Senior Teacher → Department Head

This is a easy transition with a typical 7-month runway and 74% skill overlap. Expect a +22% salary change, with strongest hiring demand in USA, UK, Canada. Employers hiring today include Schools. Focus your first 60 days on closing the gap in role-specific tooling and vocabulary.

1. 1Audit your Senior Teacher experience for transferable skills that map to Department Head.
2. 2Close the top skill gap: role-specific tooling.
3. 3Build 2–3 portfolio artifacts that demonstrate Department Head outcomes.
4. 4Reshape your resume and LinkedIn around Department Head keywords and outcomes, not job titles.
5. 5Run a targeted outreach loop to Department Head hiring managers at Schools.

• ▸Why are you moving from Senior Teacher to Department Head?
• ▸Walk me through a Senior Teacher project where you applied skills relevant to Department Head.
• ▸Which parts of a Department Head role are new to you, and how are you closing that gap?
• ▸Where do you see yourself as a Department Head in 3 years?
• ▸Tell me about a stakeholder disagreement and how you resolved it.

• ▸Lead with a positioning line: "Senior Teacher transitioning to Department Head, focused on Leadership and Curriculum Design."
• ▸Reframe Senior Teacher accomplishments using Department Head vocabulary — outcomes, not tasks.
• ▸Surface 74% of overlapping skills at the top; put Senior Teacher-only work later.
• ▸Add a "Selected projects" section featuring 2 artifacts aligned to Department Head.
• ▸Quantify impact: dollars, users, uptime, cycle time — whatever a Department Head manager cares about.