10 Critical Tips you Must Use to Get your International Teacher Application Emails Read

In the 21st century much of our job hunt has moved online. International recruiters are often requiring us to submit our application packs by email, which certainly cuts down on the expense of postage and reduces our carbon emissions, but is it good for us as applicants? You know yourself how easy it is to delete email after email, often without even bothering to read them!

When you send in your application pack by email with all you documents attached, your goal is not only to get your email opened and read, you also want the recruiter to open your documents and read them too. So, how do you get your emails read? You use these crucially important tips to make the recruiter WANT to read your email!

1. Use a meaningful subject line.
I suggest you include the specific teaching position you are applying for and your name. By using this style of subject line you are immediately identifying it as an email from an applicant and the recruiter will expect to see a teacher application when they open the email. Also, this will make it easier for the recruiter to find your email in their inbox should they need to refer to it again.

2. Send your email messages in plain text.
Many email software does not recognise emails sent in .html format. For example, my email client strips all the code and pictures out of the body of my emails for security reasons. So, while these formats can spice up your email and make it look attractive, this will work against you if the code pops up in the recruiters email client. Keep it simple and make sure your email is sent out in plain text. Any pictures you want to send should either be left out or attached separately.

3. Avoid using emoticons.
While those little winks and smiles are cute and useful in conveying non-verbal communication clues in personal emails, they have no place in a business email.

4. Write formally, without contractions or short cuts.
LOL, OTOH, and BTW are not appropriate in this setting, remember that you are sending a formal letter asking the recruiter to consider you for a teaching job in an international school. This may seem obvious, it certainly does to me, but I was shocked to receive an email recently from an individual that had ‘u’ instead of ‘you’. I was less than impressed.

5. Resist the temptation to tag it with a high priority tag.
What is a high priority to you may not be one to the recruiter, so tagging your application email as being ‘important’ will be a blot against you. This is an excellent way to send your email straight into the trash bin. The same goes with asking for the recruiter to send a receipt on delivery, resist the urge and trust that if you have followed these tips and have a killer application pack, then you will hear from the school.

6. Keep your sentences short, one to two lines only.
Reading on a computer screen is hard on your eyes. It is a good idea to make it easy on the person reading your email by keeping the sentences and paragraphs short with a white space in between the paragraphs.

7. Use standard fonts and avoid unusual font colours.
Arial and Times New Roman are standard fonts that you can almost guarantee the recruiter will not only have on their computer, but that they will be used to reading them. A lot of our reading is done automatically by recognising word shapes. Using standard fonts can tap into this skill. We are also used to reading black text on a white background, so why would you use green or purple in your email to an international school recruiter?

8. SHOUTING at the recruiter is not going to make them want to employ you.
Using capitals in an email is bad etiquette. Not only is it commonly understood that you use capitals when you want to shout at someone, we don’t normally read in capitals, so you are just making it harder on the recruiter.

9. When it comes to attachments - small is better.
Many email clients restrict the size of the attachments allowed into people’s inboxes. While you want to attach the elements of your application pack to support you email, you also want to ensure that your email is delivered. The solution to this problem is to make sure your documents are concise and without images, not to zip them.

10. Correctly spelling names is critical.
Should you include the name of the recruiter, or the name of the international school; make sure you spell it correctly. Check and double check. You insult the school recruiter if you spell their name incorrectly; refer to them by the incorrect gender or by not doing your homework regarding where the school is or what it is called

That is my top 10 tips to remember when you send your teacher application to international school recruiters by email. They are critical to your recruitment campaign and can make the difference between landing that teaching job abroad, and having to stay where you are.