The field of education has gone through significant changes in recent years, and the demands placed on teachers has grown. While some of these changes have been exciting, others have left much to be desired. Educators across the country are finding themselves having to adapt, and this has led to many exploring the idea of making a transition from teaching to a new career.
If you are ready to make the switch, updating your resume is a must. The document you created for teaching roles will not be as effective in the corporate world. Knowing where and how to make these adjustments can enable you to better position yourself for the next phase of your career.
What are Other Fields Where Teachers Can Be Successful?
Let go of the fear that your experience as a teacher has pigeon-holed your options when it comes to your career. This is simply not true. As an educator, you have developed a wealth of knowledge and skills that are transferable to other industries and roles. It is just a matter of changing your mindset and adjusting your perspective. Here are a few areas where teachers have found success:
Corporate Training: If you are still passionate about teaching but want to apply those skills to a different audience, transitioning to corporate training could be a good fit. You’re still developing curricula, creating lesson plans and activities, conducting assessments, and presenting materials, just to adult learners instead.
Sales: Teachers are very good at presenting complex information in an easily understood manner and influencing decisions. You can work your magic to gain buy-in from customers and businesses for different products or services.
Customer Success: Teachers are always resolving conflicts, putting out fires, and coming up with creative solutions. They know how to make different stakeholders happy, and part of customer success is ensuring that clients have what they need, solving problems, and fostering positive relationships.
Project Management: Chances are, as an educator, you coordinated a lot of projects, field trips, testing, meetings, and more. As a project manager, you would be responsible for organizing a lot of moving pieces, bringing teams together, tracking progress, and making sure nothing gets overlooked.
Subject-Specific Jobs: Depending on your area of focus, you may be able to find a job in another aspect of the field. For instance, if you taught chemistry, computer science, or AP statistics, you could look for positions working in a lab, doing IT, or analyzing data. There might be a learning curve, but you likely have the required foundational knowledge and skills.
How to Revamp Your Resume to Transition from Teaching to a New Career
Now that you have a better idea of some jobs you could pursue and how your experience may align with these roles, it’s time to update your resume.
Focus on relevant responsibilities and accomplishments. You don’t have to deep dive into everything you did as a teacher. Instead, look at those elements that are the most relatable to what you want to do next. This could be things such as mentoring new teachers, serving as grade level or department chair, leading meetings, analyzing data, maintaining detailed records, and driving performance.
Highlight transferable skills. Reposition education-specific jargon to align with corporate competencies. Emphasize your abilities when it comes to project management, instructional design, data analysis, strategic planning, communication, problem solving, and training and development. Public speaking and presentation making could also be valuable.
Emphasize your training. This is especially true if you are looking for a job within the same subject area and have taken specific professional development courses. There are a lot of online courses available that you can enroll in to show that you are working toward building your skills as you apply for different jobs and make the transition from teaching to a new career.
Consider outside experience. You don’t just have to focus on what you did in the classroom. Are you part of any nonprofit organizations? Do you volunteer in the community? Have you done any freelancing that is relevant? You can highlight your leadership and accomplishments in these roles to better position yourself for your next role.
Add metrics. The actual metrics might not be transferable to another industry, but you want to show that you can move the needle and achieve results. Show the growth that you helped students make, how many people you managed on your team, and other measurable impacts.
Keep it concise. If you have held multiple teaching positions over the years, you don’t have to go into extensive detail about each one. Summarize the key points and biggest accomplishments from each. What have you taken from that role that you will bring to your next employer? Aim for quality over quantity.
Reposition Yourself to Change Careers
There are a lot of elements from your teaching resume that you can also use in your corporate resume, you may just have to reframe or reword them. Working with a professional resume writer can help you see your experience in a different light and pull out those transferable skills to support your job search. Contact Grammar Chic at (803) 831-7444 to schedule a consultation and take the next step in your journey as you transition from teaching to a new career.
