Starting a job search can be a daunting process for anyone. It is especially complex if you are leaving one career and need to undertake another. This podcast and this episode in particular is addressed to teachers who are experiencing burnout and are thinking of leaving the profession in pursuit of something new. The trouble is that most teachers don't know what they might be qualified to do or even what they would want to do. Over the years that I have been working with career changers, I have discovered that the #1 challenge of every job seeker or career changer is answering the question, "What do you want to do next?" or "What now?"
Kitty Boitnott, Ph.D., NBCT, RScP has been working with burnt out teachers since 2013. She helps with stress and stress management and she helps with career transition. To learn what the #1 challenge of every job seeker is regardless of your current career, listen to this episode of "Teachers in Transition."
Starting a job search can be a daunting process for anyone. It is especially complex if you are leaving one career and need to undertake another. This podcast and this episode in particular is addressed to teachers who are experiencing burnout and are thinking of leaving the profession in pursuit of something new. The trouble is that most teachers don't know what they might be qualified to do or even what they would want to do. Over the years that I have been working with career changers, I have discovered that the #1 challenge of every job seeker or career changer is answering the question, "What do you want to do next?" or "What now?"
Kitty Boitnott, Ph.D., NBCT, RScP has been working with burnt out teachers since 2013. She helps with stress and stress management and she helps with career transition. To learn what the #1 challenge of every job seeker is regardless of your current career, listen to this episode of "Teachers in Transition."
Speaker 1:
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 are not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnout teachers disliking deal not only with the stress and overwhelmed if you're day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you to 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:
Hi, this is kitty boy, not of teachers and transition and today I'm offering episode three of the podcast and youtube channel teachers and transition. Yeah. I've offered in the previous episodes that I'll be alternating between talking about stress management and strategies for managing your stress proactively and more effectively and job search strategies, career changing strategies. What do you need to think about? What do you need to know when you are undertaking a job transition? Now I specialize in working with burn out teachers who have come to the conclusion that staying in the profession is no longer an option, that they need to find something new to do for some sooner rather than later. Some are thinking more long term. You know, I've got four more years before it's time to retire and I just, I want to be planning proactively. Some are already quit. I need something as soon as possible. Some are have decided not to sign my letter of intent for next year. I'm finishing up this year, but after that I don't know what I'm going to be doing and I help in that many times people make this change without having thought through what is it that you want to do next? And I don't recommend that you approached this question of what would you to do next with the limited attitude of, well, what am I qualified to do? Because the fact of the matter is with a college education, you're qualified to do many things that you may not have actually made your dad in college. I mean, you could take a poll and find out that many, if not most people are working in areas in which they nest didn't necessarily major in college. They figured out other ways to fall into or to become, um, people who are working in their particular endeavors in spite of, not because of what they majored in in college. So a college education gives you an edge for sure. The fact that you're a teacher in my book means you've got a good heart. You're, you've probably got a pretty decent work ethic. You don't expect to get rich quick or overnight, so you're not looking for some get rich quick scheme. You're willing to work hard for what you make, but the dilemma that you've run into, or the dilemma at least sit in any of my clients tell me they've run into is that they feel like they're there. They've lost all sense of balance in their lives. It from September until June when school is in, there's no time for anything else. Not Time for family, not time for friends, not time for hobbies or leisure time activities, no time for fun. And as one young teacher told me, even when I'm not working on school work, I'm thinking about it, I can't get away from it is always on my mind. What do I need to be planning to do? What is left undone that I need to be tending to? She feels guilty when she does something not related to her work because she feels like she's not doing what's expected of her by her students, by students, parents, and by the administration. So you know, that kind of unrelenting pressure can lead to all sorts of unintended, exacerbated, uh, circumstances that can lead to your being sick, which is why I talk about the stress of teaching as well as the importance of being smart about making your career change. If you've decided that you're absolutely committed to making a change in your career. And part of the reason that I do this work, in spite of the fact that I wasn't a committed advocate for public education for more than half of my wife, that I'm a past president of, of the Virginia Education Association, which is the largest organization in Virginia representing teachers and students and learning environments and the importance of funding our schools. In spite of that history of my own, my own personal background, I now help teachers leave the profession because on a micro level, on an individual one, on one level, I have recognized that life is too short for anyone you, me or anyone else to be living, feeling like you're caught in a career or a job that you no longer love and that you don't feel absolutely 100% committed to. That is a sure fire way to making yourself sick and the long term. And I don't recommend that. So in this episode I'm going to talk briefly about the number one thing that you need to do. If you've made the decision that it is time for you to leave teaching or whatever your profession may be. Teachers are not the only ones who leave their profession. There are people who leave the corporate world to go into teaching. There are people who leave the health care industry because of the bureaucracies and inadequacies that they see that they no longer want to participate in. People leave their individual careers for a variety of reasons. And frankly, sometimes people leave voluntarily because they no longer enjoy doing. Some people are forced out, people are downsizing. People lose their jobs on a daily basis. Companies Merge, departments are dissolved, positions are eliminated. Uh, when I was doing a lot of pro bono work a few years ago, I noticed a certain trend of a lot of older workers and their fifties and early sixties being let go by their companies because they were too expensive to hold onto. And the, the people in charge they management had had decided that those individuals were no longer needed for their company to be successful. And so they just cut them loose little ceremony. You know, one, one lady shared, she was told on a Friday before Christmas, clean out your desk. Don't come back. We no longer need your services. So that can happen. And, and when that happens, you're at a career crossroads by chance, not necessarily by choice. Either way, you're at a crossroads and you have decisions to make. So I want to encourage you in this episode, I want to leave you with one thought. And that is when you are about to undertake a job change or a career change of any kind, whether it's by chance or by choice. The number one decision to make is what is it that you want next in your career? What do you want? Not what do you think you can do not do? What do you think you might be have to settle for? Not what you might be qualified to do. None of that is important or I mean it is important that it's not as important. Is your getting clarity and focusing on what is it that you as an individual what to do? One of the exercises I give my perspective clients when I'm helping them to decide whether they want to work with me or not, I asked them if I gave you a magic wand and you could wave it and have be or do anything on the planet without worrying about how you might make it happen or how practical it might be. Just allow yourself to dream for a few minutes. If I gave you a magic wand and anything was possible, do you know what it is that you want to do next? Now if you can answer that question, you're one of maybe two out of a hundred who can? Most people I can see them through the phone. Shrug your shoulders, what a good question. They'll say, I wish I knew. They might have a vague kind of squishy feeling but not a clear idea and I contend that if you want to make this career transition and you want to be happy at the end of it, you want to be satisfied that you have gone in the right direction and you have found the right thing for you. That the first thing, the first order of businesses for you to decide what is it you want to do and then everything else will begin to fall into place. Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of people think the first thing they do when they're ready for a job change is that they write a resume. And I contend that that makes as much sense as booking your airfare and and making your hotel reservations before you've decided where you want to go on vacation. Nobody does that. If you did that, people would think you were nuts, right? Who would do that? Nobody. And yet, almost 1990 0.9% of people, if you ask them, what's the first thing you should do? And you're ready for a job change right away as a man,
Speaker 3:
uh, no.
Speaker 2:
I want you to wait until you had figured out what you're doing first. What is it that you want to do? And then you craft your resume to go in alignment with that. If you write your resume right this minute today, it's simply going to chronologically list everything you've ever done and more chances than not, it will include duties and responsibilities as opposed to the hard transferable skills that employers are looking for future employees to, hey, so first decide what you want to do and then you're in a position to identify what skills do you actually have, what have you done in your past that translates to what you want to do moving forward? And do you need to take a course or two? I don't recommend that you go back to school, especially if you've already got student debt. Well, uh, loans you don't need to add to your debt at this stage that you might need to take an online course or two that will give you some credibility as you make this change from one lane to another in your career. But first you have to figure out what is it that you want.
Speaker 3:
Okay?
Speaker 2:
And I cannot emphasize enough the importance of making it one critical decision. Otherwise you'll simply be right back here and another few years trying to figure out, well, you know, whatever it was, you switched to that time, it didn't pan out. Now what?
Speaker 3:
Okay,
Speaker 2:
you can avoid some of that. That creating the clarity and getting very, very focused on what is it that you want, not what your parents think you should want, not what your spouse thinks you should look for, not what your friends think you should settle for. This is all about you and in fact, I tell people during this early phase, don't talk to anybody about it except her trusted coach or a mentor, someone who is third party objective, not going to have any skin in the game, not going to be worried, may not. The coach wouldn't be concerned about your wellbeing, but not worried in the same way that the spouse is worried or that parents are worried or their friends are worried. You want a coach who's going to provide you with a safe playing area where you can play with possibilities and to you hit on the one thing that hits you right here. Oh Gosh. What if I could do as I could do that I think I would really have found my calling. So number one thing, what do you want? That's the first step in any job change or a career change, that transition and until and unless you decide that nothing else will really matter. So that's it for today. Welcome to teachers and transition. My name is kitty boy not. And again, I would ask you to subscribe to this channel and share with your friends if you found any of this message resonating for you. And I offer a comment or leave a question and I'll be sure to answer. I look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts because I want you to feel like you're getting the most out of this whole stress related job search related mission that I'm on, that I have found that is my calling. So that's it for today. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you'll come back.
Speaker 4:
Oh,
Speaker 1:
so there you have it. An episode of teachers and transition. I hope you enjoy the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers and 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 and more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me@kittyboitnottatboitnottcoaching.com if you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Um, Kitty Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.
