How many teachers have had a career elsewhere?

[Earnsomething]

And if they have, does that change their perception of how good/bad the job is?

I've been teaching for 6 years now, after 23 years in Corporate Banking.

Teaching brings a unique set of challenges and pressures but that's the point, that's why it's so rewarding IMO. There is a level of scrutiny (doesn't there need to be?) but nothing like what I experienced before where results and progress were reported weekly and moved to daily if you were considered to be underperforming. OFSTED like audits happened four times a year.

I work fewer hours now and have more flexibility over when I work them (outside 9-4), then there are the holidays, during which, yes I do some work but in my past life, if I had a holiday coming up in 6 weeks, it was getting close. My work life balance is better, by a long way.

Students and parents can be unreasonable in their demands but so can customers at a bank, believe me!

I don't earn as much, but then I'm fairly new in the job. My salary before was similar to a UPS3 teacher with TLR, so not different to many teachers with 23 years' experience.

I hear the complaints of my colleagues and yes, of course we all have days when we think we'd rather do anything else, but sometimes I wonder if they would benefit from having done "anything else". Most teachers, apart from PT jobs whilst studying, don't seem to have done other work.

Please don't see this as teacher bashing, I'm just interested in why so many teachers seem so unhappy, when it's by far the best job I've ever had, in so many ways.

If it’s so wonderful why can’t we recruit and retain enough teachers? That’s the bottom line and a far more objective measure than individual opinions and experiences

This. I enjoyed teaching but I really hated the pointless bureaucracy, petty styles of management, snitching, backbiting and Ofsted panic. I also began to dislike the behaviour of many of the children - when I began teaching it was OK but it went down hill quite quickly, despite moving from a 'rough' school to an Ofsted Outstanding one (bollocks, as we all know). One day I just snapped; I'd said "stop talking while I'm speaking" to a class one too many times and I knew it was time to go, as I just envisaged myself walking out of the door there and then.

I agree, if all of those who moan about teachers having loads of time off, being well paid, being lazy, and having an easy job were to train to be teachers, recruitment crisis would be solved, hurrah! And that isn't dismissing the legitimate criticisms some have against schools and teachers, but those who generalise, assume, and have no clue.

I have a fairly new member of staff in my team, she was a teacher for several years, she is absolutely fantastic, and is still getting her head around the fact that she earns double and isn't having to sacrifice her home life to do so.

I had jobs rather than a career before I started teaching. Each of those jobs had pros and cons, just like teaching.

The few months as a cleaner in a department store were tedious with moments of grossness (really, awfully gross stuff goes on in men's toilets!), But at least I could leave the job at work, I never have it a second thought when I wasn't physically there.

I thoroughly enjoyed being on the checkout at a supermarket, although obviously the pay wasn't great and there were occasional difficult customers.

The butcher's was very physically demanding in a way I hadn't expected based on shopping in one.

I've never worked as hard or as fast as the 3 months in hotel housekeeping!!

Teaching has good holidays (I do work during the holidays but not as much as term time obviously), decent pay once you make it a way up the pay scale (more difficult now for newer teachers, as it's linked to performance management, and some schools set impossible targets). I also have flexibility about when I complete the work, outside of the core 8:30-3:30 hours. BUT, there are downsides, just like in any other job. The constant worry about the kids who need extra support and aren't getting it, the stories certain kids tell you about their home lives (which I obviously report, but quite often not much seems to happen to help them), the worry about the kids who are not engaging with the work, the rudeness and defiance from some pupils, etc.

I can't tell any difference in teaching ability between those who came straight in at 22 and those who had a different career beforehand. Why would there be any? I can tell who's been teaching for years though, as they've got a bit of cynicism going on which the newer teachers haven't developed yet. I've been involved in supervising trainee teachers at my school for 10 years now, so have had 10 trainees. The very best trainee we've ever had was a young 21 year old woman, she was brilliant, and still is (she got a job at our school after her teaching practice). The very worst was a man in his 40s who was coming in from a financial career. He wouldn't listen to advice, knew nothing about teaching but did everything his own way. He failed his placement. I don't know if he then did another placement at another school to complete his training, but we've never heard of him again.
I would never use those examples to generalise though, because like all careers it suits some people and not others, and most of the trainees/nqts we get are somewhere about average, with some who put in a lot of effort to improve and others who don't.

I have only ever done teaching (unless you count dicking about temping for the council a 'career' ) but know lots of colleagues who had done something else before. Pretty much all of them have found teaching really hard and have compared it negatively in lots of ways to their previous careers. Some of them have left teaching to go back to something else. However, lots of them, despite moaning about it, are still teaching and do ultimately enjoy it I think!

Lots of teachers are leaving to go into non-education jobs though, and you have to wonder why a secure job with 13 weeks holiday a year, a relatively good pension still, and that after a few years experience you should be able to do with your eyes closed, is still not good enough to retain people?

I don’t think there are enough hours in the week to work easily double the amount of hours that teachers work. Unless he gave up sleeping?

That wasn’t sarcasm by the way. My colleagues who don’t want to work at home in the evenings arrive at school at 7.30am and leave at 5.30. We get a half hour lunch break but generally don’t see it as we’re following up incidents from the morning. So 10 hours times 5. They still do work on the weekend though so average 55 hours a week during quiet times and a hell of a lot more when dealing with reports, parents evenings, intake evenings, twilight training sessions etc.

Unless your lawyer friend was working 20 hours a day your statement isn’t accurate.

I’m part time because I can’t cope with that pace as a single parent with health issues. I only go into school at 8 and leave at 4. In exchange for these decadent hours I go into school on an unpaid day to do all of my photocopying and fill out the requisitions book and communicate with the teachers I share groups with etc. I also spend at least another day at home marking and planning and dealing with emails etc.

I pretty much end up working full time but at a pace I can cope with for half pay. The full time 55 hours a week ones are mostly childless and live to work or their children are grown or they have a wife who doesn’t work.

I’ve seen one person make it to full pension retirement age (male). Not including those who managed to get themselves promoted to the level of not having to teach pretty early in their career. They fare better but change schools pretty regularly seeking promotions

The bits I found hard about teaching were:

The early start (generally 7.45), plus a commute. I was used to it at the time, but I do think it wore me down and contributed to general tiredness. I keep far more civilised hours now!

Always having to prepare in advance - I could never just arrive at work and then start my day as you can in almost every other job. No chance of a slower start to the day if you had a bad night's sleep or were running late.

The planning and paperwork swallowing up my evenings and weekends. Oh what a waste of time....

I am now sure to be deluged with posts saying that they had to be in work at 6.30am as a on options trader/crane operator/radiologist and can't see what the fuss is about, but I don't care as I don't teach anymore!

maybe.

Shh now don’t wake the dragon

27 years at the Chalk Face. I have yet to be in a staffroom where someone on the teaching staff has not had a career before teaching.
Furthermore, in my experience some the best teachers are the ones that were inspired to teach because of their teachers, especially those who built a career because of those teachers then decided to ‘pay it forward’.

I agree with that.

I still do some of the things I do in and beyond the classroom because of my old English teacher who, on the face of it, was serious and dry , but he had us all sit in a U shape for sixth form and we had cups of tea in longer lessons and he wrote handwritten letters to all of us after exams. I still have mine. And I also still write a letter to all my students.