To end 'Teacher Week' and for our fourth Break Room chat, I sat down with the fabulous, Jo, who (if you're interested) is actually Sophie (pod 52)'s sister-in-law.
I had wanted the theme/topic of the next break-room to be about career change; and the highs and the lows of such; and had been thinking about who I could chat to for it.
... And as you'll know, if you read my last pod post, Sophie kind-of fell into my lap at a time that I needed teachers to pod. As a result, Jo then fell into my lap - sort of literally - because I bumped into her at a BBQ at Sophie's house (while Soph was back), and my brain somehow connected the dots for the career-change chat. Because Jo has done it - twice!
... No idea how those dots were connected; my brain isn't usually that lucid, but I'll take it this once.
Jo's chat is great, because even though we didn't chat too much about what makes women in general want to change careers, we didn't need to... Jo's personal journey and story articulates it brilliantly.
She made changes to suit her family - her children's - needs at the time, or at least what she thought they were. She left big pharma and re-trained became a teacher so that she could have matching holidays with her children, and (as she thought beforehand), similar working/school hours to them.
But what she didn't factor in, was her own fundamental ambition, coupled with her innate need to go that extra mile; which in the end meant she worked even crazier hours teaching than she had in big pharma (feeling the full responsibility of the role)?! She then got (as she had in pharma) multiple, quick promotions, which duly put extra responsibility on her shoulders... And gave her even more 'extra' miles to go.
The result? When her children were a bit older, she left teaching and went back to her previous role (even though people told her she couldn't, because 'she'd been out of it for too long'), and was quickly, and is still, bossing it all over again.
Jo represents change in the most brilliant way. Because she proves what the 'worst thing that can happen' is: You just go back to what you were doing before, which is absolutely fine, and doesn't define you one way or another. You make a change and if it doesn't work, you make another, whether that's (initially) forwards, sideways or back. There's still always a way forwards in the end.
Enjoy.
Chops x
Click here to listen to the Jo's Break Room's podcast:
And as per our other teaching pods, click here to read all about how to get started with teaching. And how you (yes YOU!) could get started in a career like this:
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