Stepping off the ladder, shifting gears

[pena]

Lovely ds is 5 months old. He is wonderful & constantly amazes me & dh over this thing of joy that we've been blessed with. Yes I'm nuts about him.
Hence this is prolly why I am so unhappy with my work situation. Aside from fact that I returned in middle of major political turf battle, my boss showing her true self - vengeful, self centred cow, reminding me at every opportunity how luckly i am i still had a job, its all rather lovely - NOT.

One of the things ds has given me is perspective & self-realisation i.e. after a life of blue chip career, I am not any happier & in fact never experienced any satisfaction. I would like to change, move away from corporate life, but to what?? I am looking into teaching - o-levels/a-levels. Any teachers out there who can offer advice on how I should assess this.

No advice apart from you are following a path that I am traversing also.

I plan to do teacher training (but for primary) in 2005 when ds is three and hopefully start a new job in teaching as he goes to school.

Unlike you I really like my job and dont have any of the issues you have - unfortunately (!) I found my ideal job aged 23 and have stuck to it and loved it for the past seven years - my problem is that I dont want to be the old retainer retiring from it in thirty years time! Since I made my decision I have felt better about work (apart from today see my Having It All -ha! thread) because I know now that this won't be where I am, I have a plan.

So whatever you decide to do, good luck, making a choice will make you feel tons better

Zoe - just read and replied to your message on the being a working mum thread. Strangely, I'm planning on starting teacher training in Sept (early years). Haven't told work that yet, so another source of guilt.

Like you Pena, having children has made me realise that the things that were so important at work just aren't. I decided on teaching over a few years, much sole searching etc. But I've been into some schools and I'm a governor and have really enjoyed it.

Most of my teacher friedns think I'm mad, but I think having experience outside of teaching will certainly help with the hours, pressure etc. Lets hope so.

If I have to come to work for us to survive financially I want to do something I enjoy & that makes a difference to other people. The other bonus is undoubtedly the hols - at least I'll be there with the children then.

It is a risk on loads of levels but my biggest fear is waking up at 50 and thinking, what have I done with my working life and why didn't I take the chance when I could.

You're right Zoe, when you have a plan it is so much easier.

If you are thinking about teaching GCSE/A levels, can I suggest you look at working in FE. The advantage of colleges is that you can start teaching without a teaching qualification, gaining one as you go. I did my PGCE part time over 2 years while teaching full time. There is also a wide scope for part time work. I'm easing myself back into work by teaching a few evening classes (DH babysits) and the understanding is that when I return full time, I will be able to reduce my hours if I need to.

Having worked in the service industry in a management role I sort of got stuck in the dilemma of hating it but finding the money too good to give up. I then found myself pregnant and whilst on maternity leave applied for p/t return but was secretly hoping for redundancy which happened. I am so lucky that I can now take my time returning to work due to the redundancy payment but I want to retrain and teaching has crossed my mind. I definitely agree that having a baby changes your priorities as does not having the salary you were used to and I am hoping to have a career again at some point. It is encouraging that career changes are possible even after babies.

Slug, what do u teach? and can u refer any sites or resources where I can start doing some research on qualifications? Most likely subjects for me would be history, English language, English literature, business studies

You're in a strong position with those subjects, esp. English as there's such a shortage at the moment. I teach English at secondary level and have just cut down to 3 days since coming back from mat. leave. This is much more manageable. As far as training goes, there is a strong train of thought these days that "on the job" training is the best way to go, rather than follow the degree and PGCE route. I'm not entirely sure how the system works, but it involves contacting schools who are taking this route and sorting out employment with them this way. Not sure if there's a 3rd party involved? Read about this in last week's Sunday Times (News Review, education section). Try looking at the TES online for articles and also a massive job section, to give you an idea what's out there. One thing I would say is that full-time is a killer when you have commitments at home and really will exhaust you, mentally and physically. I'm not just saying this to be a moaning minnie (as most people think we teachers are!). I love loads about the job and couldn't go back to working in an office, for instance, and it is very rewarding. I would look into options that allow part-time, though, as suggested by slug. After 9 years of teaching full time, I definitely think part-time is the best of both worlds. In the present climate, most schools will look a lot more favourable at flexible working hours. Good luck!

One option that might be more "family friendly" is the civil service - at least for those of you in the UK. Not fantastic pay, but probably better than teaching (I speak from complete ignorance here so don't quote me on this). OK you won't get away from office politics or bureaucracy or the occasional feeling that everything you do is completely meaningless (!) , but nobody has hassled me yet on when I go back (six months on), and I know I'll have a post somewhere when I do. And I can work as little or as much as I want to when I go back - the trade-off being I might not get promoted (in fact highly likely not to on 2-3 days a week). For a policy position, a business/history background would probably be fine.

Any advice/ suggestions for someone wanting to shift gears in the opposite direction.

Im a qualified teacher and have been teaching for eight years. I'd really like to do something different - but Im not qualified/trained to do anything else. I've got no business sense and my computer skills are virtually nil.

Art,
Depends on what u are interested in & what sort of core skills u have, e.g. analytical, quantitative, creative, administrative etc.

In previous life as management consultant, I worked with a few ex-teachers who were hired bec. they seemed to have a real knack for a) coaching people how to do their work, b) presenting in front of lots of people, c) understanding how to deal with various personalities on a project. However many acquired a further degree like an MBA or had very impressive undergrad degrees in the first place before doing the job change.

Not to discourage you, but do think seriously what tasks u enjoy/dislike, how comfortable r u with specific skills like preparing budgets. Then narrow down potential functional areas, e.g. if u dislike working w/ numbers then strike off finance or business planning functions. Then start looking at industries u'd like to be in, talk to people who work in those industries to understand. Its a lot of work but career change is a huge thing as I am finding out now.

Rachel68 thanks for advice, I suspect that where I live (Singapore), everyone here is qualifications & titles obsessed. I also appreciate your point that teaching is quite a full-on exhausting job. I need to hear this as obviously one gets blinkered view i.e. summer holidays! vs. 15 days paid leave.

Oh & more questions Rachel68 - what do you love loads about your job, what do u find rewarding about it, how did u decide to teach secondary vs. younger kids?

pena - Taught secondary because a couple of my friends had already gone into teaching at this level and thought I'd like it. At the time, I really liked the independence of this age group and the interaction at a certain level. On teaching practice we had to visit an infants and junior school first off and my hair nearly fell out when I saw how "needy" the pupils were at this age. (Bear in mind I was 22 and having nippers of my own seemed like a nightmare! Lots of older teachers told me that it's very different when you have kids of your own - you become much more patient and empathetic, if you're a hardened old hag like me to begin with!)
Good things about the job: You're your own boss to a certain extent, and although things are getting more prescriptive in schools these days, I've found, esp with English teaching that you do develop your own style and you can be fairly creative. The relationships you build with the pupils is good too, and you can build a real rapport. In secondary teaching, you always know that at the end of the hour (or however long the lessons last) you've got something new to do. This can be a lifesaver when you're having a terrible lesson! I have to say that I do have a laugh as well - with pupils and staff.
I won't bore you with the downside - I'm sure you've heard it loads of times before. Why don't you contact a school locally and ask to go in for a day? Even one day can help you see what a teacher's day is typically like. I've done this with my dh and a couple of friends who were interested in teaching; inviting them into school for the day to sit in my classroom and they've all said it's a real eye-opener!

Pena - thanks for advice, I ll bear it in mind. I dont really fancy doing any more studying, so will try and narrow down what I can do like you suggetsed.

pena - Went to a meeting after school today where the head was talking about the ITT scheme - which is what I was reading about in the Sun Times last week. Schools that sign up to this recruit trainee teachers themselves in stead of through universities and train the recruits in school. Of course, wouldn't be the same scheme in Singapore, but might be similar perhaps?

Pena, I teach IT and maths, but having said that, I have no qualifications in either, my degree is in psychology. Subjects like English tend to be oversubscribed with teachers, you will have a much easier time getting work if you concentrate on the business studies IMO. However, have a look at your skills and you may be surprised at what you can transfer. There was a statistics element to my degree, hence the maths, and the IT I've just picked up on my travels, it's not exactly high level stuff. I did my PGCE through the University of Greenwich who do it by distance learning. Look at their website www.gre.ac.uk. They run a course specifically designed for people who are already working in education. Otherwise try the Institute of Education. If you are serious about trying before you buy so to speak, try ringing your local college and see if there are any evening classes that need teachers. The colleges run lots of these as part of their widening participation initiatives, but they are unpopular with the full time staff, so tend to be taught by part timers. Certainly where I work, we are always looking for people to teach basic computer skills in the evenings.

Slug - English is no longer under-subscribed - last week there were 509 vacancies for Eng teachers nationwide! Having said that, most subjects are desperate for teachers at the mo, so pena should be able to pick & choose!