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I want to change career. Any suggestions?

I don't :D

I work in local govt myself, and while the chaotic insanity of it makes me want to scream sometimes, i do find time to write when I'm at work, which I think scifisam would like.

I used to work in admin for an LEA and there were loads of ex-teachers around. Teacher recruitment could be interesting (if you're not too jaded to convince others to give it a go).
 
it took me nearly the whole of my last year of teaching to find a job when i left teaching originally - i had to resign with no job lined up. (I didn't have so much variety of experience, mind). there's a definite lack of willingness to see the transferrable skills in teaching, and i don't know why. The job i did get (with virgin cinemas), was essentially down to that company having a kind of dictat that they must recruit from oddball directions. my boss said later that she never would have looked twice at my cv in any of her preious companies, because they're just not looking for a teacher.

I guess they see teachers as a breed apart from your normal office dogsbody. I have to admit, I would find a CV with nothing but teaching on it difficult to employ. Why, I'm not sure. In addition to lack of role experience it could be an authority thing maybe?
 
Do you want out of education completely? There's some very interesting ed management jobs which need teaching experience, usually for local authorities, things like school improvement officers. Lots of positions related to special needs, where your own personal experiences would also be a plus. LA work could be good for jobshares, holiday etc.

I'd be really interested in some of those jobs, but unfortunately I'm not a teacher!
 
Educational management would be fine, if they'd have me. :D

I've now updated my CV, rephrasing everything to emphasise the non-teaching activities. It's still very obvious that I've been a teacher for ages, but there's not much else I can do without lying.

Unfortunately the Gingerbread job is too far away. I know most people wouldn't consider an hour's commute to be a lot, but it would make childcare rather difficult as well as costing a ton (bus and tube through zone 1), and I'll have to be really desperate to apply for jobs that are that awkward when Liverpool St and all the offices there are a 15 minute walk away.
 
God Sam, if recruitment agencies don't take you with your experience what chance have I got!!

They must be fools. Surely not all agencies can be that picky/ stupid???? I can't imagine that happening in Leeds.

It's not so much being picky, it's the climate (:facepalm:) Tons and tons of perfectly capable but over-qualified, or differently-qualified people who have been made redundant etc are flooding into agencies and not enough jobs for them.

As I said above: I'm fortunate I already had a relationship with an agency when I was made redundant a year ago.

Good luck for you :)
 
Turns out they're having another lifeguarding open day today, so I'm going to try to get there. Last time I tried we walked around for three hours unable to find out. I thought this was just me being dozy, but no, the address of the place the event's held at (which has been given to me multiple times, so I didn't mishear it) DOES NOT EXIST according to Google maps and my A-Z.

Seems I'm not the only one who had trouble getting to this mystery place - they're going to a nearby centre to meet people and walk as a group to the venue. :D Unfortunately, I only just found this out and won't make it in time so I'm going to have to just wander around and around again. :facepalm:

BTW, I saw this job Flipside Youth Film Festival Coordinator, £25kpa pro rata part-time, and it sounded absolutely perfect for me. Problem is, it's in Brixton and involves regular weekend and evening work, and I simply can't do that. :( Still, it's the kind of thing that I can imagine some urbanites being very good at, so I thought I'd flag it up.
 
It may be that my own experience in the education field could help you. There is a natural progression within education whereby your experience in the classroom leads to partial classroom work paired with administration which leads to decreasing classroom work and increasing administration and so on. But it takes some planning and the rewards aren't immediate. I suspect you've already nearly reached the 'burn-out' point and you are, no doubt, impatient to move on.

After teaching for ten years (Science/Maths) it was evident to me that the day-to-day grind of teaching/assessment/marking etc would lead to burn-out. So I completed post-graduate qualifications in Educational Administration. This led to applications for Head of Department (HOD) positions in Maths or Science and eventually a successful application. The HOD (also sometimes called a Subject Master) position in a Secondary School is about half teaching in the classroom and half administration. Three years of that and I started applying for Deputy Principal positions and was successful pretty quickly. The DP position is mostly administration. I think the most I taught was one class (Five periods per week) and I was usually a non-teaching DP. Five years of that and I applied for position of Principal and was successful. Principals in largish secondary schools don't teach. Finally, after several years as Principal, I applied for a position in statewide management in the state office and eventually retired from that position.

In summary, as I progressed through the ranks and gained experience and new skills, I progressed through reduced teaching load and increased administration load until I eventually moved right out of schools and actual contact with children. Probably the best by-product of this progression is that the pay increases with increased administration load. And, incredibly, the pay increases with decreased student contact. The irony of all this - the best teachers become administrators. The most skilled administrators become those with reduced student contact until there is no student contact at all. In the last twenty years of my career, I found myself increasingly nostalgic for the classroom contact. And, ironically, I had taught myself right out of the classroom and didn't even visit schools, much less classrooms any more. I haven't taught a class in thirty years and haven't had a teacher-student relationship with pupils for longer than that.
 
BTW, I saw this job Flipside Youth Film Festival Coordinator, £25kpa pro rata part-time, and it sounded absolutely perfect for me. Problem is, it's in Brixton and involves regular weekend and evening work, and I simply can't do that. :( Still, it's the kind of thing that I can imagine some urbanites being very good at, so I thought I'd flag it up.

Keep looking Sam...something closer to home and more up your street will emerge..:)
 
It may be that my own experience in the education field could help you. There is a natural progression within education whereby your experience in the classroom leads to partial classroom work paired with administration which leads to decreasing classroom work and increasing administration and so on. But it takes some planning and the rewards aren't immediate. I suspect you've already nearly reached the 'burn-out' point and you are, no doubt, impatient to move on.

After teaching for ten years (Science/Maths) it was evident to me that the day-to-day grind of teaching/assessment/marking etc would lead to burn-out. So I completed post-graduate qualifications in Educational Administration. This led to applications for Head of Department (HOD) positions in Maths or Science and eventually a successful application. The HOD (also sometimes called a Subject Master) position in a Secondary School is about half teaching in the classroom and half administration. Three years of that and I started applying for Deputy Principal positions and was successful pretty quickly. The DP position is mostly administration. I think the most I taught was one class (Five periods per week) and I was usually a non-teaching DP. Five years of that and I applied for position of Principal and was successful. Principals in largish secondary schools don't teach. Finally, after several years as Principal, I applied for a position in statewide management in the state office and eventually retired from that position.

In summary, as I progressed through the ranks and gained experience and new skills, I progressed through reduced teaching load and increased administration load until I eventually moved right out of schools and actual contact with children. Probably the best by-product of this progression is that the pay increases with increased administration load. And, incredibly, the pay increases with decreased student contact. The irony of all this - the best teachers become administrators. The most skilled administrators become those with reduced student contact until there is no student contact at all. In the last twenty years of my career, I found myself increasingly nostalgic for the classroom contact. And, ironically, I had taught myself right out of the classroom and didn't even visit schools, much less classrooms any more. I haven't taught a class in thirty years and haven't had a teacher-student relationship with pupils for longer than that.

i suspect it must be the passing of time and/or the different country that makes this sound so unfamiliar. I'm a head of department and I teach a 90% full timetable. All the admin is still there, but as a HOD you do it in your own time. and admin isn't the word i'd use. it's management. strategic, analytical and operations management. It's exactly the opposite route that i'd suggest for someone who is feeling fed up with the pressures of teaching.
 
i suspect it must be the passing of time and/or the different country that makes this sound so unfamiliar. I'm a head of department and I teach a 90% full timetable. All the admin is still there, but as a HOD you do it in your own time. and admin isn't the word i'd use. it's management. strategic, analytical and operations management. It's exactly the opposite route that i'd suggest for someone who is feeling fed up with the pressures of teaching.

That's a bleak scenario. There's a hell of a lot of administration in the HOD position and there really needs to be reasonable timetable dispensation to do the task. In addition to the management tasks you mention there are heaps of personnel deployment and supervision tasks to perform and these can take lots of time. I'm thinking of tasks like mentoring, class visits for whole lessons for improved teaching, conferencing on strengths and weaknesses, team teaching negotiations, curriculum creation and heaps more.

It seems to me that, unless the HOD position is properly resourced (including timetable resourcing), the structure falls apart. The strength of middle management in education is the ultimate determinant of successful pedagogy as successful and skilled teachers impart that set of skills and strategies to the new generation of teachers.

As you describe the position, I can't imagine why anyone would take it on (no disrespect to you, of course). It's just the constant nagging irritation of the classroom interface added to the aggravation of routine management. Where's the essential creative element that keeps us all going in teaching?
 
That's a bleak scenario. There's a hell of a lot of administration in the HOD position and there really needs to be reasonable timetable dispensation to do the task. In addition to the management tasks you mention there are heaps of personnel deployment and supervision tasks to perform and these can take lots of time. I'm thinking of tasks like mentoring, class visits for whole lessons for improved teaching, conferencing on strengths and weaknesses, team teaching negotiations, curriculum creation and heaps more.

It seems to me that, unless the HOD position is properly resourced (including timetable resourcing), the structure falls apart. The strength of middle management in education is the ultimate determinant of successful pedagogy as successful and skilled teachers impart that set of skills and strategies to the new generation of teachers.

As you describe the position, I can't imagine why anyone would take it on (no disrespect to you, of course). It's just the constant nagging irritation of the classroom interface added to the aggravation of routine management. Where's the essential creative element that keeps us all going in teaching?

yes, all that still falls to the HOD - but no time is given.

why do i do it? partly tis the extra money, and partly because i like having some say over where my department is going.
 
Scifisam, join the Army.


It's very exciting intermittently and they supply all your work clothes. Can't say that about teaching.

Not as much holiday (only 6 weeks) but a lot more fresh air.

Gwan.
 
If you would consider selling your soul, then you might want to bear in mind all your skills are directly transferable to all types of business consultancy.

There's no reason why you shouldn't apply to one of them as part of their annual new graduate intake. We used to get a regular proportion of the applicants as those who wanted a career change. They had a *massive* head-start on the new grads themselves. We actually had to devise tests to try to get at true potential, because those who were coming from another career could eat the new grads alive on the usual tests.

There are pros and cons of that route. The cons include the fact that urbans will hate you. Also, the business world is totall uninspiring. But the pros include a very healthy salary and a generally pretty professional working environment with generally pretty smart colleagues.
 
My 'passions' are books, TV and language. There's just too much competition in those fields - quite apart from not being able to work long or unsociable hours, I just don't have the drive and ambition to get in on the ground level in those areas. Well, I don't any more, at least; I did when I was younger, and was doing quite well before a combination of fitting while editing videos and then having a young child to look after put me out of the game.

Perhaps some lateral thinking is needed here - your admin (etc) experience could combine with your interests very well if you think about what kind of companies out there you might want to work for. Eg. Film/TV production or distribution companies, translation / multinational companies, and so forth. The admin side of the job can be anything from enjoyable to a nightmare, completely dependent on the company.
It always helps you stand out if you identify companies which are local to you, and whose business you are interested in, and contact them direct. Explain your situation, etc, and try to convince them that they want to give you a go.
You never know ...
 
you have to be under 35...

I am! Everyone on here seems to assume I'm years older than I am. :(

I'm still not joining the army - I did ctually look into joining the RAF when I was about 18 but my health wouldn't be up to it.

If you would consider selling your soul, then you might want to bear in mind all your skills are directly transferable to all types of business consultancy.

There's no reason why you shouldn't apply to one of them as part of their annual new graduate intake. We used to get a regular proportion of the applicants as those who wanted a career change. They had a *massive* head-start on the new grads themselves. We actually had to devise tests to try to get at true potential, because those who were coming from another career could eat the new grads alive on the usual tests.

There are pros and cons of that route. The cons include the fact that urbans will hate you. Also, the business world is totally uninspiring. But the pros include a very healthy salary and a generally pretty professional working environment with generally pretty smart colleagues.

I'd have no problem selling my soul, TBH. Well, there are limits. I live ten minutes' walk from Liverpool St so it does seem daft that neither of us work in the city. Wouldn't a new grad intake require quite long hours, though? My daughter still needs a fair amount of looking after - I couldn't be in the office till 7pm every day.

Perhaps some lateral thinking is needed here - your admin (etc) experience could combine with your interests very well if you think about what kind of companies out there you might want to work for. Eg. Film/TV production or distribution companies, translation / multinational companies, and so forth. The admin side of the job can be anything from enjoyable to a nightmare, completely dependent on the company.
It always helps you stand out if you identify companies which are local to you, and whose business you are interested in, and contact them direct. Explain your situation, etc, and try to convince them that they want to give you a go.
You never know ...

Oh, there are about a million companies local to me. A fair few film and publishing companies and lots of finance and third sector. I technically don't have any admin experience, at least according to recruitment agencies. As if there's no paperwork involved in teaching or running a summer school. :confused: At least with direct applications I can use a cover letter to outline how I actually fit the job description even though my CV might not actually tell you that.

No luck so far - not that there's been much to apply for anyway. I keep an eye out for vacancies that would suit my unemployed friends, too, and there's practially nothing for them.

Never mind - this hasn't been a good time of year to look for work, I reckon, so I'll keep trying after Christmas.
 
I'd have no problem selling my soul, TBH. Well, there are limits. I live ten minutes' walk from Liverpool St so it does seem daft that neither of us work in the city. Wouldn't a new grad intake require quite long hours, though? My daughter still needs a fair amount of looking after - I couldn't be in the office till 7pm every day.
I always maintain that your attitude determines your hours. I've always been determined not to work late and I never have. Obviously there is the odd project where it suddenly gets tight and you have to do the odd late one. And also you sometimes have to be willing to stand up against senior members of staff, for whom working is everything. But if you are assertive and set your stall out early then you generally find that it's all OK.

It varies a lot from company to company 'n'all.

In short, there is no inherent reason to find that the hours are *necessarily* much worse than other jobs. You might have to shift companies if you don't get on with the culture in one place, but that's no different to any other career.

And consultancy also gives you FAR more scope for things like homeworking, which can make up for it anyway. The kabbess does WAY too long hours, in my opinion. But she works entirely from home (except for when she has to go for a meeting or something). So she gets to set her own hours anyway.

I know that it's the kind of thing that can seem like a total left-field idea. But I really wouldn't write it off outright. If you don't think that you want to go into a numerical-based consultancy then there are plenty of more qualitative-based consultancy career paths out there too.
 
There's also public sector consultancy. I mean, you're still working for a private company, but at least the subject matter would be something that you'll be familiar with.
 
The pinnacle would be consultancy consultancy, where you advise consultants on how to consult.
 
Librarianship isn't all evenings and weekends you know. If you work in academic libraries then you only have to do the occasional evening or weekend duty. The hours are very family friendly, and if you do the librarianship qualification it only takes 1 year (you need to do 1 year of library assistant training before you can get onto this course). Academia is a lovely place to work, generally. I worked for Oxford University for 2 years and it was great - the working conditions, pension, holidays, all that stuff are generally really good in Universities..

If you don't like admin, and your passions are books, tv and language, I reckon librarianship could tick alot of those boxes. For example, lots of libraries (incl academic ones) have dvd collections. Or you could work in a language department's library! There would be foreign films in there.....

The world of librarianship's a vast one, there are loads of interesting fields. I know this cos my dad's a librarian, my partner's a librarian, and my partner's mum's a librarian. Can't get away from the buggers!


oooh

mrs pingu jas workied in a uni librarly for ages and looked at becoming qualified but was put off by the 4 year course.

tell me more about this 1 year route
 
The pinnacle would be consultancy consultancy, where you advise consultants on how to consult.

I know someone who trains people to train people.




Someone must have trained him.





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tell me more about this 1 year route

It's a full time MA in Information Management - you can do it in loads of Universities. You don't even need a degree to get on it if you're a mature student.

Or if you need to work at the same time, you can do it in 2 years by distance learning, online, at a few places.

It's accredited by CILIP and means you're a qualified librarian at the end.
 
Teachers are by their very nature, good at presentation to medium sized groups.

This suggests that a role in some kind of sales and marketing organisation might appeal.

Just an idea.
 
at the moment LA esp childrens services are undergoing lots of reorganisation and new ways of working are arising.

depending on salary there's lots of related jobs at all levels of management in children's centres - family support workers, play and learning co-ordinators, others jobs co ordinating projects, strategic managers, managers,

They are often hard to fill as potential applicants aren't sure if they have the skill set and employees would welcome you speaking to them about your skills.
 
Have a look on local authority websites - they advertise their jobs internally as well as externally.

Would you be interested in other school stuff - learning mentor, admin etc? There's a School Home Support network for primaries in London crying out for workers - and most schools are partially funded for this, making it affordable.

http://www.schoolhomesupport.org.uk/

There's also a funded Certificate then Diploma in School Business Management - one year each, mostly online-home learning - if you work in a school - chock-full of transferable skills.
Lots of term-time only stuff in colleges and schools which might fit in with your daughter.

http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/about-us/national-college-initiatives/sbm.htm
 
Can't help with the practicalities but I can recommend changing careers. I finally managed to leave IT after 8 years of hating it and I'm happier in every aspect of my life. You can't put a price on happiness, and following your dreams and doing work you enjoy should be encouraged over well paid jobs every time. I've been fortunate to find that I can probably make at least the same in my my new job too, a nice nice surprise, third career now in progress.

Go for it.
 
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