I met Tanya at a crucial point in my teaching career.  It was 2020 and we were in the middle of the covid pandemic.  Not only had I just came through lockdown with my own 3 children and taught a primary class during this, but my job was due to finish in a few months’ time.  I had been on a maternity cover contract since January of 2020 and needed to find employment in what has to be the most stressful year of my and I am sure many others lives but also in the most competitive of environments.  I saw a message on a Facebook teachers page and took the plunge to contact Tanya.  I had my reservations of course, what if she thought I couldn’t be helped because after all, I couldn’t actually secure an interview and I had been teaching for nearly 4 years.

I didn’t realise just how much I needed the boost and support that Tanya brings.

I had applied for about 20 jobs already and not had a single interview and time was running out.  I had already been teaching for over 3 years at this time and had plenty of experience and what I thought was an ok application.  However, when I was applying, there were only a few jobs on offer and each one was receiving over 80 applications.  It was, as a Head Teacher told me, the most competitive time she had ever seen in the job market.  That news didn’t help.

With Tanya’s support we turned it around.  We took a detailed look at my application and with her experience as a Head Teacher, she was able to show me what my application looked like to the reviewers when you have 80 others to read through.  It needed to be tight, it needed to be specific and I needed to show my professional and personal skills to the best of my ability.  Your application is the biggest step as, no interview, no chance of securing a job.  I thought it was going to be a tough challenge for Tanya, after all I had no success thus far.

After working with Tanya for just a few sessions on my application and looking at how to tailor it to particular jobs, a real miracle happened.  I started getting interviews!! Then I panicked.  I told Tanya that I was actually no good at interviews and I started to doubt myself and my abilities as a teacher to communicate to others.  Tanya provided me with tailored techniques and strategies to work on these self-doubts and together we worked on possible interview questions and turning the language I used into that of the language that a Head Teacher understands.  It took a few interviews but each time I improved as I was getting better and better feedback from the panel.  I realised then it wasn’t that I wasn’t able to answer the questions at interviews, but rather it was simply that until I met Tanya, I hadn’t realised I was really speaking a completely different language to that of my interviewers and we were not connecting on that basic of level. 

When I was ultimately successful, my feedback was that I was able to answer the questions in a way that no other candidate could and in a way that they wanted it to be answered.  Coincidence, no!  That was Tanya.

I would recommend Tanya unreservedly, she brought me hope, positivity and ultimately my success at both application and interview.  More than that though, she made me feel that the experience and skills I had was exactly what every school should be looking for.  I now have a full-time position which will take me to permanency at the start of the next academic year and a relief, positive sense of myself and my abilities as a teacher!  I honestly can’t recommend Tanya enough.  Thank you, Tanya, for helping me get a job but also in teaching this teacher to believe in herself again.  If you do one thing before applying for a teaching job it should be to contact Tanya, you won’t regret it.  She is simply the best.

Emma McDonald, Scotland