Life After Teaching
Not everyone was born to teach, but
skills developed in the classroom are surprisingly transferable.
career change for english teachersI've known a few teachers in my time and believe me, some are delightfully buoyant human beings brimming with whimsy and an openness to the endless surprises of working with children.
These educators get so much job satisfaction they stay in the saddle - teaching generation after generation, only departing the school gates forever when God or mandatory retirement proudly calls them home.
However, some teachers I know cry themselves to sleep most nights, often after a dozen stiff glasses of liquid painkiller and a pack or two of cancer sticks.
Their classroom experiences have been so dire they shudder at the sight of pregnant women, angry at the likelihood of more foul spawn invading schools.
But quite often beneath that sour visage lies someone who feels trapped. "I know only this," they cry. "Alas, what business would want to hire a teacher?"
One person who has helped teachers defect is
career consultant Kerry Gardner, director of Directions Career Services.
"They are a group that underestimates their skills. They tend to think they're stuck in a box and they have a big 'T' for teacher tattooed on their forehead, [but] rub it and it does actually come off," Gardner says.
Teachers need to review how they present themselves. "If they start to describe themselves in terms of skill and competency, it actually opens up a whole new world of work possibilities. What can be very limiting is that description in terms of function or job title," she says.
Instead, classroom commanders looking for an escape route should look beneath their job title and recognise their transferable, highly sought-after attributes.
"Those communication skills, planning and organising skills, even enterprising skills like the promotional things that schools do - getting parents, students and the community involved - there's a lot of motivational work as well," Gardner says.
Once would-be defectors understand the "transferability of their skills", their CVs will get some teeth.
By highlighting generic communication skills instead of the years spent telling brats to shut their cake holes, teachers will be "breaking out of the box in terms of the way they describe their achievements," she says.
And be
positive at job interviews.
"A lot that will happen in the interview is determined by the way the applicant thinks about themselves," says Gardner, casting her mind back to a teacher she once interviewed for a position as a training manager. The interview was going fine until the teacher wrapped up the chat about her experience with a pair of "diminutive" words: but and only.
Matt Thompson
(Journalist - Sydney Morning Herald)