I Quit Teaching. Now What?
Do you remember when you decided you were going to become a teacher?
Did making that decision feel like you'd found your true calling?
It wasn't like that for me. Teaching never felt like a perfect fit, but there were things about my job that I loved. Working one-on-one with my students, diving deep into effective strategies for kids with learning differences, or the feeling at the end of the day that I'd contributed something worthwhile to my classroom or my school community.
Over time, the difficult began to outweigh the good. I want to share my personal story of leaving teaching today in hopes that it will inspire someone out there. If you find yourself feeling desperate and hopeless as a teacher, struggling with your mental health, or resigned to becoming one of those teachers – you know, the ones that hate the teaching profession and are counting down the days until retirement – I've been where you are, and I've felt how you are feeling. I'm so happy to be able to honestly tell you that I don't feel that way anymore. I actually love my work. I know you can get here, too.
Why I Quit Teaching
Since I was a little kid, I knew I wanted a creative career, I just never seemed to understand how to get one. I didn't know how to channel the skills I had into something that seemed amorphous to me. I didn't know anyone who was an author or an illustrator or a designer in real life.
So, after floundering for a bit in a few different entry level jobs that were creative-adjacent, I decided it was time to get serious. At that time, I viewed teaching as a sensible career that would align well with my goals for my personal life. It was an opportunity for me to work with kids, which I knew I loved, and to have a job with variety. No two days are the same. I loved being able to share books with kids, to cultivate creative solutions with them, and to make them feel part of a community. Back then, I wasn't willing to admit that about half way through my masters degree I knew I didn't actually want to be a teacher. I was working as a teacher's assistant at several different public schools, and while I actually enjoyed the day to day and working with the kids, when I thought long term about the commitment to a future spent in a classroom, I got a sinking feeling.
Because I wasn't honest with myself about how I really felt about becoming a teacher, I finished my masters and worked diligently to take the many tests needed to earn my teaching license. I convinced myself that I would one day join the ranks of amazing teachers that inspired me along the way.
After earning my teaching license, I became absorbed with landing a teaching job. I fell into the daily life of a special education teacher with an ever increasing stress level, giving up any concept of work life balance.
So…Why Do Teachers Quit?
Looking back, there were a few major factors that led me to give up my teaching career.
I felt powerless as a classroom teacher. When I advocated for my students with special needs, the bureaucracy of the school system seemed to make everything a struggle. When I wanted to try something different with my students, we didn't have time. School leaders placed too much emphasis was on adhering to specific roles and routines. Ensuring that I was practicing effective behavior management strategy was time consuming and anxiety producing. It felt like no matter how much experience I gained, my perspective was never valued.
I'd spent years in school and gone into debt to become a special education teacher, yet every day I felt less and less impactful in my classroom. I was exhausted, mentally and physically, and I never felt like I was living up to my potential. Professional Development programs provided me with innovative ideas that I never felt like could be put into practice in a traditional classroom. I knew I wanted to be a problem solver, and that I wanted to contribute to the world in a real and meaningful way. Teaching didn't feel like the right way for me to make those contributions.
I was still early in my career, but I could see that for teachers, work was only becoming more difficult. The numbers explain the insane hours I saw my co-workers dedicating to their classrooms. According to a survey administered by the EdWeek Research Center in 2022, findings reveal that nationally, teachers are working an average of 54 hours a week.
The Burnout Cycle
After a few years in the classroom, it became harder and harder to value the things I loved about teaching over my own well being. The joy I got from a really wonderful read aloud or a moment where a student had a breakthrough was outweighed by coworker politics, a feeling of hopelessness about my attempts to advocate for my students with special needs, and the overwhelming feeling that I was unappreciated.
It became harder for me to rationalize why I was committed to a system that felt inefficient, problematic, and was truly aging me (at twenty-six!). Looking back, the thing that makes me saddest about the person I was back then was how hopeless and cynical I'd become.
I didn't want to be that person.
Making the Decision to Quit Teaching
I'm only able to see the lines between my decisions throughout my career transition now, looking backwards. In the moment, I was frequently terrified that I was not going to be able to build a fulfilling career after leaving the classroom.
One of the things that I think makes the decision to quit teaching harder than leaving some other industries is the idea that you're giving up on so much: your relationships with students, your bonds with fellow teachers, cultivating student success, your pension, a steady paycheck, the degrees you earned… the list goes on and on.
The truth is that by quitting teaching, you are making the decision to step away from a career you've dedicated so much of your life to. But I don't believe that it means you are stepping away from everything on the list above, or that you are losing the investment of time, energy, and experience you've made. Your passions will continue to guide the decisions you make next. Ultimately, you are the only person who can decide if it's the right choice for you. It isn't easy, but it's worth it.
Once I decided I was quitting teaching, my energy shifted to looking for a different career I could embark on without having to go back to school. I wasn't willing to invest any additional funds into my education, especially because I was already paying off my student loan for my masters that I was deciding not to use anymore.
I began looking into UX design after exploring some of the digital education products I'd used over the years and wondering why so many of them were clunky and inefficient. I researched the kinds of jobs that were related to designing apps for students and teachers. As soon as I began looking into the career possibilities around UX, I was excited.
All of the blog posts and resources I found on the topic of UX design made it sound like a perfect fit. So much of user experience revolves around problem solving and applied logic and strategy. I became obsessed with looking at designers on LinkedIn and exploring their training. Any time I came across someone who used to be a teacher, I would always feel a jolt of inspiration! It always helps to see that someone that has been in your position was capable of achieving what you hope to achieve.
If you are considering whether or not you want to leave teaching, I would recommend following a similar trajectory as I did. Research jobs that revolve around other interests you have, or careers you've heard people talk about that have interested you in the past. Researching should be fun, not stressful. As soon as you get into a stressed mindset, take a break. You don't even have to commit to quitting in order to explore other opportunities. You get to let yourself explore other interests! If you take anything from this at all, I hope it's the freedom to look into a career you might like more than teaching. It's always been heartbreaking to me to hear teachers wistfully mention a career they could have been excellent in if they'd only left teaching.
Let your mind wander. Give yourself the space to look into companies of interest or careers you are fascinated by. It's exploration. If and when you come across something that you can't stop thinking about, let that interest guide you. Follow it. That doesn't mean committing to quitting teaching immediately and applying to an entry level job in some other industry tomorrow.
It means honoring your interests and being informed about other opportunities you could excel at. It's gathering information.
What Came Next: Teacher to UX Designer
Eventually, I decided to enroll in Springboard's UX Design program. It's a remote program and I enrolled in for the winter semester while I was still teaching. I wasn't sure yet if I would leave teaching after I completed the program. I was willing to invest a bit here because it felt like a calculated risk I could afford to take. By this point I'd done enough research into ux design to know that I was very interested in the field, and that the day-to-day of a designer interested me much more than my current life as a teacher. It was also the most affordable of the remote programs that were available back then.
I worked my way through the program throughout that spring, and by summer I'd finished, earned a certificate and completed my portfolio. I still wasn't sure if I was ready to quit teaching because I wasn't sure if I'd land an entry-level UX job by fall. I applied to tons of jobs in UX that summer while taking on a few cheap freelance projects to build up my portfolio. I didn't get a ton of interviews, and I began to struggle about what I should do next. If I was going to quit teaching, I wanted to let my school know with enough time to replace me. I wanted certainty that I was doing the right thing. If you are going to change careers, you have to accept that you can't know with certainty if you are doing the right thing. It's a risk. The more I weighed my options, the more I realized that the only thing I was certain of was that I would be incredibly unhappy if I went back to teaching in the fall. I decided to lead with that.
I was willing to apply to jobs outside of UX in order to support myself if it meant I could quit teaching.
I began taking gigs: babysitting, tutoring. I signed up with job agencies looking for temp work. And I found a job posting for a designer at an edTech agency that sounded exactly like what I wanted to be doing.
I interviewed for that job and for the first time I heard that my background in education was really exciting. Instead of feeling inadequate for my lack of professional design experience, I felt empowered by the teaching experience I'd worked so hard for.
I got that job and I've been working at this agency ever since, going on four years now.
I was about to sign a contract for a customer service job when I was offered my first official UX designer role. To get to the point where I was actually hired for a job in UX, it took a lot of mental reframing and resiliency.
Despite often worrying that I would never find a job in UX post teaching, I never once regretted my decision to leave the classroom. Even when I wasn't sure where my job search would lead, no part of me thought my decision to quit teaching had been wrong. That's the important differentiator for my perspective. When I resigned from teaching, my heart felt light for the first time in so long. Just by having officially quit, i was at peace with whatever came next.
If you want to leave teaching, you aren't alone. I've met so many former teachers who've successfully transitioned into careers they like better. When you're in it, it can seem inescapable, but I'm here to tell you that if you really want to leave, you can build a fulfilling career outside of the classroom.
I'm excited to share this series on life after teaching with all of you, because work doesn't have to be as hard as it is for most teachers. You deserve a job that brings you joy instead of draining you. You can do wonderful things. You just have to trust in yourself, and be willing to hang on through the scary parts.
If you find yourself saying, I quit teaching, now what? I can assure you there are so many exciting answers to your question.
I am here for you, as are so many other former teachers in the world.
As always, thank you for spending a few minutes with me today. I hope hearing about my experience will help you discern where you are on your path, and what you want your next chapter to look like!
