From Ed to Edtech or in Pursuit of It
When I landed my first interview and then the rounds that followed, I was confident that my next role, post k-12, would be writing curriculum for a coding app company…until I submitted what I thought was a great final round project and it obviously fell flat. I think that I allowed myself to feel upset for a few hours and then I got up and kept searching.
I have gone through at least 10–15 resume re-writes, resume writing courses, cover letter courses, resume/cover letter support groups…you name it, I’ve done it and mine is still not where it needs to be entirely. (I’ll fix that today)
Some background…
When I left my K-12 job at the end of my contract in 2019, I did not anticipate the next few years of course. I actually had a job lined up with a startup that hasn’t yet started (That’s a story for later). In the meantime, I was fortunate enough to land a pretty hefty freelance gig that lasted for over a year and as much as I loved marching to the beat of my own drum, I miss working with a consistent team and doing consistent work. This is me now, in pursuit of that…again.
When I think of my career in education and what I accomplished in school edtech, I still feel joy in that reflection. I loved training teachers and I loved working with students even more…especially doing computer science work. I loved the way that technology constantly changed, even if how we approached it in professional learning was always at least 5 years behind the curve.
It’s still 5 years behind…
…and I still miss it.
I’m now at a new space in my life where I need to work obviously but I also need to feel joy in what I do. Part of this process is deciding what I don’t want to do just as much as pursuing what I do want.
I know that I have zero desire to do contract work again. It’s full time only from here on out without exception.
I also have zero desire to write math curriculum and have great respect for those that do. For me, It is the equivalent of pulling out my teeth one by one. I love those that love it but it’s not my thing.
What I want to do as my career shifts is to pursue joy. I want to do collaborative work that supports community but also innovative teaching and learning that makes me smile so hard that my face hurts.
I don’t think that this is a great big ask but I do think that this can be accomplished in a multitude of ways whether full corporate, full time consulting or even in the non-profit world. I just really want to remain education adjacent…and happy.
…and there’s still great work that can and needs to be done for teaching and learning…especially now.
That said, I’m personally taking the steps needed to prepare myself for whatever comes by pursuing learning or “upskilling”.
Going from Ed to Edtech means learning a whole new language basically but also correlating it to K-12, where I am most knowledgeable. So many of our skills transfer but finding the words to describe them means learning the language.
Here are a few free resources that I am personally enjoying.
The American Dream Academy by Coursera and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream
Trailhead by Salesforce
The Customer Success Project — I found this creator through youtube. She has an e-book about branding but her blog and youtube are also great if pursuing customer success roles.
If you’re on this journey with me as one of the countless teachers trying to switch careers, I wish you all the luck. I also hope that you too can pursue what makes you feel joy…and a living wage without bureaucratic stress.
