Biological sciences instructor skills for your resume and career

Whenever I have been on a hiring committee, teaching experience is usually the criterion that makes candidates stand out on resumes. This experience does not need to be teaching a full course load for many semesters - even guest lecturing helps. ( I should qualify that I am only considering positions at schools with a primary focus on undergraduate education.) But the more teaching experience a candidate has, the more likely the search committee will consider that candidate as a viable option.

Moreover, the more varied the courses that a candidate has taught, the more flexibility that candidate could bring to our organization. As a smaller department with a lot of courses to offer, being able to have faculty to teach multiple courses provides us with opportunities to make our curriculum not just meet the needs of our students but also offers flexibility to work with our faculty to help meet their professional goals as well.

One thing that can HURT your resume is emphasizing the wrong things. It is important to know the school where you are applying to and what their teaching/research load is. At a primary teaching institution, highlighting your vast research and funding record can actually work against you. Ultimately, we want to provide faculty with challenging and rewarding work; and while your stellar publication and funding record is fantastic, at a teaching institution, the opportunities to engage in research are more limited than at a research institution, and the search committee might conclude that the position would not be of interest to you or even a good fit! Each school that you apply to will have different expectations, so know the school culture and expectations when you apply. You can learn a lot about this by reading the school's mission statement, faculty pages, and (if available) the faculty handbook - especially the section on the faculty role model.