Breaking the Mold: How Teachers Can Turn Transferable Skills into Competitive Advantages

Thanks so much for reading the first two posts in my series, I Quit Teaching, Now What - I've loved hearing your feedback and your questions. I plan to continue this series to dedicate time to helping you think further about how to best evaluate your teaching experience and skill set.

If you've landed on the decision that you are ready to explore leaving the education space and taking on a new career path, congrats! Acknowledging this is the first brave step toward shaping the next phase of your life.

Maybe, now that you've landed here, you feel unsure if you'll be able to utilize your skills in a different industry or role. If so, rest assured that as a teacher, you have so many transferable skills that you can apply to your next career.

The summer I quit teaching, I spent at ton of time applying to jobs. Even though I'd decided I wanted to be a UX Designer, was in a UX training program, and was working on my first freelance projects, I applied to any and every job that seemed remotely open to me. Looking back I can see I just wanted some confirmation that I wasn't unemployable outside the education realm and hadn't ruined my life by quitting.

During interviews, I felt like an imposter speaking with any sort of authority about the soft skills I'd gained teaching and how I would use them to benefit a new employer.

Eventually, mostly out of desperation, I decided to employ the fake it till you make it approach to interviews; I had nothing to lose.

How? In order to boost my self belief and sell my claims, I developed tangible examples from the classroom that explained how I would be able to use my skill set in the role I was applying for.

Developing these real life examples not only helped the interviewer to visualize how useful my skillset could be, but also empowered me to believe in myself and what I was saying as an interviewee. I realized that my background in education had afforded me with problem-solving skills that addressed a wide range of situations. I had an almost endless supply of anecdotes that illustrated my social skills, organizational skills, and collaboration skills that I could apply to so many alternative careers.

I'm sharing my own experience here as evidence of someone who successfully transitioned out of a teaching job and created a career in UX design. There are so many relevant skills you can bring to any range of careers outside the education sector. A big piece of marketing your transferable teaching skills successfully is determining what your career goals are for this next phase of your life.

At this point in my UX career, I've had the pleasure of interviewing many former classroom teachers for design roles. I see patterns in these candidates: strong public speaking skills, a high level of emotional intelligence, and effective communication skills.

I have a working theory that after you've run a classroom for a few years and handled all of the responsibility that goes with being a teacher, you can handle any career.

When I've felt overwhelmed in my post-teaching career, I like to remind myself of the unique stress that comes with transporting 30 first graders on the subway through Times Square. Nothing I've faced as a designer, researcher, or writer has come close to that level of overwhelm and responsibility.

Reflect on that for a second. In what other situation would you ever have to successfully monitor the well being of thirty or more children, employ strong time management skills to ensure a smooth field trip, utilize emotionally intelligent interpersonal skills to navigate talks with parent chaperones, navigate directions, manage your own stress levels, all while providing your students with a solid educational experience?

No other career expects its professionals to juggle so many nuanced responsibilities all at once.

With that in mind, let's get ready for some career exploration and skill reflection as I outline some of the top transferable skills teachers can bring with them to their future careers and how these valuable skills will empower you as you explore paths outside the classroom.

4 Essential Transferable Skills for Teachers, Explained and Reimagined

Transferable Teacher Skill #1: Communication

Communication skills are obviously crucial in every aspect of our lives, but are especially important in teaching. When you start to develop your own teaching style, you generally realize that your relationships with students have a real impact on student progress. This might also mean shifting your communication approach many times throughout the day as you interact with different students, colleagues, and parents.

The ability to communicate effectively with others is actually much more involved than it may seem at first, and when you're describing your soft skills, it's important to draw these nuances out.

Effective communication requires you to read others and adapt to their needs. This is a key skill that comes in handy in many roles, but is specifically useful in client-facing positions. Knowing how to approach a client or stakeholder, present work or deliverables to those stakeholders, and ensure that they feel heard when they provide feedback is not natural to many people. Chances are, it's something you've learned to do based on the number of people in different positions you interact with on a daily basis.

Few positions outside of teaching require such consistent face-to-face interaction with so many people in order to cultivate a successful career in a school community. Speak to this in interviews! Explain how this will benefit their team if they hire you, because believe me, it will!

Transferable Teacher Skill #2: Leadership Qualities

Being a leader is inherent in teaching. You have to command attention in order to present lessons to students. You have 20-30 eyes focused on you most of the day. Let's face it, if you don't develop leadership qualities, your students will probably learn to walk all over you.

As a teacher, you use your leadership skills to motivate students, cultivate a positive classroom culture, and promote academic success. You delegate resources and manage classroom supplies to ensure your students can have enriching, hands-on experience in their classroom environment.

Take a look at some job descriptions in job listings for positions in some of the alternative career paths you've been considering. Some people work their entire careers to gain technical skills required to become a manager. You've been prac

These are all outcomes that any workplace in any industry would strive for. Motivating colleagues, sharing your knowledge to benefit others, cultivating a positive team culture, and encouraging your coworkers to keep the end goal in mind are some tangible examples of how you can use these qualities to benefit your new role, whatever it might be.

Transferable Teacher Skill #3: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

Knowing how to navigate conflicts and negotiate successfully can make you a valuable asset in any workplace. Of course, you've honed these skills under some of the trickiest conditions. Kids that are arguing, colleagues that can't see eye-to-eye, your own issues with administration. How do you communicate this specific set of skills in an interview? Being able to keep calm under pressure, focus on an ideal outcome, and reason with the unreasonable.

I'm sure it isn't hard for you to think of a few examples of conflict resolution if you reflect on the past day or two, but I would challenge you to come up with some examples that involve complicated politics or personality management. How have you negotiated what you think is best for your students and the requirements you are facing due to state standards or school mandated initiatives? When have you managed to be a voice of reason when your grade team wasn't seeing eye-to-eye on approaching a unit or breaking down work responsibilities? What have these moments taught you about how to interact with others moving forward, especially when you know that your ultimate goal is the same, though your approaches may be different?

Transferable Teacher Skill #4: Organization and Planning

Good organization and planning skills are transferable to virtually any career path, and you've probably been operating in a highly planned environment for as long as you've been teaching. Even if you don't feel like a particularly organized teacher (join the club!), chances are you rely on systems and routines to ensure student success on a daily basis. You've adhered to lesson plans while managing to accommodate a wide range of learning styles.

In interviews, you can outline how you've developed systems to align your classes toward achieving common goals. You've leveraged classroom management to ensure high-quality student learning while also handling classroom dynamics, curriculum requirements, and effective time management. These are huge accomplishments, and you should own them!

Unlocking Career Opportunities: How Transferable Skills for Teachers Can Open Doors

As a teacher, it's easy to believe that our work experience isn’t applicable to careers in other fields. Don't sell yourself short or limit your potential at finding a more fulfilling career. Your experiences have equipped you with versatile skills that will help you thrive on any career path you choose. Embrace your strengths and focus on finding a job that excites you.

Remember, it’s all about how you frame and present your experiences! Highlight how what you’ve learned and accomplished as an educator has equipped you to be a valuable team player in your next position.

What questions do you have about transferable teacher skills? Drop them in the comments below!

And as always thanks for reading — it means so much!

4 Transferable Skills to Help Teachers Transition to a New Career