So You Resigned From Teaching. Now What?

Many positions exist out there for teachers who need a new job, but you need to know where to look. When people found out that I had resigned from my job, they immediately asked the question, “So, where are you going?” I had no idea what to tell them because I resigned before even finding a new job. I just shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” I didn’t make a plan, really, other than to find a new job and at that point, I felt too superstitious about the interviews I had completed to tell anyone that I felt like I had some good prospects. Privately, I continued looking for jobs in all the familiar places. So once you’ve resigned from teaching, what do you do next? Several options exist, but it all depends on what you want to do.

Option 1: Look for teaching jobs in surrounding school districts. I know, that seems like an obvious first-step, but that doesn’t mean you should overlook it. As I know from working in a previous school district, not all districts are created equal. You may just find what you wanted all along by looking in a surrounding area.

Option 2: Look for another type of job either in your school district or in a surrounding school district. I kept hitting the button that said “licensed” when conducting my job search until I realized that one of the most awesome sounding jobs actually existed as a “classified” position. What if you want to try something new, like working as a parent educator? Or maybe you want to work as a student adviser in another capacity. Jobs exist out there that require your experience as an educator and your desire to help families, and some of them exist within the school system. Keep an open mind and maybe you’ll find that what you really want to do is more than what you’re doing now.

Option 3: Try looking for jobs at local colleges. Maybe you don’t have a Master’s Degree, so you couldn’t teach college-level courses, but what if you find another job that takes your experience teaching as a prerequisite requirement? I located an Educational Consultant position at a local college who wanted someone to work in professional development of school employees on the topic of Autism. I would love that job. I also saw a position at the community college as a Youth Case Manager that would fit my work experiences perfectly. Maybe you can fulfill your passion and use your expertise elsewhere!

Option 4: If you’re an experienced teacher, you may find that the state department of education has job openings for positions that you’re more than qualified for. The perk? They usually pay more.

Option 5: Test developers are almost always looking for people to help develop test questions, assess test reliability, and score tests. Former educators often fit perfectly in these jobs because we know more about curriculum requirements than anybody.

Option 6: Seek employment in areas that are completely unrelated to teaching or helping out youth. Maybe you can’t find a job in any of the other places. At that point, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Look outside of your comfort zone. Retail management? Administrative services at the local hospital? The world is your oyster. Go for it!

Once you’ve resigned from teaching, make sure you keep your chin up and your options open. Apply for positions in a multitude of areas. Keep looking and applying in whatever environment you feel you can reasonably continue working. Then keep the faith that it will all work out, because it will. Just remember that you worked in education, so you can handle anything!