Can I get some career advice? (non-teaching jobs for a teacher?)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am approaching full panic mode right now, so I figure I will turn to the SDMB and see if you guys have any suggestions.

The short version, I have a background in education but can’t find a job right now, and need one. What fields other than education should I be looking into that would value my background as an educator?

TL;DR version:

So, when my wife and I moved across the country a couple of years ago because she got a huge promotion (and pay bump) I took the opportunity to leave the field of bookkeeping, which I hated and was only mediocre at, to try my hand at teaching. I had been dreaming of teaching for a while and her new salary afforded me the opportunity to try to career change with relative financial security.

Well, now I am a fully certified teacher who is working, during the school year, as a sub (I am a performing arts teacher, though I should be certified in English too soon). This summer I landed a pretty sweet gig running a drama camp but that ends in August and the full time teaching positions haven’t happened for me yet. I haven’t even been able to get an interview. On top of that my wife’s department was downsized and she has been laid off, so the pressure is now on for me to get steady work, but I have no idea where to look. I have to imagine that my background is somewhat appealing to some other industries, but I don’t know where to turn. I’m 30, I am well educated, I have a good job history and excellent references, but I have never looked for any job that wasn’t either industry specific (theater, education) or entry level corporate.

I feel like somewhere along the way I missed the lesson on how to look for a job that has a starting salary above minimum wage. So, what do I do here?

2

I suggest looking in the local help wanted ads and places like Monster to see what jobs are hot in your area.

You’ve done bookkeeping before. You might not like it or be that good at it; however, you have experience and that probably can get you in the door for such a job.

I got out of the military with a BS in Education and was planning on becoming a high school teacher. However this was during the run-up to the internet boom and Y2K. Therefore I made a change to IT. I still used my Education degree to teach computer night classes at a local college and even train people in software as part of my day job.

3

I feel your pain. “Education” is a difficult search term, as it’s often the title of a job requirement, e.g., required education. Try related search terms, like “teaching” or “educator”. Craigslist, despite it seeming to be old-school, is a good resource, as the jobs are categorized by the advertiser. So checking the “education” jobs tab of your local craigslist page is a good overview of what’s going on, hiring-wise, in your area. Around here, I also look in the “non-profit” sector, which has some overlap for my field.

If NJ is anything like Silicon Valley, most of the jobs in there will be private preschools looking for teachers with EC units, or private tutoring firms. Are either of these of interest to you? The tutoring gigs don’t seem to be FT benefited, more like hourly.

I’ve also had some success keeping a list of facilities where I’d like a chance to work someday (I work in informal education, currently at a zoo, although not for much longer.) Then look on their websites for a Jobs or Careers page, bookmark it, and check it often.

Also try extending your networks - join up as a volunteer, attend industry training or conferences (can be pricey on your own dime, but not always), sign up for LinkedIn if you’re not already a member, and go ahead and let them spam everyone in your inbox. Ask to connect with everyone you ever met - the bigger the network, the better. Change your profile headline (where you might usually put a job title) to something like, experienced educator seeking new opportunities.

If you are looking for work outside your field, be prepared with a coherent career narrative. It sounds a bit naff, but think of it like an elevator pitch - easy to remember, honest, and outlines your reasons for changing career directions. This might help.

Best of luck!

4

There are businesses looking for industrial trainers. Some are finding that the classroom experience of their trainers is more important than the experience level in the particular industry. Good teachers can learn the materials, it’s harder to turn a technical expert into a good teacher.

Or you could go to China and teach English for a while.

5

Here are a few suggestions: youth programs, YMCA, community programs for helping immigrants adjust to their new environment, ESL, extra income teaching community art classes in the evenings.

6

I have an English teaching degree but I’ve never taught middle or high school. I’ve worked in standardized testing training people, which I don’t recommend because I know a lot about the practices of the four of the industry leaders and little of it is good. And I now work for a university institute (in the field of disability) providing tech support for the center’s website and the various web-based softwares we use for folks to deliver lectures and track sociological data, and oversee our institute’s limited online course offerings. Oh, and I do video and some techical editing too.

As you can imagine, I stumbled across this job when I stopped thinking inside the box and began to take a serious look at what my other skills that I didn’t develop through my college classes are - my geek hobbies involving websites and video editing were at least as big a help getting me the job as my degree.

I highly recommend browsing job listings at area colleges and universities because they’re a good place to put the sort of skills a teacher has to use. Look now, though: if they’re not teach positions you don’t need to wait for the next school year to begin. I, for example, was interviewed and hired in October.