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Simple Steps to Leave Teaching for a Business Job and Career

simple steps to leave teaching for a business career

Are you considering leaving teaching for a corporate or business job and career? If you are, you need a career change strategy to get results. A key component of a successful job search is to translate your teacher skills into corporate skills effectively. Applying for different jobs outside of teaching is not uncommon. If this route is something you want to explore, then do it.

Teaching is considered a wonderful profession, but teachers feel the monetary compensation or respect is inadequate in many cases. Two of the main reasons why educators opt to change their jobs and leave teaching behind. Other times, individuals feel the need to make a difference in another area, so they leave teaching for the corporate world.

Whatever the reason may be, when changing careers, there are certain steps you should take to ensure a seamless transition.

Tips and Steps to Translate Your Teacher Skills into Corporate Skills

1. List of All Your Strengths, Skills, and Talents

Your career as a teacher has left you with excellent communication and decision-making skills. These are very marketable in the business world. Also include the capabilities you developed as a teacher, including project writing and planning skills, adequate multitasking, and management skills.

2. Transferable Strengths and Abilities

Using your list, examine how the strengths and competencies you earned from your teaching career can contribute to the functions of a business organization.

For example, project planning and writing skills gained from planning curricula are invaluable in the corporate world; the ability to multi-task, manage and communicate effectively learned from managing a classroom would also make you a good manager or project leader.

3. Identify Related Core Competencies you Enjoy Using

You will later use them to tailor your resume and cover letter to the particular jobs you seek while highlighting how your career as an educator better suits you for that job.

4. Modify Your Reaching Resume to Match the Desired Job Target

Try to focus the resume on your education level and relevant experience. When describing your teaching experience, highlight transitional skills and accomplishments that can relate to other positions. You could ask your principal and superintendent for recommendations and letters of reference. Have them focus the information in these documents on your listed skill set.

5. Apply to Relevant Jobs of Interest

For example, good communicators may do well in public speaking jobs; good project planners may fare well in management or project leader positions, and so on.

6. Notify Your Principal in a Letter of Resignation

Most teaching positions operate on yearly contracts; as such, you need to indicate that it is the last year you will be teaching at the school in your resignation letter. In case you signed a new contract, ask if you can have it voided.

7. The next groups you need to notify your intentions are your students and colleagues to save them the shock of finding out later. Explain the situation to them in a positive and friendly manner.

8. Get a checklist of the tasks you need to accomplish before the year ends and check them off as you finish them.

9. Finally, pack up your classroom. Bring enough boxes to carry all your personal belongings.

The beauty of being a teacher is that you impart quite a few of the skills used in business. Since you already know the corporate world’s strategies, your transition from teaching to another occupation should be achievable if not straightforward.

Target and fine-tune your resume by incorporating resume writing tips for launching your new career with less stress. Show your passion for the new direction and the reason for making the transition when writing an application letter.

Don’t underestimate the power of your resume and cover letter when making a career move from education to the business sector. Once again, a critical step is to translate your teacher skills into corporate skills to show your value in a business setting.