Why'd we do it answered
How do we do IT?
For ten years the founding partners of Independent Thinking have asked themselves, each other and many school people that question. How do we do IT? How do we offer independent schools a teacher recruitment service that gives schools what they really need-something different from what is already out there? We believed that without a cast of thousands we could not replicate the focused, personalized search services that serve as the hallmarks of our successful administrator placement business. With a focus solely on administrators, we could know our candidates and introduce them to schools; we could insure that schools were only seeing candidate materials from those individuals who were sincerely interested in the specific opening. We did not want to expand to teacher placement unless we could do IT differently than it is done, unless we could offer schools the support to ensure that their searches were focused and where they could gain a greater sense of the candidates than what could be read on a few pieces of paper.
Finally, we figured IT out.
No, we did not hire a cast of thousands; we did something better. We designed a tool-a website tool-IT CONNECTS-that is a great hybrid between a sophisticated but user-friendly database and a social media platform. Need a history teacher who also speaks French and can coach lacrosse and has boarding school experience… oh and wants to be in northern New England? Check off your desired criteria and meet the candidates who match. Yes, meet. With IT CONNECTS candidates have the ability to introduce themselves to schools beyond a paper resume. Candidates' professional profiles can include pictures, videos, links to classroom websites, and all the paper you need-resume, personal statement, letters of references. If you like what you see, you can save your search, reach out to candidates directly with a quick click and share your "yes" pile with colleagues in online accessible folders-all without printing out any paper. And, since we've sat where you've sat, we know that sometimes checking off the "get that search underway" item on your to-do list can't happen between 8am-5pm M-F, IT CONNECTS is accessible 24-7. Have 10 minutes before that 5:00 parent meeting? Set up your search, save it and you can read through the results later that evening, sitting on your couch, in your sweats, laptop on lap, clicker in hand, entertaining yourself during commercials by watching candidates' uploaded YouTube video resumes. Save the ones you love, shoot them a quick email and the next morning you can check "get that search underway" off your to-do list. AND… wait until you see what happens when your to-do list reads "keep that search moving" and you go back to IT CONNECTS to open the saved search. Dynamic searching… the new candidates who meet your saved search criteria as well as your already vetted "yes" candidates will be waiting for you.