I Quit My Job as a Teacher and am Sharing My Career Switching Journey With You

This week I began a new phase in my life: my period of ‘funemployment’ has begun. I am going to be taking a couple of months to research some different careers, meet and chat with as many professionals from those careers as possible and apply for new jobs once I have a clear idea of what I want. From September, I will be a self-employed private tutor while I do this.
Now, this blog will not be a moan about teaching and why I have left. Those close to me will know and be sick of hearing about why I have chosen to leave classroom teaching, and those who are curious need only google ‘why are teachers leaving’ to get a whole flood of articles about why the education system is heading towards a recruitment crisis. This is not one of those articles.
Just before the Easter holidays, I made a very difficult decision that had taken months of agonising to come to, and I handed in my notice. My final term at school has ended, my presentation clicker put into retirement, my green pens (red is too aggressive) used for marking have been tossed out and the many chocolates given to me by tearful, sweet Year 7s have been eaten. However, some things do remain: a hard-won ability to look back on my work and learn from mistakes and consider how to do better is perhaps the most important. I can’t rule out the importance of other teacher skills too, such as knowing when someone is texting under the table, the ability to eat a break-time snack in under a minute and doing an excellent Dobby voice when reading Harry Potter out loud. You never know when these skills could come in handy also.
On a serious note though, the ability to reflect on my previous decisions is perhaps one of the most valuable skills that I have learned over the past four years. And my very first blog post, I think it’s time I utilise this skill. What mistakes have I made? How could I have done better?
1. Listening to and seeking advice
First of all, I want to preface this by saying that I do not regret the time I have spent as a teacher. I know I have made a difference, that I have helped people, that I have met some incredible people along the way and have learned a lot myself. There’s no other job where I could have seen ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ performed as a Jeremy Kyle episode. Or read the story of Batman and the Joker rewritten as a romance (actually, there probably are plenty of places to read that in the darker corners of the fanfiction sites). Or see 11 year olds perform slam poetry about fried chicken. It’s been great. However, looking back on how I got there, I made a lot of rookie errors.
Now, technically I did not go into teaching with no background knowledge. I spoke to some of my ex teachers. I did work experience at my old school. I spoke to people whose parents were teachers. I listened to everything they said about the workload, pressure etc, and I. Ignored. It. All. Sure it sounds hard, and a lot of work, but that’s what all those free periods are for, right? Wrong. Past me was a sweet summer child, and Russ, if you’re out there, I should have listened to you. Literally everything that I was warned about came to be true, and although at first I didn’t care because I love my subject and I felt I was making a difference, I should definitely have considered these drawbacks more carefully.
I also did not use my university career service until I had already decided that teaching was for me. The careers service at the University of Leeds is free for students and, by all accounts, pretty excellent. Why didn’t I do this? Because I was scared of life beyond studenthood? Because I thought I had another year to think about that due my super solid Plan A? Who knows.
2. Investing everything in Plan A with no Plan B
So one of the reasons I did not make full use of my university’s career service was because I thought I had it all planned out. I had been accepted onto the Masters course for English Literature, I had just enough money to be able to afford it (although looking back, this part is debateable) and I had accommodation sorted in Leeds for the next year. Peachy.
Until 4 weeks before my MA was due to start, my financial situation took a hit. Instead of being able to just about scrape by for a year, it was now completely out of the question. I had to drop out of the course as I could no longer pay for it, I had rent to pay in Leeds and no idea what to do. This lead to a string of ‘just-getting-by’ admin jobs that I signed up to out of panic — some of which were awful, some were ok, but all of them were painfully dull and not at all what I wanted to do. What did I want to do? Well, I’d always thought about teaching…
So those are the two biggest mistakes that I made as a wee baby graduate. As a result, whatever choice I make next will be a well-informed one. At this point in the process I am casting a wide net: I’m considering publishing, marketing, advertising, other roles in education and HR. As I do more research and meet more people, I will begin to narrow this down. I have met with a tutoring agency this week and have a job lined up for September with them, which will be flexible and allow me plenty of time to look into my future options, and possibly even offer me some opportunities within the tutoring industry itself. I’ve also badgered all of my friends and colleagues for any contacts they have within these industries. “I have a friend that worked in publishing,” is being met with “Can you pass on my details so they can be my friend too and I can bombard them with questions over a coffee?” I am being proactive, keeping an open mind and looking forward to sharing all of my successes and mistakes with you every week.
