The Top 5 Alternative Careers for Burned Out Teachers
Discovering your latent skills and how to get the most out of them
The Covid pandemic has had a major impact on all areas of life in the US and around the globe. While few industries have been able to remain unscathed, public education stands out as one that has been particularly embattled.
Teachers have largely found themselves the objects of scorn after initially getting praise from the general public at the outset of the Covid crisis for their tenacity and flexibility.
The result has been disastrous, with scores of educators leaving the classroom for good and many more looking to follow suit. Quarantine brought about an unintended consequence: perhaps for the first time, many people took personal inventory of their skills and passions and decided they were not using their God given talents to their highest and use. With this in mind, I present the 5 best alternative careers for teachers that have decided to wave the white flag.
#1. Sales
To many teachers, the idea of going into sales is a nonstarter.
It shouldn’t be.
While the thought of cold calling strangers is a terrifying thought to many people, the reality is that teaching is nothing if not a sales job itself. Think about it: you had to sell your principal (or hiring administrator) on the idea of hiring you, you have to sell your students every single day on why they should listen to what you have to say, and you even have to sell yourself to the parents of your students on why forming a partnership is critical for the success of their child.
The best teacher is a salesman and the best salesman is a teacher.
It works the other way as well. Contrary to popular belief, good salesmanship involves more than charisma (although that is very important too). Passion could and should be a driving force for a good salesman, meaning you should be passionate about whatever it is you’re selling and most importantly you have to be able to effectively communicate that to your prospective client(s).
Teachers are experienced communicators, so that aspect should not be a barrier to most educators. The second, equally important part is that a salesperson should be knowledgeable about whatever it is they are selling. Having a deep understanding of your product or service’s features and benefits along with the ability to clearly communicate this information to your prospective clients is a prerequisite for success in sales.
An important decision a teacher going into sales has to make is whether or not they want to remain in the realm of education. For those that do, opportunities abound. One sector that has benefitted from the mass exodus of teachers is the EdTech industry. It makes sense too. Companies that are focused on gaining a foothold in education intuitively seek out teachers; they are the ones that know what’s going on on the ground. Teachers interested in finding such companies should consider using hashtags such as #careersforteachers , #teachersleavinged, or #edtechteachers on Twitter or their social media platform of choice.
#2. Consulting
Like sales, consulting is yet another field where teachers can put their expertise to work. There are almost 14,000 school districts in the country, each with their own unique strengths and needs. Ask yourself “what specific area of teaching can I offer value to other educators and school systems?”
Chances are there is a district somewhere willing to pay you for your unique perspective and skill set. Perhaps you have a history of effectively engaging parents or the community at large. Maybe you have a track record of increasing the reading level of struggling students by several grades. How can you package your knowledge and hit the professional development circuit?
Maybe you don’t want to work for the school system at all and would prefer to be a student advocate. There are former special education teachers that work on behalf of families to examine current IEps (Individual Education Plans) or even create FBAs (functional behavior analysis). In this field, you are only limited by your imagination.
#3. Counseling
What should you do if you still love working with kids but are disillusioned by high stakes testing and the constant pressure associated with it? Becoming a school counselor could be the perfect fit for you. Ask any teacher in the inner city why most kids under perform and they will tell you most of the time it has little to do with the students’ cognitive capacity and everything to do with what’s going on in their world outside of the classroom. Becoming a counselor can enable you to make a real and immediate impact in the lives of students in a manner that’s not immediately available to the average teacher.
# 4. Law / Politics
Most teachers begin teaching out of a sense of moral obligation, or perhaps because they truly want to make a difference in the lives of their students. For some, it becomes all too clear why they are not able to make the type of impact they had hoped for when starting out. For those teachers, the barriers they encounter are too great and ultimately they leave the profession with a(n) (un)healthy dose of cynicism. A certain segment of this population may find going into law or running for public office as a viable alternative to simply walking away from a broken system.
Becoming the go to attorney for families with children with special needs is a worthy career aspiration for a special education teacher who has seen too many kids fall to the wayside. When school personnel begin to make decisions based on what available resources the building has as opposed to what a child needs, you begin to see the problem for what it is. Often times, the schools with the greatest needs are the very some ones that are afforded the least resources. Running for public office is yet another avenue to address these structural challenges.
#5. Entrepreneurship
There has never been a better time for teachers to venture off into the world of entrepreneurship. There are numerous pathways to entrepreneurship in education and the best part is that most don’t require you to quit your day job when starting out. There are online tutoring services such as Varsity Tutors, VPKID, and Tutor.com (among others) where teachers can dip their toe in the water without taking the full plunge into entrepreneurship. There are sites that allow you to test EdTech products such as Graphite and Usertesting.com. Sites like Teacherspayteachers.com , Teachwise, and TES that allow teachers to sell the instructional materials they make.
Writing study guides, teaching or hosting classes online, and scoring, grading, and writing test questions are just a few other examples of ways modern teachers supplement their teaching incomes. See below for a list of recommended sites.
As you can see, the amount of opportunities available for teachers is as wide and diverse as the teacher workforce itself. Where ever you find yourself along this continuum, just know that you are not alone; according to www.nea.org , as much as 55% of teachers in 2022 are considering leaving the profession. If you are among this group, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. What would you do and why? Please share this story with your friends and colleagues to keep the conversation going. See you at the top!
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