[Solved] Career change

Depending on which field you currently work in, ever thought about teaching?

People give teachers a really hard time, was one myself and most of my friends are currently in the classroom but the benefits of the job are well worth the hard work. I'm not just talking about the long holidays, which aren't as long as everyone thinks and they are certainly well deserved! You get to see kids develop thanks to the work you put in to the job. You get to see kids at Christmas, when they are really excited ... and at the end of each year some of them will actually come up and say thanks!

It does have some down sides, especially with the current situation in schools and government stance on trying to get more schools to be made into academies. Work load is getting ridiculous, everything has to be evidenced: not only for your professional development, for the kids as well and for the clipboard holders and box-tickers.

What level of qualifications do you hold? Undergrad degree? Masters? Post grad? Labour government wants the profession to move towards Masters rather just post-grad.

Hope that helps.

I have thought about it, especially since I've just steered my son towards starting (on Wednesday) a PGCE.

I'm in IT - used to program but on minis & mainframes so have no knowledge of the modern languages - my past experience is now pretty obscure (PL/1, Fortran, Vax Basic and Powerhouse) and these days it's SQL - basically none of the stuff that is useful in schools.

Qualifications are Degree in a pretty useless subject (Service Sector Management I think, it was a combination of modules) plus a CPE (equivalent now is a Post Graduate Diploma in Law) - done for fun.

Problem with teaching is the loss of income whilst training - I'd also considered training as a social worker, but same problem with loss of income 🙁

I worked in retail for over 20 years and decided to take a gamble and move into HR, with no training and a £5k drop in salary. New job meant working Monday to Friday and spending more time with kids.

I have been doing it for just over 2 years, currently seconded into a better position and have to say it was the best thing I have done.

Although this was a tough decision I am so glad I did it so dont allow salary to get in the way, think about family life and your happiness. Also sometimes it is 2 steps back to move forward in the future.

Good luck

I was made redundant about 4 years ago, took 6 months off (house was being extended to accomodate my kids as it was right in the middle of the custody battle) and got a new job at almost £10k reduction but much closer to home - can't really afford another reduction, but may well take a day or two off to see if I can get some professional advice on my options.

I have been thinking about what I do, and it's not necessarily the IT part that's the problem - it's what I'm doing with it - marketing at the moment - so perhaps I just need a change of scenery to do the same job but for something more worthwhile. 🙂

Good people always needed in IT these days.

By sound of it you really do need to look for something along the same salary lines as you were on before. Doing PGCE would not be a good move financially ... the grant you get for shortage subject (would need to check DfES website for details on IT) would be a pittance compared to regular salary. Could do a GTTP route into teaching: paid as unqualified teacher while training, more money than PGCE for sure.

Really not sure about what to sugget for alternatives. Anyone know how you get a job as a billionaire playboy (ya know, like Bruce Wayne) ??!

Thanks for the replies - I've been galvanised into putting my CV to online jobsites to see what happens - hopefully something will come along that inspires me 🙂

Good luck actd - stay positive and keep pushing that cv - if you need anyone to look at it let me know, I work in HR and speak to our recruitment teams on a daily basis.

Let me know

Mario

Thanks SM - I'll see how it goes for a while 😀

Hi actd,

If you have any hobbies that you really enjoy and could share your knowledge about with others then starting a free blog on something like wordpress or blogger could be a way to go, if you can then market your blog to get a large readership (on twitter/facebook etc) you can monetise the blog with advertising (you mention you're doing some marketing now).

It probably wont make you a millionaire but may be able to supplement any drop in earnings whilst you are training for something else - and could open up a world of opportunities.

just for an example, a dad who enjoys cooking started a blog about 18months ago which was all about him and his 2yr old son cooking, he would post recipes on his blog and also video's of him and his son cooking, simple stuff...

from that he has now got a recipe book deal, his own cookery based radio show on a bbc channel, gets invited to kids movie premiers, been on GMTV and the list goes on...don't get me wrong you need to be passionate about your blog's topic...

good luck whatever you decide to do 🙂

Danny

Hi Danny

Thanks for the ideas. I really only have one main hobby (and not enough time for that) which is flying a microlight. I tried the idea of turning a hobby into a paying one (the idea was to cover my costs rather than to make a living) by becoming an instructor - I stuck at it for a couple of years, but realised that either a) my students had a death wish and wanted to take me with them, or b) although flying seems to come naturally to me, I did not have the innate ability to pass on my skills to others - trimming tree tops is not what the undercarriage is designed for 😆

Wow, now that sounds like fun!

Hi all

Was having a conversation with my boys about my work and the fact that I am on a secondment and may not get offered a permenant role and my eldest said

"Domino's are looking for drivers which would mean we would get free pizza"

Isn't it great that they have such high expectations of me?

...which would mean we would get free pizza

works for me 😆

i had a career change 5 years ago now but diffence being mine was forced. i used to work as an electric vehicle service engineer and was on good money. then i had a very bad motorbike crash that ment i was never going to be able to do the job i was doing. i had 2 years off but one day saw a job advertised with in the police force for a driver/ genneral assistant didnt get the job that i went for but got offered a temp place doing same job at a differnt site ttook the job although didnt expect it to last long as was only covering long term sick leave. i love the job as i get out and about everyday going around different stations and also have met some great people. have now been working for them on a perm contract for just over 6 months and the hours are great start at 7 and finish at 3 so i get home to have plenty of time with my gorgeous new daughter. only one down side to the job and thats i had to take over 10K pay cut but it was the best thing to ever happen to me and you do get used to being on less money so dont let the money side of things put you off and if you can find something within the police force they are very good to work for. and they have a very wide range of jobs on offer

free pizza!!! brilliant! 😀

SM - looks like there's a few of us wondering why you didn't take that job 😆

well finally did it (actually was fairly easy) - handed my notice in yesterday. Going to a new job at the end of the month, still doing the same sort of thing, but in a more constructive environment - going from a company which sells marketing data (nothing against the company, it's just that that function never really quite sat well with me) to one that makes and sells chocolate 😀 lol:

And I got a very decent salary jump as an added bonus. A good end to the year and start to this one.

Good news and congratulations.

SM

Has anyone on here undergone a (voluntary) radical career change? If so, how did you go about deciding what you wanted to do?(

Yes. I used to manage print shops many many years ago. I was good at what I did and very secure; walking in and out of jobs, pretty much as I pleased, during times of recession. But I got to the end (for various reasons), so threw it away and went to university instead.

How did I decide? I said to myself "If I'm going to throw away a career that is so secure, I'm good at and I have enjoyed for years, then I am going to go the whole hog and train in something I want to do for fun ...and no other motivation". It was a sort of in for a penny/sh** or bust approach. Anyway, 17 years later, I'm still here, married, nice house, 4 kids ...so I guess it must have worked out, somewhere along the line.

Good luck in your new venture.