In a recent conversation with a prospective client, the topic of quitting one's job out of impulse as opposed to intention came up. Sometimes people quit their jobs in a moment of frustration or anger. That's fine if you have thought it through ahead of time and you have created a Plan B. You know how you will manage financially for the next few months while you job search. Because the average job search will take anywhere from 4 to 9 months--and that is everything goes relatively well.
If you don't have the financial resources to get you through months of no paycheck, you may need to stick with the job you hate for a while longer, but you also need to be developing your Plan B now rather than later. You need to start figuring out what else you can do that you will enjoy and will compensate you properly.
I offer a course called "Jumpstart Your Job Search 2.0 Program" that teaches everything you need to know about teachers and job hunting. And I am offering the Do-It-Yourself version of the program for only $297 or 4 equal payments of $77 each. You can access that program at https://boitnottcoach.samcart.com/products/jumpstart-your-job-search-20-program-diy-special/.
I also offer other packages that provide help through email and group coaching with additional help as needed, but this is an affordable option for the teacher who doesn't have a lot of discretionary income to spend on career coaching.
If you want to talk about what your various options are, take advantage of the complimentary Discovery Session I offer. You can sign up for a session at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
If you have questions or thoughts you would like to email me, you may do that at kittyboitnott@gmail.com.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burnout teachers just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to, and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to episode 123 of teachers and transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is Katie Boitnott. I am a career and job searched coach for burnout teachers who are ready to leave the classroom, but aren't quite sure how or where to start their search. I'm also a certified stress management coach. And if you've listened to me in the past, you know, that I alternate topics each week. When we talking about career transition and the next week talking about stress management strategies, this week topic is career. And I want to share with you part of a conversation that I had with a prospective client yesterday that made me think that perhaps other people need to hear part of what I shared with her. And that is if you are here at the beginning of August, beginning to feel the knots in your stomach, not butterflies of anticipation, but the nuts that come with dread and fear about going back to school, whether it's in a few weeks or later this month, or in September, if you've already started to feel like I just don't want to go back. I can't do it because that's where she was. She said for the last four days, she had been feeling like she just couldn't could not go back. It was just, it feels her with dread. She's not the only one that I've heard from in the last few days that the closer school comes to starting. The more this desire to just walk away is coming of people. And you may be feeling that way too. And what I said to her, and what I want to say to you is if you have to do it, I mean, it's what I did. I got to the point where I just, I could not make myself go back. I had said before, someone could have held a gun to my head and I would have said, just go ahead and pull the trigger. I'm not going back. That's where I was physically, mentally, emotionally. I was not prepared to go back to teach middle school English. I might've managed it if I could have gone back to a library because that's what I knew. And that's pretty much the job I had for most of my career elementary school librarian, but middle school English after four years of hard work at the Virginia education association where I'd loved the job, but it had taken every bit of energy that I had. And I didn't have the energy, the resilience, the patients that I thought I would need to have to work with young people, middle schoolers in particular. And so I left now, my situation was different than a lot of people's because I was able to retire. I didn't just quit and not have a plan B. And that was my message to this person yesterday, you need a plan B, if you, if you're married and your spouse is okay with your quitting, then quit. If you're single and you've saved up enough money that you can manage without a job for four to six to eight months, then quit. But if you don't have savings in reserve and you don't have someone to help you manage, you don't want to become homeless. There's certainly enough of that going around with people, not now, not having, uh, protections for them, as far as rent goes, you don't want to come up short and not have enough food to put on the table. This is especially true. If you have children, if you're a single, you don't want to put your children at risk. So you may feel like I just can't go back and you may not have a choice. If you haven't been looking actively looking and preparing yourself for change up until now, you may not have a choice. What you do have a choice of, or however is how you approach the new year and how you establish your plan B. What I told her yesterday, and what I would tell you today is if you want this to be your last year of teaching, you have to, you have to do something about that. You have to not wish and hope or dream about it. Being your last year. You have to actually do something about it. You have to take action. You have to start looking for a job that will pay you commensurate with the education that you have. And the years of experience that you have, you have to have an understanding of how to translate the skills that you have into a language that a hiring manager will understand because they don't understand education jargon. They won't, they won't appreciate your experience as a teacher, unless you can translate it into what can you do for them? How can you serve them in this new role that they are advertising? And that takes work. I wish I could tell you that it was just a magical transition. It isn't. Everybody wants everything to be fast, quick, you get it done yesterday. It doesn't work that way. You need a plan. You need to work the plan. You need to be diligent and persistent and patient with your plan. I tell my clients all the time that the only way you can not be successful with the program that I offer is to give up, just to stop, to quit. The people who stick with it, who are diligent, who are persevering, who are patient with the process. They're the ones who are successful. Ultimately sometimes it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I won't catch you. It happens, but usually when an opportunity presents itself, but by the time it presents itself, my client's prepared because done the work. They have their resume written. They have their cover letter template done so that the only need to tweak it. They have their LinkedIn profile up and running. They've been networking and meeting new people. I had another client who emailed me this weekend, that she had met someone at a wedding who was offering, uh, uh, uh, uh, not a recommendation, but an introduction. Can't think of the word and introduction to someone who was willing to take a look at her resume because she works in the same field that my client wants to break into. That will be a huge help for her because I've not worked in that field. If she can find someone who works in that field, you can give her feedback on her resume, who re that's fabulous. The process is time consuming. And if you don't understand how the process works, you wind up making mistakes that you didn't even know you were making. There are all kinds of landmines that new job seekers step into, and they don't even know it. They've blown their chance at a new job because they've broken protocol. They've not followed the unwritten rules of job search. They've said the wrong thing. They've irritated, a recruiter or hiring manager who wants once. You've irritated them. They don't want anything else to do with you. And you don't even know what you did. There are countless numbers of teachers who are applying for hundreds of jobs every day, and they're not making it through the applicant tracking system because they haven't taken the time to learn how to write their resume for the applicant tracking system. These are important things you need to know. So my advice to her in what, what I want to boil all of this down to is if you are a teacher who was looking to leave the classroom and you wish you could leave this year, it's probably too late to leave before the schools, the school year starts, unless you're okay with not having a paycheck in September. And I have had clients tell me, I'll wait tables before I'll go back. Okay. And do that. You know, find, find anything that will help to support you, but you still need your plan B because you've paid, you've invested in yourself and your education. You deserve a job. That's commensurate with the education you have. And I waited tables as a college student. So no offense to waiting tables or waiters or waitresses, but that's not what you went to college for. It's not what you spent thousands of dollars to buy your education for. So you want a job that will pay you commensurate to your abilities, your experience, your expertise, your education, that takes planning. So I'm urging you to be intentional and not impulsive. When you decide to make your career change. If you are intentional, you will learn what you need to know to start your job search smartly intelligently, and you'll learn the steps you need to follow to, to continue through the process so that you are ultimately successful and you can quit in the middle of the year. If you find the perfect fit for you. I know school divisions. Don't like for people to know that, but teachers quit all the time. I mean, it's just a fact of life. People break their contract because they found a new job. They're moving, their husband's being transferred. They're having a baby. They're having a health crisis. People quit all the time. So if you found the perfect fit for you in the middle of the year, you quit. That's your plan. That's your plan B. You're going to do what you need to do to learn how to job search so that you can find the right fit for you. That will pay you commensurate to the education and experience that you had. So intention versus impulse don't quit unless you have a plan B. That's my advice for you this week to be intentional, as opposed to being impulsive. If you need help with any of that, I'm available for a discovery session. Email me@kittyboyatgmail.com with any questions or comments that you may have, please review this podcast. If you found this episode or any other episode, helpful to you all the way, and if you want to set up a discovery session, you can do that@teachersintransition.com forward slash calendar it's teachers in transition.com forward slash calendar. I'm also offering an upcoming masterclass on how to leap frog from the classroom into a brand new career on August 19th at 7:00 PM. Eastern. If you'd like to sit in on that, I will offer the registration link in the show notes, along with the link to the discovery session and my email address. And if you're interested in going ahead and getting started, I'm offering the, do it yourself. Version of the jumpstart, your job search 2.0 program for only$297 or$77 a month for four months. And I would invite you to take a look at that. If you think you're ready to start your job, search the, do it yourself. Version of the program offers a ton of resources and the instruction that you need to get your job search started off the ground and on your way to being successful. That's it for today, have a wonderful week. I will see you again next week.
Speaker 1:
So there you have it. An episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at kitty boy, not at boys, not coaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.