Discovering Your Future
4 • Setting Your Future You Up for Success: Suggestions for what you can (and should) be doing to support a change while still teaching.
5 • Develop Business Acumen and a Growth Mindset: Overcome your fears and research what Industries & Companies are out there.
6 • Your Next Career Path: Discover what career and jobs are right for you.
4
Don’t Say No (Setting Up Your Future for Success)
Leaving teaching is a delicate dance of timing. And as you already know from your own experiences trying to get your oil changed, visit the dentist, or any other normal human task, the school day does not align with the flexibility of a corporate workday. So, it should come as no surprise that the school year does not align with corporate budgets and big hiring windows (in general, most companies hire in February/March and September/October).
So, while you’re still in the classroom, let’s start to craft your plan and what you can do right now so you don’t feel so stuck.
There is a lot to take in in this chapter, so go slow, take notes in the margin, and circle what you’ll need to come back to.
5
Develop a Growth Mindset and Find What Fits You
Most of you reading this are currently in the classroom pondering how you can make a change. Maybe you’re desperate for it to happen quickly or your internal dialogue is whispering that teaching might not be for you in the long run.
Or you’re the person married to, living with, a friend of, or related to a teacher who you feel needs a change (because you cannot continue to hear the complaining?) and you want to help.
Whether you’re the teacher or teacher adjacent, you most likely have a good idea where you/your loved one falls on a spectrum of career change readiness.
What makes this leap to leave so difficult for teachers?
We are used to being experts.
6
What’s Possible?
Discover Your Next Career
If the first question I am asked is “how did I get out of teaching,” the second question, too, is almost always the same:
What can I do?
I don’t even know what jobs exist.
The answer is, just about anything you set your mind to. Yes, this could require proper qualifications, certifications, education, credentials, but all of those are attainable and don’t have to be complicated. Some folks I’ve spoken with settled on a new career while in the classroom, studied for the required exam for the new role during the school year, and passed the certification exam while teaching so they could start job hunting while still teaching yet qualified to make a change.
That said, most jobs don’t require an additional certification. You can obtain professional development for your new non-classroom career no differently than the time you gave to professional development to better your teaching while in the classroom. It simply matters how much passion you have and the amount of effort you are willing to give to learn a new role based on the job you want.
