The Missing Rung: Why Teachers Are the Answer to the Workforce's Experience Problem

In this episode, Vanessa explores what happens when companies eliminate entry-level positions while still expecting experienced employees to magically appear. As AI continues taking over more beginner-level work, who will develop the next generation of experts?

You'll discover why teachers may be uniquely positioned to solve a workforce problem that employers don't even realize they have yet, and how to position your experience as the solution.

In this episode:

• Why the traditional career ladder is disappearing
• How AI may unintentionally widen the experience gap
• Why teachers are experts at developing people—not just delivering content
• A new way to think about résumé bullet points: Task → Problem Solved
• How to connect your classroom experience to the business problems employers are trying to solve
• This week's Teacher Hack: a simple Google Doc that keeps all of your beginning-of-year ideas, shopping lists, and PD notes in one searchable place
• Vanessa's recommendation: Ride or Die on Amazon Prime

Ready to start your own transition? Schedule a complimentary Discovery Session at https://TeachersinTransition.com/calendar.

Resources:
🎙 Happier in Hollywood Podcast
The conversation that inspired this episode came from Happier in Hollywood, Episode 478, hosted by television writers and producers Liz Craft and Sarah Fain.

📺 Ride or Die (Amazon Prime Video)
 Vanessa's recommendation this week is Ride or Die, starring Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham—a smart, funny series about friendship, competence, and the often invisible excellence of women in their fifties.

🍎 Teachers in Transition
Ready to explore what's next after the classroom? Learn more, schedule a complimentary Discovery Session, and find additional resources at TeachersInTransition.com.

Support the Podcast!

If you enjoy this scrappy little indie podcast, please consider:

• sharing this episode (or any of them!) with a teacher friend
• leaving a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
• supporting the show financially starting at just $3/month Support Teachers in Transition.  It helps with production costs to keep this show on the air. 
   
   

Connect with Vanessa Jackson

• 💌 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
• 📱 Call or Text: 512-640-9099
• 📅 Book a Free Discovery Call: teachersintransition.com/calendar
• 🧭 LinkedIn: 
• 🔗 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• 📸 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
• 👍 Facebook: Teachers in Transition
• 🐦 X (Twitter): @EduExitStrategy

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzsprout

Transcript

Hi! Welcome to Teachers in Transition, the podcast designed to help educators discover the skills they already have, translate those skills into language employers understand, and build lives and careers they don’t need to recover from. I’m your host, Vanessa Jackson - a former teacher,  who is now a career transition coach, and the author of the forthcoming book Invisible Excellence: The Hidden Value of Teachers Beyond the Classroom. Today, I want to talk about something that is happening across the workforce, and the more I look at it, the less sense it makes.  I also have a show recommendation at the end so stay tuned for that! 

Today’s episode idea began while I was listening to Happier in Hollywood, Episode 478, hosted by television writers and producers Liz Craft and Sarah Fain. They were talking about artificial intelligence and what its growing use could mean for the entertainment industry. During that conversation, one of them made an observation that really stayed with me: 

They discussed an example that comes from the production side of Hollywood in the broader context of the use of AI in their industry. They put out the hypothesis that production might continue employing the experienced unit production manager while using AI to complete more of the planning and administrative work that once required a larger team and junior members. And that the people being replaced were going to be the ones who were the newest in the industry, learning their way around the business. On paper, that may look like efficiency. The production keeps the person with the deepest expertise while reducing the number of people required to support them.

But Liz and Sarah immediately identified the problem underneath the calculation. Many of the jobs being eliminated are the jobs through which people learn the business. If fewer people are hired into those junior positions, where will the next generation of experienced production managers come from?

That comment hit me so hard, that I had to immediately head over to my voice app and start getting my thoughts out.  It also connected with something I have watched happen outside Hollywood and even affect my own family. Across industry after industry, we are removing the bottom rungs from the career ladder - and then we’re wondering why no one can climb it.

So today’s Perspective Pivot and Career Transition/Job Search segment are intertwined together, but stay tuned because the teacher hack is at the end!

Companies want experienced employees, but fewer of them seem willing to participate in the part where people actually become experienced. And now, as artificial intelligence takes over more of the traditionally assigned work that went to beginners, we may be accelerating a problem that was already well underway.

The strange little twist in all of this is that the mess may create an enormous opportunity for teachers. Because when organizations finally realize that expertise does not simply materialize out of thin air, they are going to need people who understand how people  develop skills. Teachers know a great deal about that.

Everyone Wants Experience

In 2024, my son earned his welding certificate. He completed the training, learned the technical skills, and was ready to begin working. He was not pretending to be a master welder with twenty years of experience, but he was trained, willing to work, and ready to keep learning on the job.

The problem was that almost everywhere he looked, employers wanted welders with five to ten years of experience. They did not want a junior welder. They wanted an experienced welder who could arrive on the first day, require almost no supervision, and immediately begin producing profitable work.

I remember thinking at the time, “Where exactly are these experienced welders supposed to come from if nobody is willing to hire the new ones?” You cannot hire someone with ten years of experience unless someone hired that person when they had none. This should not be a controversial observation, and yet the modern labor market seems committed to treating it like an unsolved mystery.  Long story short, my son went to all that effort and never found a welding job.  He’s now working his way up to be a full mechanic. 

It is a bizarre workplace contradiction. Companies say they cannot find qualified workers, job seekers say they cannot get hired without experience, and employers continue eliminating entry-level positions while cutting training and development. Apparently, experienced professionals are now supposed to spring from the ground like Athena emerging fully formed from the head of Zeus - complete with technical expertise, industry knowledge, and a proficiency in a variety software platforms.

That is not a workforce-development strategy. That is magical thinking with a job description attached.

The traditional career ladder had multiple rungs. You entered near the bottom, someone showed you how the organization worked, and you completed simpler assignments while you developed more advanced skills. You received feedback, made mistakes that were hopefully small enough to recover from, and gradually took on greater responsibility.

Eventually, the employee gained experience. They learned to recognize the problem because they had seen a version of it before. They became the person who could make a good decision without needing every step spelled out.

That system was never perfect. No system is. Access to those first opportunities was not fair or evenly distributed, and some industries and industries were far better at developing people than others (there’s probably a whole ‘nother podcast hiding inside that comment about what we do to student teachers and med students). But the basic logic made sense: people became capable because someone gave them a place to learn.

It’s as if organizations want the finished product without participating in its construction. Entry-level jobs ask for three years of experience, junior positions disappear, and formal training gets cut because it does not produce an immediate return that looks impressive on a quarterly report. And just to make it that much more insulting, many businesses engage in annual layoffs to make the cash on their balance sheet look good at the annual stockholder meetings.

And THEN artificial intelligence enters the picture. Executives begin calculating how many tasks can be automated, how many positions can be consolidated, and how much labor can be removed from that balance sheet. Some of those decisions may make perfect financial sense in the short term, but the larger question is being ignored.

Which takes us back to the question Liz posed in Happier in Hollywood: If technology performs all the beginner-level work, how will beginners develop the judgment required for the advanced work?

Entry-level tasks are not merely cheap labor. They are practice. They are how people learn an industry, recognize patterns, receive feedback, and develop the kind of professional judgment that cannot be downloaded in an afternoon.

It would be easy to say that business leaders simply failed to think ahead, but I am not sure that is accurate. In many cases, I think they did think ahead. They thought about the wrong things. They thought about labor costs, efficiency, quarterly earnings, shareholder expectations, automation, and how much additional work could be extracted from fewer people.

That is the part I find so maddening. The business world is not stumbling blindly into this situation. In many cases, it is merrily constructing its own design, one perfectly rational short-term decision at a time.  

Each decision is defensible on its own. Collectively, they create a workforce in which everyone wants experienced people and fewer organizations are willing to create them. It kills me to say it out loud, but there is no benefit in being loyal to a job (or a company that you get services from for that matter.)

Artificial intelligence can perform an increasing number of tasks, but performing a task and developing a professional are not the same thing. A new employee does not become experienced simply because AI completed the beginner-level assignment on their behalf. In fact, if they never learn how that assignment works, they may not know enough to recognize when the AI output is incomplete, misleading, inappropriate, or just flat out wrong.

Employees still need to understand why one approach works better than another. They need enough background knowledge to ask useful questions and enough judgment to evaluate the answers. They need to recognize exceptions, understand consequences, and know when a technically correct answer is completely wrong for the situation in front of them.

If we automate the work through which people once acquired that knowledge, then we must intentionally build another way for them to acquire it. Otherwise, we are not developing professionals. We are creating people who know how to push the button but do not necessarily understand what should happen when the button produces nonsense.

That missing developmental structure is the real problem. It may also be the opportunity.

Someone has to build the missing rungs.

This is where teachers become extremely interesting. Not because every teacher should leave the classroom and become a corporate trainer, although that is certainly one possible path. The opportunity is much broader than one job title.

Teachers understand how people develop competence. They know that giving someone information is not the same as teaching that person to use it. They know that exposure is not mastery, attendance is not engagement, and nodding politely does not necessarily mean anyone understood a word you just said.

Teachers know how to break a complex skill into manageable pieces. They identify the necessary background knowledge, model the process, provide supported practice, observe performance, identify the source of an error, adjust the instruction, and gradually remove support as the learner becomes more capable.

They also do this with groups of people who do not begin in the same place. Those people do not learn at the same speed, respond to the same explanation, possess the same level of confidence, or arrive with the same levels of motivation. Sometimes they do not even agree that they need to learn the thing in the first place, which should sound familiar to anyone who has ever introduced a new software platform at work.

Teachers have honed these skills across an astonishing range of personalities, ages, backgrounds, topics, and circumstances. A teacher may explain the same concept three different ways before lunch, adjust the plan because half the class is absent, support someone who is overwhelmed, redirect someone who is bored, and still somehow get everyone out the door in the fire drill on time.

That is not merely content delivery. That is human development under less-than-ideal conditions.

Imagine that an organization adopts a new AI system. The software can produce reports in minutes that once took an employee several hours, which sounds wonderful. In some ways, it probably is wonderful.

But now the organization has several new problems. Employees need to know when to use the tool, what information can safely be entered into it, and how to evaluate the accuracy of its output. They need to recognize exceptions and understand how the tool changes existing workflows, responsibilities, and risks.

Managers also need to be able to determine whether an employee is struggling with the technology, the underlying job knowledge, or both. Those are not the same problem, and they will not be solved by sending everyone the same twelve-minute training video and hoping for the best.

Someone must document the new process. Someone must teach it, gather feedback, answer questions, and notice where employees are quietly inventing workarounds because the official process does not function in the real world. Anyone who has worked in a school understands the importance of noticing the unofficial process, because the unofficial process is often the only reason anything works.

That work requires more than technical expertise. It requires the soft-skill abilities to watch people work, recognize patterns, diagnose confusion, translate complexity, and design a pathway toward competence.

In other words, it requires someone with the skills of a teacher no matter what the job title says. 

And this is important because I do not want teachers to hear this conversation and assume I am steering everyone toward training roles. Teachers can absolutely fill this gap in a wide variety of positions because the underlying skill is not simply standing in front of a room and presenting information. It is moving people through complexity.  And as we have observed through teaching in the last 5-10 years, students required more and more support to get the results required.  (I think this is because we’ve asked kids to learn things that aren’t developmentally appropriate because we are trying make some politician look good and so more educational hand-holding is required to pass those state tests.  Which I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again:  I hate state standardized tests with the blazing heat of 1000 suns)

But I digress. Think about it this way: The classroom did not merely teach teachers how to teach children. It gave them a laboratory for understanding people.

And Teachers Should Not Undersell This Skill!

Think about it. How often were you given complete instructions as a teacher? Almost never. You got a new initiative, a deadline, a handful of resources, and a room full of students who all needed something different. And then you figured it out.

That is exactly what employers need more of, and it's important to be able to articulate that because many employers don't even realize they've inadvertently created this problem for themselves. Or if they do...they're not admitting it.

Your résumé and cover letter become an opportunity to show them you're solving a problem they don't even know they have yet. Here's how.

You're exposing the problem that you, the teacher, solved  I think that needs to be the new framework.

Instead of: Task → Business Buzzwords  you want to be writing about Task → Problem Solved. Because employers want solutions, not tasks.

Think of it this way: write your resume from the employer’s future, not your past. 

Remember – that teachers are so used to underselling what they can do that it creates an Invisible Excellence that traps them where they are.  That is one of the central ideas in my upcoming book that I am hoping to get published next year. Teachers perform extraordinarily complex work so routinely that both teachers and the people around them stop recognizing it as expertise.

I am not suggesting that the current disruption our corporate world is in is good. Removing entry-level opportunities without building a replacement is very shortsighted. Expecting workers to train themselves while organizations capture the financial benefits is not innovation; it’s cost-shifting.

But disruption creates unsolved problems, and unsolved problems create opportunities. Organizations are going to need people who can rebuild the pathway from novice to expert. They are going to need people who understand what must be practiced, what can be automated, and what kinds of knowledge cannot be gained by watching a video once at double speed.

If an employer is struggling to build experienced teams, you can show them that you've spent your career developing capable people.

If an employer is worried about onboarding, show them how you've accelerated learning about systems (if you’re not sure how you do that, just pay attention to how you get your classroom going. You’re basically onboarding students into your systems every year). 

If they're worried about employee performance, show them how you've coach people to mastery. Just because they’re under eighteen, they’re still PEOPLE. 

If they're worried about retaining institutional knowledge, show them how you've built systems that help others succeed.

Employers will need people who can answer some very practical questions.  They will also need to determine how to teach judgment rather than just simple task completion. They will need to capture expertise before experienced workers retire, leave, or are escorted from the building during the latest restructuring. They will need to help employees adapt as roles change and determine whether training actually improved performance.

Those questions live at the intersection of education, operations, technology, and human development. Teachers already live at that intersection. They have for a very long time. They may not know the particular software, product, or industry yet, but they know how to enter a complicated environment, identify what people need, and begin building a pathway forward.

A teacher moving into a new industry will still need to learn that industry. Teaching experience does not mean you can walk into any organization and automatically know its products, regulations, customers, and systems. That would be magical thinking, and we have already established that I am opposed to workforce strategies based on magical thinking.  But I do have faith that teachers learn things faster than most of people because education is notorious for giving ten minutes of training and expecting it to be enough to work software weeks later. 

But knowing an industry and knowing how to develop people within an industry? -  two different forms of expertise. The employer may know its product. A former teacher knows how people learn to use it and what they need on that journey.

That combination has enormous value.

So now it’s time for our teacher hack Our teachers hacks are designed to save you in time, money, or stress. 

Y'all know how you hear a really good idea during professional development (there’s always a couple), and you think, "Oh, I'm definitely going to use that." Then by Friday afternoon, Teacher Tired has kicked in, your brain is mashed potatoes, and you can't remember what the great idea even was? Or why you like it.?

Here's this week's Teacher Hack.

Create one Google Doc,  name it: 2026–2027 B.O.Y. Ideas & Notes.

That's it.

Instead of trying to keep up with three different notebooks, sticky notes, random handouts, and the backs of agendas, give yourself one place to capture everything.

Your document can have these three simple sections:

• To-Do List – Things you want to remember to do.
• Shopping List – Supplies or resources you realize you'll actually need – por desperately want. (Bonus tip: if it isn't urgent, wait until after the first week of school before buying it.)
• Ideas & Notes – QR codes, AI prompts, websites, classroom ideas, book recommendations, quotes, technology - anything that makes you stop and think, "Ooh...I like that! That's useful."

At the top of the document, leave yourself a section called Very Engaged Notes.

Because...well...you know. (Wink Wink)😉

Take a few notes from the presentation. Then, if inspiration strikes and you need a minute to map out ideas for your classroom, add to your shopping list, or create your to-do list, you've already got a page of notes to scroll back to that looks very engaged in case anyone gives you the stink eye.

Teach smarter, not harder.

The best part? Google Docs has a search feature. You don't have to organize everything perfectly. Just get it into one place.

And then when some point in the future rolls around, and you remember there was an amazing AI prompt, website, or classroom idea from way back in August, you won't be digging through emails or wondering which notebook you wrote it in.

You'll already know exactly where to look.

If you'd like to use the template I created, just send me a quick message and I’ll send it to you. Email me at Vanessa@teachersintransition.com. Then you can make your own copy, personalize it, and I hope it saves you a little time, a little stress, and maybe even a little money this school year.

And a Recommendation Before We Go

Before we finish, I also want to recommend the series on Amazon Prime called Ride or Die. I am not going to spoil it because it is still new, and I want you to experience it for yourself. But I will tell you what I love about the show is the way it centers the intelligence and competence of two women in their fifties, played by Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham.

I will watch anything featuring Octavia Spencer, and she is wonderful here. What struck me most, however, was the running theme of invisible excellence. Both women are extraordinarily capable, but much of that capability has been hidden - either absorbed into other people’s success, or deliberately kept out of view.

One character has spent years using her intelligence and strategic ability in the service of her husband’s career. The other operates in a world where invisibility is a required part of the job. Their circumstances are very different, but the underlying pattern is surprisingly familiar. 

Their excellence is essential, but it is not always credited to them. I think many teachers - and many women - will recognize something in that alongside this great show about friendship. Other people depend on their intelligence without always recognizing where the intelligence is coming from.

If you watch the series, send me an email and tell me what you think. I would love to hear what you notice about the competence other characters rely upon without fully seeing.

And speaking of shows…I’m going to ask you to help support the podcast.  The work here helps teachers across the United States  (and a few other countries too).  I need help to support so that Teachers in Transition can continue the work.  So, I’m asking for a few things:

First, take a moment to follow the podcast and leave a rating wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. It only takes a minute, but it makes a tremendous difference in helping other teachers discover the show.

Second, if you know a teacher who's feeling stuck or wondering what comes next, send them this episode. Or any of the others. Sometimes the right conversation at the right time can change someone's entire perspective.

And finally, if you're ready to stop wondering how your skills translate and start building a strategy for your own transition, let's talk. You can schedule a complimentary Discovery Seassion at TeachersinTransition.com/calendar. It’s time to stop being invisible. 

Closing

Businesses cannot keep eliminating the places where people gain experience and then complain that experienced people are difficult to find. Someone has to teach the next generation of experts. Someone has to build the practice opportunities, preserve institutional knowledge, translate new technology into usable processes, and help people develop the judgment that automation cannot simply install.

Teachers are uniquely prepared to help build those missing rungs. Your classroom experience did not merely teach you how to deliver content. It taught you so much more. 

It taught you how to develop human beings.

And in a world that is rapidly changing the way work gets done, that may be one of the most valuable forms of expertise anyone can bring anywhere. The companies that recognize it will have access to a deep and largely overlooked pool of experienced educators.

The teachers who recognize it will stop describing themselves as people who “just designed lessons.” They will begin to see themselves as people who have spent years developing talent in one of the most complicated environments imaginable.

Until next time, remember: You are not starting over. You are translating what you already know—and moving forward.

👋 CONNECT WITH VANESSA

• 💌 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
• 📱 Call or Text: 512-640-9099 
• 📅 Book a Free Discovery Call: teachersintransition.com/calendar
• 🔗 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• 📸 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
• 👍 Facebook: Teachers in Transition
• 🐦 X (Twitter): @EduExitStrategy

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques.  And I want to hear from you!  Please reach out and leave me a message at Vanessa@Teachersintransition.com  You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099. 

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!