A career change?

[Sooki6]

Hi, I’m so fed up. I’ve been teaching for nearly 13 years and it’s crushing me and making me so anxious with the constant criticism and scrutiny. I’ve been looking elsewhere and have found a job as an Early Help Practitioner. It’s less money- around £300 a month but I think I’d be much happier. Has anyone else had a similar career change?

I became a civil servant after teaching for 7 years. Lots of ex teachers.

If I'm due to finish at 4:00, I close my laptop at 4 and leave. It's amazing. I still have to pinch myself a lot.

How did you get in to the civil service?

Following!

I looked at civil service jobs and applied!! Applied in March and was offered a start date the following Feb, so don't expect the process to be quick.

Best decision I've ever made. The job is challenging but only very rarely stressful (at least compared to teaching!!). I did take a pay cut, but it's because I definitely wanted to stay away from anything that looked like managerial responsibility.

Do you have experience in early help? Do you know much about it?

I’ve done it and it’s not much less stressful, you still have timescales, have a huge caseload of families and have to make decisions based on children’s lives and if your judgement is wrong it could be detrimental... a few people think it’s going round for a nice chat and a cup of tea and most of the time your like an unqualified low paid social worker

@physicskate what type of job is it? I keep looking at CS jobs and cant see anything that looks like I'd fit - also a science teacher.

You do have to keep looking and going on fairly regularly.

Without giving too much away (as we were told not to tell people on the socials where we work or what we do), I work in a role that was advertised for hundreds of people. I'm a 'caseworker' of sorts.

The job suits me to a tea. I have to be really detail oriented, but the timescales don't really matter. I just have to do my work to the best of my ability. If I get 8 tasks done in a day: fine. If I get 3 done in a day: also fine. We just have to not make mistakes.

A huge amount of finding my job was luck!!

Oh and please please don't be put off by thinking: I don't have the knowledge for that job. You get at least some training (different departments and organisations are better at this than others). You can learn how to do a new job. This fear is what prevented me from applying for a higher grade job. I'd apply for things that look interesting, rather than things you think you know how to do!!

This would be a great fit for a former teacher: www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImdXNlcnNlYXJjaGNvbnRleHQ9MTExNDY5MTM5JnBhZ2VjbGFzcz1Kb2JzJnNlYXJjaF9zbGljZV9jdXJyZW50PTEmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZwYWdlYWN0aW9uPXZpZXd2YWNieWpvYmxpc3QmY3NvdXJjZT1jc3FzZWFyY2gmam9ibGlzdF92aWV3X3ZhYz0xNjkwNzgxJnJlcXNpZz0xNjAyOTE5MDM2LWVlNzI0MTc0ZDRjNDg2ZmIyMjBkZWVhM2MyMTk0NmM4ZWIxMGYyOWM=

@physicskate Thanks loads!
That must be refreshing to have time to do each job fully.
I would have scrolled straight past the one you shared as no link to my experience (in my mind - I'd be telling colleagues how many transferable skills we have though!)
I'll keep looking.
Thanks again.