Teaching is a grueling affair, one that, all too often, inadvertently chases away even its most voracious participants. Unfortunately, many teachers feel trapped due to the specialization they perceive regarding their own jobs, education, and responsibilities, leading to lingering and burnout rather than a peaceful transition to another field.
But according to those in the tech world, teachers’ skills are profoundly transferable–and not just to educational platforms like many think.
There are a few reasons why teachers can make an easy move into tech, but one of the more notable ones has to do with their skillsets. Teachers are often pigeonholed by themselves or their surrounding associates as instructors for adolescents, but the truth is that most educators have the communication, delegation, managerial, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills that are invaluable to any employer.
Teachers are also flexible by necessity, allowing them to pivot creatively when faced with problems that could easily sideline less adaptable candidates, and the empathy and compassion with which any successful teacher operates is a welcome addition to the modern tech workplace. By approaching problems with a human-first and conscientious lens, former teachers can create a more hospitable work environment.
And while educational technology isn’t the only outlet for teachers in the tech world, their experience with learning management systems and pedagogical tools shouldn’t be understated; every teacher who has worked with an educational app is more than capable of elucidating the many ways in which it fails and the features that are worth keeping. This analytical ability does transfer as well.
At this point, one might very well ask what kinds of jobs teachers are best suited for if they’re so uniquely qualified. The obvious ones–customer service specialist, copywriter, or technical writer, for example–may not interest most former teachers, but project management is an often-overlooked alternative to teaching for which many of the aforementioned skills directly transfer.
The same goes for a learning and development specialist; this role is very training-centric, requiring employees to demonstrate strong instructional skills and clear communication in order to be effective. Teachers also make for excellent instructional designers, lending their expertise to the same technology that those still in the educational field would agree needs an update.
Overall, teachers who are looking to move away from the educational field have options, some of which look radically different from the typecasting to which they are often subjected.
Jack Lloyd has a BA in Creative Writing from Forest Grove's Pacific University; he spends his writing days using his degree to pursue semicolons, freelance writing and editing, oxford commas, and enough coffee to kill a bear. His infatuation with rain is matched only by his dry sense of humor.
