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There is a big shortage of teachers with science backgrounds. It is probably a lot easier than you think to get the credentials for teaching and a decent job with good retirement. If that field does not seem like something you want, there are plenty of other opportunities for careers in demand.
I have thought about teaching but I don't have a Masters degree. And I don't really want to go back to school for it. I certainly don't want any student loans. I have many friends who are teachers or retired teachers. They seem to like/liked their jobs but I don't think it's for me. A neighbor of mine is a high school English teacher. She only gets paid for time in the classroom with the students. She spends huge amounts of her own time making lesson plans and grading papers. And then there is dealing with the kids, and worse, their parents.
I have thought about teaching but I don't have a Masters degree. And I don't really want to go back to school for it. I certainly don't want any student loans. I have many friends who are teachers or retired teachers. They seem to like/liked their jobs but I don't think it's for me. A neighbor of mine is a high school English teacher. She only gets paid for time in the classroom with the students. She spends huge amounts of her own time making lesson plans and grading papers. And then there is dealing with the kids, and worse, their parents.
Yeh, teaching is a horrible job but it's a job. It was like this in 1970, it's like this now. For many years there's been a shortage of high school math and science teachers, but people who are good at math and science don't want to settle for a relatively low paying teaching job.
Teaching is more horrible than you can imagine but a lot of people suffer through it. They deal with disruptive students, obnoxious parents, no support from the administration, hours of unpaid paperwork--but then there is the fact that some of the kids do learn and you do get to help some of them. You also get time off at Christmas and you often can take about two months off in summer.
I saw no reason to get the master's degree but I went ahead and got it. You need a masters for just about any decent job. But I do agree that we shouldn't have had to keep on going to school at night for the rest of our lives, paying for it, to keep up with (what?) They need to stop telling teachers how to teach and just leave them alone and let them teach.
Face reality though. There are not too many jobs that are fun. It's work, not play. Most people don't find a job in a field that they like--and they never have. You find a job that will pay the bills, a job that you can tolerate. Maybe people are being too selective about jobs.
I'm a geologist and due to the oil and gas downturn there are few jobs. I got laid off a decent job two years ago. After that I did a years work as a subcontractor on a project (self-employed). I have a fair amount of savings and no debt (thank you, grants and scholarships!) and I know how to live very frugal (Sorry Main St, I'm not shopping there). So I'm ok for a while.
Now that I have a gap, and I'm close to 50 now, I assume that I'm completely unemployable. Any geology related jobs I have been underqualified for. Any other jobs won't look at me because I have a science degree and I'm overqualified. If I left my degree and science related work off my resume I'd have a 12 year gap, so I can't do that.
I solved the gap problem by having a company while I did contract work. So technically there was no gap. I saw on LinkedIn, a lot of my friends who are in their 50s did the same thing. You might want to try that.
I'll concur that requirements in job announcements get more and more ridiculous every year. I've brought this up at work -- that our younger selves would not qualify for our entry level jobs anymore based on the requirements.
The last position I hired for was a systems analyst. Starting pay high 50s. No one who applied met the job description. Nobody. It was written in such a way that the outgoing analyst and his predecessors were the only qualified people in the world.
This exactly. No one on my current team would have been able to get in either with the current requirements. I keep this to myself but I think I only got in because of gender bias.
I have thought about teaching but I don't have a Masters degree. And I don't really want to go back to school for it. I certainly don't want any student loans. I have many friends who are teachers or retired teachers. They seem to like/liked their jobs but I don't think it's for me. A neighbor of mine is a high school English teacher. She only gets paid for time in the classroom with the students. She spends huge amounts of her own time making lesson plans and grading papers. And then there is dealing with the kids, and worse, their parents.
First, you rarely need a masters degree to begin teaching. Depending on the State, you will probably need some courses but very little to begin with. Getting the masters while you work is often very feasible. My wife got hers with minimal hours and she also had tuition assistance from the school board.
A beginning teacher needs to work to earn a masters and also often starts out needing to put in a full day's work with some after hours work. Few teachers spend much time making lesson plans. They need to teach with a standardized curriculum and not what they want to teach. Actually one of the big perks is the limited time commitment. Time off includes all major and many minor holidays, week long breaks in the Fall, around the holidays, and another spring break. Then the entire summer is free.
Anyway, none of that appears to interest you. Also I would take the advice of your neighbor. A great many people do not have the skills or the temperament to succeed or to enjoy teaching.
Some is due to regional influences by pockets of long term poor performance after lots of local big employers closed, pay decreased significantly, bad employee pools and lots of businesses failing as result (can tell when you see pathetically low pay, insufficient staffing and new hires quitting quickly)...some corruption and loaded markets move in with the failures. Governors trying to gamble way out of financial trouble and screw it up worse. If you watch the job market long term, will see same employers hiring every 4-6 months over years and employees who claimed they got screwed, usually these places do not pay unemployment or medical leave once so many businesses are failing. So much can fail, area is just a trap. Rent only if you want to try it but would read comments on this board and t o p i x. com to see if you can spot the negative trends and local scams.
Can simply be too many business failures in smaller cities of under 500k. Business development can be stifled when enough goes wrong and rest of business starts to decrease pay/reduce staff/reduce expenses. Area just doesn't have enough good paying work to support your family or too many employment scams to bother any long so time to move. Cops start to go bad and more organized/gang/drug issues....
U.S. Household Incomes Surged 5.2% in 2015, First Gain Since 2007
Census Bureau reports the largest annual gain since it began releasing such data in 1967
A surge in U.S. incomes last year delivered the first significant raise for the typical family after seven years of stagnant and declining earnings, the result of sustained job growth finally lifting a broad swath of American households.
The median household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2%, or $2,798, to $56,516, from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The increase was the largest annual gain recorded since the yearly survey of incomes began in 1967, though it didn’t fully close the gap left by last decade’s recessions. Median household incomes stood 1.6% shy of the 2007 level, before the last recession took its toll, and 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.
The figures show how several years of robust employment growth, including 2.4 million people who gained full-time work last year, helped regain ground lost after an especially wrenching downturn, particularly for lower-income households. Longer hours, higher wages and lower inflation also have contributed to the improvement.
U.S. Household Incomes Surged 5.2% in 2015, First Gain Since 2007
Census Bureau reports the largest annual gain since it began releasing such data in 1967
......
Have no fear this will not rattle the doom and gloomers. They will start by claiming the data is incorrect. Just part of the grand conspiracies along with low unemployment and business profits and increasing consumer confidence and all the other supposed lies. A true doom and gloomer doesn't let any facts get in the way.
U.S. Household Incomes Surged 5.2% in 2015, First Gain Since 2007
Census Bureau reports the largest annual gain since it began releasing such data in 1967
A surge in U.S. incomes last year delivered the first significant raise for the typical family after seven years of stagnant and declining earnings, the result of sustained job growth finally lifting a broad swath of American households.
The median household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2%, or $2,798, to $56,516, from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The increase was the largest annual gain recorded since the yearly survey of incomes began in 1967, though it didn’t fully close the gap left by last decade’s recessions. Median household incomes stood 1.6% shy of the 2007 level, before the last recession took its toll, and 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.
The figures show how several years of robust employment growth, including 2.4 million people who gained full-time work last year, helped regain ground lost after an especially wrenching downturn, particularly for lower-income households. Longer hours, higher wages and lower inflation also have contributed to the improvement.
Any improvement is great, but we are still way behind, so lets not pat ourselves on the back so easily. Lots of work still to do when are aren't even at 2007 levels. Especially when the top have done so well. We are basically looking at a lost decade type of situation.
.....Lots of work still to do when are aren't even at 2007 levels. .......
What is not at 2007 levels? Pay has gone up. Unemployment is much, much lower. There are huge numbers of high skilled and high tech jobs that cannot be filled.
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