PD - any benefits for hiring
I am curious from a hiring perspective: do HR, SLT, or HODs actually care about PD when hiring? Obviously, the biggest factors are degrees, experience, references, and interview performance. But when candidates have very similar resumes, what actually separates one from another?
At every school I have worked at, and from what I hear from friends across the international school community, people constantly complain about mandatory PD days where you mostly sit through presentations from a random speaker and maybe leave with a certificate or the dreaded complete 4 TES safeguarding on your own time. Do those certificates actually matter on a resume?
Can things like HarvardX/edX courses, university classes, or curriculum-specific workshops (IB/AP/CIE) genuinely make a difference? Could they be the “cherry on top” in a competitive hiring process?
For example, if two candidates have similar experience, strong interviews, and good overall fit, would there be any meaningful difference between:
Candidate A: Cat 1 TOK + Cat 1 I&S + Cat 2 I&S
Candidate B: Only Cat 1 I&S
Would that extra PD realistically influence hiring decisions at all if both candidates are in similar quality?
For people involved in hiring committees, are there any PD opportunities you would actually recommend doing over the summer that could provide even a slight edge in competitive roles? Or is most PD largely a waste of money from a hiring standpoint?