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Ironically, I am also an engineer and was thinking of switching to teaching.
I had a conversation with a teacher at a bar not long ago and told him my thoughts and though he didn't quite dissuade me from being a teacher, in no way did he encourage it.
That to me is discouraging. I don't really care about money or working hard or extra hours or politics. My current job has all those things. The thing my job lacks is meaning. A lot of teachers don't really seem to find much meaning in their job either I guess.
Is that true? Or maybe you guys dislike your jobs for practical reasons like compensation relative to other professions. Either way, it's discouraging to see how many teachers slam the profession.
Oh, there's meaning there, no doubt. But it's very elusive, even if you are actually good at your job.
I have students come back to me each year from college (and even a few that went straight into the job market) that let me know how they're doing, and they thank me for preparing them. I've a number of my former students who now teach chemistry and physics for a living , and they tell me I was their inspiration for it. (I apologize to them whenever they say this.. ). Every year, for national engineering week, I have engineers from Eastman come by to help promote their fields. Each one is a former student of mine. A few years ago, at a local medical school, we had 3 of my former students graduate in a class of 65. It was awesome!
Things like these do give meaning to my profession. And each and every teacher that strives to be the best they can be for the student hopefully will be reminded of this meaning enough to keep them going.
But there is a self-imposed stress about this job (which I am smart enough to know is NOT unique to education) that takes a mental and emotional toll after a while. Sometimes the reminders of the "meaning" comes so few and far between that the balance between it and the stress is out of whack. (Again... not unique to education... but non-educators need to be constantly reminded that this professional field does have this, as for some reason the vast majority of the population denies this.)
So, please take this into account. Teaching - for those that have never done it - seems a lot easier than it truly is.
Middle school was my FAVORITE age group, besides the low-income high-school seniors I used to teach who worked night jobs and often tried to sleep through my first period class at 7 am. They were all sweet, though. But everyone has what it takes to deal with middle-schoolers day in and day out.
OP, are you good at reading people?
Do you have good interpersonal skills?
Are you good at non-verbal communication?
Can you communicate concepts clearly to people at all ability levels?
Are you patient?
Do you have a real moral drive to help kids learn? You will need it to motivate you through a job that is woefully underpaid and underappreciated and thoroughly bogged down in politics.
Teaching is about MUCH more than just the subject area. The classroom management and interpersonal aspect of the job have to be in place before you can teach kids anything about science or math.
BTDT and wish I had a do over. I was an engineer. I'm certified to teach chemistry, physics and math. However, what schools want are people who are general science majors NOT subject majors. It took me 3 years to find a job in a district. I'm in my 8th year of teaching and have yet to see a year with step increases. Our current contract guarantees no step increases for 3 more years with the strong possibility of a cut the year after next. If all goes well we'll get a step increase in 4 years. I'm so far underwater financially it's not even funny and there's nothing I can do about it. I've tried to get back into engineering with no luck. I'm told I've been out of the game too long and they question why I left in the first place.
I'll second starman's post. Take two aspirin, put a cool towel on your forehead and wait for this feeling to pass. As a teacher you will face low pay and open disrespect. I miss engineering. I miss being respected for what I do. I miss people assuming I'm intelligent. I miss my boss treating me like a professional. I miss weekends off. I spend my weekends grading now. Sure I get the summer off but that's no consolation when you have to work it to make ends meet and it doesn't make up for your family not seeing you for 9 months of the year. And to add insult to injury there are many in education who consider career changers to not he "real" teachers because teaching wasn't our first choice of career.
If I knew then what I know now I would not have made this career change. There is no shortage of STEM teachers. That's a lie the government tells so they can justify everyone and their grandfather teaching STEM. As a result there is a glut of STEM teachers and the ones who everyone wants are the ones who have general science certs because they can teach anything. Given that scheduling is difficult and you never know when the government will change what you are required to teach it makes sense to hire the teacher who can teach anything over the one who is a subject matter expert.
Think twice on this one. If you do go for it, get a general science cert instead of subject specific certs. You'll be more employable.
I had a co-worker that got his computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon. He taught high school physics straight out of college. He later left teaching for engineering and never looked back. Now he has set up his own consulting company where he goes to different places across the globe training clients in engineering processes. This is while still working full time. It would have been harder to achieve what he has done with a teaching job.
Maybe teach in a private school with small classes.
The way it's set up now, you don't really get to do much teaching in teaching. What you will be doing is trying to instill discipline, but you are not allowed to do that. Okay then, you're trying to quiet them down so you can teach. But the parents will pester you for not being nice to their precious snowflake, they'll get you in trouble with the administration. You're trying to establish some rules so that the kids will sit still and listen but rules are not pc. Okay, so you you try to speak loudly enough so that the few who want to learn can hear you over the racket. Then one of the kids swears at you and verbally (or even physically) threatens you. You get to report them but nothing ever happens. They win. You lose.
In a private school you would be married to your job and be expected to go on weekend outings and other social events on your own time. But maybe more of the students would be there to actually learn.
Either way, forget about having any spare time. You are always in meetings or, when at home, prepping for the next day. IF you have the exact right temperament for this, you might possible like it. Just remember, there's a lot to put up with, a lot of bureaucracy and idiocy, besides the students who have been raised with no sense of how to behave in public.
I have my own personal beefs since I work here, but I'd love to hear yours.
If the person in question has been in an adult field and has no experience with adolescents, then it will be much different than what s/he thinks it will be, imo.
Frankly, I would never suggest anyone go into teaching today.
1. Teaching to irrelevant tests is the norm.
2. The students are not held accountable for learning anything. Teachers are always to blame.
3. Starting out, you get the lower tracks and the worst behaved classes (you have to teach for a while to get to teach the honors or ap classes regardless of your background). I liked teaching both lower and upper tracks, but they are very different in terms of behavior and motivation.
4. Administrators in general no longer back teacher up (maybe they do in some systems, but not generally).
5. The public and parents look down on teachers today.
If the person in question has been in an adult field and has no experience with adolescents, then it will be much different than what s/he thinks it will be, imo.
Frankly, I would never suggest anyone go into teaching today.
1. Teaching to irrelevant tests is the norm.
2. The students are not held accountable for learning anything. Teachers are always to blame.
3. Starting out, you get the lower tracks and the worst behaved classes (you have to teach for a while to get to teach the honors or ap classes regardless of your background). I liked teaching both lower and upper tracks, but they are very different in terms of behavior and motivation.
4. Administrators in general no longer back teacher up (maybe they do in some systems, but not generally).
5. The public and parents look down on teachers today.
Pretty much everything you listed is true. It varies by state and district, but it's there everywhere to one degree or another.
I was actually referring to your comment about TN being one of the worst places to teach. For the last several years, TN has been climbing steadily away from the bottom, in terms of scores. Pay is getting better for the cost of living here, but still a far cry from other jobs of similar degrees. The only thing I dislike is our retirement plan.
The OP might be interested in knowing what you specifically think makes TN so bad, since this is his/her location.
Wow. So much for any thought of going into teaching. You guys really do not like your jobs. Thanks ... I guess.
What do you want? A lie?
You want us tell you how wonderful it is to only work 5 hours a day for only 9 months a year?
That we have golden parachute-type retirement plans?
That the benefits are equivalent to the President's?
That the kids love and respect us and never show us a moment's worth of disciplinary issues?
That we never have a single issue with parents or society?
Everyone has a very large misconception of what an educator's job is like. This misconception comes from the idea that, since they were students and sat on the student side of the desk, that they know all there is to know about what goes on on the other side of the desk. But what students see and experience in their self-centered world of their own education is not remotely adequate enough for a full picture.
Why do you think so many rookie teachers quit within the 1st 5 years?
Because this job was not what they thought it would be.
Because they had a completely different picture of it based on their experiences as a student.
And maybe they would have appreciated someone giving them a heads-up before they wasted 4-5 years of education.
We experienced teachers are only trying to paint an accurate picture so you go into this with your eyes open, leaving you niavity behind.
I like my job. I'm good at it. But it takes a special mentality to do it well. Even then, the stress can wear a person down. I watched my dad run into burning buildings for a living. You can be very good at that, but you can't do it forever.
Ironically, I am also an engineer and was thinking of switching to teaching.
I had a conversation with a teacher at a bar not long ago and told him my thoughts and though he didn't quite dissuade me from being a teacher, in no way did he encourage it.
That to me is discouraging. I don't really care about money or working hard or extra hours or politics. My current job has all those things. The thing my job lacks is meaning. A lot of teachers don't really seem to find much meaning in their job either I guess.
Is that true? Or maybe you guys dislike your jobs for practical reasons like compensation relative to other professions. Either way, it's discouraging to see how many teachers slam the profession.
I found meaning in educating.
Too high a percentage of your time as a teacher is not spent educating, unfortunately. I had no problem with students, my content areas, the pay, etc. It was the time suck of all the crap that had nothing to do with teaching students that made it a turnoff.
I loved my years in the classroom with the kids, though.I was good and well-liked. I don't feel like I wasted my time, that it was a terrible job, that I should never have done it, etc. The field has just evolved into something that doesn't interest me...an endless stream of paperwork, bureaucracy, assessments, data collection, and the politics of dealing with administrators and parents, all of which are positioned to be of more importance than time spent on instruction and with students. I also disliked being set up to be a scapegoat for societal ills and parenting failures.
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). Every year, for national engineering week, I have engineers from Eastman come by to help promote their fields. Each one is a former student of mine. A few years ago, at a local medical school, we had 3 of my former students graduate in a class of 65. It was awesome! 
