I Need a Career Change from Teaching – Case Study Robert

I’m 33 and need a career change

I worked with Robert 4 months ago, helping him to leave his previous employer and to secure a new job at a higher salary. Robert was 33 years old, working as a secondary school teacher in London. Robert felt that everyday was a struggle. He hated the demands put on him by his devil boss– who changed his mind every few minutes. He felt ignored by his colleagues who never seemed to sympathise with his frustrations and even used him as scapegoat. Most of all Robert hated that every month was a financial challenge. His salary never seemed to stretch to the things he wanted to spend it on. Robert had been working in the same position for over 5 years. In the process, Robert worked countless days of overtime but his salary was still the same.

“I desperately need a career change” said Robert

Opportunities for promotion had arisen but had always faded away or were offered to someone else who Robert deemed was less capable than himself. Robert knew that he was a valuable teacher and performed well according to Ofsted but he still felt underpaid and disappointed by what felt like a continuing struggle at work. His confidence was at an all time low. Although, Robert knew in his heart that he needed to change job in order to secure a higher salary, the previous 2 years had left him with no self-belief to step out of his current job. Despite hating his job and everything about it, the fear of leaving behind the safety he had established, Robert felt paralysed to step out of the job he knew so well.

I need a career change what can I do, what shall I do and where do I start?

I began telephone consultancy with Robert, once a week. We focused on changing his negative mindset and developing positive and pro-active thinking patterns. During the initial phone consultancy sessions, Robert wanted to download all of his problems, worries and justify his frustrations for his negative feelings. In order to change his negative views into maintaining a more positive belief system of himself, I asked Robert to take an active approach and spend more of his time thinking about how he wanted his work life to be and how he could act upon this. Once we had established this ideal vision of his working life, we were able to work towards preparing him for a new job. Robert had to practice saying statements aloud that praised his value in order to rebuild his confidence. I encouraged Robert to break his cycle of negative ruminating over his current job and begin to focus on the future and how he could take positive action right away and prepare himself for a new job.

Robert was in need of career change ideas and help

Inspired by his new attitude and revitalised confidence, Robert joined our Get a Job Fast programme with LinkedIn managed support. Robert began these programmes while still maintaining his current position of work. Robert sent our team his CV which scored 42 out of 100 possible marks on our CV Assessment Test. We are able to work together rewriting his CV to demonstrate his valuable skills and capabilities which were specialised to his particular area of work. These skills and capabilities were then backed up with the painful yet valuable experience he had received over the last 2 years.

His new look CV marketed him in a positive way drawing out the positive value he could bring to an organisation. Another helpful strategy Robert engaged in was our career choice profile. Robert felt this profile described him so accurately; he was shocked that he hadn’t written it himself. The profile indicated that he was not a dominant profile which was demanded by his current job but instead a technical person who needed to be supported by competent experts and technical specialists within his field of work. This profile helped him to realise that the frustrations of his previous role had been down to not being fully supported by his colleagues when he felt unsure or concerned about a process. Robert came to the realisation that perhaps it wasn’t necessarily the day-to-day routine which was causing him frustrations but instead, the lack of technical support in his role. Robert’s epiphany helped him to depersonalise from his previous negative work situation and motivated him towards getting a new job.

He wanted to change career fast as with teaching there is only a small window of time to do so

Robert’s support included Career Consultants LinkedIn managed profile service. We began by re-writing Robert’s LinkedIn profile to demonstrate his key skills and capabilities that were relevant to his job target. Robert provided a list of his preferred employers and I helped him make relevant connections and contact the employers and recruiters directly. This LinkedIn service also provided Robert with the techniques and knowledge to make relevant posts and blogs to boost his presence on LinkedIn and establish his niche. Through marketing himself to highlight to employers his specialist skills and through establishing himself as an expert with his niche with relevant connections and posts, Robert was able to secure a new job. Not only was Robert able to find out about the job through LinkedIn but also the employer told Robert that this job was not advertised on the job boards and was previously reserved for internal candidates only. However, Robert’s profile had impressed her so much that she allowed him also to apply for the job. Robert in finishing our Get a Job Fast programme was also able to learn the skills of interview preparation, confidence and self-belief which helped to him secure his desired job within 2 weeks on the programme and a 30% increase in salary.

Robert sent us this testimonial after making his career move

Sarah a massive thanks to you and your team for the guidance and teaching you have provided me throughout the job hunting process. I was so impressed with your CV layout and the way you helped me to demonstrate my capabilities on LinkedIn. You really pushed me out of my comfort zone, doing things I couldn’t have done without your guidance! I have secured a job which has so much more promise than my previous employment and even after securing it I still had many other job interviews coming through on LinkedIn. I am so pleased, I cannot believe I of all people, was able to secure a 30% increase in salary!