I want a career in Education!

[Double J]

As I've stressed in other posts, I am fed up with the private sector and its preoccupation with the bottom line. I crave something more fulfilling than helping someone get richer.

 

Thus, I would love to break into the world of education, but so far I have had a hard time doing so. With everything schools and universities are facing -- from layoffs to budget cuts to receiving hundreds if not thousands of applications from overqualified applicants for most every position -- I seem to have my back against the wall, and having no experience in the field doesn't make things easier.

 

Here's what I'm targeting:

 

Secondary Ed - Administrative Positions

Higher Ed - Administrative Positions (Advising, Communications, Career Services, etc.) Might be interested in pursuing teaching posts further down the road once I get a master's.

Any position at a for-profit school/distance learning organization (Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc.)

 

Will I have to apply for intern/part-time positions and start at the bottom? Is it all about "who you know" in this field?

 

So far, I've applied for about 7-8 positions at local universities and colleges and have yet to receive a response.

 

Any tips/suggestions welcome. Thanks.

[Batya33]

Why would working at a for profit help you in your goal that you don't want to "help someone get richer?"

My suggestion is to avoid expressing your negative generalizations to people in the public sector because you can't assume that they agree with your negative generalizations (I don't and I've worked in both public/private, including in the education field). If you really feel that way a for profit like Kaplans wouldn't be for you at all IMO. Also if fulfillment is what you're looking for I strongly suggest that you first do volunteer work in the education field -hands on, roll up your sleeves type work. That will have the dual benefit of giving you something to put on your resume that also will justify why you're so interested in the field plus you'll see if your views on why you're well suited to the world of education bear out in reality.

[NANsense]

IMO a grad degree is invaluable these days....if you have the time and resources I would work on getting accepted to graduate school and do an internship ASAP--this may not only help you to see if this career change is right for you--or not...but it will also get your foot in the door & allow you to impress the faculty at a uni....their recommendations would be very helpful when you apply later....

 

As far as secondary school...what positions are you applying for? Have you taken the teacher evaluation exams for your state--they are a pre-requisite for most positions....have you spoken to the superintendent of schools and queried him/her for advice?

[ibu]

Like I wrote on your other thread, I haven recently been hired in the field of education (I now work at a higher education council and am responsible for quality assurance). I didn't "know" people there, so I got in based on my degree and, I want to stress again, knowledge of higher education. I mean, I spent nearly 5 years doing a PhD, then I did a temp job in the administration of a university. So it's safe to say I already had some experience and knowledge about (inter)national aspects of higher education.

 

So, if you want to get hired for a job like this, I'd say, stress this fact in your cover letter and/or resume. It did me good, perhaps it will do you good as well.

[orchidrose]

I agree with Batya that applying to for-profit colleges and education companies like Kaplan is a huge waste of time if you're interested in "making a difference." They are really all about the buck, just like you keep saying that corporate America is. As far as the other positions, as I said on one of your previous posts, administrative jobs at universities are really just pushing paper. Unless you're an admissions counselor - advisors tend to be professors with advanced degrees - you won't be having regular positive interactions with students; you'll be doing data entry or working on internal processes. And frankly, I don't think that working in administration will give you any sort of leg up on a teaching position down the road. If you're familiar with large universities, you know that they have thousands of administrative staff, many of whom are not even directly connected to or interacting with professors or students.

 

If you want to make a difference, you probably should not be applying to administrative jobs in huge institutions that are similar to corporate America in many ways. As I suggested in your other posts, nonprofits seem like they might be a good fit for you. What about working with an organization that does after-school programs or tutoring or offers extracurricular programs for kids in schools that don't have them? It's relatively easy to get a job in an organization like that, either in administration or even working directly with the kids. Some significant volunteer experience would really help you there.

 

The good thing about "fulfilling" jobs - i.e. those in the nonprofit sector - is that you are able to volunteer for many of them. Volunteering, as Batya said, is a great way to figure out if you really like doing what you think you want to do. It's a benefit that many corporate careers don't have, so take advantage of it. You may think that you want to work with kids now, but you may take an hour volunteering and decide that you hate it.

[catfeeder]

I agree with Batya that applying to for-profit colleges and education companies like Kaplan is a huge waste of time if you're interested in "making a difference." [...]

 

Depends on who you want to make a difference to. If every student matters to you, then the context can be irrelevant. I taught for Princeton Review for a few years, despite having another job, and as much as I'm neither a fan nor a foe of the company, I'm certainly a fan of helping kids who are squeezing themselves to near stroke over a criminally-hyped set of test scores.

 

Well, there's no helping those kids without access. You're not only helping them to get something positive from the material (there really are ways to do that) but you're also helping them to feel better--and those results aren't about their test scores, you get to see it in them with time.

 

I don't know whether these private companies even offer full time jobs. Training was boot-camp style over a series of grueling weekends after scoring high on those tests yourself plus passing an audition to get in. The hours were all night and weekend work, as your students are in school during days. For LSAT, GMAT or GRE exams, your students are mostly working or in bachelor programs during the day. While this equates to great hours for a second job, you'll need to be in top form and high energy every session, or you'll get the boot.

 

On the plus side, it's good experience for learning about yourself and how well you click with students. You'll not only have the feedback instantly during sessions, you'll be graded by your students and peers.

[thejigsup]

I work for an after school tutoring center and, believe me, we make a difference. I found out this week that one of my former students just got accepted to Stanford and sent a big "Thank You" to me through another student. This message also told me that his friend, who was also a student of mine, got into Brown. Another of my students is applying to my alma mater, Pomona College and it looks good for her to get in. Yeah, I made a difference.

[Snny]

I cannot speak for tutoring agencies or colleges, but I have taught in the K-12 public and private school systems.

 

If you are going for an administrative position, then you need teaching experience... hands down. Why? Because you will already possess the management skills and experience of dealing with the most difficult students AND parents who want to complain about the teachers, how the school is managed, etc. All of the administrators, the principals, and even the school secretaries I've known are all former teachers who moved up the ladder when a position became available. Most schools like to promote within than hire someone outside of a school system. The only people who worked in the schools systems with no teaching experiences were the IT technicians.

 

Will I have to apply for intern/part-time positions and start at the bottom? Is it all about "who you know" in this field?

It is absolutely about who you know and if THEY KNOW YOU. I started as a substitute teacher for a couple of years and took difficult long-term assignments that subs avoided (like teaching in an alternative school) to spread my rapport and reputation. I have worked for 4 different school systems at the same time and the only school system that has given me job offers (sadly no permanent contract due to budget cuts on the line) and long-term sub positions was the school system I graduated from. My current boss who hired me to teach at her middle school was my principal at my former high school. She barely interviewed me when she called me into her office and gave me the teaching position within 5 minutes.

 

Volunteering and substituting will help a lot of getting schools to notice you, especially if you do a good job. It is very tough at the beginning though. It will take a lot of patience, but if you're willing to go through it then you know you are in the right field. A lot of young subs become permanent teachers after subbing for a few years. It all depends on if the teachers come back for their jobs when they take a long-term leave.

 

Oh...

 

If you want something fulfilling and will get your feet wet with classroom management... work at an alternative school. School principals turn heads at young teachers who are able to put up with all kinds of crazy at those schools and it shows you have strong management skills with disruptive and highly disturbed students. Though it was difficult, I made several differences for kids with messed up lives. To this day, I do not regret working there ever because of what I accomplished there- to help students clean up and graduate when society looked down on them.

[sjennifer]

There are many scopes in education field to make career. If you have good knowledge in any subject then you can try for a professor post in any college, university. You can also handle management post in universities.