Tutor Resume Example & Writing Guide

In a 2016 satirical essay for the New York Times, Frank Bruni pokes fun at the increasingly competitive college admissions process by envisioning a scenario in which Stanford University brings its acceptance rate to zero. This quote he attributes to a fictitious Stanford administrator: “In the stack of applications that I reviewed, I didn’t see any gold medalists from the last Olympics — Summer or Winter Games — and while there was a 17-year-old who’d performed surgery, it wasn’t open-heart or a transplant or anything like that. She’ll thrive at Yale.”

For the roughly one million high school seniors applying to American universities each year, the college admissions process is no laughing matter. These students take on dozens of afterschool activities, volunteer trips and service projects to show just how committed they are to making the world a better place. As for their academics, they hire tutors. There’s a growing need for tutors in a variety of subject areas to teach not only high schoolers, but increasingly younger students. While tutoring is still a great side job for college students, it can also lead to a full-time career in education or an entrepreneurial opportunity. Whether you work for yourself locally, with a major tutoring company or even with students online, there are many ways to enter the industry and start helping students succeed. So how do you land one of these in-demand positions? This guide, along with our field-tested resume builder tool, will teach you how to:

• Maximize your previous teaching experience to prove your competence as a tutor
• Highlight your credentials and knowledge of the subject areas you plan to teach in your tutor resume
• Understand the hiring processes for a variety of tutoring situations
• Create a professional and attractive tutor resume that makes parents want to hire you.

How to write a tutor resume

Presenting your credentials in your tutor resume  in the proper format makes it easier for parents to find what they seek. Most resumes contain the same standard sections. Your application document should contain:

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

What does a tutor do?

Tutors use their expertise in one or more subjects and their knowledge of educational best practices to help students achieve. Some tutors specialize in one age group, area, or in high-stakes test preparation, while others generalize. Some are teachers, while others are still students themselves.

The best tutors tailor their lessons to each client and give feedback to parents. They may create a better academic environment and guide students to create better study habits.A tutor’s goals will be based on student need, but they may not only strive to improve grades and work product, but also to ease stress over the rigors of school.

Understanding the future of tutoring

At first mention, tutoring might sound like a side job for young people, akin to babysitting or lifeguarding. While it is certainly an option for those looking to make some extra cash, tutoring can also be big business. The private tutoring market is expected to grow in the U.S. by nearly 8.4 billion dollars between 2020 and 2025, according to data by market research group Technavio. The same report calls this market increasingly “fragmented” meaning there are several key companies who take up a large share of the industry, but there’s also room for individual tutors and small businesses. Going forward, some of the fastest growing tutoring opportunities will come from online companies who create a bridge between tutors and students in all parts of the world. These companies allow tutors to operate as subcontractors who can pick their own hours and the type of students they are looking to teach.

But tutors don’t necessarily need to partner with an established company to start earning a decent income. Tutors can often charge upwards of $50 an hour depending on their level of expertise and the going rates of the area in which they work. Math and science tutors are particularly in demand, as are those who can teach English to students abroad. Tutors who have knowledge of the Common Core educational standards and subjects will also find a need for their services.

One of the biggest advantages of tutoring with an established company is that the tutor won’t have to worry as much about finding potential clients, whereas private tutors will have to rely on fliers, word of mouth and referrals to keep business growing. In either case, a strong resume will be vital to landing a tutoring position and convincing parents that they should entrust their child’s education to you. Your tutor resume should convey your strengths, in both academics and teaching, as well as your track record of success when it comes to improving test scores and performance at school. Ready to create an exceptional tutor resume and make parents and students happy with your services? Let’s get started.

Resume summary example: what makes you a top teacher

The summary (also known as the profile) is your best chance to hook prospective clients and employers and show them where your strengths lie. The summary is the only free-form section of your resume where you can use a tad of creative writing (or simply let your human side shine). The rest of the tutor resume is dominated by bullet point lists, acronyms and short descriptions. Here, however, you can and should use vibrant language, strong action verbs and a little personality to win over the reader in 3-4 sentences. 

Try to cut out overly complex grammar though. It’s even fine to use shortened phrases instead of full grammatical constructions: feel free to remove “In the past, I…” before sentences like “Tutored more than 30 successful Ivy League graduates, producing stellar academic results while also providing emotional support. A top-notch summary is well-rounded and highlights your most distinctive attributes, most pertinent previous experience and any certifications or achievements that illustrate why your services are worth the investment. Here are some basic questions to get you started in crafting your summary:

• What ages, grades and subject matters are you comfortable tutoring?
• What is your own expertise level with the material you will be teaching?
• What is your availability and will you come to students or vice versa?
• How would you describe your personality and teaching style?

You can also include any relevant facts and figures that demonstrate how you bring results to your students. 

Employment history sample: your personal report card

Before entrusting their children or clients to you, a family or tutoring center wants some proof that you can really deliver on your promise to improve academic success. That’s why it’s a good idea to anticipate their questions and start to answer them in your employment history section. You should write your tutor resume in reverse chronological order, with your most recent experience first. Then work backward until you have at least 2-3 relevant examples. Depending on the type of tutoring position, you may have to decide whether to keep on or leave off semi-related work experiences. If you plan to tutor locally as a part time gig, you can probably adapt experiences as a nanny, camp counselor or babysitter to show why you’d make a great tutor. If you’re applying to an organized tutoring center, your tutor resume will be strongest if you stick with previous teaching experiences or subject-related work.

It’s a good idea to aim for 4-5 bullet points under the most important position and 2-4 for other past jobs . In the first two or three, you can describe the type of tutoring you did, the number of students you worked with and how often you saw them. Then, since being a tutor is a results-driven industry, you can use the last few bullet points to highlight your successes. This is a great place to include some concrete numbers! Here are some areas to consider when breaking down your previous teaching or tutor roles:

• What ages, grade levels and subject areas did I teach or tutor in this position?
• What sorts of assignments (i.e. tests, homework, ACT/SAT, essays) did we spend the majority of the time together working on?
• What methods, both traditional and creative, did I use to help the student understand and improve?
• What were the student or parents’ goals with tutoring and how did we achieve them?
• How can I quantify the student’s competency level when they started working with me versus when they finished?

Related jobs

You may also include work experiences on your tutor resume that don’t relate to teaching but demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the subject matter at hand. In this case, it’s important to make these positions relatable to a parent who has no experience in the area themselves. And don’t forget to include any teaching or training you did in these roles as well. Or, in another case, maybe you don’t have specific experience as a tutor yet but you’d like to show how your other previous volunteer activities or childcare jobs would lend themselves to this role. The best way to accomplish this is by demonstrating how these positions taught you skills that can be transferred to tutoring or how they equipped you with specific expert knowledge in your academic field.

Tutor CV education example: it’s elementary, my dear Watson

The amount of formal education tutors are required to have varies based on the type of position and the place in which they work. Naturally, tutors should be well versed in the subject area in which they plan to help students. However, college students or even high school graduates who have taken the course previously may be quite competent when it comes to helping younger students succeed. In fact, their proximity to the material may be a big advantage.

On the other hand, a parent taking a chance on a tutor they don’t know will likely want to see some paper proof that the tutor has some expertise. The education section of your tutor CV is where you’ll make sure they find the information they’re looking for. If you have a bachelor’s degree or higher, it’s fine to leave your high school diploma off your tutor resume. If you’re a college student with a degree in progress, your expected graduation date will give prospective employers an idea of how far along you are in your studies. You can also mention your GPA, as long as it’s above a 3.0. If not, just include the GPA for your major (or the subject you plan to tutor) as long as that’s above a 3.0 as well.

Additional Certifications

While there are no official requirements to become a licensed tutor, there are a few organizations which offer credentials that can help boost credibility when you start out in the field or want to grow your business. For example, The National Tutoring Association offers the Paraprofessional Tutor title, while the American Tutoring Association can make you an ATA Certified Tutor. Don’t overlook any certifications or licenses that you hold in your subject area of expertise, either, and add them to your tutor CV. These types of professional credentials help show that you’re not only a competent tutor but a real expert in your field. Lastly, there are other general certifications that pertain to working with children or health and safety. A CPR certification from a previous lifeguard position might seem unrelated to tutoring, but it can help give parents peace of mind that their child is safe in your care.

Resume skills section: your personal performance test

While your education and experience are important, at the end of the day, it’s your skills that will keep parents and students coming back. The skills section of your tutor resume can be divided into hard skills and soft skills. The former revolves around your competences both in teaching and the actual subject matter itself, while the latter encompasses your personality traits and the teaching style that make you enjoyable to work with (and also punctual and disciplined in your duties).

This section can include a mix of both hard and soft skills which you can adjust based on your potential students or employers’ needs. You may also want to include programs or tools that you know students will be using in their classes. Don’t be afraid to get specific with your skills or add a bit of detail. If you’re a Spanish tutor, for example, it’s a good idea to include your own competency level.

Resume layout and design: the right look

Hopefully, tutoring will be a win-win situation for you and your students. They’ll improve their test scores and grades, and you’ll see your hard work pay off every time an aha moment lights up their faces. Just like any other relationship, the student-tutor relationship is a two-way street. That’s why your layout is so important. It highlights your experiences, education and greatest strengths in a neat format that allows parents to easily assess whether you’re the right fit for the family. Likewise, a good layout makes it clear the scope of your services so that you can attract the type of students you want to work with.

For a tutor resume, you’ll want to maintain simplicity and professionalism, but it doesn’t hurt to show off a bit of creativity or fun. You may even want to include a friendly headshot to assure students you don’t bite. But where to find a cute and straightforward resume template without spending hours fighting with word processors or graphic design programs? Resume.io’s collection of field-tested templates strike just the right note. For a tutor, we recommend creative templates. There’s even one with a cute and colorful background that will convey your enthusiasm for teaching right from the get-go. However, depending on the organization or type of client, you can also check resume.io’s more classical or streamlined designs in the Simple or Modern template categories. Whether you are sending in your resume online, by email or in person, you’ll want to make sure that the format you create is the format the parent or employer sees. For that, it’s best to download your resume as a PDF, which is quite easy to do using resume.io’s custom resume builder tool.

Key takeaways for a tutor resume

1. Tutoring is no longer a side job for college students – the market is worth billions and increasing.
2. Online tutoring opportunities are plentiful, but there is also plenty of room for private tutors and those who work at tutoring centers.
3. Don’t forget to highlight the results you created for other students in your experience section.
4. A tutor’s resume should highlight expertise in the area they teach so it’s OK to include related jobs from your industry or profession.
5. Your skills section can include specific tools and resources often used in curriculum that students might struggle with.

So what are you waiting for? There’s dozens of students in need of your help. Try out our field-tested resume templates and resume builder tool to find the perfect tutoring job in no time.