How to Know if You Should Quit Teaching.

If you're anything like me, when it's time to make a huge decision, you might find yourself engaging in some avoidant behaviors. Googling how to know if you should quit teaching, for example.

You may know that leaving the teaching profession is the right choice for you, but instead of standing tall in that reality and taking action, you ask a bunch of other people in your life what they think.

Or, you google people online who have taken similar journeys to find out what they did.

Or, you imagine an entirely alternate universe where you live in Paris and don't have to take any action to leave teaching, because you are busy strolling the Seine all day spending your imaginary millions on croissants and antique books.

Of course, none of the above behaviors are bad. I did the same thing.

Seeking out information from fellow teachers who have successfully leveraged their teaching experience into a new opportunity is very helpful. It's why I kicked off this series I quit teaching, now what? last week with the story of my own successful career change.

Envisioning a different — maybe even grandiose — reality can have purpose, too.  Dreams help us begin to narrow in on what we really want out of our professional life. 

Asking people in your life who you know have your best interests at heart for advice can help you gain a new perspective on things to consider in terms of your own specific situation.

There isn't one clear formula to know if you should quit teaching because everyone's circumstances are different. But I do think there are things that should definitely not weigh into your decision making.

Comments from friends like, just quit already! You know you hate it. Or next year will be better. Or, at least you get summer off! can, if we let them, influence our ability to really assess how we feel. They can cause us to second guess if we really hate teaching or if we're just burnt out. And they can make us feel judged or ashamed for complaining about just how exhausted and unhappy we are.

When it comes to your career you are the only person who can decide if quitting teaching is right for you. You're the one who wakes up every morning with a sense of dread thinking about your teaching job — no one else. There comes a point in this career change consideration process where we have to weigh all of our options and decide for ourselves what we're going to do next.

I also think it is important that I say, for the record, that I don't think that every teacher who is unhappy in their current position should leave teaching. There are so many amazing teachers, experienced teachers who, with improved work-life balance, would be able to maintain their passion for teaching.  

 Teaching is a very tiring job.  Even if you love being a teacher, love the school where you work, there's still a high chance that at some point you will find yourself burnt out. 

You might be a happy teacher, but you've been miserable lately because of a new administrator, a new curriculum, changes in your school board, or a ton of behavior issues to manage this year and you're feeling extra drained.

This is why before making a huge decision and being forced to ask ourselves: I quit teaching, now what? after the fact, we should take the time to get really clear on our feelings and do the work to clarify what would actually make our daily life better.

You need to check in with how you really feel about teaching without the weight of others opinions about you and your choices influencing you.

So, how do you get clear on your feelings? How do you drown out the sounds of other people's input on your life to get clarity?

I'm so glad you asked! I've created three reflections that can help you approach this decision from different perspectives. Sometimes we need to get things out of our head and down onto paper to discover how we really feel. I've used these exercises myself and have had fellow career changers give great feedback on their ability to provide clarity, so I hope they will help you as well.

Pour yourself a cup of tea, grab a notebook and dedicate a few minutes to the following reflections.

P.S. I created my FREE downloadable guide Your Strategic Career Transition Toolkit just for you. It includes:

• Your Skill Translation Cheat Sheet

• Networking Quick-Start Guide

• Industry and Career Ideas for Teachers

• Methods for transforming classroom skills into corporate language for resumes and interview

The Alternate Job for Ex-Teachers Exercise

Picture yourself working in another job right now that wouldn't require you to pursue any additional training.

When I did this, I pictured myself working in retail. I chose retail because I worked in retail before, and while I hadn't hated it, I wasn't a big fan, and because it wouldn't require me to pursue any additional training or certifications.

Imagine the store you'd work at, the shifts you'd end up taking, the tasks you'd be required to fulfill regularly. For this exercise, you're making slightly less money than you make currently.

What's better about this alternative job? How would it impact your personal life? Do you get to wake up later? Are you relieved at a slower pace? How's your stress level? 

Make a list of the things you'd predict appreciating in this role, then a list of the things you predict you'd find annoying/wouldn't want to do. If you can, try to predict the emotional reaction you'd have to various tasks you'd be responsible for.

For example, I can safely predict that I'd be incredibly bored for much of the day working in retail because of my past experience — restocking is so monotonous. However, after working as a classroom teacher, I can also say that I'd rather be very bored than incredibly anxious.

If, after you complete and review your lists, there's the possibility you'd prefer this non-teaching position even though you'd be taking a pay cut, that's significant. It might mean that you're in a space mentally where you are beginning to value your personal happiness over the investment you've made into your teaching career.

This exercise helps you see what you value and seek from a career based on the lists of positive and negative aspects of this alternative job. It also helps you to consider your tolerance level for emotions that come with various work-related responsibilities, which, regardless of whether or not you to decide to continue to teach, is great information to be aware of to help create boundaries that support your overall mental health.

What can I do instead of teaching?

Make a list of the top transferable skills you've developed throughout your career so far. I plan on writing an in-depth post about this soon, because it's something that can be really overwhelming when you begin to consider leaving teaching, and it doesn't have to be.

I have a theory that if you can successfully run a classroom, you can do pretty much anything, so don't get tripped up here.

• Is one-on-one instructional time your favorite aspect of your job? Working in small groups? Facilitating project-based learning? Lesson Planning? 

• Have you developed strong communication skills between your staff and your students' families over the years?

• Is there something your grade team frequently recognizes you for? Are you praised for the most thorough lesson plans?

These are ALL transferable teacher skills.

Try not to over think the idea of skills in a traditional resume building sense. If it enters your mind as a possible skill, write it down, even if it seems silly or unrelated to any potential jobs for teachers leaving the classroom. This exercise is about identifying the strengths you've developed and recognizing the aspects of your skillset you most enjoy utilizing.

After you make this list, I recommend going over it and starring the skills you most enjoy utilizing on a daily basis. If, for example, you love developing or updating your grade levels monthly lesson plans and sharing them with your grade team, that's significant. Not only do many teachers not love this, but it would lend itself well to a career in project management or instructional design.

Are the skills you starred ones you use frequently? Would you like to use them more? Are their skills you didn't star but that you'd like to develop? Circle them. Consider how you'd develop those ones. Skillshare? Coursera? Youtube videos? You don't need to act on this now — it's just a good feeling to know that it's within your power to work on skills you wish you were more confident in. It's encouraging to know that opportunity for growth is out there!

This reflection tells us about the skills you feel strongest in, and the skills you are interested in developing. It also helps you to visualize just how relevant or irrelevant being a teacher feels in relation to the toolbox of skills you use most regularly. Again, this knowledge can inform your future decisions.

What would your life look like if you were working in your ideal job?

This exercise is all about visualizing your future. Write down a day in your life now that you are in your perfect role. If you have a dream job in your head, regardless of how difficult you'd think it would be to get there, use that role to complete this exercise. If you aren't sure what your dream job would be, that's okay! This exercise will help to identify some of the components of the job you'd love to have.

Write your account from the time you're waking up. Picture the entire day in your life from morning till bedtime for this one day where you love your employment experience. Be as vivid and specific as you can!

• Is it early, or do you get to sleep in?

• Do you have a long commute?

• Do you get Sweetgreen for lunch?

• Are you working in a hybrid office?

• Do you get dressed up, or is it a casual environment?

When you're done, reread it.

• What are some of the biggest differences between your actual day now and this ideal day?

• The hours?

• The commute?

• The work you're doing?

• Your level of interfacing with others?

• Does this job require you to be more social, or less?

• Are you interacting with clients, or working for yourself?

• Are there similarities between this ideal job and your current one? What are they?

• What makes you most excited as you reread?

• What makes you nervous?

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You're uncovering important clues into how you are really feeling about continuing to work in education.  This exercise helps you get clear on exactly what aspects of your life you feel are most negatively impacted by your teaching job: the areas that a “better” or “different” job would improve immediately. It's essential to understand what's driving your dissatisfaction as well as what it is you're looking for in a new career.

When we name the things we like or don't like and let ourselves imagine a life where our jobs are fulfilling and actually bring us joy, we are gaining evidence that can help us make decisions informed by our own experience.

If you are like me and quit teaching before having another job lined up, never fear. Next week I'll have some tactical next steps about transferable skills to help answer the desperately exciting question: I quit teaching, now what?

As always, thanks for spending a few minutes with me x

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.

After successfully navigating my own career transformation and helping other teachers do the same, I realized something critical: Most teachers have NO IDEA how valuable they are to so many other industries. So, I’ve created this FREE downloadable guide Your Strategic Career Transition Toolkit just for you. I hope you take a look and I hope it helps you start thinking about the opportunities you have ahead of you.

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.

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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 created my FREE downloadable guide Your Strategic Career Transition Toolkit just for you. It includes:

• Your Skill Translation Cheat Sheet

• Networking Quick-Start Guide

• Industry and Career Ideas for Teachers

• Methods for transforming classroom skills into corporate language for resumes and interview

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