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Thank a teacher!
Plus the new curated job board is here!
Find your dream job without the hassle!
Resources of the Week!
For anyone who has a social media presence or wants to connect with their audience. Please consider something like a newsletter or building a mailing list as a way to built your audience - with the potential Tiktok ban, rumors that Meta will be charging for creators on the platform, etc. creators don’t have much control over their audience or what their audience sees. I love Beehiiv and talked about my experience here.
I shared a few weeks ago that I was working on a new and easier job board option and it’s here! I’ve partnered with the Collab Network to create this job board of roles that (hopefully!) align with your interests. This is open acces so you do not need to submit an application to access it like the previous one.
We have over 250 roles listed and any applications will be tagged as coming through my network (though I do not have any special access to the roles or teams so I’m not able to offer any assistance beyond sharing the roles. You’ll want to book mark this as they’ll be refreshing jobs regularly (17 new roles were added today as an example!)And sign up for a free networking chat!
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!
It seems like we have appreciation days for those fields that are often overworked and underpaid. I don’t remember seeing an “executive appreciation day” on the calendar! It seems like we use these “appreciation” days or weeks to make up for not valuing certain professions the way most of us want to be valued - with flexibility and money.
As a former K-12 teacher myself, I am deeply aware of:
The challenges of teaching in the US, specifically the compensation and lack of balance/flexibility.
How hard it is to transition out of teaching into just about anything else.
We need great teachers in the classroom but I also understand why so many are fleeing the field. So today, I wanted to share some ideas (side note: while I’m focusing on educators, hopefully this is helpful to other career changers as well!)
All I’ve done is teach - where do I go from here?
First, I’ll share my own personal journey:
While in the classroom, I took on a few leadership roles - leading clubs, writing grants/fundraising, grade level chair, curriculum writing, etc. I also worked at Teach For America’s summer training institute which gave me experience in coaching teachers and managing teams. These were all great transferable skills!
I then moved into a role in program management/teacher training and development for Teach For America (an education non-profit that recruits and trains early career teachers). I was promoted a few times, got to manage teams, build programs, etc. During time, I realized I was interested in recruiting as a career so I did some side projects with our recruiting team and also worked with my manager to play a bigger role in recruiting across our region. I applied to many recruiting roles in the private sector and didn’t land any interviews.
But this helped me transition into a role leading talent acquisition for a charter school network. Again, I applied to roles in the private sector and got interviews, but no offers. When applying for this role, I focused my resume heavily on the recruiting elements of my role even though most of my role was NOT recruiting.
I then transitioned into about 10 months of consulting work - I was burned out but also wanted to get some broader experience. I worked with several companies including a few start-ups and did work that aligned with chief of staff, business development, etc.
From there, I transitioned into a recruiting role recruiting for Teach For America - they have a reputation for a really rigorous process, and I knew many team members had gone on to recruit in tech so I specifically sought this position out.
And finally I landed a role in tech. Coming in, I entered as a Sr. Recruiter - this was a step down from managing larger teams, but my goal was tech so I was willing to take that step back, and was able to get promoted back into management after a few months.
Some key takeaways:
Focus in on what you’d like to do, and look for opportunities to build transferable skills in your current role through projects or part-time jobs.
Target positions and industries where your experience is something they really want - so for educators, this could be positions with a school district or charter school network, education non-profits, and ed tech companies.
Focus on small moves - in a tough, competitive market, you’re unlikely to land a completely new job in a new industry. So perhaps you can find a better paying teacher job or one with more flexibility or an entry level role that helps you get into a new industry. Then you can grow from there.
And if you’re hiring…
Consider people with backgrounds in teaching! Teachers are often skilled planners, and far superior to most people at designing learning experiences. They are usually good at working with limited resources and finding creative solutions to problems.
Plus, they are used to working really hard without much flexibility - so if you’re able to offer good compensation and a supportive work environment, you’re likely to be met with a very loyal and hardworking employee who is truly grateful to be a part of your team.
Remotive is a free job board for remote jobs, but they also offer a paid accelerator that includes 30k+ remote roles that are curated and guaranteed to be active! The accelerator also includes a private Slack community and other resources to support you with your search for a remote job. If your goal is to land a remote role, check out Remotive.
🙋Answering Your Questions🙋
Each week, I’ll answer a few of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here.
It's been 2 years since I was in my last customer success (CS) role. Since then have been working a myriad of jobs that were lateral (and downward, in terms of pay/prestige) moves.
I did recently go through 7 rounds of interviews for a CS role but I was not selected as my presentation style was not what they were looking for. I can only chalk this up to not having so much corporate presentation experience in the last 2 years. It would be nice to get a ton more interviews so I can improve in all these areas but sadly, that's not realistic. What do we do when we're getting rusty for the roles we are applying for?
This is such a tough situation but good for you for finding opportunities to stay engaged. A few thoughts:
Don’t portray yourself as rusty. Where ever possible, provide current examples that align with the kind of work you’d be doing in the role you’re applying for and talk about your role in similar ways so they don’t see it as a stretch or view you as rusty in any way. You might use a career accomplishments style summary at the top of your resume so the first examples a recruiter sees are related to a CS role vs a less aligned position.
Leverage the recruiter. Ask about what’s expected for presentations or what will be asked in interviews. They will often share those insights and that might help you prepare in ways that align more closely with what the team is looking for.
Are there opportunities to move towards a CS role internally? I know many companies are slowing down external hiring but perhaps you could move closer to CS role internally or help out with some projects or something. This could help you strengthen your resume as well with more current examples.
For more resources to support you in your search, check out my Linktree.
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