Ready to get started applying for an Ed Tech industry position?
The tips below will help showcase your skills and experience, demonstrate your knowledge of the industry, and find a position that aligns with your personal goals.
Five Tips for Applying to Jobs in Education Technology
As a first step, always take the time to see who you might know at a given company. A personal relationship is always the best possible way to get the inside scoop and begin building connections with an organization.
Whether or not you can find a past acquaintance with a relevant connection, the following five steps can help find the right positions and develop an application that stands out:
- Start with a great resume.
Developing a quality resume is an important first step for doing your achievements justice when applying for a job in Ed Tech. It’s important that your resume provides accurate, specific information about your background, experience, and education. But it’s also critical to avoid getting lost in the weeds—the single most important goal when developing an impactful resume is a cohesive overall narrative.
We take a deeper look at how to leverage this unique opportunity to define your narritive in our Ed Tech Resume Guide. - Don’t neglect your cover letter.
If your resume is a good opportunity to define your narrative, a cover letter is a great one! Yet all too often, candidates feel uncertain about how to use a cover letter and resort to a rote, form letter that says little more than “Please find my resume attached.”
If an employer requests a cover letter, make use of this opportunity to its fullest potential by explaining unique life or career experiences that are difficult to capture on your resume, contextualizing an unconventional career path or educational background, or substantiating your reasons for pursuing a role in the Ed Tech industry.
Whenever possible, avoid addressing your cover letter to a generic “to whom it may concern” and try to find the name of the relevant hiring manager. This small extra effort can help personalize your application and demonstrate your attention to detail. - Exhibit a clear sense of purpose.
The most important factor when applying for an Ed Tech position is your fit in terms of skills and experience.
That said, the Ed Tech industry is full of professionals who are passionate about their mission and eager to work with like-minded colleagues. Taking the time to clearly articulate your interest in Ed Tech and detail your sense of purpose will help find an organization that provides a cultural fit (and can help your application stand out from the crowd). - Find the right niche.
While Ed Tech’s many companies share a common mission to advance education at all ages, the industry is incredibly diverse. Ed Tech organizations are doing everything from designing educational video games, to crafting hardware solutions for disabled students, to designing “smart building” solutions for school facilities.
If your applications so far haven’t proved successful, or you are finding job postings that don’t seem to be the right fit for your skills, you may simply be looking in the wrong niche. While one Ed Tech organization may prize former primary school teachers, another may be desperate for professionals who are familiar, for example, with continuing education in the finance industry. Some are open to new graduates, while others require industry experience.
Doing some upfront work to pinpoint the right niche for your skills, interests, and experience can help you understand the roles where your application is most likely to be successful. - Take the time to understand the industry.
Ed Tech is truly unique, and it’s impossible to know how to optimize your application if you don’t have some fundamental knowledge of the industry’s major segments, biggest trends, and latest developments.
Take the time to follow some leading industry publications and professional leaders in your specialty area on social media. Pay attention to what’s most important to industry leaders, the language they use, and which companies are looking to scale up their operations. All of this information will be invaluable when crafting your next job application.
Ready to learn more about Ed Tech 101? Read on in our guide to understanding Ed Tech.
How to Find a Job in Ed Tech
There are so many great reasons to work in Ed Tech, and now is a great time to be joining this exciting, rapidly evolving industry.
If you are ready to start exploring specific opportunities, the HighFive jobs platform is a great place to get started. We currently feature over 15,000 jobs from 950+ companies, with new positions being added every week.
Even if you aren’t ready to start submitting applications today, signing up is a great way to begin learning what Ed Tech employers are looking for, who is hiring, and which opportunities could be the right fit for your career goals.
