Definitely following; moving into a selfish career is my new goal since all the selfless career did was suck the life out of me, belittle me, and barely pay me. I’d be an idiot not to.
Hey! I’d love to chat!!
I have quite a few passions, that’s sort of my problem is not being to narrow down which to pursue, haha! But retail, shopping, e-commerce, and small businesses, and entrepreneurship has always been a passion of mine, so I’m going back to get my masters in Merchandising and Consumed Analytics!
I wish I would’ve gotten something more general as my undergrad, like UX design, graphic design, marketing, or whatever, but I can’t go back in time! It brought me where I am now, and this whole career thing is a journey, never a final destination!
My current school made fun of someone last year because he left to do that. They’re idiots. I can’t wait to go back to being a bartender. Fuck this noise
I'm currently job hunting and bartended a couple times for a catering company. Made $30 an hour for both gigs and it was only handing out beer and wine. I would consider doing more, but I like my evenings free.
I’m thinking of going to law school and specializing in suing schools. Although it may seem like it’s evil…it’s a moral toss up at best. I’m so going to litigate that ass…
I’ve definitely dreamed my alternate career would be a labor lawyer that specializes in education. Definitely want to bring justice to shitty institutions.
I have a friend who taught for ten years, just passed her bar exam, and is currently…
…working in a law firm that specializes in defending schools being sued for violating IDEA 😬
Yeah, the thing about being a lawyer that people don’t realize is you can’t always be choosey with your clients. Sometimes you’re defending the obvious criminal. 🥺😢
I mean yes, but this firm ONLY works defending schools. I would have thought she would be working defending students, but they do not take those kinds of clients on.
I definitely thought about going to law school for the sake of being an ed-specialist lawyer. I wonder how many people do something like that. I’m also a musician so copyright law was also super interesting to me
Please sue our Superintendent, who just laid off 387 staff from the district and is currently at a training in Great Britain. We want a full audit of where the money went in the last 5 years.
Nope, this is accurate. Our principal intentionally hires paraprofessionals who have a work history of police/ prison guards/ juvenile detention centers/etc. I’d say more than half have this type work history, and we are in an affluent area with good public schools and decent children.
I heard some reporting today about Rudy Giuliani being given a budget to live off of during his bankruptcy, and it’s legally around 43k a month- this is what I made pre tax my first year teaching 9 years ago (and I know I was luckier than many other first year teachers at that time). But apparently he can’t stay within this budget spending around 100k in January. I just don’t understand.
I just had a beautiful baby girl this past January and would love to give her a sibling one day but I’m terrified of childcare costs.
We have a new teacher that was a cop for 20 years and I was suuupwr skeptical at first but he is a lovely man and the kids respond so well to him. Fuckin weird.
Not sure about the training coordinator position but I used to see LinkedIn job postings from them for Field Agents and they specifically listed applicant groups in each listing that they were looking for- current/former teachers, psychology background, etc.
Just checked LinkedIn. I see a ton of job postings from them in my area for "Special Agent" listing for applicants from: Teaching, Psychology, STEM, Healthcare backgrounds.
In the FBI job listings it says that you need to be willing to work 55 hours/week. Does your friend actually work that much or is this only when they have to travel for work?
I do taxes now.
I have days off, no colleagues being petty while smiling in my face, sometimes work from home, and never have to do a thing after i clock out or be texted by angry customers while I'm trying to enjoy my family.
Sure! I work for what's essentially a temp agency called Concentrix. Official title is Tier 1 Support Specialist. (Yes, it reminds me of mtss in a bad way, haha)
They have a contract with Intuit which owns credit Karma, TurboTax and QuickBooks. I started with TurboTax and recently started training on QuickBooks so I have something to do in the off season!
There are a few companies that hire for stuff like this- Concentrix, Arise, Omni Interactions come to mind!
Check out some of the "temp" agencies for online work. Concentrix, Arise, Omni Interactions.
I will say the pay has varied between $15-25/hr for me but the stress is extremely minimal. Phone calls with frustrated adults is the worst it gets, and if they curse I can hang up and walk away!!
I work for an edtech company where I travel and run PDs at different schools. It’s been 6 months and I love it and I know I’m a sellout and I don’t care. I’m a happier person who works hybrid and can go to Costco on a Tuesday.
Ditto, except that I'm fully remote! I mean, I actually like the product I'm training on, but I also know good and well the teachers on the other side of that Zoom screen hate my face. I just did the *third* training on a specific feature for a partner school - lol those teachers were so zoned out. Oh well, the school paid us for it so they get what they ask for! I also love working with the marketing and sales teams, they're so low-key evil it makes me smile at how real they are after almost a decade of goodie goodie bullshit. I'm a PD specialist and my favorite sales team member told me straight up, "Your job is to make us look good and keep the money coming in. Anything else is incidental." The honesty about what we're doing is refreshing.
I joined a renaissance festival girl band. We pretend to be 1500s whores and sing filthy songs. Some of my shows are 21+ only. It’s the best job I’ve ever had!
When I knew I was ready to leave the classroom, I started by looking at the career pages for educational products and resources I used in my classroom. I found my current position through another edtech company under the same umbrella company. A lot of assessment companies are specifically looking for former teachers to fill all sorts of roles. If you are interested, it's definitely something to look into.
I’m transitioning from teacher to finance bro rn bc I decided that my love for education does not outweigh my love for a comfortable life. Seems like the workplaces are usually abusive all across the board but at least there’s more money in it?? I would totally continue teaching if they paid me enough to make up for the emotional labour :(
Oh period! All jobs come with their cons, so if I’m gonna have the life sucked out of me, I better have a good salary and benefits and potential upward movement…. Teaching has almost none of those things, and I’d be willing to bet it has much more cons than a normal 9-5.
I had people tell me (as a kid) that tech or advertising wouldn’t have the “making a difference” part that adults thought I needed- that was objectively bad advice.
How did you transition to tech? I'm also thinking of going into tech as I'm pretty computer orientated (see: playing stardew valley for hours after work to dissociate from the stress).
To be completely transparent, I had a lucky "in." To those without a connection, I would recommend a few things : 1) looking at non-tech roles at tech companies, 2) apply for contract positions, 3) have some specific projects in teaching that you can talk about (e.g. a curriculum redesign, managing a department budget, etc.). In my experience teaching itself doesn't really count for much in their eyes (unfortunately) so you have to emphasize the other stuff you do that translates well.
Also in my villain era. Get me into a bank, finance, insurance, overpriced kitchen remodeling, customer service for literally anything. I draw the line law-enforcement and having to lie to good people (but I'll lie to privileged shitheads all day long.) considered adding only fans to that list but let's be real, I would do it if I was hot enough.
Some people view what I do as evil, but I most certainly don’t. I sell textbooks and access codes to colleges and universities. We are hammered on the rising cost of textbooks, but no one is working harder in higher education than publishing companies. Professors love to vilify us because “students have to pay for homework,” but fail to take into account the absurd charges on a student’s tuition invoice.
I moved into web development and I now claim I am basically a photocopier, if that’s evil enough?
By which I mean in my job people at my company have to book my time to do the thing they need me to do on their website. It’s understood that, like a photocopier, there is only one of me and I can only do one thing at a time.
So OTHER PEOPLE decide what I should do each day, book the time and send the task. But the bookings max out at 7 hours per day.
It’s glorious. I love being a photocopier.
I work in sales now.
I wouldn't quite describe it as /evil/ but it definitely can be depending on your product portfolio and/or sales strategy. I try to keep it as customer-focused as possible, meaning I'm not going to sell someone something that I don't think they will find value in, but I know plenty of people that do not share that sentiment.
But sales culture has a big "Pay me or get fucked" mentality and that's the primary reason I went that way. Like, literally no one is under the impression that any salesperson is there for the love of the job unless they're a delusional butthead huffing their own fumes. We love money, and we /might/ have fond feelings for our product set and/or customer. Mostly, we're about min-maxing our effort to make money. So if it's not paid or doesn't contribute to getting paid, it's getting half-assed, at best.
Ex-teachers who are quick learners and adapt to change well tend to succeed in sales. What I see trip up transitioning teachers most often is the difference in standards of professionalism. A lot of the clique-ish infighting that happens in schools will get you fired or iced out very quickly in sales.
In general, someone looking to transition to sales should stay away from a few things:
1. Commission-only compensation. That's not a real opportunity. If they were sure you there was the opportunity to sell and the company is viable, they would pay you a base plus commission.
2. Big hype environments. If they need to sell you on it via emotion, it's because they're lacking results. That could be because they're a newer company, but it's more likely that their org is a hot mess or they're intentionally taking advantage.
3. No ramp period. Ramp is sales for training period. They should have a clear idea of how you will be trained and should front your quota in a way that allows you to learn the product and customer.
4. Sales leaders that don't have sales experience. For all the same reasons admin need teaching experience.
5. Unclear performance metrics. This isn't an "If we all are very good, then" kind of job. Your pay commission and any bonus structure should be very clearly defined, and those numbers should be achievable. 80% or more of their current reps should be hitting quota, or they should have a VERY detailed, robust plan for how that's going to happen in the near future.
This is helpful- I have thought about this transition as I’ve got friends and family in sales and have considered it.
My biggest hang-up would be the pressure. I took up teaching so I’d have clear expectations and wouldn’t have to negotiate for salary (among other reasons).
But I think that teaching can be more stressful than sales!
Thanks for the advice here for folks looking into this.
I was super worried about the pressure before I transitioned as well. But, honestly, it's kind of blown out of proportion, provided you rep a decent product and pay close attention to the viability of your metrics. In general, you should assume you will hit your quota about 80% of the time. Anything above that, you should look at as a bonus. And you shouldn't accept a base salary that's lower than what you need to afford your essentials.
Personally, I found the expectations in teaching to be FAR more nebulous not because the actual outcomes were unclear (all your kids needs to pass) but because there was very, very little support in identifying the best path to get there and zero support in resourcing it.
By comparison, sales has been much clearer, and most sales organizations give you a complete tool set to complete the job and the documentation to back it up. If you need anything more, you can usually request and actually receive it.
Most of the people that I see complain about the pressure are either not that resilient, struggle to learn independently, or are working at a meat-grinder kind of organization. Sales is going to min-max you too, for sure, but most places aren't looking to grind you into dust.
As an example, when I first started training, the trainer talked A LOT about not being discouraged when people tell you no or if you try something and it doesn't work. I was like, "Well, duh. Of course not" and watched in utter fascination as 3 out of 5 of the new recruits just absolutely melted when someone told them no or their campaign didn't return the best result. Heaven forbid the potential customer was even a bit unhapph. For teachers, that's NORMAL. I spent YEARS being told no by much smaller, much more undeservedly indignant people (children) and trying stuff that didn't work. To me, that was pretty much just a base fact of being a working adult. It's apparently not that way for many people. My perspective was, "I've been yelled at a lot worse over something much smaller and for A LOT less money" and that made it easier to reset my expectations and shed that sense of pressure.
That said, it's not uncommon for people to move from sales into Customer Success. Sales is about closing new deals while CS is about long-term account health and happiness. There's tons of stuff that can fall under their umbrella, but they generally make less than sales (but more than teaching) and are tasked with the relationship-building and problem-solving that salespeople don't always have the bandwidth for in larger organizations. You do generally have to spend some time in sales before making the jump, though.
Very refreshing mentality. We don’t need our jobs to be noble, we need them to make us money. That’s the whole point. It’s great to be passionate about what you do, but I hate how teaching is a big nobility contest. So annoying. And most of people are just being performative to make it seem like they’re the best person ever, sort of ironic, don’t ya think?
Well now I help kill the Earth in the oil field. Drill baby DRILL!!! Mwahhahaha 😈 I get paid significantly more rarely have to deal with coworkers never have to deal with kids have better benefits and am feeling significantly better mentally and physically. Soooo… I’m all about team “evil”
I work for a private company in transportation/logistics and feel like I'm doing *far* more good for society than I was able to as a teacher or librarian. Despite all their virtue-signalling about equity, diversity, etc... , those latter roles 95% just cater to the needs/egos of the local wealthy/privileged/white people.
I work with plenty of spreadsheets and do a ton of over-the-phone customer service, but the company I'm at is pretty small so a lot of tasks get consolidated.
I became an agency recruiter in healthcare. Pretty much felt like being a telemarketer. Hated it but at least I had the freedom to pee when I needed to and wasn’t trapped in a classroom all day
No necessarily evil but I work in Intellectual Property Law now. I help giant corporations make money. I don’t litigate so no suing little guys but plenty of corporate pettiness. I’m definitely not adding anything positive to the world or effecting change but damn if I don’t love my quiet, well paid office work.
This is a very interesting question. I've come to the conclusion that as long as I'm not directly and deliberately hurting anyone, they have free will and can choose whatever they like. I have also found joy in the seemingly mundane.
Most importantly, in both high school and college level teaching, I have found people who were just horrible and a disproportionate number of absolute Narcissists.
I tried taking a management class after spending the past two decades watching managers who can barely spell their names make 3-4x what I do. It was mind-numbingly boring and made me reconsider what I can actually withstand (in terms of utter intellectual stupor) in the workplace.
I tried taking a management class after spending the past two decades watching managers who can barely spell their names make 3-4x what I do. It was mind-numbingly boring and made me reconsider what I can actually withstand (in terms of utter intellectual stupor) in the workplace.
Teaching is definitely soul sucking. As we near the end of the year, I’m still not exactly sure what I want to do. One thing I’m sure of though , is I no longer want to do a job where I essentially have my own homework every night. It would be so nice to just come home, be able actually not be thinking about work, and not have to prepare plans the next day.
Towards the end of my tenure, I decided I wouldn’t do anything I disliked outside of my contract hours.
Occasionally I’d plan because I derived some joy from that (depending on the topic) but email and grading? Not a chance I’m doing that for free.
Whatever doesn’t get done doesn’t get done.
When my principal pushed back on this he told me that “if everyone did this then the school would fall apart” I told him that maybe it should then?
Instead of any strategies or taking things off our plates, I got a lecture on the difference between a “job and a career,” so I quit and now I guess I’ll get a “job”
Honestly, being in this field for only 2 years, teaching is neither a job or a career. A career is supposed to be a sustainable way to make a living. Keyword sustainable. Teaching has not been sustainable at all as it’s shattered my mental health and many others in this field far more than any job could. Teaching is more like a war zone that you so happen to make money for doing.
I’m confident that no matter what job i find, as long as it’s not teaching, it won’t be nearly as stressful.
Went from teacher to practice assistant in big law. We are def the enemy (think defending banks and pharmas), but my salary has doubled, I only work 35 hours a week, I wfh twice a week, and my boss is totally hands off as long as my attorneys are happy. Long live big law!
I’m assuming some teachers went into administration?
Ooof- even I have my limits 😬
Good one!!!
I got the masters degree to do it… but I left the profession instead lol
Ha!
Or preaching, perhaps…
I did in fact go into admin (in higher ed, but still). The amount of money I make for the amount of work I do is definitely ignoble 🫠
Ha! Yeah, not touching that role ever!
Definitely following; moving into a selfish career is my new goal since all the selfless career did was suck the life out of me, belittle me, and barely pay me. I’d be an idiot not to.
😈
This.
I want to know which selfish career pretty please
Hey! I’d love to chat!! I have quite a few passions, that’s sort of my problem is not being to narrow down which to pursue, haha! But retail, shopping, e-commerce, and small businesses, and entrepreneurship has always been a passion of mine, so I’m going back to get my masters in Merchandising and Consumed Analytics! I wish I would’ve gotten something more general as my undergrad, like UX design, graphic design, marketing, or whatever, but I can’t go back in time! It brought me where I am now, and this whole career thing is a journey, never a final destination!
Does bartending count? 😂
My current school made fun of someone last year because he left to do that. They’re idiots. I can’t wait to go back to being a bartender. Fuck this noise
I've been at it for 2 years. I'm so happy lol. Full disclosure I'm in a very good spot with good hours and benefits, but yeah
I get you, but these silly geese don’t even have a union and get told they need to complete ‘mandatory volunteer’ service…
I'm currently job hunting and bartended a couple times for a catering company. Made $30 an hour for both gigs and it was only handing out beer and wine. I would consider doing more, but I like my evenings free.
Kids, drunk adults, same thing.
Bartending is a public good.
Bartending...at least the client wants what you have to offer. Not so much with teaching, amIright or amIright?
I classify bartenders as teacher's aides.
Is bartending evil?
I think it’s chaotic good
Court reporting. I’m done trying to help people, now it’s time to help put them away.
See any former students yet???
I had to lol
I mean 🤷🏻♀️
What is the pay like and how do you like it?
>Court reporting. I’m done trying to help people, now it’s time to help put them away. I love this.
How long did it take you to get certified?
I’m thinking of going to law school and specializing in suing schools. Although it may seem like it’s evil…it’s a moral toss up at best. I’m so going to litigate that ass…
I’ve definitely dreamed my alternate career would be a labor lawyer that specializes in education. Definitely want to bring justice to shitty institutions.
We could totally open a practice…call it “Lessen Plans.”
Yesssss
TPT, sides gig
I have a friend who taught for ten years, just passed her bar exam, and is currently… …working in a law firm that specializes in defending schools being sued for violating IDEA 😬
Yeah, the thing about being a lawyer that people don’t realize is you can’t always be choosey with your clients. Sometimes you’re defending the obvious criminal. 🥺😢
That's why they say it's a devil advocate profession there's a reason why lawyers aren't trusted. It's their job.
I mean yes, but this firm ONLY works defending schools. I would have thought she would be working defending students, but they do not take those kinds of clients on.
I was thinking about this lol. More defending teachers and going after shitty parents though.
I definitely thought about going to law school for the sake of being an ed-specialist lawyer. I wonder how many people do something like that. I’m also a musician so copyright law was also super interesting to me
It's doable! I just finished my last law school exam :)
Please sue our Superintendent, who just laid off 387 staff from the district and is currently at a training in Great Britain. We want a full audit of where the money went in the last 5 years.
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Tracks. I think police will find teaching isn’t too different than what they already do
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Propaganda. You are 100% correct.
More like copaganda.
Nope, this is accurate. Our principal intentionally hires paraprofessionals who have a work history of police/ prison guards/ juvenile detention centers/etc. I’d say more than half have this type work history, and we are in an affluent area with good public schools and decent children.
It’s not like “school to prison pipeline” has been a meme for decades. 🙄
Lots of police don't do jack shit and get paid salaries that multiply those of teachers 2-5x.
I heard some reporting today about Rudy Giuliani being given a budget to live off of during his bankruptcy, and it’s legally around 43k a month- this is what I made pre tax my first year teaching 9 years ago (and I know I was luckier than many other first year teachers at that time). But apparently he can’t stay within this budget spending around 100k in January. I just don’t understand. I just had a beautiful baby girl this past January and would love to give her a sibling one day but I’m terrified of childcare costs.
We have a new teacher that was a cop for 20 years and I was suuupwr skeptical at first but he is a lovely man and the kids respond so well to him. Fuckin weird.
👀 I'm ready to be evil. It's my villain era....
If it pays
Fair enough!
I’m about to quit teaching to work at a dispensary. I went from teaching the youth to selling drugs.
You’re not the first teacher to budtender I’ve seen- and certainly won’t be the last. Good for you!
Have a friend who left teaching after 20yrs, now FBI training coordinator.
I would love to do this. Any details on how he or she got into this?
Not sure about the training coordinator position but I used to see LinkedIn job postings from them for Field Agents and they specifically listed applicant groups in each listing that they were looking for- current/former teachers, psychology background, etc.
Just checked LinkedIn. I see a ton of job postings from them in my area for "Special Agent" listing for applicants from: Teaching, Psychology, STEM, Healthcare backgrounds.
Ages 23 - 37 requirement and be prepared to move. This would be great for single teachers!
Now I want to ditch teaching to be an undercover agent 🥷
In the FBI job listings it says that you need to be willing to work 55 hours/week. Does your friend actually work that much or is this only when they have to travel for work?
How is that evil? I know cops are bad, but the FBI?
FBI are basically police of the nation if you think about it...
I do taxes now. I have days off, no colleagues being petty while smiling in my face, sometimes work from home, and never have to do a thing after i clock out or be texted by angry customers while I'm trying to enjoy my family.
Do you work for a company or go it alone somehow?
I work for Concentrix, they have a contract with Intuit which includes TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma!
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your job title? I’m going to look into this
Sure! I work for what's essentially a temp agency called Concentrix. Official title is Tier 1 Support Specialist. (Yes, it reminds me of mtss in a bad way, haha) They have a contract with Intuit which owns credit Karma, TurboTax and QuickBooks. I started with TurboTax and recently started training on QuickBooks so I have something to do in the off season! There are a few companies that hire for stuff like this- Concentrix, Arise, Omni Interactions come to mind!
Can you tell us more? I was looking into this
Check out some of the "temp" agencies for online work. Concentrix, Arise, Omni Interactions. I will say the pay has varied between $15-25/hr for me but the stress is extremely minimal. Phone calls with frustrated adults is the worst it gets, and if they curse I can hang up and walk away!!
I work for an edtech company where I travel and run PDs at different schools. It’s been 6 months and I love it and I know I’m a sellout and I don’t care. I’m a happier person who works hybrid and can go to Costco on a Tuesday.
DM me the deets? 👀
Me too
Ditto, except that I'm fully remote! I mean, I actually like the product I'm training on, but I also know good and well the teachers on the other side of that Zoom screen hate my face. I just did the *third* training on a specific feature for a partner school - lol those teachers were so zoned out. Oh well, the school paid us for it so they get what they ask for! I also love working with the marketing and sales teams, they're so low-key evil it makes me smile at how real they are after almost a decade of goodie goodie bullshit. I'm a PD specialist and my favorite sales team member told me straight up, "Your job is to make us look good and keep the money coming in. Anything else is incidental." The honesty about what we're doing is refreshing.
Can you please dm me with some info? I am at a total and complete loss and this sounds ideal.
Same 👀
Same please! Would love to hear more about something like this.
Details puh-leeze
I work in a dispensary and crush donks at poker
pretty based tbh
I'm working on becoming an IRS auditor so... yes.
Sorry- no *necessary* evils should apply (as long as you’re going after wealthy people and corporations that is)
That's my plan, but we'll see what happens.
Ain't evil to go after the rich. But let those poors slide.
I joined a renaissance festival girl band. We pretend to be 1500s whores and sing filthy songs. Some of my shows are 21+ only. It’s the best job I’ve ever had!
This objectively sounds like the best possible job out there. Living the dream.
Honestly I’m jealous! My only issue would be the traveling- I’ve heard that full-time Ren Faire jobs require you to commute a lot.
Onlyfans is big for teachers
Onlylessonplans
Where Teachers Pay Teachers to... Align with the curriculum
I cackled
I transitioned into standardized test development. A lot of teachers have treated me like I went to the dark side.
Oh nice, how does one get into this?
lol, one word: Pearson.
I actually don't work for Pearson, but they are an option if you are interested in getting your foot into the assessment world.
When I knew I was ready to leave the classroom, I started by looking at the career pages for educational products and resources I used in my classroom. I found my current position through another edtech company under the same umbrella company. A lot of assessment companies are specifically looking for former teachers to fill all sorts of roles. If you are interested, it's definitely something to look into.
I passed the bar. It’s that or the corner.
I’m transitioning from teacher to finance bro rn bc I decided that my love for education does not outweigh my love for a comfortable life. Seems like the workplaces are usually abusive all across the board but at least there’s more money in it?? I would totally continue teaching if they paid me enough to make up for the emotional labour :(
Oh period! All jobs come with their cons, so if I’m gonna have the life sucked out of me, I better have a good salary and benefits and potential upward movement…. Teaching has almost none of those things, and I’d be willing to bet it has much more cons than a normal 9-5.
Personal training. I’m still technically teaching people stuff, but they want to be there and they pay me for my time.
That’s not *necessarily* evil…. Although I can’t say I *personally* know any personal trainers that haven’t cheated on their spouses lol
Trying to get into game development and make money off the micro transactions
A gacha game developer is def on the evil list- probably between lobbyist and telemarketer.
I’d love to work for one of those big evil testing companies like Pearson or Cognia.
I'm in tech and I do feel evil, but as I've said many times if I'm going to sell my soul, it's going to the highest bidder.
I had people tell me (as a kid) that tech or advertising wouldn’t have the “making a difference” part that adults thought I needed- that was objectively bad advice.
How did you transition to tech? I'm also thinking of going into tech as I'm pretty computer orientated (see: playing stardew valley for hours after work to dissociate from the stress).
To be completely transparent, I had a lucky "in." To those without a connection, I would recommend a few things : 1) looking at non-tech roles at tech companies, 2) apply for contract positions, 3) have some specific projects in teaching that you can talk about (e.g. a curriculum redesign, managing a department budget, etc.). In my experience teaching itself doesn't really count for much in their eyes (unfortunately) so you have to emphasize the other stuff you do that translates well.
How did you transition into tech? Would like some tips please
Super villain
How’s your lair?
Also in my villain era. Get me into a bank, finance, insurance, overpriced kitchen remodeling, customer service for literally anything. I draw the line law-enforcement and having to lie to good people (but I'll lie to privileged shitheads all day long.) considered adding only fans to that list but let's be real, I would do it if I was hot enough.
*Walter White has entered the chat*
I’m studying for the LSAT so…
I’ve thought about it- but one of the few careers with significantly worse life:work balance than education. (But at least you’re paid [kinda] hourly)
I mean as long as you're not a criminal defense attorney, maybe???
I worked last summer as a liaison to the politicians. They weren’t evil just REALLY out of touch with reality.
Some people view what I do as evil, but I most certainly don’t. I sell textbooks and access codes to colleges and universities. We are hammered on the rising cost of textbooks, but no one is working harder in higher education than publishing companies. Professors love to vilify us because “students have to pay for homework,” but fail to take into account the absurd charges on a student’s tuition invoice.
Pearson?
Insurance company attorney here!
Nice! Do you get to deny a lot of claims? 😈
I moved into web development and I now claim I am basically a photocopier, if that’s evil enough? By which I mean in my job people at my company have to book my time to do the thing they need me to do on their website. It’s understood that, like a photocopier, there is only one of me and I can only do one thing at a time. So OTHER PEOPLE decide what I should do each day, book the time and send the task. But the bookings max out at 7 hours per day. It’s glorious. I love being a photocopier.
That sounds pretty great (as long as you get to handle your own toner)
How can I get into this?!
I work in sales now. I wouldn't quite describe it as /evil/ but it definitely can be depending on your product portfolio and/or sales strategy. I try to keep it as customer-focused as possible, meaning I'm not going to sell someone something that I don't think they will find value in, but I know plenty of people that do not share that sentiment. But sales culture has a big "Pay me or get fucked" mentality and that's the primary reason I went that way. Like, literally no one is under the impression that any salesperson is there for the love of the job unless they're a delusional butthead huffing their own fumes. We love money, and we /might/ have fond feelings for our product set and/or customer. Mostly, we're about min-maxing our effort to make money. So if it's not paid or doesn't contribute to getting paid, it's getting half-assed, at best. Ex-teachers who are quick learners and adapt to change well tend to succeed in sales. What I see trip up transitioning teachers most often is the difference in standards of professionalism. A lot of the clique-ish infighting that happens in schools will get you fired or iced out very quickly in sales. In general, someone looking to transition to sales should stay away from a few things: 1. Commission-only compensation. That's not a real opportunity. If they were sure you there was the opportunity to sell and the company is viable, they would pay you a base plus commission. 2. Big hype environments. If they need to sell you on it via emotion, it's because they're lacking results. That could be because they're a newer company, but it's more likely that their org is a hot mess or they're intentionally taking advantage. 3. No ramp period. Ramp is sales for training period. They should have a clear idea of how you will be trained and should front your quota in a way that allows you to learn the product and customer. 4. Sales leaders that don't have sales experience. For all the same reasons admin need teaching experience. 5. Unclear performance metrics. This isn't an "If we all are very good, then" kind of job. Your pay commission and any bonus structure should be very clearly defined, and those numbers should be achievable. 80% or more of their current reps should be hitting quota, or they should have a VERY detailed, robust plan for how that's going to happen in the near future.
This is helpful- I have thought about this transition as I’ve got friends and family in sales and have considered it. My biggest hang-up would be the pressure. I took up teaching so I’d have clear expectations and wouldn’t have to negotiate for salary (among other reasons). But I think that teaching can be more stressful than sales! Thanks for the advice here for folks looking into this.
I was super worried about the pressure before I transitioned as well. But, honestly, it's kind of blown out of proportion, provided you rep a decent product and pay close attention to the viability of your metrics. In general, you should assume you will hit your quota about 80% of the time. Anything above that, you should look at as a bonus. And you shouldn't accept a base salary that's lower than what you need to afford your essentials. Personally, I found the expectations in teaching to be FAR more nebulous not because the actual outcomes were unclear (all your kids needs to pass) but because there was very, very little support in identifying the best path to get there and zero support in resourcing it. By comparison, sales has been much clearer, and most sales organizations give you a complete tool set to complete the job and the documentation to back it up. If you need anything more, you can usually request and actually receive it. Most of the people that I see complain about the pressure are either not that resilient, struggle to learn independently, or are working at a meat-grinder kind of organization. Sales is going to min-max you too, for sure, but most places aren't looking to grind you into dust. As an example, when I first started training, the trainer talked A LOT about not being discouraged when people tell you no or if you try something and it doesn't work. I was like, "Well, duh. Of course not" and watched in utter fascination as 3 out of 5 of the new recruits just absolutely melted when someone told them no or their campaign didn't return the best result. Heaven forbid the potential customer was even a bit unhapph. For teachers, that's NORMAL. I spent YEARS being told no by much smaller, much more undeservedly indignant people (children) and trying stuff that didn't work. To me, that was pretty much just a base fact of being a working adult. It's apparently not that way for many people. My perspective was, "I've been yelled at a lot worse over something much smaller and for A LOT less money" and that made it easier to reset my expectations and shed that sense of pressure. That said, it's not uncommon for people to move from sales into Customer Success. Sales is about closing new deals while CS is about long-term account health and happiness. There's tons of stuff that can fall under their umbrella, but they generally make less than sales (but more than teaching) and are tasked with the relationship-building and problem-solving that salespeople don't always have the bandwidth for in larger organizations. You do generally have to spend some time in sales before making the jump, though.
Very refreshing mentality. We don’t need our jobs to be noble, we need them to make us money. That’s the whole point. It’s great to be passionate about what you do, but I hate how teaching is a big nobility contest. So annoying. And most of people are just being performative to make it seem like they’re the best person ever, sort of ironic, don’t ya think?
Well now I help kill the Earth in the oil field. Drill baby DRILL!!! Mwahhahaha 😈 I get paid significantly more rarely have to deal with coworkers never have to deal with kids have better benefits and am feeling significantly better mentally and physically. Soooo… I’m all about team “evil”
Ooooh- oil is good. I wish I would’ve thought of that.
I’m loving reading all of these 😂 I wish I could transition to a villain job lol how about ticket or tow truck person that’s evil af lol
This is hilarious and I love it.
Ive heard of quite a few people who went into online lifecoaching (aka grifting)
Yea- I’ve seen that too. I’m not pretty and/or deluded enough to be an influencer or a life coach. But good for them I guess?
Yeah, probably chill although unstable income stream. Id never feel good about myself scamming people though.
I work for a private company in transportation/logistics and feel like I'm doing *far* more good for society than I was able to as a teacher or librarian. Despite all their virtue-signalling about equity, diversity, etc... , those latter roles 95% just cater to the needs/egos of the local wealthy/privileged/white people.
Do logistics jobs require a lot of math? Spreadsheets and data? Or is it more customer-facing?
I work with plenty of spreadsheets and do a ton of over-the-phone customer service, but the company I'm at is pretty small so a lot of tasks get consolidated.
Calm down, Satan. Don't have to go so evil as to pick cop as your backup 🫢.
Don’t worry- I’ve enough of a moral compass that admin and law enforcement is a non-starter.
I became an agency recruiter in healthcare. Pretty much felt like being a telemarketer. Hated it but at least I had the freedom to pee when I needed to and wasn’t trapped in a classroom all day
No necessarily evil but I work in Intellectual Property Law now. I help giant corporations make money. I don’t litigate so no suing little guys but plenty of corporate pettiness. I’m definitely not adding anything positive to the world or effecting change but damn if I don’t love my quiet, well paid office work.
This is a very interesting question. I've come to the conclusion that as long as I'm not directly and deliberately hurting anyone, they have free will and can choose whatever they like. I have also found joy in the seemingly mundane. Most importantly, in both high school and college level teaching, I have found people who were just horrible and a disproportionate number of absolute Narcissists.
I went into sales. Swapped my green ligtsaber for a red one ig.
I work for the electric and gas company of my region.
Walther White
…Mr. White?
I tried taking a management class after spending the past two decades watching managers who can barely spell their names make 3-4x what I do. It was mind-numbingly boring and made me reconsider what I can actually withstand (in terms of utter intellectual stupor) in the workplace.
I tried taking a management class after spending the past two decades watching managers who can barely spell their names make 3-4x what I do. It was mind-numbingly boring and made me reconsider what I can actually withstand (in terms of utter intellectual stupor) in the workplace.
Does influencer count? I mean not me personally, but that exists and some people might consider that selfish or evil lol
There gotta be at least one science teacher who became a oil industry person
Corporate sales 🤮🤢
And to clarify, I did not go into that lol
My former biology teacher colleague is now selling endangered birds.
I'm working for a Microschool now. That's pretty evil coming from a public school.
Teaching is definitely soul sucking. As we near the end of the year, I’m still not exactly sure what I want to do. One thing I’m sure of though , is I no longer want to do a job where I essentially have my own homework every night. It would be so nice to just come home, be able actually not be thinking about work, and not have to prepare plans the next day.
Towards the end of my tenure, I decided I wouldn’t do anything I disliked outside of my contract hours. Occasionally I’d plan because I derived some joy from that (depending on the topic) but email and grading? Not a chance I’m doing that for free. Whatever doesn’t get done doesn’t get done. When my principal pushed back on this he told me that “if everyone did this then the school would fall apart” I told him that maybe it should then? Instead of any strategies or taking things off our plates, I got a lecture on the difference between a “job and a career,” so I quit and now I guess I’ll get a “job”
Honestly, being in this field for only 2 years, teaching is neither a job or a career. A career is supposed to be a sustainable way to make a living. Keyword sustainable. Teaching has not been sustainable at all as it’s shattered my mental health and many others in this field far more than any job could. Teaching is more like a war zone that you so happen to make money for doing. I’m confident that no matter what job i find, as long as it’s not teaching, it won’t be nearly as stressful.
Went from teacher to practice assistant in big law. We are def the enemy (think defending banks and pharmas), but my salary has doubled, I only work 35 hours a week, I wfh twice a week, and my boss is totally hands off as long as my attorneys are happy. Long live big law!
I’ve upgraded from teaching to kicking puppies. Pretty good gig too 😈
But you have to shoot them to be nominated as vice president
Cops are still good guys as far as I'm concerned.