CHOOSING A CAREER

Choosing just one role to focus on was probably the most difficult step in my transition. My family and friends have heard me say many times in the last 5 years that I was sure I would be happy doing absolutely any job other than teaching. It’s not that I’d lost my passion for education. What I’d lost was any sense of work/life balance and feeling valued in my job. I had fantasies of quietly stocking shelves on 3rd shift at Walmart, waiting tables, and being a retail sales associate at one of my favorite clothing stores. If only those jobs would pay enough for me to make my mortgage payments! I actually thought being an administrative assistant somewhere in the business world would be fun and give me a sense of value. Maybe a position as an executive administrative assistant would provide an acceptable income. Sadly, I discovered that people in those positions are drastically underpaid for the value they add to any organization! Many people suggested I become a corporate trainer. I even applied to a couple of training positions but never heard back. (Also, note that this was before I’d ever heard of an Applicant Tracking System, so it is highly unlikely that any humans ever saw my applications. More on the ATS in a future post!)

PODCASTS, PODCASTS, PODCASTS

Looking back, I think podcasts played the most significant role in helping me to explore possible careers. I started with the Teacher Career Coach podcast, which I mentioned in THE TCC LIFELINE. I’d listen to an interview with a former teacher, and if I was intrigued by that guest’s new role I’d take a closer look at it. It always amazes me how there seems to be a YouTube video for absolutely anything you want to know. I searched “a day in the life of a ___” and found countless people who had taken the time to walk you through a typical day in their shoes. If I was still interested, I’d go back and search for podcasts for and by professionals in that industry. I had a 45-minute commute to school at that time, so I’d queue up a few of the more interesting-sounding shows or episodes. If my mind wandered as I drove, I took that as a sign that it wasn’t a role I would really enjoy. On the other hand, if I found myself wanting to hear the next episode or learn more about something I’d heard, I put it on a list of possible careers for me.

CORPORATE TRAINER

I had a lot of experience providing professional development for teachers, so this role seemed to make the most sense at first glance. Then I pictured myself standing in front of a room of employees, who were told to be there and teach them something I wasn’t as passionate about as I was with training teachers. On top of that, I figured that most companies rely on virtual training these days. I pictured my online classes for students and many virtual PD sessions I’d attended in the last 3 years. The thought of trying to motivate and engage learners, many of whom I pictured would have their cameras off, actually made me nauseous. I decided that I didn’t want to teach people I couldn’t build a relationship with. I may be way off with my vision of this role. I’m just telling you what went through my head at this point and led me to explore other possible options.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

I have been fascinated with coding since I introduced it to my elementary students back in 2013 with block coding. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I spent hours in the evenings learning on my own. I REALLY wanted to do a coding bootcamp for fun, but the cost outweighed my curiosity. I eventually took a position teaching middle school computer science where I developed courses in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I always wondered if I had grown up with coding would I have made a career out of it.

So as I listened to the Teacher Career Coach Podcast episode with Jessica Wolvington, I got super excited about the prospect of investing in a coding bootcamp with a new purpose. I had researched entry-level position salaries and knew I’d recoup my investment fairly quickly once I landed a job. I reached out to Jessica on LinkedIn, and we spoke on the phone for about 30 minutes. I asked her questions about the reality of finding a job with only bootcamp skills. She said as a hiring manager, she doesn’t really care where you got your skills. She looks at an applicant’s work to determine if they were someone she’d hire. I had another concern, which was my age. I imagined myself in a waiting room with a bunch of younger male applicants and wondered if a hiring manager would even take me seriously. She admitted ageism is real in the tech world, but she gave me suggestions for how I could stand out amongst other applicants. One of her suggestions was to join an open-source community and contribute to projects.

I was still nervous after my conversation with Jessica, but I decided to move forward on this new path toward becoming a software engineer. I immediately started googling bootcamps, and my heart began to sink at the sight of tuition as high as $20k. That was a hefty gamble. I turned to the TCC community and asked what others did and what their experience was with those programs. A majority of those who responded recommended a bootcamp called SheCodes. Matt Delac founded SheCodes with the mission of empowering women world-wide with the skills needed to begin a career in front-end development. To reach as many women as possible, the bootcamp tuition was just under $2k if paid in full or you could finance it for just under $3k. I enrolled on the spot!

I raced my way through the first 3 modules, feeling more and more confident in my decision. So confident, in fact, that I informed the district I would be retiring at the end of that school year. I felt so free the moment I submitted my paperwork.

As I began the 4th SheCodes module, I also began to realize my competence thus far was related to all of my prior learning. I seemed to hit roadblocks while doing advanced assignments and found it frustrating that I couldn’t reach anyone for support in any kind of timely fashion. As I neared the end of the bootcamp and read job postings for front-end developers, I realized I wouldn’t be qualified for any of them. I also ventured into an open-source community and felt like a preschooler who’d wandered into a Mensa meeting. This confirmed it for me. I was heading down the wrong path, and I had only 6 months left to reach my destination. My age and my bank account were telling me I didn’t have the time or money to continue down this road. I had no way of knowing if the next coding bootcamp would be everything I needed, so it was back to the drawing board for me.