The Sugar Daddy Podcast
Ready to normalize talking about money? Then welcome to The Sugar Daddy Podcast, where talking about money isn't taboo, and you can leave your past money mistakes at the door! Every episode will get you one step closer to your financial goals. Whether that is learning how to invest, budget, save, retire early or simply make better money choices, Jess & Brandon have got you covered in a way that's easy to understand. Tune in as they demystify the realm of dollars, so it all makes cents, while giving you a glimpse into their relationship with money and each other.
The Norwoods are a married, millennial couple, here to help you build wealth, so you can live the life you've always dreamed of. Brandon is an award winning licensed financial planner, and owner of Oak City Financial, with over a decade of experience and millions of dollars managed for his clients all over the United States.
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The Sugar Daddy Podcast
64: How to Transition out of Teaching
Thinking about a career switch from the classroom to corporate? In this episode, Jess and Brandon explore the roadmap to making that change. Tune in as Jessica recounts her journey from teaching in the Carolinas to securing a role with a Fortune 100 tech giant, highlighting how often-overlooked skills can become your greatest asset. Learn how to network effectively, present your strengths confidently, and tailor your resume for a seamless transition. They also tackle the unique challenges of adjusting to a new work environment and the role of financial literacy in achieving long-term success. Tune in for practical insights, inspiring stories, and actionable strategies to help you redefine your career path and prepare for a fresh start outside of the classroom.
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So, now that I've come from teaching and I'm, you know, have pivoted and I'm now successfully in the tech world there are a few things that I want to call out that teachers who think they might want to transition or actively looking to transition really need to be mindful of, and hopefully these things will help you on your journey to figuring out what you want to transition into, talking about those transferable skills, building your network, and so, if you are a teacher, stay tuned. If you're not a teacher, send this episode to a friend that isn't teaching, that's pulling their hair out, because we think there's a lot of value.
Speaker 2:It's any podcast yo Learn how to make them pockets grow. Financial freedom's where we go. Smart investments, money flow. Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:Today we are talking about how to transition out of teaching Something that you've done successfully. Well, you know what's funny is I brought this episode idea to Brandon because I think it's important and I think it's valuable and I was like I'm out.
Speaker 2:I brought it to you a while ago.
Speaker 1:OK, well, semantics, Either way. I was like I really want to get an awesome teacher on here that's transitioned out of teaching and now has a successful career, you know, in a different field or in tech. And he was like, or we could just record the episode with you, because you've done that and I don't know where my head was Mom brain, it's real. But Brandon was like, yeah, we'll just record it with you and we'll go from there. And I was like, oh duh, but you know, I think I mean at this point I think I've been out of teaching longer than I was in teaching. So just for quick background, I have two master's degrees in education.
Speaker 1:Right after college graduation, like within days, I had an interview at the school that I ended up working at for four years. It was a almost new middle school in South Carolina. That's where I got my start. And then I transitioned and taught high school for three years in the district that I grew up in. So not the high school that I went to, but still the same district. So kind of a full circle moment was really cool. I made some great memories.
Speaker 2:So seven full years in teaching.
Speaker 1:Seven full years in teaching, and then this guy asked me to move to North Carolina, and at that point I knew we were going to be married and all the things, and so I changed my licenses.
Speaker 1:There's no reciprocity from South Carolina to North Carolina, so I did all the things I needed to in order to get my licenses updated and all that, and then come to find out North Carolina did not want to acknowledge that I had two master's degrees. They were going to only give me credit for one, and if you know anything about teaching in the United States, you know that we do not pay our teachers well, and so the biggest pay bump that you'll get really in education, from my experience, is going from your bachelor's degree to your master's degree. So I got that bump and then a master's to a master's, plus 30. So if you have any other coursework certifications, another master's degree, that's another bump that you can get, and then, of course, you can get your PhD, you can do board certifications, etc. But for them to not acknowledge my second master's degree was really quite alarming, and so at that point I decided all right, I could, you know, work at Starbucks.
Speaker 2:You're missing a key point, though, because I think them not recognizing your second master's degree. You were going to make somewhere around $12,000 less.
Speaker 1:Correct, and I was already not making anything.
Speaker 2:So you know, as a teacher, not making a ton of money, obviously, and then coming to North Carolina and they were going to pay you $12,000 less.
Speaker 1:Crazy.
Speaker 2:Is just that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the issues with teaching. So literally I was like I could work at Starbucks, have better health insurance, better work-life balance, probably have more fun at work, have stock options, like you know and that's not to discount any of the other companies that I could have considered, but at that point it was time to pivot and so I made a pivot. We're not going to get into that journey right now, but I am ultimately now in the tech space, which is where I plan on staying. I currently work for a fortune 100 company and really the experience has been great. I have since also helped several of our friends and acquaintances and former colleagues transition out of teaching.
Speaker 1:I hope that our children's teachers don't listen to this episode, because we need good teachers and I respect the teaching profession so much. But it's really difficult because you pour into your teeth. You know you're teaching your lessons, your kids, your classroom. You're spending so much of your, your money in providing snacks, decorations. You know great experiences and the good teachers who are going above and beyond really are. You're exhausted at the end of the day and for the people who are like, but you get your summers off, take that nonsense somewhere else. There is no off time I had a part-time job during the summer. Every summer you're changing classrooms, you're getting assigned new curriculums.
Speaker 1:Also, our kids go to year-round school, so yeah, so the summer is five and a half weeks and you know the teachers don't get that full five and a half weeks. And I mean, just save the nonsense for somebody else, because we're not, we're not here for it. But all that to say, it makes sense that there seems to be this mass exodus out of education because you are overworked, underpaid, highly stressed. And Brandon and I knew, while you know I was moving here and we were going to get married and all those things we knew, we wanted to have our own family. And I remember vividly having a conversation where I said I don't think that we can have our own children. While I'm also pouring into, you know, 32 kids per class, six classes a day, and then come home and want to spend time with you and our own kids, I just I'm not going to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this episode is not telling teachers to transition, because I we both believe that teaching is one of the hardest professions there is and they don't get nearly what they should be paid nor the credit in the United States.
Speaker 2:They don't get. They don't nearly get the credit that they should get either. And so, as just as stated, you know, a lot of teachers are getting burned out and wanting to do something else, transition out of teaching. And so this episode is for those teachers who are looking to transition, to transition out. And I remember, several years back, talking to I was at a networking event and I was talking to somebody and I asked them what they did for a living and they were like oh, you know, I'm, I'm just a teacher.
Speaker 2:And I was like just a teacher, that's how you describe what you do, as if teaching is not the most important thing, because we've all learned from teachers you know, without teachers, society wouldn't be what it is today, and so I think a big portion of this episode is to really make teachers understand that so much of what you do from a skill set is 100% transferable into other careers.
Speaker 1:Yes. So to piggyback off of what you said, this episode is for teachers who are thinking of transitioning out of teaching. For teachers who are thinking of transitioning out of teaching who are thinking of maybe doing it, you know, at this next summer break or maybe two or three or four or five years from now. I mean, you have options.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I've learned in working with friends and colleagues and acquaintances who are looking to transition from teaching is that there are pretty large gaps. So now that I've come from teaching and I'm, you know, have pivoted and I'm now successfully in the tech world, there are a few things that I want to call out that teachers who think they might want to transition or actively looking to transition really need to be mindful of, and hopefully these things will help you on your journey to figuring out what you want to transition into, talking about those transferable skills, building your network, and so if you are a teacher, stay tuned. If you're not a teacher, send this episode to a friend that isn't teaching, that's pulling their hair out, because we think there's a lot of value here. Now, also, keep in mind that these kind of tips and tricks and suggestions are not this is not a comprehensive list, right. These are some of the things that I think and what I've seen in helping my friends and colleagues transition out of the classroom.
Speaker 1:These are the things that I see as themes consistently that could use improvement, and I think one of the first things that I'll say is you know, coming back to your, your story about that networking event of I'm just a teacher is really, I find that teachers a lot of times diminish their skill sets. And you're not just a teacher, you are a teacher, you're a counselor, you're a compliance officer, you are a psychologist, you're a party planner, you're a program manager, you're a product manager. You are doing so many jobs in one day in one class, five, six times a day, with little resourcing, little support.
Speaker 2:One person corporation.
Speaker 1:Literally, and so I want to start the conversation with really getting into your skill sets and really writing down the things that you do on a daily basis. When I ask for resumes from teachers, half the time the formatting is totally wrong. You're utilizing half of the page and it doesn't even go down to a full page, and I'm like, having been a teacher for seven years, this page should be full and I should be scrolling to the second page. Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money? Am I doing the right things with my investments? Am I on track to reach my financial goals? What could I be doing better? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be. What are you waiting for? It's literally free and, at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future. Link is in our show notes. Go, schedule your call today.
Speaker 1:This is not comprehensive, and so one of the things that I have asked friends and colleagues to do when they're looking to transition is write down everything you do during the day, during each class.
Speaker 1:If you're teaching multiple levels, you know sometimes, if you're a grade level teacher, fine, everything you do in every seventh grade class that you teach. If you are an arts teacher, where you're teaching grades, you know six through eight or nine through 12 or whatever it might be every single thing that you're doing for those classes, whether you think it's big or small. Get it down on paper. We can always pull back, we can always refine, but when you're already starting from a place of, well, I only do this, I just do this, it's really hard to build on top of that, and so I literally encourage you to open up a document and word vomit what did you do this week, what did you do this month and get it all out there, Every little tiny thing. Put it on paper, and that's going to be the start of building a really comprehensive story for your resume comprehensive story for your resume.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I 100% agree with that, because Jess has obviously done successfully herself and she's helped other people successfully transition, and I've worked in finance with individuals who have a teaching background and I can tell you one of the advisors that I think I learned a ton from, as far as from a presentation standpoint and how he would explain things was a former teacher. So you know, this is just a matter of, like she said, word, vomit it and then look through it, but then also have somebody else help you out as far as picking out the different, different things that you do throughout the course of your day and doing a better job of maybe explaining how that skill set in the classroom actually transfers. To quote unquote corporate America.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think and we've brought this up in a previous episode as well as this is a really good time after you've word vomited all the things that you do and you're really taking a skills assessment, what you're good at, the certifications that you've gotten, the classes you've taken, the classes you've enjoyed, you know, do you? What do you thrive in? What parts of your day do you really look forward to? Is it curriculum planning? Is it writing out a curriculum? Is it the parent teacher conferences? Is it working with school counselors? Is it having IEP meetings? Is it planning the class field trip? Is it planning the fundraisers? Like, what really energizes you? Because I know, coming out of education, the kids are the kids, right, there's, it's going to be good, it's going to be bad, it's going to be messy, it's going to be hilarious. Like kids, you just that's what makes the day go by quickly, right? Because you just never know what they're going to say, what they're going to do, and no, two days are the same.
Speaker 2:I sat through her classes one time when we were still dating towards the end of the school day and I was like man, was I like this in high school?
Speaker 1:He was like I could never do this, and I was like, oh, I know, but those are the things I want you to think about. What fires you up? What parts of your day and your activities are really exciting to you, and is that something you would want to lean into more? I think another thing that you need to think about, you know, aside from the obvious, are you willing to take a pay cut, you know, to start in a new industry, recognizing that you might need to take a step back to then take a step forward? Are you willing to go.
Speaker 2:There's probably a few industries that'll do that.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because teachers don't get paid a lot at all.
Speaker 1:You know, would you be willing to take a commissions-based role? Something that is very new and I've had to talk some of my friends through, is you know, as a teacher you don't get much of a paycheck, but it's a steady paycheck, whereas if you're going into sales and you don't have any sales experience, you might have to start at the bottom of that totem pole. You might have to start with some 22-year-old new grads who are deciding to go into that same field. And what does that commission structure look like? What does that bonus structure look like? Do you want to work in an office?
Speaker 1:Most of you, unless you're actually teaching, virtually still you're around people all day right, like being in a classroom, being with other teachers, going into your departmental planning meetings. Those are very social activities. Do you enjoy that? Does that fire you up? Does it drain you? You have to decide. I think it could be very isolating for somebody to go from a classroom teaching job to a fully remote. I work from home. I come downstairs in the morning and turn on my laptop job. You need to decide.
Speaker 1:Is that something you want to explore? Do you think you might need something a little bit more hybrid? And then also onboarding right, onboarding in a new way. Do you do that better in person? Do you like doing that virtually? These are the times to really think about how your life will change. If you have a family, how is this going to impact them? But then also, you know, what current skill sets do you want to lean into? Where do you thrive? You know what are your passions, what industries interest you most. Right, everybody talks about tech, tech, tech, tech is pretty volatile, like I can tell you that. So you know you might want to think about those things as well.
Speaker 2:So, from your experience, what would you say are maybe the top three skills as a teacher that you see transfer over to corporate America the easiest?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. So I think training and development is huge, right, You're literally training, teaching a classroom full of kids every single day. If you can keep their attention and get them to learn something, you can do it with a quote unquote classroom full of adults. Something you can do it with a quote unquote classroom full of adults. So those training and development roles, sales trainers.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, that is. I mean that's, that's, that's very important, because that's that's in every corporation 100%.
Speaker 1:Everybody needs to be trained right. Every everybody needs some sort of an onboarding experience. Those come in all different varieties, but there needs to be something.
Speaker 2:And I honestly think that it should be someone with a teaching background. I have definitely sat through trainings where it was very obvious this person has never been in a classroom or taught anybody else, but they were very successful at their job so they thought, oh, they could teach somebody else, and that is a completely different skill set.
Speaker 1:Yes, very so. Training and development, anything, customer service, let's face it, you are in front of people all day, every day. Your students are your customers. The students' parents are your customers. Your principal is your customer. Those guidance counselors, they are your customers. Everybody in that school is a stakeholder. And let me pivot into that, because one of the things that I think teachers need to be aware of are those corporate lingos and the corporate jargon, right so, customers, stakeholders, you call them students.
Speaker 2:Decision makers.
Speaker 1:Decision makers. You call them students, you call them your leadership team, but what does that look like on a resume? How can you make it really clear on a resume that your customers are your students, but they are your stakeholders, because that is what you're being judged on. How are they performing? Are they ready to move to the next level? How are they receiving the information? How are they doing on standardized testing? All of that, I think, is really important to recognize when you're switching industries. Depending on what industry you go into. What verbiage do they use? How do they talk about their customers, their stakeholders, their clients, whatever it might be? Do your due diligence and make sure you're speaking that language.
Speaker 2:That is a great point.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Because in any scenario where you're speaking to another individual trying to relay information, you should use the language of the individual that you are trying to speak to, so you want to mirror their language. So definitely looking up that jargon for that specific industry and incorporating that into not just your resume but, once you do get the interview, using it there as well.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and it's okay to say, hey, I'm leaning heavily into my teaching background, the way I see my students. You would see your stakeholders right, you can say students and stakeholders, or students and clients in the same sentence. What you want to really make sure that you're doing is painting that picture for the person that you're interviewing with, because, yes, we've all had teachers, maybe they're in our families, maybe you know your mom or your dad was a teacher and you understand, as an interviewer, what goes into that. But in the event that you're talking to somebody who doesn't have a really good understanding of all the components and pieces that go into teaching, you want to make it really crystal clear that you understand that your students are your stakeholders and these are the people that you're serving in the work that you're doing.
Speaker 2:I think most people have heard the saying where, when you're explaining something to someone, you should explain it as if you're explaining it to a five-year-old. And if you can't properly explain it to a five-year-old, then the reality is that you probably don't understand it enough yourself.
Speaker 2:So, you know, using those analogies to draw that comparison to the experience that you have and how that would actually, you know, translate exactly to corporate America, is exactly what you need to do, because I mean, like she said, a lot of people don't necessarily have that same um connection with someone who's a teacher. You know, I'm I'm different in that scenario. I've never been a teacher. I'd probably be not that good of one my patience. Yeah, your patience level is not there I think I could do well with high schoolers, high school.
Speaker 1:You could not, because you would be like they're too old to be acting like that.
Speaker 2:I would do better. I'm to say I would do better with, like the younger kids who don't know better. I couldn't do well with people who should be acting right in art. Yeah, no, but like obviously I'm married to a former teacher and my mother is a retired educator, so I do have a different perspective on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you know what goes into it and all the things that we pour in.
Speaker 2:It's the school day. You come home and you're doing grading and planning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a full-time, round the clock. So, training and development customer service. I think program management really lends well, also because, as a classroom teacher, you are managing a program right. If you're teaching social studies or science, what are you doing? You have your lessons, you have your content, you have your projects, you have your rubrics, you have your field trips, you have your field trip permission slip forms. You're doing all these pieces and components that tie everything together, and that's really what project management is. It's you have a start right. What are you trying to accomplish? And you have an end date and then you work backwards from there to achieve that goal. What are those components that go into what you need to do in order to achieve that goal? Who are, again, the stakeholders? Who else needs to be involved? How are you going to hold them accountable? How are you going to communicate with them? How are you going to pull them in? How are you going to communicate with them? How are you going to pull them in? How are you going to build your champions right? There's all those components in project management that you're absolutely already doing as a classroom teacher.
Speaker 1:If you're a science teacher, think about all the work that goes into setting up a lab. That goes into setting up a dissection. That goes into setting up a chemistry experiment, setting up a dissection. That goes into, you know, setting up a chemistry experiment. I don't care if it's something as quote, unquote, simple as and I hope it. You know, I'm not offending anybody, but like, one of the things that sticks out to me is in chemistry class and you tie dye shirts, you know, like I don't remember the lesson, Maybe I'm mixing it up.
Speaker 2:I did not do that in my chemistry class at all.
Speaker 1:Not chemistry. No, I don't know. I did not do that in my chemistry class at all. Not chemistry. No, I don't know, I could be wrong. I could be wrong.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know, you were the South Carolina education system, so Don't be throwing shade.
Speaker 1:But you know you're setting up, you ordered all the components. You have to send out messaging to students, to parents, to say, hey, bring in a white shirt, make sure it's not pre-washed, you know, whatever it is, those are all pieces and components of starting with the end in mind, driving towards a goal and then having you know the next day all of your students wearing a tie-dyed shirt that they created right, the end product. So again, do not diminish or discount all of the things that go into what you do during the day, how you're planning your lessons, how you're getting your students ready for testing. You know if you're doing any kind of IB, like international baccalaureate, you're doing AP courses. You need to know your stats, especially if you're going to go into a tech field or something where you are being judged on performance. Have that in your resume. You know outline.
Speaker 1:I had 100% pass rate on my IB exams or on my AP exams. That speaks volumes. That means you took an entire class of students and got them to a level of understanding that they can pass a national test. I need to see that on a resume and those are the things that I would call out to my friends and my colleagues, because I knew that they did these things and it wasn't anywhere on their resume. Or hey, you blew the school fundraiser out of the water because you, you know, held extra car washes and pulled in your students and the parents got involved and all the people want to see that.
Speaker 1:People want to see that you can raise money that you can raise money, that you have the ability to pull people in, pull people together again towards those common goals.
Speaker 1:Like they don't feel like a lot to you and you're like, oh, I'm just doing my job and I wanted to win at the fundraiser and no, these are big things. So when I said at the beginning, word vomit, all the things you did, that's important, if you like, I remember myself and one of my close friends we planned a trip and took kids to Europe when we were teaching middle school and you know you have to have, let's say, six people to sign up to actually do a tour. Well, if you end up with 20, 30, 40 people, like that is good for the business that you are enlisting, that vendor that you're working with. So think about vendor relationships, right? They said, hey, we can do this with six people and you brought them 42. You blew it out of the water, friend, put that on your resume.
Speaker 1:You know, again, that is showing that you now have 42 families allowing you, willing you to take their kids across the globe, entrusting you. You know those are key characteristics that people want to hire. You know, like if I don't want to hire somebody that I'm going to allow to take my child out of the country like that doesn't make sense. There's a correlation there.
Speaker 2:Also this I'm not. I just this just popped into my mind. I don't know if you had thought about it from the standpoint, but teachers go into teaching knowing that they're not going to make a lot of money. No one is going into the teaching profession because they want to become rich. They do it because of the genuine love for teaching children and explaining that to an employer, because most people let's be honest we go to work to make money.
Speaker 1:People choose careers to make money.
Speaker 2:And there are very select careers where those people are not going to those careers at all to make money. And I think taking someone that had that background and then being able to have that same heart put into the corporate America aspect, that's what I want on my team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely 100%, you're spot on, just to keep going here. 100%, you're spot on, just to keep going here. So again, you know, updating your resume, word vomiting, getting all of those, those skills down, showing how you communicate, showing how you plan, showing how you keep compliance, showing how you maintain privacy, these are all key factors, especially if you're going into the corporate world, the nonprofit space. You know that was going to be another thing. The nonprofit space, depending on what you're doing, don't expect to make any money there either.
Speaker 2:You know, so if you're looking to transition into, like a high salary or high earning position, you know if you become a director of a nonprofit, as I have some clients that are that well, that's a six figure position.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you're not going to go straight from teaching to being a director so again going back to are you willing to take a step back, to learn a new skill, to catapult yourself forward? All of that? One of the things that I consistently found that teachers don't do enough of is networking. And I don't mean networking with other teachers, because unfortunately those other teachers are probably not going to help you transition out of teaching unless they happen to have a spouse or a partner that you know maybe can potentially help in some way. But get out of that teacher pool and make it a point to network. Think about again those industries that you're interested in, those topics that you are fired up by, and try to connect with people. Go to meetup groups, get on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:Another point when I left teaching- I don't know if there's any teachers I've ever seen on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:I tried to connect with all of my teacher friends on LinkedIn. Y'all were not there. Where were you? Where are you still to this day? The corporate world is on LinkedIn. Linkedin is the Facebook for corporations. You need to be on there, you need to have a professional photo, you need to have a banner, you need to have a bio and everything that you put on your resume your certifications, your degrees, your language skills, your licenses put it on LinkedIn, because when you start reaching out to recruiters, or you want recruiters to start reaching out to you, they need to know, a that you exist and, b what your skill sets are.
Speaker 2:If you are applying for a job and you are not on LinkedIn, to me you do not exist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually, if you don't have a fully baked LinkedIn profile, pause this episode and go do that now and then come back and finish this episode. You need a LinkedIn profile. Yeah, you need a LinkedIn profile. That is also where you're going to want to make connections. So connect with everybody. You know your alumni group fellow. You know college people like those alumni groups. They have job boards, they have job postings. Those are great places to understand what's going on within your extended network and here's the like.
Speaker 2:Very interesting about networking is that once you start to connect, you could be connecting with people that you went to high school with. That you haven't talked to since high school but if you were a good person you had a good reputation when you were in high school. They actually kind of transferred that to you as an adult yeah and they even sometimes transferred over to your spouse.
Speaker 2:So, for example, one of the jobs that uh jess had was uh through a connection of a woman that I went to middle school and high school with, but we hadn't talked since then oh, yeah, and yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I you're talking, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And she recognized, like I, we, I all my social media, you know posting stuff of us. She recognized Jess at a networking event and came up and started talking to her and had a position open.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so this is a funny story. So your network is how you get work. We've said that in a previous episode. Look it up with Jessica Mitch Holmes. Your network is how you get work, and so I was. I'm always out networking and I try to do it genuinely.
Speaker 2:No, you are genuine.
Speaker 1:I love meeting new people. People are, you know, my superpower. That's just always how I've been. But she came up to me at a networking event and she was like this is going to sound really creepy. I know you don't know me, but I know, brandon. We went to school together and I really loved how you engaged with the moderator and the answers that you gave, etc. I have a position open on my team. I don't know if you're looking, but would love to have you. And I was like whoa, this is a lot.
Speaker 1:Pretty sure I was pregnant with Roman at the time and I was like this is not the right time, but let's connect on LinkedIn and let's stay in touch. Would love to do some coffee chats, maybe meet for breakfast, and we actually ended up doing that and, like once a quarter, we would like, you know, meet up, have breakfast, what's going on in your world, what's going on in ours? And then she came back. It was the right time for me to transition out of my role and I actually reached out and I said hey, you know, timing is better what you got. And she said Well, I don't have anything on my team, but if you're open to being a people leader, so managing people. I think you'd be great for this role. Let me send you the job description.
Speaker 1:One thing leads to another. I apply, go through the recruiting process, etc. And I ended up joining this wonderful company, working under really great leadership, making great money, and it was. It's perfect right. Like your network is how you get work. That happened all because of a LinkedIn connection and social media.
Speaker 2:And thankfully I wasn't that big of a jerk in high school.
Speaker 1:And thankfully I didn't marry a jerk, you know so. But all that to say, go and create a LinkedIn profile. Connect with people. Join your spouses you know you can follow companies. Find all of your alumni, follow people from high school, connect with your friends. That is how you build out your network. When people go to a LinkedIn profile, they want to see that you exist and that, honestly, like that, you know people right. If you're on there and you have less than 100 connections, people are just going to move on, like it's like what is this person? Who is this person? What are they even doing?
Speaker 1:Build your connections and then, once you've built your connections, make it a point to reach out to people, to post what articles are you reading that are interesting? What certifications are you getting? Make sure that you're posting your accomplishments, your achievements. People post all sorts of things hey, the best five business books I've read this year. If you haven't read them, add them to your list. If it has a professional undertone, post it. That's totally fine. And then actively let people know that you're searching for a new career, and one of the best things that you can do when you're doing that is don't just say, hey, I'm looking for something new. Would love your help. What am I supposed to do with that?
Speaker 2:The more specific you can be, the better.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm looking for a new role, transitioning out of teaching. You know K through 12, art, and I think I'd be really great at project management. Here's why. Here are my certifications, here are my skills and here's how I think the skills that I currently use in the classroom translate. If there's any connections you can make, I'd be grateful. Right, ask for those coffee chats, ask where people are networking, ask what events they're going to, ask what conferences they're going to and, if you have the budget, try to go to at least one conference networking event, chamber of commerce event, rotary Club event. I mean, there's so many things. Whether you want to pay or not pay. If you are intentional about looking for opportunities to connect with people, genuinely connect with people, go do that with people.
Speaker 2:Go do that, and you'd be surprised that if you reach out to someone, maybe you don't necessarily know how willing a lot of people are to helping other people.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to recall a quick story, but this is back when I was like 24 years old and I was living in Arizona and at the time I was looking to try to get into, like event nightlife planning, and so I looked up the individuals in the area that were, you know, doing a lot of that, and I remember reaching out to a few of them and one of them I reached out to just saying like, hey, I don't have an experience in this, recently moved here. Look into, you know, get into it. I see that you know you're one of the leaders in this area. If I could, you know, pick your brain for a minute or whatever, take you out for coffee, whatever. Take you out for coffee. Just, you know, learn some information. She took me up on it, talked about things, and she had stuff for me to do literally like two weeks, two weeks. From there she was like, hey, I'm doing NBA all-star weekend, I got some things.
Speaker 1:I need help with here, and that was someone I did not know at all. I think that brings up a good point too. If you volunteer your willingness right, even if you're saying, hey, this is a completely new industry for me, I'm not well versed in this, but here's what I'm good at. I'm good at party planning. I'm good at you know networking. I'm good at being a bouncer, I'm good at you know. I'm good at cashflow right, I can work a register, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:If you are saying, hey, put me in coach, right, like, if you have something, let me know, people will come back. Right, people will, even if it's not in that moment. Just remember a no is really just a not right now. Don't let no's and again, as teachers, you're not getting. You know, I always tell the people that I work with now I'm like I have two kids and I used to teach middle school. You have to do a lot to offend me, so you have tough skin. A no is not a no, it's not right now. Right, but you have to ask.
Speaker 1:You cannot assume that people will see your LinkedIn profile and be like, oh, karen hasn't been on LinkedIn. I bet she's looking for a new job. Ain't nobody got time for that. I'm not worried about you Now if you come to me and say hey, jessica, you've successfully transitioned out of a career in teaching. I would love to know more about that. Or here are some jobs that I'm thinking I would be great at. What can you recommend? Who could I talk to? Can you put me in touch with someone? I am always willing to help.
Speaker 2:And you literally had we had a friend that did that.
Speaker 1:Several friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the one I'm thinking of ended up getting a job at the company you're at.
Speaker 1:So, even better, I left that company from the previous story and I always like to leave. You know, I like to leave things in a better place than what I left them Right, and so I suggested that she come in and join the team and has been a rock star from the beginning. I also brought in another backfill when I actually left for my role because I wanted my leader. At the time she was phenomenal. I didn't want to leave her hanging. I knew that a pivot was the right thing for me, but I wanted to say, hey, I'm leaving, but I have somebody that is, you know, is going to crush it in this role. If you give her a chance, let me give her a call and see if she wants to have a conversation. I vividly remember I called her. I was in Publix grocery shopping and I was like, hey, I'm leaving. I think you would love it, let's talk and I will directly send your information to my manager. She has now been there for three years.
Speaker 1:You know like people are willing to help, but you have to communicate. You have to say the only reason I thought of the person who backfilled me is because we had a previous conversation where she said timing's not right, but just keep me in mind. Here are the things I'm looking for. Here is the environment that I would like to work in. I would love to work under a female leader, or I would love to work fully, remotely or whatever it is. Have the conversation so when people are presented with opportunities, they think of you. They remember, oh, so-and-so, actually reached out and said they wanted a fully hybrid role or, ooh, they wanted to work for a woman sales leader, because they've never done that in their career. Make it known what you want, so that people think of you when the time comes.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think at the end of the day, it's not undervaluing what you do.
Speaker 2:I think that's really the big thing that we are trying to stress is that those skills are so transferable.
Speaker 2:I mean, I since you know, just and I both work from home I often hear the calls that she's on, because she's on calls all day, and the one thing that I noticed about her is that her style of presentation is significantly better, I believe, than a lot of the other people like here that she's speaking with. And it's just and I think that's a credit to one, like, obviously, who she is and how hard she works. But her teaching background, where she's literally in front of students, you know, throughout the course of a school day doing this, and then she takes those same fundamentals and applies it to corporate america, and especially with today with so much remote work where we're on zoom calls and whatnot, and whatever are so distracted, you have to keep them engaged having a good presentation via online through a zoom call is an extremely important skill because we all have sat through terrible, terrible zoom calls because the person's not engaging and they don't have that skill set.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's a very important one nowadays.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So I think you know all of that to say be vulnerable, put yourself out there, make yourself known. We had Mandy Money on. She's a career negotiation coach. Go back and listen to that episode.
Speaker 1:Her catchphrase is be kind and easy to find right. You want people to know that you exist and you need people to find you easily. And when they go to your profile, they need to see what you're about, what you care about, what your skill sets are, what you're looking for. And one of the big things with networking that I think is helpful is, if you can, to apply for A ask if that person has a referral portal that they can recommend you for, because that's always helpful. They can also chat with the hiring manager, figure out, you know, is this requisition real? What is the actual pay band that is being offered? You know, do you already have somebody internal that you're looking at? Does my friend need to be wasting their time even applying All these different things? But even more so if you can say hey, I wrote up a little paragraph. If you would share this with the hiring manager about my skill sets to see if they think it would align, I'd be happy to apply after that Don't make people who are already busy working full time, have families, have homes we all have busy lives the more you can provide to people to just copy paste, put it in an email.
Speaker 1:Hey, brandon, saw your job posting. Have a friend, that I think would be great. Here's a quick bio. I didn't have to write that bio. All I had to do was write the two lines to make the introduction and you did the rest. I can send that out 20 times a day. What I don't have time for is to write 20 bios a day. So make it easy, be kind, be easy to find. Tee things up for people.
Speaker 2:Ask for coffee meetings.
Speaker 1:Make it a low lift. Be genuine in how you're engaging and how you're asking for help. Once your LinkedIn profile is set up, you can actually make yourself open to recruiters without letting your current employer know that you're looking for jobs. So this is the time where you can let recruiters know where you want to work, how you want to work, what industries you're interested in, what your skill sets are. And again, I know that the fear is oh, my principal is going to see it and A your principal is not getting rid of you because he's already understaffed. So that's point number one. Point number two you can do it so that only recruiters and I used to have a recruiting license. They were $10,000 a month back in the day. These are not just regular profiles on LinkedIn, so you don't need to worry about it. But that brings me to my one of my last points, which is be realistic about your timeline. I knew for me and the relationships that I had with my students I was not going to leave them in the middle of the year. I was going to. I was going to fulfill my contract. I am not judging anybody who leaves in the middle of a year, because I know how hard it is. But if you're working with recruiters, you're starting to have phone conversations, which I strongly encourage. Interview, have phone screens. You know, wet that whistle, get that training back. You know, especially if you've been in that role Teachers, you guys are loyalists.
Speaker 1:We're loyal. We stay in our contracts, we stay at our schools. We're creatures of habit. That means you could be listening to this episode thinking man, I haven't interviewed for a job in 10 years. Guess what you need to be interviewing, you need to be practicing, you need to be making mistakes. Even better if you can do all of that before your contract runs out. So think about when do you want to start? Are you going to give your principal notice that you're not coming back the next year? Are you going to do it last minute? Are you open to leaving in the middle of the year? Think about all of those things as you're going into this journey. But get out there, Really get out there.
Speaker 1:Hone your story. This is like the last thing I'll say, and this is from a Forbes article which I thought was really interesting about your pivot story, and it said that a lot of teachers will say things like I taught fifth grade for 10 years I enjoyed seeing students excel, and that story really doesn't highlight what teachers are good at or what you are good at. So instead you could say something like as a teacher, I've learned to perfect my communication style and how to adapt to the ever-changing environments. I've enjoyed my time as a teacher for the past 10 years and I'm excited to apply what I've learned to a new career, such as corporate training or helping a nonprofit. And then you can go into the various skill sets that you think will be helpful in that role.
Speaker 1:Again, you're really creating a picture of A why you're transitioning, but also where are your skills going to fit into that transition? So get away from well. I taught for 10 years and I love my students to. I'm ready to pivot into this area for these reasons, and here's how my skills align and really building out that elevator pitch.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything to add.
Speaker 1:That's a first folks. No, I'm just kidding. Listen, I could talk about this for two more hours. If you have any questions at all about my transition story, if you want to dig deeper into this, if you want us to do a part two into this, let us know. We wanted to make this as digestible as possible as a first episode of how to transition out of teaching. Hopefully you've learned something. Please share this with any of your teacher friends who are looking to transition out of the space Again. Do not send it to our children's teachers. We need them, we love them, but hopefully this was helpful. Share it with a friend. Don't forget to leave a rating and review on Apple and on Spotify.
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