Should I become a teacher or go to a masters?

[lostandconfusedmh]

After burning out from my previous law job in the city due to mental health issues, I’ve been recovering at my parents' place since being let go in July. Thankfully, I’m feeling much better now.

I’ve secured a job as a trainee teacher in my hometown, but I can’t help feeling a bit bitter because I had a very high-paying job before. I graduated with a 2:1 in law from a Russell Group university in 2022.

Now, I’m at a crossroads: should I take the teaching job or finish my master’s? I have offers from:

• A former Russell Group university
• A business analytics course from the University of London
• An MSc in Finance at SOAS

I’m considering these options as a way to re-enter the corporate world, as I no longer wish to pursue a career in law due to the culture. However, the teaching job is also appealing because it’s less stressful than working in a Magic Circle law firm, and the summers off would provide a good work-life balance.

The downside is that the teaching job is at a rough school with poorly behaved pupils, which adds another layer of complexity to my decision.

Not teaching !

I know 5 ex teachers in my work team alone (I say teachers, 3 quit during their training).

Also know someone like you who had previously had a well paid job, but found a vocation for teaching. She had confidence in spades, but still only lasted a year on the job. Her reason was that she was increasingly irritated by having to do shedloads of work for not great money.

But there's more to law than just big city firms. Did you enjoy the nuts and bolts of law itself at all ?

Depends which of their threads you're reading.

Stop feeding the Troll

If the prospect of a teaching career makes you feel bitter, don't do it.

Teaching is not a low-stress job. Unlike law, you are responsible for other people's wellbeing, progress and success at a formative stage in their lives. It isn't a career you go in't because you can't cope with law.

For what it's worth, my feelings about teaching and law are the opposite to yours. I have a first class Oxbridge degree. I had a funded training contract for law up my sleeve, but the prospect made me feel miserable. I was doing it because it was expected of me. I enjoyed teaching. I had done plenty of voluntary teaching and it is something I was passionate about. So I made a last minute application for a PGCE, got the place and did that instead. Not because I felt it was second best, but because, for me, it was better. It was what I wanted to do. It is exhausting at times, but it is rewarding and that makes me feel happy almost every day in a way that law never would have done. But I'm not motivated by money, which is something you mention in your OP. Lawyers take their careers in alls sorts of directions. Do a masters or look at other legal career options. Please teaching to those of us who love it.

However, the teaching job is also appealing because it’s less stressful than working in a Magic Circle law firm

What possibly qualifies you to make this statement? Unless you have done both careers you are not in any position to make this statement.
40,000 teachers from state schools left last year alone. Teachers are leaving in their droves due to pressure and workload.
You are utterly deluded if you think teaching is a good option for you given your circumstances.

I’m with you. This OP is not a serious person I think.

This.

It surely must be a goady thread, if it's not one of the world's most naive 20- somethings.

So many misconceptions, including the idea that a reasonable bachelor's degree achieved two years ago and a couple of years of work experience leading up to a "jump or we'll push you" exit makes a person special these days...

Loads of the teachers you seem to think you'd be lowering yourself to work with have masters degrees, often in something actually relevant to education or the subjects they teach, and a law degree is not especially useful unless you're doing the new 14+ only teaching qualification - there are very few jobs just teaching law to sixth formers.

I used to work at Teach First and while the teaching profession and training is incredibly stressful, I think many would acknowledge that TF is probably THE most stressful route into teaching too, as you're teaching an 80% (at secondary) or 60% (EY or primary) timetable from day one, fully responsible for your classes.

But then, you'd know that already because if you were actually starting the TF programme next month you'd have completed Summer Institute by now and done a week's teaching in a training school, and all the other training. The professed naivety in this thread is not at all consistent with having done SI training, nor would you have passed.

But then, you'd know that already because if you were actually starting the TF programme next month you'd have completed Summer Institute by now and done a week's teaching in a training school, and all the other training. The professed naivety in this thread is not at all consistent with having done SI training, nor would you have passed.

Interesting! Is that a compulsory part of Teach First?

Have you really got a place on this course for next month, @lostandconfusedmh ?

Yep. Summer Institute is the first part of the training programme but also considered the final stage of application/assessment. Can't start the programme without doing it.

So presumably @lostandconfusedmh has already done this Summer Institute in May/June/July?

🤣🤣👏👏👏👏

Please do not consider teaching. You really have not thought this through properly. I have worked in the city and my flatmate worked in law (big 4). I came to teaching later in life and it is my vocation. But it is incredibly stressful and yes, it can be as stressful as the big 4.

Why are you not listening to people?

If you only left the law post in July you haven’t really given yourself much time to recover, regroup and assess the job market, so how can you believe nothing else is an option. In two years you did not manage to pass the relevant exams so being let go is not unusual.

Have you considered why it was so easy to get on Teach First and a vacant placement? How would you fund these Postgrads? There are government online courses which lead to qualifications and jobs which might suit you better longer term such as digitalskills.campaign.gov.uk/data-and-analytics/

If you only left the law post in July you haven’t really given yourself much time to recover

If you only left the law job in July, have you not done the Summer Institute part of Teach First?

The innocence of youth! My reading of your post is that you don’t have a very high opinion of teaching as a career and see it as an easy option. There is also an assumption that if you have a degree you can teach. None of the above are correct. It requires a huge skill set - resilience, humour, flexibility, passion etc. The current situation in many state schools is enormously challenging and teachers are leaving in droves. I don’t necessarily agree that it has to be a vocation - I trained at the age of 27 as I’d failed as an actor and needed a career. I’ve now been teaching 30 years and still love it but the landscape is very different now and I moved into the independent sector fairly early on in my career.

Teacher here of nearly 30 years. I would not recommend teaching if u have recently suffered from burn out.

The more I read from this poster, this and their other thread, the more I am reminded of the six weeks I spent mentoring a student teacher many years ago. Like the OP she had a shiny Russell Group degree and had had serial starts in other careers, including medicine, law and civil service fast track, I honestly don’t know how she managed to get places, but suspect her parents had a lot of influential friends who yanked pretty hard on strings. She didn’t last in any of them for longer than a few weeks. They had managed to get her a late place at the Institute of Education and my class got the short straw. They were a lovely Y1 class and I tried to be supportive, hand fed her activities and ideas, made sure she worked with the sweetest groups, planned with her, gave her resources but to no avail. She really had no clue or interest about teaching or children, and after the third time she had left a group of children unattended in the classroom while she went to the staffroom to get a drink, had marked my pristine register in green felt tip ( grrr) and left the staple gun out within reach among other things, I called in her tutor and was Frank. Apparently, the tutor said, the girls parents were tearing their hair out, they were desperate to get her into a “profession”, and although by their reckoning primary school teaching barely registered as a profession they were running out of options and needs must. We both had very raised eyebrows! I had to keep her for the whole six weeks, but it aged me, not least having to listen to her moaning about how badly treated she had been elsewhere. The poor girl clearly had issues, I do sometimes wonder where she ended up.

I kind of want this to be real and for her to give an update of how her first few weeks have gone and whether she’s quit or been signed off yet 😝

The downside is that the teaching job is at a rough school with poorly behaved pupils

Well, @lostandconfusedmh you must be settling in now…how have the first few weeks of teaching at this school gone? What do you think of Teach First as a scheme?