Principal Resume Example

School principals perform a variety of important tasks, from hiring teachers and developing curricula to communicating with parents and reporting to superintendents. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, the U.S. will soon experience a shortage of principals and will need to fill those positions.

Follow our four tips to write a principal resume that lands you a position at your preferred school:

1. Tailor your resume to the target school

Before you start writing, research the school by asking yourself questions such as:

• what’s the school’s mission statement?
• what’s the school’s motto?
• is the school in a rural, suburban, or city area?
• is the school public or private?
• how’s the school funded?
• is it a traditionally underperforming or high-achieving school?
• is the school specialized, such as a magnet or bilingual school?

Then, when you write your resume summary or make it using a resume summary generator, include the school’s name and how your skills can help the school reach its learning goals and fulfill its mission statement, like this:

Also, customize your resume’s work experience and skills section. For example, if you’re applying to a historically underfunded school, you might highlight relevant experience and skills associated with grant writing. Or if you’re applying to a private school, you could emphasize parent outreach programs you’ve implemented in your previous positions.

2. Emphasize top soft skills for principals

Principals need excellent soft skills (innate skills used to interact with others) to train teachers, communicate with parents, and advocate for their school within the school district.

To convince employers you can accomplish such diverse tasks, highlight these top soft skills for principals on your resume:

• Leadership skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Time management skills
• Problem-solving

3. Highlight your leadership skills (regardless of your background)

Are you a teacher looking to advance into the principal role? Or are you an assistant principal or principal looking to move to another school? First-time and established principals will differ in how they describe their qualifications.

Teacher to principal

If you’re currently a teacher, use your experience section to:

• describe how the way you manage the classroom reflects how you’d manage your school
• highlight any outside activities, like volunteer work, that show your leadership
• give examples of how you went beyond your teacher duties to help your school (for example, organizing a parent-teacher night)
• showcase extra workshops and coursework you’ve taken to prepare for becoming a principal

Current principal

If you’re a principal or vice principal, emphasize your achievements in your work experience section. Examples of impressive accomplishments for your resume include:

• your school receiving a distinguished school award
• improving the graduation rate — or maintaining a high one
• implementing a new program
• meeting or exceeding standardized testing requirements school-wide

4. Update your principal resume for education work in 2023

Exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, principals face new and unique challenges managing their schools in 2023. Show on your principal resume that you’re up-to-date with current trends in education, including the four listed below, and are able to adapt.

Non-standard classrooms

Classrooms are trending away from the standard lecture format. Show that you value:

• diverse learning formats, like group work and blended learning
• experiential learning
• flipped classrooms
• technology in the classroom

Increased diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education

Improved diversity, equity, and inclusion benefits students by teaching them critical thinking and giving them practice working in diverse teams. Describe initiatives or programs you’ve developed or continuing education workshops you’ve attended to ensure all students and faculty feel welcome.

Preparing students for the global workforce

Whether you’re an elementary, middle, or high school principal, your job is to prepare students to be competitive in the workplace by emphasizing:

• technological literacy
• foreign language learning
• social and emotional learning

School recovery in response to COVID

Students have experienced dramatic educational setbacks due to COVID-19. Show that you have plans and skills to help students reach their grade-level standards and develop the social skills stunted by masking and school closures.