Leaving the profession

Red letter

I'm currently going into my fourth year of teaching. I love the job itself, it's everything else that goes along with it that is getting me down. I'm now starting in another new school. I know I'm lucky to have work, but it's hard starting over again. It's difficult not knowing what my situation is going to be year after year and it's taking a toll on my mental health. Settling in somewhere and the having to move on is also hard. I'm seriously thinking of retraining, but I have no idea what to do. Has anyone here experience of leaving the teaching profession and moving on to something else?

linguist

I hear you and I walked that road of employment uncertainty for a very long time. I can't help with your last question but let me try to offer something on the broader thrust of your post.

Every year that I was non-permanent, I basically managed my mental health in the way that I suspect plenty of people do - by effectively compartmentalising my fears and accepting that I could do nothing about them most of the time. I managed to get myself to a point where I just wouldn't think about what the next year would bring until we hit the month of May. At that point, everyone will identify with the sense of foreboding every time the Principal came near you, wondering if hours had dried up or if there'd been a redeployment etc. I did everything I could to focus on my work whilst at the same time taking control of the situation if it seemed dodgy by getting CVs out, answering ads etc. I have finally got a CID in a school where the Principal won my trust after I'd had several shocks in my career. It has restored my faith in the profession.

Getting back to your personal circumstances, it comes down to what you've been told. If you've got an RPT post on what are basically your hours and you've been told that it should be viable, then the only cloud on the horizon is a re-interview next summer. You can't possibly worry about that just yet - you're only after getting your new job. Congratulations! If your job is a little more tenuous, you've still got to throw yourself into it since your reference will depend on your performance. Why would you leave the profession when you're actually fortunate enough to be employed? Just try to tell yourself there's no point in worrying about the future until you've a reason to and enjoy the year.

If you feel your mental health is suffering, the DES has a telephone counselling service for teachers and you are entitled to up to six sessions free of charge. You're definitely not alone in finding such uncertainty very tough. I had to develop strategies to mind myself.

gaiscioch

Red letter wrote: »

I'm currently going into my fourth year of teaching. I love the job itself, it's everything else that goes along with it that is getting me down. I'm now starting in another new school. I know I'm lucky to have work, but it's hard starting over again. It's difficult not knowing what my situation is going to be year after year and it's taking a toll on my mental health. Settling in somewhere and the having to move on is also hard. I'm seriously thinking of retraining, but I have no idea what to do. Has anyone here experience of leaving the teaching profession and moving on to something else?

As somebody who's also interested in this topic I think the Forum would benefit from some sort of mega thread sticky on this issue where all the old threads were put into it as there are now numerous threads covering the same topic. As hard as it is to avoid repeating the stuff in those threads, here are the things I would put emphasis on:

1. Career guidance: I found visiting one attached to my old university to be helpful as they had knowledge of opportunities in the area I studied. It's free if you do it within a certain number of years after you've left the college.

2. Psychometric tests: I've never done a proper professional one, but this article, and many others, are effusive in their praise of them when it comes to helping people find more suitable careers.

3. Retrain/explore business opportunities while teaching: It has been emphasised to me that I need to keep the steady income from teaching while exploring new business opportunities and change my mindset in that direction. If necessary, retrain/upskill at night and weekends. Only when your new project is up and running should you think of ditching the teaching. This sounds like sensible advice.

4. Finances: If you're going into your fourth year without security it's no wonder you can't keep the blinkers on. The years are important at this stage of your life - in the next three years you could be well on your way to having retrained in another profession or established some enterprise or creative endeavour more to your liking.

Nevertheless, let's take a different tack here that most people without a CID/permanency do not seem to think about. Here it is. Let's assume that you do get the prized CID if you hang on in there (because of the student population increasing and CIDs given out earlier), have you looked at the finances of a pre-2011 entrant who has a permanent/CID contract? I'm at the very top of the qualification allowance money I could earn under the pre-2011 conditions and I'm struggling to buy a house in even the less salubrious areas of Dublin. If you want to buy a family home in any decent area of Dublin, teaching is most definitely not the career to be in.

Try this "How much can I borrow?" mortgage calculator, and then see what you can get for under that price on Daft. It's a huge wakeup call for all Dublin-based teachers.

Once you have a family, and kids to pay for in crèche (over €1000 per month of your net income for a single child in Dublin, with no tax break) you will be wishing your life away waiting impatiently for the next payday. Moreover, with all those commitments it will become very difficult to change careers (even with a loving, supportive partner). In a way, the mental health issues of job insecurity now could well be replaced by mental health issues deriving from financial pressure and feeling trapped in the future. I sincerely hope not, but it's worth reflecting on this. Like you, I adore the teaching part and the banter but even more than these English "reforms" since 2009, the price of property in Dublin is the main motivator for my changing career.

If you're single, now is the time to make a career change if you're going to do so at all. I can't emphasise that enough.

linguist

I can't add to that excellent perspective other than the fact that every time I casually raise whether there should be a Dublin living allowance - as you would get in London - the howls of horror from my many colleagues who come from outside Dublin but work here nonetheless are quite something. I know this is completely off the point but many of these people ultimately want to settle 'back home'. For those of us who are from Dublin and wish to live and work here, the question of a reasonable allowance for teachers/public servants based in Dublin needs to be seriously on the agenda imho.

aunt aggie

I don't know how a Dublin allowance would work in Ireland. The whole point of the London allowance is to encourage more people to work there. Dublin doesn't have that problem. Also the allowances for London which is a fair bit more expensive that Dublin aren't as much as some people seem to think. It's an extra grand for Fringe, 3000 for outer London and 5000 for inner London.

Sorry to drag this off topic OP. From your post it sounds like you like teaching but you hate job hunting every year, and I have felt similarly. One thing I'm trying to do this year is a course which could lead to job opportunities outside teaching, but if teaching jobs pick up for me I could also use this course to become registered in a new subject. I do know of teachers who have retrained in IT and had no difficulty getting a job in that sector. If you are considering a course, look for something you're interested in which could improve job opportunities whether you stay in teaching or not.