Notes From A Bad Teacher About Education Careers

Education Calculator on Notebook (Photo credit: nniknak)

Some people seriously consider going into education as their “encore career“.

Let me whisper something in your ear: fuggedabowdit.

Ask me what prompts that venomous phrase. I want to do my part in strengthening education by preventing one more idealistic, romantic  person with the wrong personality configuration from becoming one of the 50% of educators who leave the profession in the first five years of practice (and head off some chocolate OD’s and soggy-pillow-at-3am moments).

Yes, truly monstrous people continue to slip through the cracks and end up in education  judging from some of the  lurid stories in the news these days about abusive teachers. However, this is not that kind of discussion. This is intended  to influence people who ought not teach lower school grades to put the cap back on the pen before the application gets filed to any system anywhere. This is about the “rightness of fit” issue in the job search. I am lifting the example of early education because it is what I know, but the lessons can be widely applied to jobs anywhere:

when you don’t belong somewhere, you don’t belong. Move on.

In earlier posts this year there is a discussion about discovering the most appropriate place of employment. I collected the discussion in the section of the blog, “Victoree’s Shape-Shifting Job Gypsy Card Game”. Click on the tab  to review.

While re-doing my MBTI assessment with a professional counselor it finally dawned on me why I had so little success as an early educator. Education systems, like many other companies, slide up and down the scale of being candid about  fully disclosing why an employee “didn’t work out”. It seems companies rather go to great lengths to couch  bad comments on the “final report card” in vague terms, probably to deflect a possible wrongful termination/discrimination lawsuit.

The truth surfaced for me in cross referencing the results and finding several of the same traits  surfacing across several assessments, including the MBTI, skills, and strengthfinder2.0.  I came to the conclusion that I am basically unsuited for the lower school classroom. No shame.

The release of that shame felt like finally being able to wear a pair of jeans one size smaller. Releasing the shame might even make my dream of shopping in that lower-sized section come true! (You know stress makes you fat, don’t you?) I made a cowardly decision to look for “job security” and “normalcy” early in the job search and ended up in a place where I did not belong.

Wherever the ”ah ha” breaks through,early or late in the job search, give yourself a gift and let the revelation “work you”.

Related articles

• Relationship Between MBTI Type and Religious Preference (drdianehamilton.wordpress.com)
• Indeed increases job search traffic lead (indeed.com)
• How to Become a Teacher (answers.com)
• CAPT Training Programs Approved for Continuing Education in Professional Licensing, Qualification, and Certification (prweb.com)

A Consideration For Older Workers

Good question

Does it make sense for a non-employed worker 5 years away from retirement to prepare for a new occupation knowing that there is:

• no guarantee of a job after training is complete
• no  experience in the new occupation to display
• prejudice against older workers

Few sorrows in life beat being an employee in such an alienating job that she ends up in the hospital preferring death because of the stress. There are valid reasons to aspire to meaningful work where natural talents and passions will be applied to do the world, the company and the worker some good. However, a challenge presents itself to the worker who decides in the autumn of life, closer to traditional retirement, ”not to take it anymore” after years of  ”settling” or “scooting along the bottom” or waiting to be fired–again–. There remains the matter of proving possession of the requisite 3-5 years of experience.

This looks very much like the new graduate’s dilemma: how to get a job that requires you already have the experience when you must have had the job to get the experience? For students there are internships and apprenticeships to cover that “no experience” gap. Midlife job changers are now tapping into internships and experience building programs.

Few recruiters will ever touch that question.

Recruiters do not love dealing with the risk of career changers. After all, a recruiter cannot present a candidate who does not have the skill/experience package the company he represents asks for. Except for the “mavericks” in the field recruiters will be more comfortable with people who have non-messy histories in the same field/job as the potential new position.

Related articles

• Older workers / Productivity : Average age-productivity profile of individual workers is increasing until age 65 (skillsinfo.wordpress.com)
• ‘Employers are recruiting retired workers and finding that their work is exceptional’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Generational issues ‘important for business insurance holders’ (premierlinedirect.co.uk)
• 9 Workplace Benefits That Need Improvement (money.usnews.com)