experience and I'd love to apply my skills and experience with designing e-learning modules for X company."
Example b) "I'm a Learning and Development Specialist with 5 years experience and an advocate for incorporating technology into lessons to make them more purposeful and stimulating for learners. I'm excited to bring my knowledge and understanding of adult learning principles to the role of instructional designer at X company."
Example c) "I'm an experienced Learning Facilitator with 3 years' experience designing and delivering e-learning modules form start to finish. I enjoy designing stimulating and fun learning experiences to inspire diverse audiences. I'd love to learn more about your growing educational company."
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