Resume advice

[deanwichester]

Don't leave out the teaching part. Why would you do that? A gap looks much worst than a teaching career. Besides it was revelant to your field.
If you are asked in an interview why you want to leave teaching you can say the same thing that you are saying here, just with more tact. You don't want to come across as being bitter. :-)

[mm_mary73]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Thanks. I have a masters in chemical engineering and teach at the high school level and never heard of a CV.

Unfortunately, I do have to explain my little forray into teaching. I've thought about just leaving it off and letting them ask. Perhaps I could present it as a job while I was waiting to find another.

So sorry - been away teaching. A curriculum vitae, while useful in applying for teaching positions, can also be useful to explain / add to what you've been doing for the past few years: "...resume style that will allow me to focus on my education and select pieces of experience from long ago in an attempt to get back on the career path I started on?"
I found this example from this site: Preparing a Curriculum Vitae: Proven Success Strategies

Typical vita categories or headings may include some or all of the following:

Personal/Contact Information
--name
--address
--phone number(s)
--email

Academic Background
--postgraduate work
--graduate work/degree(s), major/minors, thesis/dissertation titles, honors
--undergraduate degree(s), majors/minors, honors

Professional Licenses/Certifications
Academic/Teaching Experience
--courses taught, courses introduced
--innovation in teaching
--teaching evaluations

Technical and Specialized Skills
Related/Other Experience
--other work experience

Professional/Academic Honors and Awards
Professional Development
--conferences/workshops attended, other activities

Research/Scholarly Activities
--journal articles
--conference proceedings
--books
--chapters in books
--magazine articles
--papers presented/workshops
--ezine articles
--work currently under submission
--work in progress

Grants
Service
--academic
--professional
--community

Academic/Research Interests
Affiliations/Memberships
Foreign Language Abilities/Skills
Consulting
Volunteer Work
References

Until I went from staff nursing to my present, I only used resumes. Unfortunately, there wasn't a way to explain the in-between things I was doing. I understand completely your angst about teaching and the general lack of understanding from the public about what makes up much of a teacher's day. As for me, in the cc, I am so very tired of apologizing to people for having a state job. I could be making 2x as much in the private sector with much better bennies, except I like not working weekends/nights
(yet here I am, albeit break time ). Again, much luck to you and engineering is supposed to be one of the "safer" jobs - like nursing

[M3 Mitch]

You might pitch the teaching career as something you did while your kids were young, and you are ready to go back to a "full scale" job.

It does not help that the area you are in, near Detroit IIRC, is in general economically depressed.

Teaching experience means you could do double duty as a trainer as well as an engineer, if an employer wants to think outside the box.