Should You Make Teaching Your Second Career?

Start online to explore your options and give yourself a better chance

INTRODUCTION

Online teaching should be taken every bit as seriously as classroom teaching, and this includes your mindset and the preparation work required before carrying out a lesson. And it is arguably the best way to get started for someone looking to change careers and join the field of education.

In this article, we’ll look at why and how teaching online gives you better options to get started as someone coming from a different field. Below, you will find some steps you can follow to get started and land your first online teaching gig.

STEP ONE — CHECK YOUR ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Chances are that the fact that you are considering changing careers to become a teacher means that this is not what you chose to major in when you were in college. So, for the purposes of this article, I will assume that you do not currently hold an education-related bachelor's degree*or government-issued teaching license from your home country.

In other words, there currently is no way for you to find work as a school teacher in your country.

*IMPORTANT: if you do not currently have a bachelor's degree, in any major, you need to understand that this will be your first step if you want to have a chance to teach long-term, anywhere. And this was, indeed, the first step I took after I hatched my plan to change careers. You can go here to read more about my change of career, from working in IT to teaching English overseas.

STEP TWO — ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

English is present and in use all around the world, among a mix of native speakers and second-language speakers of it. As such, it is the most practical and viable medium of instruction to aim for, if you can. It’s not that it would be impossible for you to teach in a language that is not English, but that would most likely limit your work opportunities to whatever could be found in your own country. And, as we’ve already discussed in STEP ONE, you aren’t currently qualified to teach there. So our focus here is on using English to teach.

STEP THREE — YOUR QUALIFICATIONS TO USE ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

You must, at a minimum, be very fluent in the language. In some instances, you could get away with, for example, a CEFR B2 upper intermediate level or IELTS 6.5 rating. But I will tell you right now, if you cannot progress your English beyond this point, you may not be able to find the kind of work required to generate an income that would be sufficient to replace what you currently earn. Individual circumstances vary, of course, and yours may be such that it is possible for you. But I would still advise you to put in the work and effort required to reach as high a level as possible with your English skills before you attempt to make the jump.

STEP FOUR — GET STARTED BY TEACHING ENGLISH

The demand for it exists all around the world and includes students of all ages, from kindergarten all the way to working adults that come from a variety of fields. But first, you will need to obtain a TEFL certificate*. I’ve covered this topic in the article I linked to earlier as well.

*Being a native English speaker is not sufficient to qualify someone to be a teacher.

There are many advantages to starting out as an online English teacher*:

• more job listings to choose from
• wider coverage area, meaning you will have a little more flexibility with the location your students are in, making it easier to match your own time zone
• you can “try before you buy”: find out if and how well this line of work suits you, and vice-versa (just as important!). This is always a key consideration, but even more so if you are thinking of potentially taking the ultimate step of moving abroad to teach if that’s something that you’re interested in doing
• In relation to the point before, teaching English dramatically improves your chances to move abroad for your new career if that’s one of your goals
• A viable part-time or full-time income
• A line of work where you will be accorded a certain level of respect by default due to the nature of it
• A good way to accumulate teaching experience that can later be combined with prior professional work experience to assist you in getting into teaching business professionals. This could be in your own or other fields, and could even include training people in what you used to do in your previous career
• If you have a preference for teaching adult-age students, it is possible to get there through online teaching and fulfilling the requirements of having a bachelor’s degree and TEFL certificate, especially if you also possess professional work experience related to what those adults are doing

STEP FIVE — FINDING YOUR FIRST TEACHING JOB ONLINE

Do a search for “TEFL jobs online” and you will be presented with plenty of options to browse through. Focus on the listings that require a minimum of a Bachelor's degree + TEFL certificate.

Note: You may see some listings for jobs that do not ask for a degree, although a TEFL certificate will generally be required. However, these will typically be low-earning positions involving making conversation on a smartphone app, or through a website interface where the clients are not provided to you and you have to sell yourself through your profile as thousands of potential students look through listings to try and find the most qualified instructor they can get at the lowest price. These types of positions will not look particularly good on your resume either if you are truly thinking about making this a career.

CLOSING NOTES

Before you embark on this journey of discovery, if you decide to move ahead with it, I want you to first contemplate the importance of doing this kind of work, not only to the best of your ability but ethically as well. What I mean by this is that being an educator means being in the service of and an advocate for your students. Make sure that you feel qualified to do the work before you accept a position, from an academic standpoint, at least. Experience will come in time, and that’s OK.

Spend the time to prepare carefully for each of your lessons, even if the materials and full lesson plans have been provided to you. Step through them, rehearse them in your mind and make notes ahead of your class. Remember that you are serving as both a mentor and a role model, too. So always conduct yourself accordingly, regardless of whether you are teaching online, or offline in a classroom.

And should you find yourself accepting an opportunity to teach abroad one day, your priority must always be fulfilling your responsibilities as a teacher first, before thinking of doing anything else, just like you would in any other job. As long as you do this, you’ll be appreciated and rewarded for your efforts, and have the peace of mind needed to go on that next travel vacation fully ready to take in that experience and enjoy it.

All the best,

Pascal

PS: You can also go here to read more teaching-related articles, or here to read more about me.