Finding work...what else should I do?

Live at Three

Hi I'm a newly qualified music teacher. I'm having no luck on the jobs front and am wondering if I'm doing everything I can.

- I visited all schools within a 1 hour drive of my house and dropped in my CV in person, sometimes meeting the principal, saying I'm available for either a position or substitution work.

- I posted the CV to more schools.

- I check the examiner every Friday as that's where jobs in my area have appeared before

- I check vecjobs.ie, educationposts.ie, loadsajobs, monster regularly

- I'm sending my CV into the VEC to let them know I'm available for work

What else should I be doing? Can I register with the VEC as being available for work or do I need some experience? It's getting to the stage now where I'll have to take other sorts of work and I don't want to get stuck doing something else for the year...

drusk

You're not looking where you should be looking.

The vast majority of teaching vacancies throughout the entire country are advertised in the 'Irish Independent' on Thursdays and also in the 'Sunday Independent'. (These adverts can be found in the Business supplement)

All jobs advertised in these papers are then placed on the Independent's job-search website - www.loadzajobs.ie - They are also placed on www.educationcareers.ie

Most jobs are advertised in April/May and also in August/September.

Good luck

Live at Three

drusk wrote: »

You're not looking where you should be looking.

The vast majority of teaching vacancies throughout the entire country are advertised in the 'Irish Independent' on Thursdays and also in the 'Sunday Independent'. (These adverts can be found in the Business supplement)

All jobs advertised in these papers are then placed on the Independent's job-search website - www.loadzajobs.ie - They are also placed on www.educationcareers.ie

Most jobs are advertised in April/May and also in August/September.

Good luck

Thanks for the reply. If I am looking at loadzajobs and educationcareers already do I not need to buy the indo? Or should I get it anyway?

tangerinepuppet

I've noticed recently that some of the jobs I was told to look out for in the Independent didn't appear on loaszajobs or educationcareers, just in the business supplement ... so I'm planning to get the paper from now on as well.

peanuthead

although I'm sure that its not because of your CV you're not getting work, it's simply because its so hard, you should look over your CV and see if you can add anything to it or enhance the wording of some of it to make yourself more attractive. I'm NOT saying you should lie.

My biggest piece of advice to you would be to try get yourself into some voluntary teaching/community work, doing some first aid, further professional development in the meantime. This will immediately show prospective employers that you have a genuine interest in your profession and are not willing to sit on the dole waiting for the right job.

Best of luck. It's a tough game. I know as I'm playing it myself at the moment.

Darlughda

Try voluntary work www.volunteer.ie

Live at Three

Thanks for the suggestions. Looked at the volunteer site and there's tonnes of stuff on it, didn't realise there were so many volunteer teaching positions around. Will definitely be looking into those.

rainbowtrout

Live at Three wrote: »

Hi I'm a newly qualified music teacher. I'm having no luck on the jobs front and am wondering if I'm doing everything I can.

- I visited all schools within a 1 hour drive of my house and dropped in my CV in person, sometimes meeting the principal, saying I'm available for either a position or substitution work.

- I posted the CV to more schools.

- I check the examiner every Friday as that's where jobs in my area have appeared before

- I check vecjobs.ie, educationposts.ie, loadsajobs, monster regularly

- I'm sending my CV into the VEC to let them know I'm available for work

What else should I be doing? Can I register with the VEC as being available for work or do I need some experience? It's getting to the stage now where I'll have to take other sorts of work and I don't want to get stuck doing something else for the year...

Are you Cork based? Just figured you are if you are looking in the Examiner. You may need to reconsider moving anywhere in the country if you want a job, if you don't have any major ties to where you are at the moment. Do you have another subject other than music?

Also vecjobs.ie only covers a few VECs at the moment. It would be worth your while perhaps looking at the website of every VEC in the country, saving them in a list of favourites on your computer and checking them regulary. My VEC (Roscommon) puts their job vacancies up on the website first before they put them anywhere else.

Most of the VECs have fairly generic web addressses : sligovec.ie , roscommonvec.ie , longfordvec.ie .

Also check educationcareers.ie Most of the jobs advertised in the papers appear on that.

Live at Three

Yeah cork based, and moving is not an option, have ties here. Might be just a case of waiting it out. I don't have other subjects either. May have to consider doing more college for more subjects...not ideal!