Finding IT jobs in (K-12) education

February 17, 2011 7:08 PM

For various reasons, I've decided to find an IT job at a school, preferably NOT at the college level, though I'm somewhat open to the idea. Let's just say that my credentials/resume/references are not the issue. The issue is finding job openings in educations!

For industry jobs, you have dice.com, monster.com, various head-hunting resources, etc. Finding a job here and here has never been a problem when I've decided to move on.

However, now that I want to work in education, it seems like there's a lack of centralized postings. I've found this one for for the Midwest called EdPost that alleviates the need of going to every single private school and district's web site. Are there other centralized job posting boards I should be aware of? Even if there's no national ones, localized ones like that would be awesome to help make my job searching more efficient.

I've done a few Google searches, but all the "education job" boards don't seem to have much, or at least much less than EdPost which seems odd since EdPost is only regional and not national.

Before anyone gives me gruff about it, I'm well aware that job searching takes work. I don't mind putting in the time. Rather, I'm just hoping to find more centralized, quality resource for finding education jobs.
However, if my only recourse is to just hunker down and scour indivdual school/district websites, then by all means, let me know!

posted by MeProxy to work & money (6 answers total)

schoolspring.com

Higheredjobs.com
posted by Sal and Richard at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2011

http://www.usreap.net/
posted by kellygrape at 8:05 PM on February 17, 2011

Sorry, hit the "go" button too fast there. USA REAP is a good source, and you can also try it for an individual state.

You could also try "[state] school jobs" or "[state] teaching jobs" - on some teaching boards I've found, there are frequently Admin jobs posted.

Try to find independent school groupings. For example, in the Delaware Valley there is a resource called ADVIS - association for Delaware Valley Independent Schools. There's also NAIS - National Assn of Ind. Schools.

Sometimes, though, checking the district is the way to go. You can set a bookmark folder with all the area district employment pages and see where that gets you, checking every now and then.
posted by kellygrape at 8:11 PM on February 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just a note that my brushes with higher education (not sure if this is the case for secondary ed) suggest that familiarity with the education environment is nearly as important as actual technical acumen. I know the main focus is finding job sites but I just thought that I'd put it out there that if you are new to working in education, you might run into problems trying to get in on your IT cred alone.

And of course, if you're not new to education, you should be talking to people you know in that field. Networking is HUUGE in education, almost more so than in business it seems.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:11 PM on February 17, 2011

Can't help with resources, but want to add that getting some kind of teaching certificate would help.

Most schools and school districts are loathe to hire single purpose employees. There may not be enough IT work to fill a day, or they simply can't justify it in the budget even if there IS work to do. Getting a cert/license would allow you to be the IT person, maybe teach a class or two, staff the library for coffee breaks, and possibly be an extra substitute teacher. You'd have to work out in your agreement how much teaching you'd do so that you have time to do the IT stuff.

I think this would be helpful in making your pitch.
posted by gjc at 6:07 AM on February 18, 2011

Thanks for the tips on finding jobs in education. I'm kind of loath to actually teach in the classroom, though I don't mind teaching adults. If that prevents me from getting a desired job, I'm fine with that.
posted by MeProxy at 3:07 PM on February 18, 2011