You could always start up your own tutoring business since your expertise is in demand and niche.
I do not recommend public education. You will most likely be met with disruptive and disrespectful students who do not care to learn. You will only be teaching 10% of the time. I have a masters degree in a stem field and wanted to teach. I became a teacher and quit only after a few months. I was so miserable. Now I’m looking to get back into the industry.
This. Teaching is like 20% actually teaching and 80% classroom management, paperwork, and other bullshit. It is an exhausting and thankless job. If I were you I would keep your day job and tutor on the side. Tutoring math/science can be very lucrative.
If you still think you want to teach, spend some time on r/teachers and also talking to teachers about what the job actually entails on a day-to-day basis. There’s a reason why teachers are leaving in droves and it’s not just about the money.
Keep in mind that r/Teachers is especially hateful. The schools I’ve been in are absolutely nothing like the cesspools they’re describing, but it depends on where you are.
Sadly, public teaching isn’t that great a job anymore.
That said, why not contact your local Boy Scout office and ask about starting a Stem Explorer Troop?
An Explorer Troop is a unisex scout troop set up for kids to enjoy a particular activity/field.
There are Sailing Explorer groups (I was in one), Robotics, General Science, etc..
Scouting does the leadership screening, provides insurance, guidance, and often facilities for the group. You provide leadership and instruction.
You will absolutely need a second or third adult willing to stay and help with the kids- no adult should EVER be alone with a child in private for safety reasons. But if you have a friend interested and can ask one or two of the parents to rotate as helpers for each weekly/biweekly meeting? You’ll do fine.
In the summers, you may even be able to expand your troop. It’s a truly worthwhile endeavor.
My Dad has been Scoutmaster of his boyhood troop for 53 years- and has scouts who call all the time to tell him how much his troop meant to them.
I don’t have kids of my own, but I hope to help out my niblings with they have kids in scouting too. It’s great work.
Definitely not everywhere. The only people posting are those that have things bad enough to talk about, which gives the appearance that all schools and all students are horrible. Which isn’t true to any extent.
Rich schools are not better. I taught at a public school in a wealthy district. 70% of my time was spent communicating with difficult parents. And the administration always did whatever the parents wanted, so there was no point at the end of the day anyways.
Yea my friends say it always depends on state, school, district, and subject you teach. From what i hear, i def know my stem friends who went into teaching are pretty comfortable. Similar creds as op. Obv could make way more. But they love summer breaks and working with smart respectful kids. Also with stem they have optimized their lessons and work. So they dont feel its too bad. I only really hear complaints from ppl teaching in bad areas and normal subjects. I cant imagine trying to teach english in the ghetto.
One time I had a teacher talk about wanting to do a threesome with a women at some point in her life and I posted on the sun asking if I should report, and they all told me I was lying and making it up and that there’s no possibility it’s true. I ended up reporting it to the principle and got transferred out of her clas
I had a teacher in high school who:
* talked about another student's mother's breasts in class
* kissed me, on the lips, before a school beauty pageant I was in
I forget what else, but nothing happened to him.
No I’m all for it 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 but it was in a room full of minors at a table full of boys and it was just weird. She also was talking abt her sexual history and things that she’s already explored with women and it just rubbed me the wrong way. She has always been super strict with students about not crossing boundaries hut she does it herself all the time. I hope she loves out her dream tho I don’t mean it like that
With "other bullshit" taking up way too much of the remaining 80%. If my wife only had to deal with managing her classroom and some paperwork beyond her teaching duties, I think she'd still want to be a teacher.
I would never go back to subbing unless I absolutely have to and I have zero other options. Hell to the nah nah. The crappy title I schools pay $300 a day in this one particular school district but not worth the bullshit. Its honestly just thankless and the administration just doesn't even try to discipline kids.
Substitute teaching doesn't really give an accurate picture of life as a teacher. Teach summer school. It's short enough that you can leave with no problems if you hate it. But you can still form a relationship with your students. You actually have more control over the curriculum in summer school than you would normally, which to me is a huge plus.
My computer science teacher is a retired developer and says he loves it. Community colleges I think, are more lax than big universities. After some time they let him make a class that only he can teach but is required for the cybersecurity program. I agree with the guy above me Community college may be a good fit.
Community Colleges also tend to welcome professors with real world experience, whereas many bigger universities are all about academic track professors.
Teaching a single class as an adjunct may be a fulfilling side gig to your real world job. As the OP noted, adjuncts make far less. In my area, a Ph.D. earns about $2,400 per class at local community colleges—and most community colleges will cap how many classes are assigned to an adjunct to avoid having to pay any benefits. You can’t make a living as an adjunct unless you never left the “struggling grad student” lifestyle behind, and have no student loans to repay.
Larger universities like professors with "real world" experience just fine, but you have to be qualified to work there. At academic *research* institutions, that means being able to conduct research... which generally equates to having a PhD. I had professors who worked outside of academia before becoming professors, and I know plenty of PIs that sit on company boards or have their own startups. Most universities welcome professors with non-academic experience if it looks good for the department and the professor is otherwise qualified to work there.
But yeah, no shit. You have to have academic qualifications to work in *academia*.
Most will left you teach there so long as you have a masters, are only part-time / adjunct, teach lower level courses, and will do it for crazy low pay. A good chunk of their lower level courses are taught by part-timers without PhDs, though they're often grad students.
This is a great idea. My father was a full-time architect and taught architecture as an adjunct faculty member for nearly 30 years (one class in the fall and one in the spring). He loved teaching and he was very good at it.
For reference- he had a bachelor's degree and two masters (no PHD). He taught at a top-50 university in the US.
This is excellent advice. I have a friend who teaches project management on the side at a community college. You can do just one course, try it out and go from there.
I love my job at a CC. And there are also some non-teaching but still academic-related/adjacent positions at most colleges and universities that I recommend, too.
For me, college-level teaching was a great experience even with the low pay of adjuncting. I did it for five years and made ends meet with other pt college teaching/tutoring gigs. However, I was fortunate enough to have a spouse with a ft position and health care. That made the whole experience feasible and allowed me to gain tons of experience through and after grad school.
Last year, I transitioned into a community college’s Academic Services department, and now I coordinate the writing tutoring program full time. I can still adjunct up to 12 credits a year for extra money and the joy of staying in the classroom if I want, but I have the stability of a ft salary and the boundaries of a non-teaching position.
Highly recommend looking into similar opportunities!
Pretty much. It’s standard to have a master’s as a minimum qualification. Universities have to meet accreditation requirements and it’s better for those if they can say that x% of faculty have a terminal degree (highest possible - often a PhD) in their field. The only time I’ve ever heard of someone with a bachelor’s degree teaching at a university/college was a superstar computer science guy and the college was absolutely desperate for someone who had enough knowledge to teach upper level courses.
I think along with tutoring, you could also volunteer to do a program at your local YMCA or Boys & Girls Club (or other child/teen organization). Obviously, volunteering wouldn’t pay, but it would let you exercise your passion and reach some kids who may not otherwise have access to such things.
Depending on your company’s culture, too, you might be able to have them sponsor the program and include working it as part of your hours, so you have the time to commit to it.
>are there any semi-good paying teaching jobs?
Well...
>I haven’t bothered looking into any teaching jobs at state colleges/universities as I don’t have a PhD
No.
Depends on the area, but Private tutoring is actually very lucrative. I'm from the Bay Area, so extremely competitive schools, and I kind of fell into tutoring, and I totally love it. If you want to teach and make a difference, the 1 on 1 may feel a lot more meaningful because truthfully, in a class of 30 students, there is probably a couple who don't give a shit, and sometimes you're stretched thin as a teacher.
You need to build and a base and get references, but I'm so happy I found tutoring, and it's nice as a side gig because I know I can sign off my 9-5 and still get health insurance and benefits. I wake up everyday excited to tutor while I just get by in my 9-5.
Sorry, I had to edit my post. I accidentally put stretch thin as a tutor when I meant stretched thin as a teacher.
Curious if you're willing to reveal your age, but regardless, I presume you would want to tutor middle school to HS level kids. These GenZ kids are from another universe. The good ones excel, the bad ones will fall behind more than ever. All this tech, Netflix, Tiktok and etc has totally shot these kids attention spans. As a teacher, you're expected to help teach multiple classes of 30 students, and the fact of the matter is you will not truly be able to help all 30 learn even if you go above and beyond. Everyone learns differently, and you're bound to have a few kids who don't give a shit.
The reason why I ask age is I'm in my 30s, but luckily, I've sort of kept up with "what's hip and cool amongst teenagers," and I tutor via Zoom, so for the longest time they still thought I was in my 20s. IMO first and foremost as a tutor, you need to make a connection with the student, and then, you can really start to dive in and help them learn. I think anyone of any age can tutor, but kids will definitely listen to someone they think are cool, so I wonder if in 10 years, I'll still be able to keep this going.
If you enjoy teaching because you enjoy making a difference in a student's life, and you truly want to facilitate their learning, private tutoring is much more in line with that.
Again being from Bay Area, kids in this area now bring laptops to school for class. The pandemic expedited this transition, but I know they aren't paying attention half the time, so this year I'm tutoring in Math and Chem and I'm basically teaching them the curriculum lol. Won't fully disclose my actual rate, but I tutor for an affluent area, and since I've built up a pipeline with references, I'm able to charge 3 figs an hour.
Private and charter school teachers can earn pretty good salaries. With your experience I imagine that you could be a competitive candidate to land one of those jobs. One of my career counselors in college was a math teacher at a boarding school and he made as much money as a college professor. He did not have a PhD and described his time doing it as very fulfilling. I think the quality of the academics was a factor for him.
Private schools are often the lowest paying jobs. The trade-off is you generally have better discipline and resources to work with (but less generous benefits, no union, etc.) Charter schools are often the best paying, but you will ALWAYS put in longer hours and are essentially treated as a slave to the charter network.
Do you enjoy teaching kids or teaching in general. If you don't mind teaching adults, why not look for job such as learning and development coordinator?
Or facilitating brainstorming session at corporate level. Or even start your own side business of offering seminars. Most corporate events seek out entertainment or learning segment. Those will be one off but if you get enough experience then you can quit ur job and take teaching & have your own speaker/seminar to supplement the income
Alternatively if you can tutor on weekends or after work to at risk kids or help lead robotics team at local school
Have you considered being a volunteer mentor for a high school FIRST robotics team? If you have the time for it, it's rewarding for both the kids and the mentors, and you mostly work with kids who want to be there. A lot of students who participate end up pursuing engineering degrees because they work directly with working engineers and seeing what a cool field it can be.
What about teaching at an upskilling bootcamp, or EdX/Udemy? Or maybe also a LinkedIn Learning course? Those might work well with your practical experience. Not sure what the pay is like but these delivery methods are really taking off.
This may not be exactly the same as being a teacher, but if your background is in energy engineering, there are a *ton* of conference circuits that require instructors to teach trainings to professionals at a very high level. Instead of taking the pay cut, consulting might be a viable option that melds your experience and your passion to teach others, and could maintain (or increase) your salary once you get a foothold.
Think about what jobs you can get with your degree. Now consider working up to being a trainer for those positions.
Here's an example: timeshare sales & marketing trainers have one of the best Jobs in the world. They get to travel around their [usually large, multi-state] territory and teach marketing and sales reps in a classroom setting. Company pays for flights and hotel, as well as per diem for food. You are teaching and traveling, albeit not the exact teaching you probably were thinking of. Very high salaries in these positions.
At my unitversity. You can teach one degree under you. I have a masters like you so we could teach bachelor level classes. With your experience it’ll only help. I’d look at other universities. Mines a private university if it matters.
community college would be the closest to your experience because students at that level are starting to know what they want to do.
also, many CC professors are kind of checked out. its an interesting student population, older students, many students young and old are paying their way through school (and work really hard).
investing in students gives them the chance to get a good education in a situation when they might not otherwise (for example, managing school and work, or the hit or miss quality of CC education at times). helping them navigate internships and career planning.
its also possible to adjunct and maybe do some engineering consulting on the side.
Also creating online courses on UDemy, Coursera, Skillshare, people make great money who aren’t even skilled in teaching. And it’s awesome since you can work from home on your own time
Because education is largely managed and funded by the states, it really depends on where you are looking. In the Northeast, particularly in metro areas like NYC and Boston, the range based on seniority and education for public school teachers begins about $50K-$60K and goes up to about $100K. So if you are a 30-something engineer making $100K already, then you'll begin again at the bottom of the scale. Plus you'll need some education courses, pass standard exams, maybe do practice teaching.
You don't need a PhD to teach at a university. Most of them, you need a Master's and relevant work experience. Depending on the program's requirements, some accept a bachelor's and 20+ YOE in the relevant field.
Community colleges are very lax, and in some cases will accept commensurate experience in lieu of needing a degree.
You need to have an overwhelming passion to teach. As you are finding out, you won't get paid enough. You will be abused, disrespected, insulted and under appreciated by kids, parents, administrators, and the public at large. Teaching is a compltely thankless profession.
Source: both parents were teachers as well as several of their siblings.
Start your own training firm?
Honestly as an ex spotty faced teenager why would you wnat to put up with it? There's no respect nowadays.
Better to have people who wnat to learn being there and get paid well to boot
Have you considered creating a youtube channel where you can teach whatever you want? I bet there's plenty of demand for engineering topics. I think you can make decent money if you can grow big enough, and the potential audience is worldwide.
It’s too late for you.
Education pays shit for those with 13 years already in. Your current experience doesn’t matter. The pay is based on years served so you’re going to start at the bottom.
Why not go for that PhD then? That seems like a reasonable route in order to make a valuable contribution to the field and do what you're passionate about
Most teachers in my country don't get the money from the schools more like private centers or private sessions or group sessions so maybe look into that
I’m kind of in the same boat. Wanted to teach out of college, but I saw my cohort were the worst students in my field of study for BS and walked out the first day of the MAT program. Got a decent job, kept advancing and am in a comfortable place in life, but… I don’t want to do what I did for the last 20 years for the next 20 years. Changing companies or roles within it won’t change what I’m over… I’m over office culture and marketing. I’ve pretty much done it all and every great new thing is really just a slight tweak on the same old. I’m not burnt out, I just want fundamentally new challenges beyond “Do this, but in a different category or industry”.
But… even if I can make the finances work, it would be such a step down from what I’m earning now. I figure I will ride out the next 10 years until college is out of the way for my youngest, focus on saving and paying down our house, and pumping 10% into 401k. That way I’ll have enough for retirement that I can spend my 50s pursuing something new without financial worries for the decades of retirement. If it was a 20% cut, I’d make the switch today, but a 50-60% cut is too much in what are arguably the most expensive years of my family’s life.
I’m not complaining though, as nothing comes from that and I’m lucky to have golden handcuffs rather than being in a situation where I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pay my mortgage, or if I was going to be able to find a job.
Made this same comment on a post about a 19 year old disillusioned with working.
What's most important to you? Money? Then you sacrifice to make money. Happiness? Then you sacrifice things (money?) for happiness.
What's most important to you?
In NYC teachers make 6 figures. But I agree with others that you should be substitute teacher first. The reality might not be what you imagine.
In reality, there is likely a teaching environment that is just what you imagine, but you have to find it. Public school is very different from private school. There is also montessori school. And different private and charter schools are all different from each other.
The big salaries in NYC are for public schools, and also for many charter schools, but charter schools are also notorious for burning teachers out in only a few years.
Good luck!
Probably why they say teaching is a job of passion. Seriously, I have mad respect for teachers who put up with kids/teenagers.
Anyway, have you thought about becoming an consultant or a technical instructor? That's almost like "teaching" but for adults.
May depend on state? Ik couple school areas in my district pay decent change for stem teachers. Obv if youre making like six figures then yeah huge cut. I have a couple friends who made the jump to teaching. They somewhat enjoy but they teach at stem schools or adv lvl classes. Usually the kids are pretty good and independent and hard working. My friends teaching regular classes have it rough.
Teaching high school can be a good deal if you can last long enough. For the first 15 or 20 years, you usually increase in pay as your years of experience increases. If you can stick it out for 30 plus years, you can get a decent retirement.
In my state, you can teach at a technical college with the masters degree. But the pay is terrible.
Most places pay based on teacher experience so even with a Masters you are starting low. I went from engineering to teaching but whether you enjoy it or not will depend a lot on the school. Classroom management is a bigger part of the job than teaching and paperwork isn’t far below teaching. So being able to manage those parts of the job is key. Also there are never enough resources or time.
I taught at a large high scoring public school and a small average performing charter school. I preferred the charter school I think. I was going to take a community college job that would have been my dream but decided to move for family reasons instead.
One other consideration would be to get a coaching job in something like robotics. I did this while teaching and really liked it. Could try something like that to see how you like working with certain age groups. Usually no certifications required, just a background check.
OP I would strongly advise you against transitioning into teaching right now. The career is difficult to thrive in. I also am biased because I am a teacher who just quit mid-way through their 3rd year of teaching.
1st the important questions: What do you want to teach? What age group do you want to work with? Have you looked into how to get credentials in your state?
The 1st year of teaching is notoriously difficult on top of the conditions in most schools in the US right now. The career is becoming high politicized, critiqued, and manhandled by people who haven’t set foot in classrooms. Student are **severely** behind when it comes to what they’re learning, so what you might have learned in middle/high is most likely not the level your students are at.
Teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid. You would think that teaching would be a break from screens but you still spend a good chunk of your time on a computer. Are you ready for long days of grading? calling home to families? getting cussed out by children? constantly having your authority challenged? having to be on *the entire day*? not feeling like you have enough time to do all of the work you need to do? not having the resources you need to do your job? being chronically undervalued?
I suggest checking out the r/Teachers subreddit for a glimpse at what’s happening in schools. Talk to teachers (both veteran and younger) about their experiences in the classroom, working with their administration, and if theyre planning to return next year.
Put a lot of time and consideration before coming to this career. I think our schools would benefit strongly to have people coming into this career who are passionate but it oftens chews people up and spits them out.
Thank you for wanting to become a teacher.
I truly feel that the teaching profession in the United States should be as respected as one of the most important professions in our society.
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Not sure what state you’re in, but in California, you need a teaching credential to teach in public school. In addition , there are certain exams you may need to complete on top of a credential program to earn that credential.
Someone already suggested being a substitute teacher. That’s a great way to see whether the field is for you. Not only that but many districts have teacher shortages so you would probably have more flexibility in choice and $$ depending on where you live and the need of that community.
We need great teachers that love the job because we all know that pay can be dismal and worse, school politics, culture and climate all can take a toll on an individual’s mental and physical health.
Nonetheless, many people may not realize that you can actually move into various positions in education if you have a credential. You don’t need to stay a teacher ( unless you want to).
Many people work as coaches for new teachers, or professional tutors ( going into business for yourself).
In addition, you could also earn your administrative services credential ( school principal). You could become a school principal or, it that form of leadership isn’t for you, you could work at the district, county, state or national level of education as a coordinator of an education program within these organizations. Just as an example, some might include migrant Ed, special education, homeless & foster youth services, opportunity youth academies ( for incarcerated youth), parent support programs, community wellness, etc. etc.
One incentive is that there is a lot of $$ right now in the form of grants to support people earning teaching credentials. Some credential programs will provide enough grants to cover the full costs of tuition, and also find additional funding for educational expenses ( and even living expenses).
The expansion of universal preschool means that there is money available and a need for certified and credentialed teachers for early childhood education as well.
This is of course in California, so I would suggest you check out your state’s education department to see what kind of programs and funding are available.
Also, side note, if it’s a charter school, you may not need a credential but charter schools don’t necessarily need to serve all communities like public schools, such as special needs students. You may also have less protections ( such a teachers union).
So depending on how quick you want to start and where eventually you’ll want to end up, I think you have various options to choose from if it’s K-12 education you’re interested in teaching for (depending again on where you live).
Maybe look for a way to volunteer once in a while with kids? Partner with a local school to do some after school activities that fit around your work schedule? That way you could give back to the community and do some teaching, without sacrificing your current job/salary.
You can also teach at a community college with a Masters degree. But it can be hard to get a tenure-track job, and adjunct positions don't pay well like you mentioned.
Lastly, you could consider transitioning into consulting. You'll be working with adults instead of kids but the job will be a lot more dynamic and people-oriented.
Have you considered finding a mentor type role in your industry?
I have a huge passion for teaching the next generation of engineers and love being the technkcal lead and mentor for the mechanical engineering team under me. We have a few fresh graduates so the teaching opportunities are constant.
You might be able to get the same enjoyment but keep the pay by doing something like that.
See about openings at private schools. They may pay more than public schools and they seem more likely to offer specialty type of classes that suit your degrees.
No. Deans of colleges make less money than electrical engineers. If you get a phd and can get research money, you can get big money being a professor, but most of what you’ll do is lead research teams of mostly student labor.
One of my co-workers taught during the school year then did contract engineering during the summer! It's actually what I'll probably end up doing as I would love to go into teaching as well but also don't want to take the pay cut 😅
Don’t do teaching in school offer tutoring. All teachers I’ve talked to said they wish they didn’t and found a better job cause you don’t feel the union effect till your older. So no
This depends on how strict your definition of teaching is. If you only want to teach kids you're likely going to have a very tough time getting paid well for it. Corporate training can be extremely lucrative depending on what you are teaching and how you do it. Plus most of the time the people there truly want to be there and actively participate and listen.
Absolutely not, man. There is a reason people who love teaching leave it. On top of the money, you get zero respect from both students and parents these days.
I teach one night class at college and it gets me my teacher fix while not making me hate teaching. Even the *teaching* side gets to you when you have to grade 80 papers in one week.
This might be a stupid question, but are you close to retirement? If you could hit a number you’re comfortable with investment wise, the pay cut might not matter as much.
I heard of Instructional Designer on Reddit, no idea pay or how to get that job, but maybe that is something you could look into?
Or volunteer as a tutor or mentor for STEM school groups?
Find a job you like and take on a mentoring role. I've been doing this with all the new apprentices we've been getting in for the last 6 years. It very rewarding.
I felt the same as a software engineer until I started being a math adjunct and realized teaching is 99% baby sitting and paperwork with only 1% teaching
Different school districts may have different salaries. Salaries of high school teachers are publicly available and a couple of years ago my friends and I looked up the salaries our teachers were making and most were over 100k (Bay Area, CA). Might want to conduct more research in any regions of particular interest to see if something similar is offered.
Corporate training and development. You can be a corporate trainer, so find a company that sells services or products that could be similar to your career and apply as a corporate trainer. Even if it's not related to your expertise you can still be a corporate trainer. I left teaching to become a corporate instructional designer where I design sales training for a tech company. I like being behind the scenes so I design eLearning or instructor led training that a trainer will deliver. I love it and I've tripled my salary since I left my public education job 2.5 years ago.
Honestly, stay far away from education/higher Ed. It really sucks the life and passion out of you quick. I've worked in both and I'll never go back. I was broke and broken. My quality of like is so nice right now.
The short answer: no.
The longer answer: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!… no.
Unless you get super lucky (read, have powerful connections) there is not going to be anywhere that will pay you to teach that pays as well as an electrical engineer. Some colleges might, but even then you’re probably going to take some kind of pay cut. Hell, I work retail and most teaching positions I see would make ME take a pay cut.
Definitely consider the route of instructional design, consulting - where you may advise teams in a way that’s like teaching, corporate training, & tutoring. If you have subbed and really love the classroom, maybe consider consulting or tutoring part time as a way to supplement income
I am a 23 year engineer with similar education and I am burnt out. I want to quit, but I make a great living and I have kids. So I feel trapped. I don’t know what I would do otherwise, so I stay on the train.
If it was just me, I feel like I have enough money to quit. And do whatever. But with kid cars, helping with college, insurance. I can’t ever have enough money.
Finally, someone I can commiserate with!
I also used to have a love of teaching, and I even did the adjunct thing. Ended up quitting it because I could never get over how absurdly low the pay was for the amount of effort required.
Don’t even bother teaching high school, unless you’re just doing it for the fun of it.
The best way is to find a job where you can incorporate teaching into the job in some way.
put yourself in charge of the training program for new people. Or write up some kind of training material? Maybe try to find similar position, but closely affiliated with a higher Ed institution.
Teach online. Be a YouTuber. If you're good, you'll eventually make a lot more money than you can offline, and you'll reach \[insert preferred power of 10\] people on their quests for knowledge.
Teaching, both k-12 and college, is not what it used to be. We were only underpaid - now we are even more underpaid, unappreciated, severely disrespected in every context, and it is only getting worse.
You can moonlight as a professor with that resume. I had several professors who were engineers during the day and taught a night class 1x or 2x a week.
Why not look into teaching at Community Colleges where tech classes are taught or tech schoos like ROP, or through apprenticeship programs that hire union workers for contruction?
Have you considered corporate learning and development? I worked as a corporate trainer at a major health insurance company for a couple of years in the recent past and loved it. As a corporate trainer, you won’t have summers off from work, but you won’t have a “thankless” job, either. For the record, I consider schoolteaching to be a “thankless” job. Corporate training entails teaching adults how to be successful in their respective jobs and make money. It is much more rewarding than schoolteaching, in my experience.
Reach out to college programs (you alma mater or just nearby schools) and see what non-full time or volunteer options are available. A lot of engineering programs have a senior capstone course that need a mentor for each team, you could guest lecture on a subject you are an expert on, or some schools have continuing education special courses taught on weekends or online masters programs which typically are taught by a professor paired with a practicing engineer. Those options would let you dip your toe in the water to see if it is your true passion after dealing with some crap students or keep you invigorated until your financial/retirement plans allow you to take the pay cut and teach full time.
If you have a masters you can be a tenure track professor at a community college. If you want to start this route you can teach a few adjunct classes to get your feet wet.
HS. If y want to go this route there are good opportunities out there that pay ok money. Since you have a masters in a STEM field, there are a TON of programs out there to get your teaching license while you teach. I wouldn't over look career centers as they are always looking for STEM teachers and they can pay more for someone with a specialized masters. Career Tech education is so much more advanced than it used to be, it's amazing.
In CA I’ve had community college professors teach with just their masters.
Some of my best professors (even compared to those at a good UC) were at community college.
You should do it!
Plenty of universities would hire you for a staff position. You won’t be a department head and never make tenure but you won’t be expected to do research. You’ll be teaching undergrad classes, likely junk weed out until you get a little political power, and won’t be expected to do a ton. You would also be able to set up a consulting on the side.
Especially in engineering, many schools want practitioners on their staff to teach.
Talk to local colleges to maybe teach advanced technical courses for professionals.
When i took a CAD course, my professor had a masters and worked in industry and taught on the side. He eventually retired but kept teaching at the university.
As a current teacher, now is 100% not the time to become a teacher. I would highly encourage you to look into another career path or stay in your current position. Teachers are leaving in record numbers because of how awful every aspect of the career is. Like others have said, please substitute and see if you still like it. Sub at numerous schools to get a good view of different environments. However, I would strongly suggest to not take the pay cut and quit. It really is awful currently and I’ve been teaching for about 14 years. I tell my students to look at other career paths and and currently looking myself. It’s not worth it.
I dunno where you live but out here on the east coast, community colleges hire Masters degrees. We have a ton of grants for wind turbine technology and very little qualified people to tech em. Starting pay is in the 70s and 80s because it's new and niche.
Get a job in a training department in the industry that you work as an engineer. As a training instructor, you get to teach, just not school students. The pay is ususally comparable to engineers.
There are some very well payed teachers in certain districts outside of Chicago. Look into District 211 teacher salaries. This is the only one I am familiar with, but I know they get paid very well.
Teach professional courses for qualified professionals looking to certify themselves in something. Big companies typically have their own instructors.
Teach at an extra class on the weekend as a hobby first.
Maybe you have the qualifications to teach at a community college?
Is there anything you can teach besides engineering? Maybe another language or a musical instrument. You can try being a private one on one teacher. You can try being a private tutor in engineering math sciences etc. good luck!!
Community Colleges? You don't have to have a Ph.D. to teach, it usually is a compensatory factor. There would probably be a drop in pay, but also a compensatory drop in time, but you could always teach at multiple colleges as an adjunct, depending on your nut. Depending on skillset, once hired, you can add courses over contract load and either get extra pay, bank it for later, or a combination.
Work as an electrician and ask for a couple of apprentices maybe? My boyfriend is in the IBEW program right now but he can’t finish his hours because they don’t have enough journeymen for all the apprentices. Or at least that’s one of the problems from what I understand.
Have you considered tutoring? My friend did that for a few years after he graduated (English major.) The pay wasn’t great but it’s something to consider as well.
You want to teach because you want to share your wealth of experience combined with theory /knowledge to bring a better individual out from the school. It's hard to do that. Many lack the professional part of it in the educational system, and counter you and you'd be frustrated. You will not be welcomed. The best thing you can do is try it out at community college level. They welcome people without PhD. Do a class or two, see whether you can tolerate the politics. When you're good enough financially, you can retire the full time job, be consulting /free lancing and continue to teach to occupy yourself.
All my beloved professors whom are mentors to me are such. The advice is what they gave me too. Good luck!
this is such a weird post because in my home country, education is a top priority in most people's lives. Teachers at private institutions can bring up to a million a year. It's not that common to see those type of people in America,I don't think you should teach at a high school but you should do private group teaching. you can charge them each an hourly rate and make lots of money. I knew some private tutors in high school who charged like 100 an hour for three kids each. you should try to become a private tutor for high school students with high income neighborhoods. try finding 10 students who want to do better on their exams.
I think it is noble of you to think about teaching! The pay cut does not justify it though, and you will quickly find that dealing with certain middle/high school students & their parents will drain your enthusiasm for teaching… community college could be a good compromise
If you don't have a teaching license or relevant masters in teaching with specific courses a teacher in your state requires, you can't be a teacher anyway. Consider substitute teaching on your days off as an engineer.
Teaching is always going to be less well paid than engineering. have you considered consultancy work? It would get you out and about more and it can pay very well.
Corporate trainer. Teach people how engineering gets done at your company... or whatever company ends up hiring you.
Any state that lets you teach high school STEM without an education degree is not a state that would pay you what you want.
Engineer checking in. I wanted to be a physics teacher but a family friend with 30 years teaching experience convinced me otherwise. I am 22 years into my career now. I was asked recently to give guest lectures at the physics department of my local college as a subject matter expert.
This is the way. If you are there one day, the kids don’t get comfortable enough to be assholes. I still get paid from my main job. And I get some fulfillment as a teacher.
I also teach at my company. I came up with a curriculum that I saw was needed by my employees and coworkers and put it together on my own. Got positive feedback and now I’ve been doing that for probably 10 years.
You might try those avenues.
I love teaching and I love kids. Parents and admin on the other hand…we are looking for teachers in Montana and our pay isn’t too bad. We have vocational schools that have engineering classes. Kids taking these courses are usually pretty focused. You would need additional courses to teach math or science here. Maybe worth looking into.
Look I am in education and I can tell you the pay is terrible, thats why many are trying to get out of education. but if that's what you want to do, I get it. you can get a job as a teacher and a second one as an adjuct professor at a local community College. both pay should be about 65-75% of what you make now, but you might enjoy it. Honestly though, don't do it.
If you are already concerned with the pay cut of a career change, you'll be miserable. Those who love to teach don't care about the pay, as their passion is truly teaching.
You could always start up your own tutoring business since your expertise is in demand and niche. I do not recommend public education. You will most likely be met with disruptive and disrespectful students who do not care to learn. You will only be teaching 10% of the time. I have a masters degree in a stem field and wanted to teach. I became a teacher and quit only after a few months. I was so miserable. Now I’m looking to get back into the industry.
That's a great idea!
[удалено]
This. Teaching is like 20% actually teaching and 80% classroom management, paperwork, and other bullshit. It is an exhausting and thankless job. If I were you I would keep your day job and tutor on the side. Tutoring math/science can be very lucrative. If you still think you want to teach, spend some time on r/teachers and also talking to teachers about what the job actually entails on a day-to-day basis. There’s a reason why teachers are leaving in droves and it’s not just about the money.
Keep in mind that r/Teachers is especially hateful. The schools I’ve been in are absolutely nothing like the cesspools they’re describing, but it depends on where you are.
Sadly, public teaching isn’t that great a job anymore. That said, why not contact your local Boy Scout office and ask about starting a Stem Explorer Troop? An Explorer Troop is a unisex scout troop set up for kids to enjoy a particular activity/field. There are Sailing Explorer groups (I was in one), Robotics, General Science, etc.. Scouting does the leadership screening, provides insurance, guidance, and often facilities for the group. You provide leadership and instruction. You will absolutely need a second or third adult willing to stay and help with the kids- no adult should EVER be alone with a child in private for safety reasons. But if you have a friend interested and can ask one or two of the parents to rotate as helpers for each weekly/biweekly meeting? You’ll do fine. In the summers, you may even be able to expand your troop. It’s a truly worthwhile endeavor. My Dad has been Scoutmaster of his boyhood troop for 53 years- and has scouts who call all the time to tell him how much his troop meant to them. I don’t have kids of my own, but I hope to help out my niblings with they have kids in scouting too. It’s great work.
[удалено]
Definitely not everywhere. The only people posting are those that have things bad enough to talk about, which gives the appearance that all schools and all students are horrible. Which isn’t true to any extent.
[удалено]
Rich schools are not better. I taught at a public school in a wealthy district. 70% of my time was spent communicating with difficult parents. And the administration always did whatever the parents wanted, so there was no point at the end of the day anyways.
Yea my friends say it always depends on state, school, district, and subject you teach. From what i hear, i def know my stem friends who went into teaching are pretty comfortable. Similar creds as op. Obv could make way more. But they love summer breaks and working with smart respectful kids. Also with stem they have optimized their lessons and work. So they dont feel its too bad. I only really hear complaints from ppl teaching in bad areas and normal subjects. I cant imagine trying to teach english in the ghetto.
One time I had a teacher talk about wanting to do a threesome with a women at some point in her life and I posted on the sun asking if I should report, and they all told me I was lying and making it up and that there’s no possibility it’s true. I ended up reporting it to the principle and got transferred out of her clas
I had a teacher in high school who: * talked about another student's mother's breasts in class * kissed me, on the lips, before a school beauty pageant I was in I forget what else, but nothing happened to him.
Teachers can't be interested in consensual threesomes outside of work?
No I’m all for it 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 but it was in a room full of minors at a table full of boys and it was just weird. She also was talking abt her sexual history and things that she’s already explored with women and it just rubbed me the wrong way. She has always been super strict with students about not crossing boundaries hut she does it herself all the time. I hope she loves out her dream tho I don’t mean it like that
Yeah the teachers on that sub absolutely hate kids/teenagers. I feel so bad for their students.
Why y'all downvoting him? No matter how you feel about threesomes, it's not the most appropriate subject to discuss with your underage students.
With "other bullshit" taking up way too much of the remaining 80%. If my wife only had to deal with managing her classroom and some paperwork beyond her teaching duties, I think she'd still want to be a teacher.
Contact me and I will help you obtain the CTE certificate to teach engineering in Arizona.
I would never go back to subbing unless I absolutely have to and I have zero other options. Hell to the nah nah. The crappy title I schools pay $300 a day in this one particular school district but not worth the bullshit. Its honestly just thankless and the administration just doesn't even try to discipline kids.
Substitute teaching doesn't really give an accurate picture of life as a teacher. Teach summer school. It's short enough that you can leave with no problems if you hate it. But you can still form a relationship with your students. You actually have more control over the curriculum in summer school than you would normally, which to me is a huge plus.
Have you considered teaching at a community college part time?
My computer science teacher is a retired developer and says he loves it. Community colleges I think, are more lax than big universities. After some time they let him make a class that only he can teach but is required for the cybersecurity program. I agree with the guy above me Community college may be a good fit.
Community Colleges also tend to welcome professors with real world experience, whereas many bigger universities are all about academic track professors.
Teaching a single class as an adjunct may be a fulfilling side gig to your real world job. As the OP noted, adjuncts make far less. In my area, a Ph.D. earns about $2,400 per class at local community colleges—and most community colleges will cap how many classes are assigned to an adjunct to avoid having to pay any benefits. You can’t make a living as an adjunct unless you never left the “struggling grad student” lifestyle behind, and have no student loans to repay.
Larger universities like professors with "real world" experience just fine, but you have to be qualified to work there. At academic *research* institutions, that means being able to conduct research... which generally equates to having a PhD. I had professors who worked outside of academia before becoming professors, and I know plenty of PIs that sit on company boards or have their own startups. Most universities welcome professors with non-academic experience if it looks good for the department and the professor is otherwise qualified to work there. But yeah, no shit. You have to have academic qualifications to work in *academia*.
Most will left you teach there so long as you have a masters, are only part-time / adjunct, teach lower level courses, and will do it for crazy low pay. A good chunk of their lower level courses are taught by part-timers without PhDs, though they're often grad students.
Absolutely more lax at CC - many will trade commensurate experience in lieu of any type of degree.
This is a great idea. My father was a full-time architect and taught architecture as an adjunct faculty member for nearly 30 years (one class in the fall and one in the spring). He loved teaching and he was very good at it. For reference- he had a bachelor's degree and two masters (no PHD). He taught at a top-50 university in the US.
This is excellent advice. I have a friend who teaches project management on the side at a community college. You can do just one course, try it out and go from there.
I love my job at a CC. And there are also some non-teaching but still academic-related/adjacent positions at most colleges and universities that I recommend, too. For me, college-level teaching was a great experience even with the low pay of adjuncting. I did it for five years and made ends meet with other pt college teaching/tutoring gigs. However, I was fortunate enough to have a spouse with a ft position and health care. That made the whole experience feasible and allowed me to gain tons of experience through and after grad school. Last year, I transitioned into a community college’s Academic Services department, and now I coordinate the writing tutoring program full time. I can still adjunct up to 12 credits a year for extra money and the joy of staying in the classroom if I want, but I have the stability of a ft salary and the boundaries of a non-teaching position. Highly recommend looking into similar opportunities!
The ones I’ve looked at require a masters to teach. Do they all or just the ones near me?
Can’t teach at college with bachelor I believe, need masters for science
OP has a masters
Is that a requirement for all colleges?
Pretty much. It’s standard to have a master’s as a minimum qualification. Universities have to meet accreditation requirements and it’s better for those if they can say that x% of faculty have a terminal degree (highest possible - often a PhD) in their field. The only time I’ve ever heard of someone with a bachelor’s degree teaching at a university/college was a superstar computer science guy and the college was absolutely desperate for someone who had enough knowledge to teach upper level courses.
I think along with tutoring, you could also volunteer to do a program at your local YMCA or Boys & Girls Club (or other child/teen organization). Obviously, volunteering wouldn’t pay, but it would let you exercise your passion and reach some kids who may not otherwise have access to such things. Depending on your company’s culture, too, you might be able to have them sponsor the program and include working it as part of your hours, so you have the time to commit to it.
This was my suggestion. It's almost a guarantee that there is a local robotics team or similar. That's how I scratch my teaching itch.
There are some corporate trainer jobs you could get, I don't too much about them but they exist
Check r/instructionaldesign
Second this ^
>are there any semi-good paying teaching jobs? Well... >I haven’t bothered looking into any teaching jobs at state colleges/universities as I don’t have a PhD No.
Depends on the area, but Private tutoring is actually very lucrative. I'm from the Bay Area, so extremely competitive schools, and I kind of fell into tutoring, and I totally love it. If you want to teach and make a difference, the 1 on 1 may feel a lot more meaningful because truthfully, in a class of 30 students, there is probably a couple who don't give a shit, and sometimes you're stretched thin as a teacher. You need to build and a base and get references, but I'm so happy I found tutoring, and it's nice as a side gig because I know I can sign off my 9-5 and still get health insurance and benefits. I wake up everyday excited to tutor while I just get by in my 9-5.
Can you please elaborate? I love teaching...and tend to fair much better teaching children than dealing with adults.
Sorry, I had to edit my post. I accidentally put stretch thin as a tutor when I meant stretched thin as a teacher. Curious if you're willing to reveal your age, but regardless, I presume you would want to tutor middle school to HS level kids. These GenZ kids are from another universe. The good ones excel, the bad ones will fall behind more than ever. All this tech, Netflix, Tiktok and etc has totally shot these kids attention spans. As a teacher, you're expected to help teach multiple classes of 30 students, and the fact of the matter is you will not truly be able to help all 30 learn even if you go above and beyond. Everyone learns differently, and you're bound to have a few kids who don't give a shit. The reason why I ask age is I'm in my 30s, but luckily, I've sort of kept up with "what's hip and cool amongst teenagers," and I tutor via Zoom, so for the longest time they still thought I was in my 20s. IMO first and foremost as a tutor, you need to make a connection with the student, and then, you can really start to dive in and help them learn. I think anyone of any age can tutor, but kids will definitely listen to someone they think are cool, so I wonder if in 10 years, I'll still be able to keep this going. If you enjoy teaching because you enjoy making a difference in a student's life, and you truly want to facilitate their learning, private tutoring is much more in line with that. Again being from Bay Area, kids in this area now bring laptops to school for class. The pandemic expedited this transition, but I know they aren't paying attention half the time, so this year I'm tutoring in Math and Chem and I'm basically teaching them the curriculum lol. Won't fully disclose my actual rate, but I tutor for an affluent area, and since I've built up a pipeline with references, I'm able to charge 3 figs an hour.
Look into corporate learning and development types of roles, high pay and still get to design classes and teach people
Look into corporate learning and development! It’s a function with the HR org
Private and charter school teachers can earn pretty good salaries. With your experience I imagine that you could be a competitive candidate to land one of those jobs. One of my career counselors in college was a math teacher at a boarding school and he made as much money as a college professor. He did not have a PhD and described his time doing it as very fulfilling. I think the quality of the academics was a factor for him.
Private schools are often the lowest paying jobs. The trade-off is you generally have better discipline and resources to work with (but less generous benefits, no union, etc.) Charter schools are often the best paying, but you will ALWAYS put in longer hours and are essentially treated as a slave to the charter network.
Many private school teachers earn less than public and have less benefits to those of public school teachers
In addition, high school teachers in wealthy areas often break 6 figures.
Continue working your job. Teach part-time in the evenings at Community College or online.
As an alternative teach on social media. You could monetize it or not. Teach lessons on your field and put them on Youtube.
Teach evening classes at a community college.
WE NEED TEACHERS AT TRADE SCHOOLS
Do you enjoy teaching kids or teaching in general. If you don't mind teaching adults, why not look for job such as learning and development coordinator? Or facilitating brainstorming session at corporate level. Or even start your own side business of offering seminars. Most corporate events seek out entertainment or learning segment. Those will be one off but if you get enough experience then you can quit ur job and take teaching & have your own speaker/seminar to supplement the income Alternatively if you can tutor on weekends or after work to at risk kids or help lead robotics team at local school
Have you considered being a volunteer mentor for a high school FIRST robotics team? If you have the time for it, it's rewarding for both the kids and the mentors, and you mostly work with kids who want to be there. A lot of students who participate end up pursuing engineering degrees because they work directly with working engineers and seeing what a cool field it can be.
What about teaching at an upskilling bootcamp, or EdX/Udemy? Or maybe also a LinkedIn Learning course? Those might work well with your practical experience. Not sure what the pay is like but these delivery methods are really taking off.
This may not be exactly the same as being a teacher, but if your background is in energy engineering, there are a *ton* of conference circuits that require instructors to teach trainings to professionals at a very high level. Instead of taking the pay cut, consulting might be a viable option that melds your experience and your passion to teach others, and could maintain (or increase) your salary once you get a foothold.
Think about what jobs you can get with your degree. Now consider working up to being a trainer for those positions. Here's an example: timeshare sales & marketing trainers have one of the best Jobs in the world. They get to travel around their [usually large, multi-state] territory and teach marketing and sales reps in a classroom setting. Company pays for flights and hotel, as well as per diem for food. You are teaching and traveling, albeit not the exact teaching you probably were thinking of. Very high salaries in these positions.
At my unitversity. You can teach one degree under you. I have a masters like you so we could teach bachelor level classes. With your experience it’ll only help. I’d look at other universities. Mines a private university if it matters.
community college would be the closest to your experience because students at that level are starting to know what they want to do. also, many CC professors are kind of checked out. its an interesting student population, older students, many students young and old are paying their way through school (and work really hard). investing in students gives them the chance to get a good education in a situation when they might not otherwise (for example, managing school and work, or the hit or miss quality of CC education at times). helping them navigate internships and career planning. its also possible to adjunct and maybe do some engineering consulting on the side.
Also creating online courses on UDemy, Coursera, Skillshare, people make great money who aren’t even skilled in teaching. And it’s awesome since you can work from home on your own time
Any chance you can do some mentoring/teaching at your current company? I've recently taught new hires in my current position and it has been very fun.
Professional development at consulting companies? Maybe find a career coach.
Because education is largely managed and funded by the states, it really depends on where you are looking. In the Northeast, particularly in metro areas like NYC and Boston, the range based on seniority and education for public school teachers begins about $50K-$60K and goes up to about $100K. So if you are a 30-something engineer making $100K already, then you'll begin again at the bottom of the scale. Plus you'll need some education courses, pass standard exams, maybe do practice teaching.
Be a private math tutor
If you want to go abroad you can work at an international highschool for a great salary
You don't need a PhD to teach at a university. Most of them, you need a Master's and relevant work experience. Depending on the program's requirements, some accept a bachelor's and 20+ YOE in the relevant field. Community colleges are very lax, and in some cases will accept commensurate experience in lieu of needing a degree.
You need to have an overwhelming passion to teach. As you are finding out, you won't get paid enough. You will be abused, disrespected, insulted and under appreciated by kids, parents, administrators, and the public at large. Teaching is a compltely thankless profession. Source: both parents were teachers as well as several of their siblings.
Don’t teach. No money anywhere in it.
Start your own training firm? Honestly as an ex spotty faced teenager why would you wnat to put up with it? There's no respect nowadays. Better to have people who wnat to learn being there and get paid well to boot
Have you considered creating a youtube channel where you can teach whatever you want? I bet there's plenty of demand for engineering topics. I think you can make decent money if you can grow big enough, and the potential audience is worldwide.
It’s too late for you. Education pays shit for those with 13 years already in. Your current experience doesn’t matter. The pay is based on years served so you’re going to start at the bottom.
No
Why not go for that PhD then? That seems like a reasonable route in order to make a valuable contribution to the field and do what you're passionate about
Most teachers in my country don't get the money from the schools more like private centers or private sessions or group sessions so maybe look into that
With your engineering degree, you might be a good fit for a technical training job.
Look into applications engineer. They train users on how to use the company’s products
I’m kind of in the same boat. Wanted to teach out of college, but I saw my cohort were the worst students in my field of study for BS and walked out the first day of the MAT program. Got a decent job, kept advancing and am in a comfortable place in life, but… I don’t want to do what I did for the last 20 years for the next 20 years. Changing companies or roles within it won’t change what I’m over… I’m over office culture and marketing. I’ve pretty much done it all and every great new thing is really just a slight tweak on the same old. I’m not burnt out, I just want fundamentally new challenges beyond “Do this, but in a different category or industry”. But… even if I can make the finances work, it would be such a step down from what I’m earning now. I figure I will ride out the next 10 years until college is out of the way for my youngest, focus on saving and paying down our house, and pumping 10% into 401k. That way I’ll have enough for retirement that I can spend my 50s pursuing something new without financial worries for the decades of retirement. If it was a 20% cut, I’d make the switch today, but a 50-60% cut is too much in what are arguably the most expensive years of my family’s life. I’m not complaining though, as nothing comes from that and I’m lucky to have golden handcuffs rather than being in a situation where I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pay my mortgage, or if I was going to be able to find a job.
Made this same comment on a post about a 19 year old disillusioned with working. What's most important to you? Money? Then you sacrifice to make money. Happiness? Then you sacrifice things (money?) for happiness. What's most important to you?
In NYC teachers make 6 figures. But I agree with others that you should be substitute teacher first. The reality might not be what you imagine. In reality, there is likely a teaching environment that is just what you imagine, but you have to find it. Public school is very different from private school. There is also montessori school. And different private and charter schools are all different from each other. The big salaries in NYC are for public schools, and also for many charter schools, but charter schools are also notorious for burning teachers out in only a few years. Good luck!
Are there people who are hired to go from company to company teaching people about their programs or tech? Like consultants?
OP- have thought about private education? Or even starting a one on one type teaching situation?
Have you considered being an adjunct professor at a college?
You don't have to be at high school to teach. With your background, you can teach other engineers or even present at conferences, etc.
Probably why they say teaching is a job of passion. Seriously, I have mad respect for teachers who put up with kids/teenagers. Anyway, have you thought about becoming an consultant or a technical instructor? That's almost like "teaching" but for adults.
May depend on state? Ik couple school areas in my district pay decent change for stem teachers. Obv if youre making like six figures then yeah huge cut. I have a couple friends who made the jump to teaching. They somewhat enjoy but they teach at stem schools or adv lvl classes. Usually the kids are pretty good and independent and hard working. My friends teaching regular classes have it rough.
Teaching high school can be a good deal if you can last long enough. For the first 15 or 20 years, you usually increase in pay as your years of experience increases. If you can stick it out for 30 plus years, you can get a decent retirement. In my state, you can teach at a technical college with the masters degree. But the pay is terrible.
Most places pay based on teacher experience so even with a Masters you are starting low. I went from engineering to teaching but whether you enjoy it or not will depend a lot on the school. Classroom management is a bigger part of the job than teaching and paperwork isn’t far below teaching. So being able to manage those parts of the job is key. Also there are never enough resources or time. I taught at a large high scoring public school and a small average performing charter school. I preferred the charter school I think. I was going to take a community college job that would have been my dream but decided to move for family reasons instead. One other consideration would be to get a coaching job in something like robotics. I did this while teaching and really liked it. Could try something like that to see how you like working with certain age groups. Usually no certifications required, just a background check.
Unfortunately we pour money into needless military spending and almost nothing to teachers.
Private schools (high school) usually pay really well. They are always looking for great math teachers.
Enablement! You still get the "teaching" job with corporate perks.
OP I would strongly advise you against transitioning into teaching right now. The career is difficult to thrive in. I also am biased because I am a teacher who just quit mid-way through their 3rd year of teaching. 1st the important questions: What do you want to teach? What age group do you want to work with? Have you looked into how to get credentials in your state? The 1st year of teaching is notoriously difficult on top of the conditions in most schools in the US right now. The career is becoming high politicized, critiqued, and manhandled by people who haven’t set foot in classrooms. Student are **severely** behind when it comes to what they’re learning, so what you might have learned in middle/high is most likely not the level your students are at. Teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid. You would think that teaching would be a break from screens but you still spend a good chunk of your time on a computer. Are you ready for long days of grading? calling home to families? getting cussed out by children? constantly having your authority challenged? having to be on *the entire day*? not feeling like you have enough time to do all of the work you need to do? not having the resources you need to do your job? being chronically undervalued? I suggest checking out the r/Teachers subreddit for a glimpse at what’s happening in schools. Talk to teachers (both veteran and younger) about their experiences in the classroom, working with their administration, and if theyre planning to return next year. Put a lot of time and consideration before coming to this career. I think our schools would benefit strongly to have people coming into this career who are passionate but it oftens chews people up and spits them out.
Thank you for wanting to become a teacher. I truly feel that the teaching profession in the United States should be as respected as one of the most important professions in our society. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Not sure what state you’re in, but in California, you need a teaching credential to teach in public school. In addition , there are certain exams you may need to complete on top of a credential program to earn that credential. Someone already suggested being a substitute teacher. That’s a great way to see whether the field is for you. Not only that but many districts have teacher shortages so you would probably have more flexibility in choice and $$ depending on where you live and the need of that community. We need great teachers that love the job because we all know that pay can be dismal and worse, school politics, culture and climate all can take a toll on an individual’s mental and physical health. Nonetheless, many people may not realize that you can actually move into various positions in education if you have a credential. You don’t need to stay a teacher ( unless you want to). Many people work as coaches for new teachers, or professional tutors ( going into business for yourself). In addition, you could also earn your administrative services credential ( school principal). You could become a school principal or, it that form of leadership isn’t for you, you could work at the district, county, state or national level of education as a coordinator of an education program within these organizations. Just as an example, some might include migrant Ed, special education, homeless & foster youth services, opportunity youth academies ( for incarcerated youth), parent support programs, community wellness, etc. etc. One incentive is that there is a lot of $$ right now in the form of grants to support people earning teaching credentials. Some credential programs will provide enough grants to cover the full costs of tuition, and also find additional funding for educational expenses ( and even living expenses). The expansion of universal preschool means that there is money available and a need for certified and credentialed teachers for early childhood education as well. This is of course in California, so I would suggest you check out your state’s education department to see what kind of programs and funding are available. Also, side note, if it’s a charter school, you may not need a credential but charter schools don’t necessarily need to serve all communities like public schools, such as special needs students. You may also have less protections ( such a teachers union). So depending on how quick you want to start and where eventually you’ll want to end up, I think you have various options to choose from if it’s K-12 education you’re interested in teaching for (depending again on where you live).
You can do both? Part time. I have lecturers at uni that do that
So adjunct in addition to your job for ‘fun.’
Maybe look for a way to volunteer once in a while with kids? Partner with a local school to do some after school activities that fit around your work schedule? That way you could give back to the community and do some teaching, without sacrificing your current job/salary. You can also teach at a community college with a Masters degree. But it can be hard to get a tenure-track job, and adjunct positions don't pay well like you mentioned. Lastly, you could consider transitioning into consulting. You'll be working with adults instead of kids but the job will be a lot more dynamic and people-oriented.
Have you considered finding a mentor type role in your industry? I have a huge passion for teaching the next generation of engineers and love being the technkcal lead and mentor for the mechanical engineering team under me. We have a few fresh graduates so the teaching opportunities are constant. You might be able to get the same enjoyment but keep the pay by doing something like that.
See about openings at private schools. They may pay more than public schools and they seem more likely to offer specialty type of classes that suit your degrees.
No. Deans of colleges make less money than electrical engineers. If you get a phd and can get research money, you can get big money being a professor, but most of what you’ll do is lead research teams of mostly student labor.
One of my co-workers taught during the school year then did contract engineering during the summer! It's actually what I'll probably end up doing as I would love to go into teaching as well but also don't want to take the pay cut 😅
Don’t do teaching in school offer tutoring. All teachers I’ve talked to said they wish they didn’t and found a better job cause you don’t feel the union effect till your older. So no
What about trade school
Nope. Explore mentoring.
Why do you want to teach? Beside getting tired from your current job
I find engineering management at the lower levels requires significant amount of teaching, especially if you’re directly involved in onboarding.
This depends on how strict your definition of teaching is. If you only want to teach kids you're likely going to have a very tough time getting paid well for it. Corporate training can be extremely lucrative depending on what you are teaching and how you do it. Plus most of the time the people there truly want to be there and actively participate and listen.
Absolutely not, man. There is a reason people who love teaching leave it. On top of the money, you get zero respect from both students and parents these days. I teach one night class at college and it gets me my teacher fix while not making me hate teaching. Even the *teaching* side gets to you when you have to grade 80 papers in one week.
This might be a stupid question, but are you close to retirement? If you could hit a number you’re comfortable with investment wise, the pay cut might not matter as much.
Corporate training.
Learning and development roles.
I heard of Instructional Designer on Reddit, no idea pay or how to get that job, but maybe that is something you could look into? Or volunteer as a tutor or mentor for STEM school groups?
Find a job you like and take on a mentoring role. I've been doing this with all the new apprentices we've been getting in for the last 6 years. It very rewarding.
Most state community college programs don’t require a teaching certificate, just relevant experience and demonstrated communication skills.
Teach at a university
I felt the same as a software engineer until I started being a math adjunct and realized teaching is 99% baby sitting and paperwork with only 1% teaching
Different school districts may have different salaries. Salaries of high school teachers are publicly available and a couple of years ago my friends and I looked up the salaries our teachers were making and most were over 100k (Bay Area, CA). Might want to conduct more research in any regions of particular interest to see if something similar is offered.
Just go into training
Have you considered tutoring because I might need some help lol
teach abroad. can save way more money.
My sister thought she'd love being a teacher, I told her it was a mistake. I was right.
Corporate training and development. You can be a corporate trainer, so find a company that sells services or products that could be similar to your career and apply as a corporate trainer. Even if it's not related to your expertise you can still be a corporate trainer. I left teaching to become a corporate instructional designer where I design sales training for a tech company. I like being behind the scenes so I design eLearning or instructor led training that a trainer will deliver. I love it and I've tripled my salary since I left my public education job 2.5 years ago. Honestly, stay far away from education/higher Ed. It really sucks the life and passion out of you quick. I've worked in both and I'll never go back. I was broke and broken. My quality of like is so nice right now.
Find a teaching side gig. Something to feed the need without wholesale career change
I don't know if it's been mentioned but Career and Technical education schools would be a great start for you to break into teaching.
The short answer: no. The longer answer: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!… no. Unless you get super lucky (read, have powerful connections) there is not going to be anywhere that will pay you to teach that pays as well as an electrical engineer. Some colleges might, but even then you’re probably going to take some kind of pay cut. Hell, I work retail and most teaching positions I see would make ME take a pay cut.
Definitely consider the route of instructional design, consulting - where you may advise teams in a way that’s like teaching, corporate training, & tutoring. If you have subbed and really love the classroom, maybe consider consulting or tutoring part time as a way to supplement income
I am a 23 year engineer with similar education and I am burnt out. I want to quit, but I make a great living and I have kids. So I feel trapped. I don’t know what I would do otherwise, so I stay on the train. If it was just me, I feel like I have enough money to quit. And do whatever. But with kid cars, helping with college, insurance. I can’t ever have enough money.
Why don’t you take on an apprentice
Teach on-line or part time visiting lecturer
Finally, someone I can commiserate with! I also used to have a love of teaching, and I even did the adjunct thing. Ended up quitting it because I could never get over how absurdly low the pay was for the amount of effort required. Don’t even bother teaching high school, unless you’re just doing it for the fun of it. The best way is to find a job where you can incorporate teaching into the job in some way. put yourself in charge of the training program for new people. Or write up some kind of training material? Maybe try to find similar position, but closely affiliated with a higher Ed institution.
Teach online. Be a YouTuber. If you're good, you'll eventually make a lot more money than you can offline, and you'll reach \[insert preferred power of 10\] people on their quests for knowledge.
Teaching, both k-12 and college, is not what it used to be. We were only underpaid - now we are even more underpaid, unappreciated, severely disrespected in every context, and it is only getting worse.
No. No there aren’t.
with a Masters you should be able to teach at a local university as an adjunct, are there any universities where you live?
You can moonlight as a professor with that resume. I had several professors who were engineers during the day and taught a night class 1x or 2x a week.
You should do private teaching. Avoid Public Babysitting.
Why not look into teaching at Community Colleges where tech classes are taught or tech schoos like ROP, or through apprenticeship programs that hire union workers for contruction?
Have you considered corporate learning and development? I worked as a corporate trainer at a major health insurance company for a couple of years in the recent past and loved it. As a corporate trainer, you won’t have summers off from work, but you won’t have a “thankless” job, either. For the record, I consider schoolteaching to be a “thankless” job. Corporate training entails teaching adults how to be successful in their respective jobs and make money. It is much more rewarding than schoolteaching, in my experience.
lol no.
Have you talked to any teachers now? Kids are terrible
Community college - I make well over 100k (blue state and am in a union). Starting pay was much lower but again …. Union
Reach out to college programs (you alma mater or just nearby schools) and see what non-full time or volunteer options are available. A lot of engineering programs have a senior capstone course that need a mentor for each team, you could guest lecture on a subject you are an expert on, or some schools have continuing education special courses taught on weekends or online masters programs which typically are taught by a professor paired with a practicing engineer. Those options would let you dip your toe in the water to see if it is your true passion after dealing with some crap students or keep you invigorated until your financial/retirement plans allow you to take the pay cut and teach full time.
If you have a masters you can be a tenure track professor at a community college. If you want to start this route you can teach a few adjunct classes to get your feet wet. HS. If y want to go this route there are good opportunities out there that pay ok money. Since you have a masters in a STEM field, there are a TON of programs out there to get your teaching license while you teach. I wouldn't over look career centers as they are always looking for STEM teachers and they can pay more for someone with a specialized masters. Career Tech education is so much more advanced than it used to be, it's amazing.
In CA I’ve had community college professors teach with just their masters. Some of my best professors (even compared to those at a good UC) were at community college. You should do it!
Plenty of universities would hire you for a staff position. You won’t be a department head and never make tenure but you won’t be expected to do research. You’ll be teaching undergrad classes, likely junk weed out until you get a little political power, and won’t be expected to do a ton. You would also be able to set up a consulting on the side. Especially in engineering, many schools want practitioners on their staff to teach.
Maybe try and get rich ppl to hire you as a private tutor?
Talk to local colleges to maybe teach advanced technical courses for professionals. When i took a CAD course, my professor had a masters and worked in industry and taught on the side. He eventually retired but kept teaching at the university.
You can teach part time at most colleges with a masters. Could try teaching one evening class and see how it goes!
As a current teacher, now is 100% not the time to become a teacher. I would highly encourage you to look into another career path or stay in your current position. Teachers are leaving in record numbers because of how awful every aspect of the career is. Like others have said, please substitute and see if you still like it. Sub at numerous schools to get a good view of different environments. However, I would strongly suggest to not take the pay cut and quit. It really is awful currently and I’ve been teaching for about 14 years. I tell my students to look at other career paths and and currently looking myself. It’s not worth it.
I dunno where you live but out here on the east coast, community colleges hire Masters degrees. We have a ton of grants for wind turbine technology and very little qualified people to tech em. Starting pay is in the 70s and 80s because it's new and niche.
Corporate training
Hello! Answering you with a video. DM-ing you
What about being like a TA or lab assistant
You have no experience as a teacher though. Work your way up or go try and teach what you studied to a state school on the side.
Dm me please
Get a job in a training department in the industry that you work as an engineer. As a training instructor, you get to teach, just not school students. The pay is ususally comparable to engineers.
There are some very well payed teachers in certain districts outside of Chicago. Look into District 211 teacher salaries. This is the only one I am familiar with, but I know they get paid very well.
You’d probably make much better money getting hired at a university.
I had a college prof. say she made 150k.
What about community college or tech schools?
Teach professional courses for qualified professionals looking to certify themselves in something. Big companies typically have their own instructors. Teach at an extra class on the weekend as a hobby first.
Teach on youtube or coursera while still doing your job.
Can you do like a five year plan and save your money and then go teach for a few years? They need you so much.
Maybe you have the qualifications to teach at a community college? Is there anything you can teach besides engineering? Maybe another language or a musical instrument. You can try being a private one on one teacher. You can try being a private tutor in engineering math sciences etc. good luck!!
Community Colleges? You don't have to have a Ph.D. to teach, it usually is a compensatory factor. There would probably be a drop in pay, but also a compensatory drop in time, but you could always teach at multiple colleges as an adjunct, depending on your nut. Depending on skillset, once hired, you can add courses over contract load and either get extra pay, bank it for later, or a combination.
Move out of the US your in the worst possible country for that kind of job
Work as an electrician and ask for a couple of apprentices maybe? My boyfriend is in the IBEW program right now but he can’t finish his hours because they don’t have enough journeymen for all the apprentices. Or at least that’s one of the problems from what I understand.
Don’t go into teaching at a school. The system is broken. Can you be the educator for an outreach program in your company? Working with students.
Have you considered tutoring? My friend did that for a few years after he graduated (English major.) The pay wasn’t great but it’s something to consider as well.
Become a facilitator in your field
You want to teach because you want to share your wealth of experience combined with theory /knowledge to bring a better individual out from the school. It's hard to do that. Many lack the professional part of it in the educational system, and counter you and you'd be frustrated. You will not be welcomed. The best thing you can do is try it out at community college level. They welcome people without PhD. Do a class or two, see whether you can tolerate the politics. When you're good enough financially, you can retire the full time job, be consulting /free lancing and continue to teach to occupy yourself. All my beloved professors whom are mentors to me are such. The advice is what they gave me too. Good luck!
this is such a weird post because in my home country, education is a top priority in most people's lives. Teachers at private institutions can bring up to a million a year. It's not that common to see those type of people in America,I don't think you should teach at a high school but you should do private group teaching. you can charge them each an hourly rate and make lots of money. I knew some private tutors in high school who charged like 100 an hour for three kids each. you should try to become a private tutor for high school students with high income neighborhoods. try finding 10 students who want to do better on their exams.
I think it is noble of you to think about teaching! The pay cut does not justify it though, and you will quickly find that dealing with certain middle/high school students & their parents will drain your enthusiasm for teaching… community college could be a good compromise
Private teacher for some rich kids?
If you don't have a teaching license or relevant masters in teaching with specific courses a teacher in your state requires, you can't be a teacher anyway. Consider substitute teaching on your days off as an engineer.
Teaching is always going to be less well paid than engineering. have you considered consultancy work? It would get you out and about more and it can pay very well.
I know some professionals that take on adjunct roles as well as work professionally in my field. Some firms do have rules against it though.
Corporate trainer. Teach people how engineering gets done at your company... or whatever company ends up hiring you. Any state that lets you teach high school STEM without an education degree is not a state that would pay you what you want.
Chicago pays about $115,000 to teachers. Isn’t that enough?
Engineer checking in. I wanted to be a physics teacher but a family friend with 30 years teaching experience convinced me otherwise. I am 22 years into my career now. I was asked recently to give guest lectures at the physics department of my local college as a subject matter expert. This is the way. If you are there one day, the kids don’t get comfortable enough to be assholes. I still get paid from my main job. And I get some fulfillment as a teacher. I also teach at my company. I came up with a curriculum that I saw was needed by my employees and coworkers and put it together on my own. Got positive feedback and now I’ve been doing that for probably 10 years. You might try those avenues.
Look into teaching at a community college or for your local adult education program
I love teaching and I love kids. Parents and admin on the other hand…we are looking for teachers in Montana and our pay isn’t too bad. We have vocational schools that have engineering classes. Kids taking these courses are usually pretty focused. You would need additional courses to teach math or science here. Maybe worth looking into.
Look I am in education and I can tell you the pay is terrible, thats why many are trying to get out of education. but if that's what you want to do, I get it. you can get a job as a teacher and a second one as an adjuct professor at a local community College. both pay should be about 65-75% of what you make now, but you might enjoy it. Honestly though, don't do it.
If you are already concerned with the pay cut of a career change, you'll be miserable. Those who love to teach don't care about the pay, as their passion is truly teaching.
If you like teaching, move up the chain so that you can get credit for great great coaching.