High achiever but bad career choices ?

imran1986

Hello All,

I am looking for some advice/inspiration or even just your opinion on my situation - I think it would be a great help to hear what people think.

I am a 30 year old male who feels a dissatisfied with his career choices.
I have been fortunate enough to be academically gifted (I got 3A’s in my alevels, 1st Class hons in my undergraduate and a full scholarship for my masters) however I have low self-confidence in my abilities which I believe has held me back. I spent a lot of last year feeling regretful I did not push myself an strive towards a better career choice like say medicine or dentistry. I should mention I have no interest in any of these however these careers are seen as very respectful, top notch and earn the big bucks. Anyway I have come to realise its too late to dwell on the past and I have no desire to go back to university to study something I have no interest in.

I initially started working for an engineering consultancy and lasted around 3 years. I hated it. I constantly felt like I had no idea what I was doing, felt overwhelmed and really anxious all the time. I always use to have butterflies in my stomach and feared that eventually everyone would find out I had no idea what I was doing and question why I was even employed there.

I was made redundant and was very glad. I thought it was the environment, high pressure and pace of the work force which made me unhappy and so decided to move into local government. Initially I liked the work – finish at 5 on the dot, no weekend/overtime but eventually I have become so BORED and feel the work I am doing is useless, not exciting or challenging and just a gloried admin job.

I have always loved teaching but decided to stay away from high school teaching because of all the horror stories and resentful teachers an how the profession is regarded. I started doing one on one tutoring back whilst I was in university and have continued since then. I love it and have been able to grow it organically and have had a really good run, specially the past two years. The problem is however its not secure (clients come and go…etc) and I feel a bit embarrassed to tell my peers I am just a tutor as there are a lot of uni kids that do my job. Also, its something I can do whilst I am young-ish but perhaps not something I want to do 5-10years down the track.

I think I would love teaching entry level maths or science at a university (or even an adult education centre/college) but have no idea how I would even get into that. I don’t really want to do a phd just so I might be able to teach at university.

fishybusiness

I don’t really want to do a phd just so I might be able to teach at university.

Not sure where you have got that from. Many uni lecturers have a bog standard degree when they start, and at some point go off to do some teacher training.

Sounds like you have found what you want, just need to follow the path you are on, never mind anyone elses opinion of you and enjoy what you do.

SkimmySim

Would you go back to uni or college to do one year courses that leads to teaching?

WibblyGirly

One of my lecturers are uni isn't a Dr yet, he's doing it alongside his job. You could teach college?
Could you go back to the careers centre at your uni? Ask their advice? I'd think you'd need to do a PGCE or a similar course to be able to teach but maybe check job boards and see what quals are required for different levels of teaching.

Malthusian

imran1986 wrote: »

I love it and have been able to grow it organically and have had a really good run, specially the past two years.

Brilliant. Good for you.

The problem is however its not secure (clients come and go…etc) and I feel a bit embarrassed to tell my peers I am just a tutor as there are a lot of uni kids that do my job.

Stuff them. Tell them you're a "teacher" if you find the word "tutor" embarrassing, they mean the same thing. I see one-to-one teaching as at least as prestigious as classroom teaching, if not more so. People tend to be more choosy about tutors than they are about teachers. There's a clear difference between someone who makes a living out of tutoring and someone who does it for a bit of spare cash as an undergrad.

If you've made a success of it for at least two years, it sounds like you've got little to worry about in terms of security - you're clearly able to deal with the variable nature of the work.

Others will be able to give you better advice than me on going into university / adult college teaching, but in your shoes I would be looking at local colleges in that area and finding out what their requirements are. I would have thought that good maths / science teachers are like hen's teeth.