I want a job that will pay 35-40k (leaving teaching)

[Pestopastamad]

I'm a teacher, thinking about leaving the profession. I've got a 1st class education degree, and I've been teaching for a few years. Ive enjoyed it so far, but I fancy a change now.

Ideally I want a job that will lead to a 35-40k salary in the first 10 years. I've taught since graduation, so don't really have any ideas what I would like to do other than teach. I would like a job that matches or exceeds my teaching salary. Any suggestions about what I could work as? I'd rather not retrain, but wouldn't be totally adverse to a master's conversion course for the right industry/role.

You don’t need further study unless you want to be a careers consultant

Public relations/corporate communications? You would probably have to start at the bottom and work your way up to a good salary

I was going to say bid writer for construction too, or civil service (though watch out now it's about to be reformed)

If you live near a capital city (London, Edinburgh, etc) you could consider parliamentary reporting. That's a similar salary, and can be done term time only, if you want to keep the long holidays. I know a few teachers who moved straight into that job - they didn't need extra training, since that's done in house.

Advertising/comms/sub-editing/publishing and related industries all could do with your strengths but these are competitive industries and people usually start straight out of uni

You could look at educational publishers, they'll have various jobs going

Law? Good money but you do have to do your conversion course and then try for a training contract

@DoAsYouWouldBeMumBy could you post a link? Sounds similar to what I'm doing but interesting too

I work as a management coach for apprentices for a start up. Most of my colleagues are ex-teachers. I earn £39k with £6k bonus potential.

Look into coaching.

I think with a lot (or indeed most) of the jobs suggested, you will have to start at the bottom and gain experience. You can’t earn top dollar in any job just by walking straight into it. If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. To be fair, your OP recognises that you are looking to gain £35-40k in the next 10 years, so you are clearly more aware of this than some posters. To minimise the new career earning and learning curve, keeping within the broad sphere of education would mean your previous teaching experience would add value to a new role rather than being an irrelevance. I’m also looking to change careers, and I’m going to try to build on what I know and take a side step, rather than starting from scratch.

Another vote for bid writer/technical author/proposals engineer. Construction industry is one of the best payers for these roles and lots of junior roles start at around £25k with

swift progression available if you’re good. We've found English grads typically more successful than those with construction related degrees.

With time and experience you can eventually expect to earn £50-£80k, or £100k+ freelance.

peachy depends on the university. A large number of universities ask for the MA/PgDip for adviser level.....and if you want to progress to consult level and earn the sort of salary the OP specifies then the MA/PGdip is a good move. It's considered the 'gold standard' and makes you very employable.
There is a skills shortage of level 7 qualified careers professionals in both schools and universities atm.

I’m in the same position-teacher at top of UPS and sick of it.

I can’t imagine you’ll get the sort of salary you want without retraining though.

I’ve considered doing the SaLT training but that’s a two year post grad conversion. Educational psychology needs a psych degree and then a doctorate which is 3/4 years and very hard.

@AsleepAllDay this is an old link for an Edinburgh job www.parliament.scot/abouttheparliament/107889.aspx

Or this is a London job

www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/hansard/a-career-at-hansard/

I’m in the sector. Op could easily earn mid to high 30s on a fairly junior role at least that’s been my experience!

If you are willing to relocate and would train/could do sales (high tech field), you'd earn at least that. Pm me if you like and you could email me your CV.

You said you're good at pitching and talking to people, how about recruitment? There are specialist firms in the education sector. It's a very lucrative career if you're good at it.

me too peachypetite I'm involved in the training and recruitment of career professionals across all sectors. I know the salary scales, career paths and personal specifications for nearly all university career services. The junior roles tend to be grade 6 but sometimes a grade 5 (so max £32kish), careers advisers tend to be grade 7 ( so max £38kish) and the PGDip is usually a desirable criteria. career consultants start on a grade 8 ( so that will take you into late £40s)
There are anomalies of course but those are the average.

if someone was wanting to pursue a career as a career guidance professional working in HE then the best advice to to do the MA/PGDip or find a university willing to pay for you to do it.

Exam tutoring but on a larger scale....small classes etc.

Where are you in the country? This matters a lot because of you are in striking distance of London there are a huge amount of options, plenty if you’re near a large prosperous City and probably limited if you’re in a remote rural area.

Interesting thread. A few discussions recently on how comparatively poorly paid and overworked teachers are . But there doesn’t seem to be lots of jobs that readily available with similar conditions, security and remuneration that teachers could walk into

Where do you look for HMRC jobs? I'm interested in this myself. @LittleG69

Look at engineering/construction firms at roles like contract formation/Admin, procurement, project controls. Our manager who eventually ended up a VP in the company started with an English literature degree. All require good communication skills (verbal and written) which you most likely have as a teacher

Possibly, but as a civil engineer of 25 years experience, the bids/ contracts that are mostly likely to go wrong/backfire/lose money are written put together by procurement officers who have no construction experience.

What DarklyDreamingDexter said.

You need to identify your key strengths first (your OP is pretty vague!) and then look at different careers/sectors. Then if you can identify a niche that will use your education background/work with children background then you can narrow down to specific jobs.

What do you enjoy about teaching? What do you dislike? Are you good at planning but find the ‘people facing’ bit tiring, or vice versa? Do you enjoy strategy or spontaneity more? Does the performance aspect of teaching satisfy you/the creative elements - do you need something similar or opposite?

Well, I think that cuts both ways tara. Likewise , people can't just walk into teaching!

Interesting thread. A few discussions recently on how comparatively poorly paid and overworked teachers are . But there doesn’t seem to be lots of jobs that readily available with similar conditions, security and remuneration that teachers could walk into

I don’t think anyone has complained much on those recent threads about teachers being poorly paid. The objection was to an OP saying teachers were ‘well paid’ on £47k and 99% of the replies saying classroom teachers simply didn’t earn that much.

The high workload is definitely an issue though and one that I would drop pay to rectify. I know lots of people from my university course who work in IT now who work 9-5. They switch off at the weekends and don’t work in the evenings-that’s the bit I struggle with. They largely have a longer commute than me but also have the option to WFH a couple of days a week.

I know lots of people don’t ‘just’ work 9-5, have overtime, work weekends, work 8-7 etc, but I’ve done this for 20 years now and it’s killing me. I’m in at 7.30, leave at 6 and then do 2 hours in the evening. Most of Sunday is working. I would take a significant pay cut for a better work/life balance.

Depends on where you live, but learning and development at a large corporate / professional services firm would be a reasonable jump to make