Your Next Teacher is Already Searching You Online

Mar 10, 2026

It’s late. A teacher has finally sat down after a long day, and they’re not applying yet, exactly.

They’re just curious.

They type a school’s name into Google.

In the next five minutes, they’ll form an impression: Would I want to work there? Would I feel supported there? Would I be proud to join that community?

That’s the heart of what Aubrey Bursch and Laurie Ehrlich discuss in their Next Era of School Marketing series: faculty marketing is real, and it’s happening whether schools manage it intentionally or not.

The candidate experience starts before the job post

Many independent schools treat hiring like a transaction:

post the job
list requirements
describe benefits
run the interview process

But prospective employees compare schools side by side. They’re asking one primary question: What’s in it for me?

Is the compensation competitive? Are the benefits meaningful? Is leadership steady? Is the culture respectful? What does support look like when the year gets hard? Is this a community I want to join? Will I be valued here?

If a school’s Careers page and job postings don’t answer those questions, candidates go searching elsewhere for signals.

The internet is telling a story too

In Aubrey’s online audits, third-party sources sometimes appear surprisingly early in search results, including Glassdoor, where employees can rate workplaces. AI tools can also pull from public sources when summarizing what it’s like to work at a school.

That means an “employer brand” is being formed in real time, even when a school hasn’t built one intentionally.

The missing ingredient: social proof

Aubrey and Laurie return to this idea repeatedly: candidates want evidence. Not slogans.

They want teacher voice:

short quotes
“why I stay” stories
quick videos
real photos that feel like daily life

Without social proof, a job posting can feel generic, passive, and replaceable.

Retention is the foundation of recruitment

Laurie also emphasizes the link between retention and recruitment. Teaching is demanding. Teachers are on their feet all day, supporting students constantly, and then carrying responsibilities at home. The stress points of the year can determine whether a teacher returns.

When teachers feel respected and supported, they become the strongest proof point a school has. When they feel stretched and unseen, that reality often surfaces externally, too.

Practical next steps schools can take now

Aubrey and Laurie recommend three immediate moves:

1) Build a Careers landing page, not a file repository.
Lead with the teacher experience: culture, support, growth, and what the school protects.

2) Use teacher voice as the centerpiece.
A small set of authentic testimonials can shift perception quickly.

3) Create cross-functional collaboration.
Marketing/communications should partner closely with HR or hiring managers to align the message with the lived experience inside the school.

In the Next Era of School Marketing (also the name of our series!), the hiring story is not separate from the enrollment story. It’s part of the same ecosystem: trust, clarity, and the ability to show what your community feels like from the inside.

To hear the full conversation, watch the video in The Next Era of School Marketing series with Laurie Ehrlich and Aubrey Bursch.

Connect with Laurie Ehrlich, Co-Founder + Marketing Strategist, Thrive Hive.