Are you a teacher who is 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 something different or a new job or perhaps pursuing an entirely different career - but you don't know what else you're qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search and you just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone. my name is Vanessa Jackson; and I am a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal with the overwhelmingly stressful nature of your day-to-day job and to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. You might ask yourself, What tools do I need to find a new career? Are my skills valuable outside the classroom? How and where do I even get started? These are all questions you deserve answers to, and I can help you find them. I’m Vanessa Jackson. Come and join me for Teachers in Transition.
***Hi! And Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition. I am your host, Vanessa Jackson – I’m a career transition and job search coach specializing in teachers. I am here to help you reach your goals and figure out how to navigate the journey from stressed, overwhelmed and burnt-out teacher to the next chapter in your life. I provide tips and suggestions to help with stress and mental health, hacks to help your day, and of course, job-hunting and career transition tips. If you are frustrated with your current teaching position, if you are stressed, overwhelmed, and burned out you are in the right place – Welcome! Today on the podcast, I am going to talk about how we respond to stress, I have a recommendation about a fun, yet obscure tv show to binge watch (if you can find it!), and we are going to answer the question: should you write your own resume or pay someone to do it?
With July 4th having passed a couple of weeks ago, I have the opportunity to think about how the fireworks affected my dogs. I have four dogs right now, which is more than we intended, but it is what we have. It's amazing how differently all four dogs respond to fireworks. Our one male dog literally cares about nothing. Nothing phases him, nothing bothers him, and he just quietly goes about and does what he wants. We have one female dog who is not scared of fireworks and by extension gunshots, but she is terrified of thunder So when she hears thunder off in the distance, she comes and starts attaching herself to me like she is made of Velcro. We have one dog who used to be afraid of literally everything, but over time has significantly mellowed. She’s 14 now, and her hearing is starting to diminish and she truly doesn't even know they're going on anymore. And that leads me to the fourth dog. She was a rescue, (actually, all but one of our dogs is a rescue) and so we don't know what her life was like as a puppy except that she was found as a puppy in a very busy intersection and her first move was to bite the tech at the shelter. This baby is terrified of fireworks (and gunshots). She will curl that tail so far under that she could quite possibly use it as a pacifier. She will then slink over, curl up, and shiver in a corner. We do give her some medication for these sorts of evenings, when this occurs. but it bothers her so much that we stay home on July the 4th. This just goes to show how different critters can respond to the same stimulus in very different ways. People are no different. People will see the same situation and have a very different response to it. And those responses are rooted in several things - for example what their childhood experiences were, what their adult experiences have been, and quite honestly how worn down they are by the rest of the stresses in their life at the moment. This is one of the reasons that fall doesn't seem quite so bad for teachers but spring sure does.
We can choose how we respond to stress. I am talking here about the accumulative effect of all the stresses because we can respond well to one, but by the 20th of the hour, we’re not nearly as collected and cool.
I ask you to consider a pot of boiling water. We have a little baggie of tea, an egg, and a carrot. Each of these three things respond to the stimulus of boiling water in very different ways. The carrot becomes soft. The egg becomes hard. while the tea becomes strong.
Your ability to handle stress will be directly related to the supports that you placed outside the classroom and the boundary lines that you draw for yourself. As an example you need enough sleep. If you do not get enough sleep, you will start to not be able to convert your short term to your long-term memory. You will not feel as effective when you can't remember what you were supposed to be doing. I have not been getting enough sleep lately with lots of projects, and I’ve been lying to myself that it’s all been fine. Until I went to a presentation on Saturday. I did my thing, I came home, I went out and ran an errand where I interacted with people. I came home and gave my husband a hug. And it was at this point that I realized my shirt had been on inside out THE ENTIRE TIME!!! Sleep, y’all. It’s what keeps a brain going!
Additionally, you need to have something that sharpens your saw, something that breaks the tedium and allows you the opportunity to come back fresh. I feel sometimes when we push the same task for too long, it has the same effect as staring at a star. If you go outside tonight or tomorrow night, look up and pick out a star. Stare at it, and while you stare at it, it disappears. And the harder you stare at it, the harder it is to see but the second you look away that star pops back out it's like it's playing peekaboo
Your ability to weather the stresses of life – to wilt like the carrot, to become hard inside like the egg or to become strong like the tea - all depends on your ability to draw those boundaries and make yourself a priority. Build your resilience to stress by being deliberate about taking care of your body, mind, and soul. Aim for the healthier foods, take a walk, take a nap, read a book, snuggle a loved one. You are worth it.
Next up is my recommendation for you – this summer I am sharing fun recommendations instead of my normal hacks and tips. This next one may be a little hard to find – I’ve included an Amazon link, but the show is called Two Guys and A Girl. The show was ORIGINALLY called Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place and it ran on ABC in the late 90s. I decided to recommend this series this week because it stars a young Ryan Reynolds – and Ryan has a new movie coming out about a red-suited superhero. Once you get to season two, you also get to enjoy watching a young Nathan Fillion as a regular cast member.
This shows follows the adventures of Pete, Berg, and Sharon – close friends who work at and live near a pizza place. It carries them from school to the workplace. Ryan’s character Berg is similar to his Van Wilder character, but it’s classic Ryan Reynolds. It makes for a great laugh.
And now let’s move on to this week’s job-hunting segment: Should I hire someone to write my resume for me?
Well if you're a resume writer, I will apologize in advance but my answer is - no.
It is not difficult to learn what to do to write an effective resume for yourself - it just requires a little guidance. When I was leaving Alaska and coming back to Texas, my husband and I had the freedom to live anywhere in Texas and we decided that we would live in the area where I found a job instead of settling in an area and then looking for a job there.
After 20 years of military family life, this was the only time in our married lives we'd had that kind of freedom, so this was delightful! But I wanted to make sure that I was stacking the deck in my favor and that I would have lots of things to choose from. So, I paid a resume writer specializing in teachers and in my field of teaching to write my resume for me. And to be fair she did a beautiful job. She got everything in there, she made me sound amazing, and there was so much information packed onto that resume that how could anyone do anything but hire me!
The thing is - that resume did not get optimized to the individual job profiles to show that I could meet the needs of that job, and it was cluttered with a lot of stuff that wasn't necessary. Not every achievement goes on every resume for every job description because all job descriptions are a little different but a resume for each job description should be a little bit different – just like differentiating for student instruction. And my guess is that you’re already a whiz at that. Apply that skill to job descriptions.
And remember how the resume writer made me sound amazing? Sure - and while it's nice that someone made me feel very good about myself, a company or potential employer doesn't care if I feel good about myself. A company cares about how my ability to work for them improves their productivity and bottom line. Ergo, a resume is really just showing off how you can do that for them.
My professionally-rendered resume was very dense – there was no wasted space on that page. Let’s think about that a little bit. Think about what you like to look at on a page, or when you receive texts. NOBODY wants to read what we call the wall of text. The cast of nobody includes hiring managers and recruiters. For those of you who have worked with students in special education, you KNOW that more white space on a page makes it easier for people to absorb. The more dense it is, the less that they absorb that info - your info. And you definitely want your information to be absorbed. Make sure your resume is easy on the eyes.
Writing your own resume is something I can absolutely help you with. It is one of the services that I provide; and moreover, I teach you how to craft your bullet points in such a way that becomes a compelling narrative. And it shows the company what you could accomplish for them.
If you might be interested in learning a little bit more please feel free to reach out and schedule a complimentary discovery call - I would love to talk with you. I really like coaching teachers to help them find their way out of toxic situations.
It takes time to find a new job - teachers are used to the three-month frenzy shuffle from May to August. Remember a complete career transition and job hunt is a 6-12 month process, so now is a great time to start thinking about that exit strategy.
If you’re stressed at just the thought of going back to school or if you’re overwhelmed with everything that being a teacher requires now, maybe it’s time to think about something else. I know you are going into the next school year hoping things will be better – but in case they aren’t. I am here.
Again, I am back on Facebook (that was such a difficult process to regain my access!) so I again invite people to join Teachers In Transition Podcast Club as a place where you can interact with other teachers and talk about the challenges of teaching and of leaving teaching.
Remember: The best time to start working on your transition plan was about six months ago. The next best time is now!
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 Teacher in transition coaching at gmail dot 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!
