Leaving the Classroom: A Transitioning Teacher Podcast

Leaving the Classroom 33: 3 Steps to Leave the Classroom

In this episode host Kristi Oliva discusses three steps for teachers who want to leave the classroom for a new career. She talks about picking a new career path through research and networking, discusses rewriting your resume to focus on results and skills instead of just tasks, and addresses practicing interviewing skills since interviews are important for getting jobs outside of teaching.

Tune in to hear:

- Why picking a new career path through research and networking is important

- Why rewriting your resume to focus on results and skills instead of just tasks is necessary 

- Why practicing interviewing skills is crucial for getting jobs outside of teaching

Listen to the episode here:

Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn 

This podcast is sponsored by IDOL Courses and is the only authorized vocational school and implementation program of its kind that not only shows you exactly how to create your job application assets and build a portfolio from scratch, but also includes credentials, mentorship, expert coaching, and paid experience opportunities in corporate instructional design and online learning for life! Learn more about the program here.

Enjoy the podcast transcription:

Kristi Oliva

Welcome to leaving the classroom. This is a podcast for teachers who are ready to transition out of the classroom and into a new career. Each week, I'll share stories about what I've learned moving from education to the corporate world. I'll answer the most common questions and share my best tips to help you get started. If you are considering leaving the classroom, this show is for you. 

Hello, everyone. Welcome to leaving the classroom. I'm so glad you're here. Hi, my name is Kristi, and I am a teacher turns program manager. I left the classroom for my first corporate role almost four years ago. And today I'm sharing the three steps to take if you want to leave the classroom. 

So first, you need to pick a path. When I first decided it was time to leave the classroom, I struggled to figure out what to do next. Like most teachers who want to leave the first roles I researched were still in the education space for crying out loud, I thought I had to move up in the school system, or teach in some other capacity. It didn't even occur to me to look at other roles. Now I get messages all the time from teachers who are desperate to leave the classroom, but have no direction. They will give me a list of jobs that they that they would like to try... so it can range anywhere from research analyst, Ed Tech, corporate trainer, just a whole list. And all these roles are so different. But they do have transferable teacher skills embedded in their job descriptions, they're all valid. But you have to figure out which path you want to take, you have to pick one, you can't go for all of those positions at once. So I suggest doing a lot of researching on each of the roles that appeals to you. Keep an open mind to roles that maybe you had never heard of before. And also you can find people that are in those current roles. Use LinkedIn and other networking tools. Use your friends and family to help you find people in these roles. Reach out and just start asking questions. Many people are willing to give you some time and answer questions. 

The second step to leaving the classroom is to revisit your resume. Your teacher's resume is not going to work anymore. At all. I'm so sorry to tell you. And I'm not sure if teachers ever really learn how to write a real resume. At least I didn't because I never needed to. I basically stepped... I basically slapped my education and my chronological work history on a page and that was my resume, and it worked. But that's not going to cut it anymore. Your resume needs to be results based, which means you have to have more than just a list of tasks. That's all I had, at the time, my resume said things like created and developed daily lesson plans, collaborated with peers but these are all kinds of wrong. I had no idea. So when you go and start to rewrite your resume, just realize that it's one of the most difficult and time consuming tasks you'll perform when you decide to leave the classroom. It's terrible. But it is arguably the most important because you won't even land interviews if your resume doesn't gain attention. I have a formula that will help your resume gain attention, check out episode 13 of the podcast for that resume formula. 

Now the third step to leaving the classroom is to practice interviewing. If you're like me, then you never had to interview much for teaching roles, or at all. I was just a number and a butt in a seat. So as long as I showed up to the interview, I pretty much got the job. Skill didn't factor into it and I kind of got used to that. In fact, I never went on a job interview without getting an offer. And so I never practiced interviewing. In fact, I barely thought of how important interviewing is. Until I started interviewing for roles outside of teaching. All of a sudden, I was being asked about results in my previous roles and I wasn't prepared. I wasn't prepared to talk about results. I wasn't prepared to talk about data. I wasn't prepared to answer questions like the ones that they were asking me. And for the first time ever, I had to practice interviewing, and you need to also. And while a good resume will get you the interview, a good interview is gonna get you the job. So it's very important. And I have a formula for that too. Check out my interview formula on episode 14 of the podcast. 

Listen, leaving the classroom is very difficult, but the three steps I've given you today will give you what you need to get started. 

And if you liked this episode, please subscribe and follow so that you never miss an episode. And if you leave a five star review, did you know that it helps other teachers find the podcast? Please take a minute and leave a review. 

It's time to take control and make the career change that will change your life. It changed mine. See you next time. 

That's all for this episode, but you can find more at idolcourses.com or subscribe to the podcast. And if you are ready to leave the classroom, use my code classroom100 And get $100 off enrollment to IDOL courses Academy.

Send your stories or questions to [email protected] or share them with me on Instagram  @leavingtheclassroom.