Intuitive preschool instructor with over five years working directly with young children from newborn to age seven. Creative foreign languages teacher with proven success in early childhood instruction. Spent almost two years total abroad working as a volunteer furthering the education and well-being of the children in those areas.
By leading off with a strong summary statement, both required and highly regarded certifications and skills, and his most recent and relevant work experience, the applicant immediately demonstrates his competence. Notice how he alludes to the volunteer work he has done within the summary statement. This way he is effectively exhibiting another attention-grabbing feature of his experience that is explained later on.
While working with preschoolers can be very rewarding, it also requires a lot of energy. Sometimes this means applicants are a bit younger, but even childcare employees who are not quite as new to the workforce will often take breaks or explore other options. As you can see in the preschool teacher resume sample provided, the applicant has taken a couple of years away from the workforce to volunteer abroad. Explaining the gap briefly in the summary statement, and including the unpaid work in his experience section, transforms an area that may otherwise have raised questions and uses it to his advantage.
Notice how the applicant does not simply list duties for each job in the experience section, but adds his own personal achievements and additions that go beyond the standard requirements. Particularly in his most recent experience, note how the author says he “implements new foreign language games” for all the younger students to give them a head start on learning a second or more language as they get older.
This can be a tricky area for childcare and for anyone who has volunteered, since many childcare facilities and volunteer opportunities are funded or headed by religious organizations. Volunteer work is also often spearheaded by activist groups, which may create some problems when applying for jobs. In the example, notice how only relatively or completely neutral organizations are listed. Nothing is noted specifically about any religious or political affiliations, and nothing can be directly assumed by the reader.
It may be difficult to tell without knowing exactly where he is applying, but note some of the obvious credentials. Most early childhood teaching jobs are going to require CPR and basic first aid, and many states have certain teaching certifications they require. An associate degree is not always required for these positions, but a certification most certainly will be.