How to Create a Killer Resume for Online English Teachers

Thinking about making the move to teaching English online? Got an old resume lost amongst a sea of icons on your desktop that you haven’t updated in a few months, or better yet, years?! Great – you can use this as a starting point. 

Online English Teacher Resume: Best practices

To really stand out from the crowd, you’re going to want to tailor your resume to focus specifically on teaching English online. Let's find out how.

How to Write an English Teacher's Resume

On your online English teacher resume, you should include your contact information, professional summary, education and certifications, teaching experience, skills, accomplishments, and references. It's important to tailor your resume to each job you apply for and highlight the skills and experience that are most relevant to the specific job posting.

You can use these tips to write an English teacher's resume:

Format Your Resume Accordingly

When it comes to formatting a resume, there are some things that never go out of style: a clean, simple, modern design where brevity reigns supreme.

The most important thing is that your font is scannable and easy to read. Times New Roman is commonly viewed as a classic resume font, but it is also dated and can be considered boring. Try using clean, sleek fonts like Calibri, Arial, or Verdana to give a more tightened-up presentation.

The text should be black or grayscale and any headings or sub-headings should be bolded where necessary. 

Apply the English Teacher Resume Basics

It goes without saying that there are a handful of basics that every resume should entail, no matter what position you are applying for. Things like name, contact details, education and experience are a must!

Let's look at these in detail:

Basic Information

You will need to list your first and last name, contact information including email and location, a phone number that includes country and area code, or if you are traveling around a lot, it is imperative to include a Skype number/ID as many online schools will interview via Skype, age, and citizenship/nationality. 

Objective

This is usually a short paragraph, a couple of lines in length, outlining your goal. Your objective should closely align with the online school you are applying to work with. For example, if you are applying to teach English online with a company that only teaches young learners, then your goal needs to focus on teaching children (and not adults).

Education

List your highest level of education including any and all programs, degrees, certification, and other formal training programs that you have attended and completed either in-person or online.

→ It is important to highlight your TEFL Certification here. You’ll want to note the number of hours the course was, as well as any practicum hours completed.

→ List education in date order starting with the most recent.

→ Be specific and detailed about the institution, major, campus location, and date of completion of final degrees listed.

Experience

List the name/location of any past employers for positions that you have held over the past 10 years. You’ll also want to include job titles and dates of employment.

→ Be very clear and concise in your descriptions.

→ List your work experience starting with the most recent or relevant role.

→ For each position, list your job title, the name of the company and where it is located, start and end dates, and be sure to highlight and relevant accomplishments and accolades as well as responsibilities.

→ If you don’t have a plethora of work experience under your belt, don’t fret! List your volunteer work in an ESL classroom for your practicum. Paid or free experience is still the same experience!  Also, include any other mentoring or coaching experience.

Skills

This section is for you to highlight any other additional skills you may have that you deem relevant for the online English teaching role that you are applying for like foreign language or computer skills. For example: Fluent in Mandarin, with a working knowledge of German.

Make the Additions for Teaching English Online 

Along with the traditional resume that we've outlined above, you'll want to include the following additions to tailor your resume to focus specifically on teaching English online.

Headshot Photo

Employers will want to make sure you have a clean and friendly appearance, especially if you plan on teaching English online to children in Asia. For this reason, it is always a good idea to include a professional headshot on your teaching English online resume. Keep your appearance simple; if you are male, make sure your hair is neatly done and you are cleanly shaven; if you are female, ensure your hair is out of your face and don’t go too overboard with the makeup.

Nationality/Citizenship

This is pretty straightforward if you are a U.S. citizen, list “USA” if you are an Australian citizen, list “Australia”, etc.

Teaching Equipment

To teach English online, you need reliable equipment to get you through a day of online classes. In this section, you will need to list the make/model of your computer/laptop, amount of memory, operating system, processor speed, etc. If your laptop has an in-built webcam, make note that it’s inbuilt, or if you use an external webcam, list the make and model. Also, list the name and model of your headset. A quality headset will do you wonders.

Internet Connection

Probably the most important factor in teaching English online – an active and reliable Internet connection. Wired connections are always preferred over wireless, so list which of the two you use. We suggest running a speed test to see how fast your connection is and including these results on your resume. This speed test site will provide you with a link to your test results to share.

Teaching Qualifications

Be sure to include your TEFL Certification within your education section. You’ll want to note the number of hours the course was, as well as any practicum hours completed.

Native or Non-Native

You may live in the USA or Australia for example, but this does not necessarily make you a native English speaker. If you were born and grew up in a country where English is not the first language, this makes you a non-native speaker.

Accent

We recommend listing your accent. American, British, or Australian for example. Some online English teaching employers give preference for particular accents.

Save Your Resume 

Save your resume as your last name, first name, online school name, and then what the file is. Example file name: 

Anderson, Tiffany - <Online School Name> Resume

Be sure to save your resume as both a Word Doc (so you can edit it later if need be) and as a PDF doc (this is the version you will submit during the application process).

Next Steps

Great – you have your resume all sorted, now you need to get your cover letter in order. Check out our post on how to create a killer cover letter for teaching English online.

*Note: The 'Basics' section of this article is an excerpt from the 400-page International TEFL Academy Job Search Guidance Manual that is provided exclusively to International TEFL Academy students and graduates as part of their lifetime Job Search Guidance. It was prepared by expert job placement advisors in the Student Affairs Department at ITA, who provide personal assistance to hundreds of students and graduates each year with their resumes and cover letters in addition to other aspects of the job search and interviewing process.

Further reading:

• Companies That Let You Teach English Online Without a Degree
• How Much Money Can I Make Teaching English Online? 
• How to teach English Online in 5 Steps