Ex-bankers / Undergrad teachers out there? Advice needed, please - am so new!!!!

[Letsdoit]

After 10 yrs in banking and one year on mat. leave, I am seriously considering an offer to teach undergrad Finance at the local uni. In short, the global bank I work for only has a small office in the area we have moved to, and the (few) jobs on offer are too junior for me, and are full time jobs which I don't want to do.

I have two questions which, with a little help from my one year old, are literally keeping me awake at night, so will be formidably thankful for any advice / opinions that you may have:

-For bankers: Would people agree that teaching Finance at uni could, if it does not turn into a long-term career, be a good insurance policy back into banking, i.e. 'i took a few years off but was actually teaching a related subject'? Or am I kidding myself and banking doesn't forgive women who don't just put up with the traditional 'tough ride to the top', babies and all ?

-For undergrad teachers: Is it normal for the uni to give me about 100 words in bullet points - nothing else - with the contents of my subject and expect me to build up the whole course content, revision notes, presentations etc, all included in the 'per taught hour' price? The degree is being launched for the first time in Sept so it seems that not much of it 'exists' as such.. I have two years of teaching experience, (albeit for secondary education), so I do realise that teaching requires thorough preparation, but creating the course from scratch sounds like it would be quite a lot of work? Are they being cheeky, maybe?

Sorry about long-windedness of message, bit of a brain dump this is!

Big hug and thank you very much in advance for your input.

Anyone?

Hi there, sorry you haven't had many answers! I think it's pretty normal at undergrad level to have to design your own course, it's actually one of the reasons why teachers move on to Uni, because they like the independence. As long as you're the one who also creates the exam paper and questions, then it's fairly standard. The way to think about it is: it's loads of work for a year and then probably A LOT less the following years...

Thank you, Nezelette! Actually spoke to them today and they said they can get me some more background material, which will be nice help. You are right, I am sure I will enjoy the independence, and this year's work will be a good investment for the future.
Thanks again!

After 8 years in banking, seeing fewer and fewer management jobs I took a mini career break then trained as a Physics teacher(my original degree). Six years later I am in an amazing school, doing a job I love and have never looked back. Go for it....

Excellent, beckynbump, congratulations. Am sooo pleased to read a success story. Now let's cross your fingers for me!

... i meant let's cross 'our' fingers - never intended to mess with yours !

Having recently left banking after nearly 10 years, sorry but you're right, banking doesn't forgive women who don't just put up with the traditional 'tough ride to the top', babies and all.

Having now left banking, I honestly think leaving was the best thing I ever did, even though I'm now earning significantly less.

Hi, giddykipper, you're not a teacher these days, are you ?

'Fraid not! I've gone back to my roots and gone into accountancy again.

I think the questions you should be asking are what do I think about students, why do I want to teach. How will I enthuse and motivate the students who even at this level don't want to be here. It is just as target driven as any other profession. Just looking at the other side may give you a greater perspective. I have never been a banker but as a qualified post compulsory teacher I would never go back because of the bureaucracy and not being able to do what I enjoyed best, teach.What are your prospects on graduating, how many jobs are there?

Sorry OP miss read your post, but still I think the questions are relevant, would also add what guarantee do you have of your post continuing?

Hi letsdoit, I've been teaching at Uni for years and yes, that is very normal!

Lecturing is brilliant but as is the case with any job, the quality of the Uni / faculty / etc is going to dictate quite a lot of how your experience might be. One good approach is to get an idea of the attainment level of the students - I find that with students that came onto a degree with low marks, they can be great but you need really motivating and stimulating materials...great academic achievers can obviously handle a more rigorous timetable from the get go but all students will be capable of achieving a great deal. Lecture prep & marking take a long time as does answering questions from students & you don't get paid extra for any of that, which is tough, but if you are only teaching 1 module or so to start with, it'll be defo manageable. Creating all materials from scratch is the norm.

Good luck & I hope you enjoy it!

I am a University lecturer (which is in general different from a "University teacher"), but have been in this position for a number of years. One thing to watch in academia is that career-progression in teaching-only or teaching-heavy posts is often limited (at best). So, you may find that you can get into a teaching position now, but you will need a PhD yourself in order to be allowed to supervise PhD-level students (and thus build up any kind of research).

Most universities are fairly long working hours working cultures too, with no acknowledgement of this or extra pay. You are not usually entitled to the same holidays as the undergrads, even on a teaching-heavy position and developing all your own material is really not that straight-forward. Even after several years of teaching, you will still need to keep your teaching material up-to-date with current research etc, so even once you have developed your basic material, you still need to allow approx. 1 day per hour of teaching for updating of lecture material. Exam times (usually jan and sept) often involve marking of several hundred manuscripts - depending on the size of the course. For the course I teach on, there are a couple of hundred students per year group, so I have had to mark up to 800 scripts in a weekend before now!

If you are thinking of moving into a teaching-heavy position though, you may want to think hard about your future career prospects and if you are moving into a research and teaching position, you may find it disappointing in terms of family-unfriendliness.

I'd agree with everything that old mother says. I do remember a colleague who I used to work with though, who was a single parent and found her full time faculty position really family friendly - she didn't have any research ambitions, which made life easier for her on the pressure front, left at 3.30 most days due to childcare arrangements (but did quite a lot of catch up at home) so it did work out quite well for her.