Teacher Career Change Anxiety: How to Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Get to grips with career change anxiety so that you can confidently leave the classroom and start your next adventure ...

Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about a new career, only to find an overwhelming wave of anxiety wash over you?

You’re not alone.

You’ve probably stumbled across this blog because you’re feeling a little disillusioned with teaching, and you’re wondering if it might be time for a change. Perhaps you’re …

Experiencing burnout due to an intense workload, high demands and ever-changing expectations.
Struggling with your work-life balance as teaching takes over your evenings and weekends.
Feeling stuck in the classroom, where teaching is all you’ve ever known but just isn’t lighting you up like it used to.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I’ve helped hundreds of teachers (now ex-teachers!), who were once in the very same position that you are right now, to confidently leave the classroom and embark on their next adventure. You’re in the right place.

Whilst the idea of staying in teaching when you’re no longer happy can feel scary and overwhelming … I know that, at the start, stepping out into the unknown can feel scary and overwhelming too! It’s completely normal to feel anxious when facing a career change - after all, this is all brand new to you - but I’m here to show you that it IS possible, that you CAN do it, and that you DON’T have to do it all alone …

What’s unique about teacher career change anxiety?

All career change is scary but there are definitely some unique factors that make the move out of teaching feel like a particularly tough one. I wonder if this resonates with you …?

Identity

Teaching often feels like much more than ‘just a job’, and can often become so intertwined with all aspects of our lives that it becomes hard to separate the self from the teacher. You might have thoughts like ‘who am I, if not a teacher?’ as it becomes so difficult to see yourself not teaching, particularly if it’s all you’ve ever known. This sense of identity makes leaving much harder as breaking up with the classroom can feel like losing a part of yourself.

Purpose & Guilt

I know that some people like to describe teaching as a ‘calling’ or a ‘vocation’. This can be a great feeling when things are going well, but when you’re ready to step away from teaching and move on to something new it can add to feelings of anxiety about losing purpose in your career. This sense of commitment and ‘duty’ in the role is also what often ties us into doing more and more as teachers, deprioritising and forgetting to care for ourselves first. Through this, many teachers considering a career change also experience feelings of guilt as they worry about letting down their students or colleagues if they walk away.

Practicalities

Seen as a relatively secure job, many teachers worry about the financial instability of switching careers, as well as the idea of losing the holidays (particularly if this would mean needing to find childcare for their own children). These are valid concerns, and I recommend all teachers understand their financial baseline to explore career change options.

Imposter Syndrome

You are HIGHLY skilled. But, as with any career change, entering a new role and feeling like we don’t have any experience can be an unsettling thought. You might find yourself wondering ‘will anyone else want my skills?’ or, ‘is it too late for me to start something new?’ Teaching and perfectionism often go hand in hand, which only serves to amplify these concerns we often have about feeling unqualified, unworthy, or like an ‘imposter’ in new roles.

How can you get to grips with teacher career change anxiety?

The first step in dealing with those feelings of fear and anxiety comes in recognising and understanding them. If you read the last section thinking ‘yep, yep, totally resonates, I feel that way too’ … that’s because those feelings are completely normal and common amongst many teachers who are looking to leave the profession. But it IS possible to overcome them - we have a membership full of ex-teachers who have done and are doing this right now!

Here are some strategies to help you overcome career change anxiety:

01 | Normalise the Fear

Take its power away by reminding yourself, ‘these feelings are not unique to me’. Anxiety is a normal part of any major life transition, and those who have made successful career changes before you will have felt the same. Have you heard of survivorship bias? This is a bias towards people sharing their ‘success stories’ without including details of the struggle. In some ways, this can be fantastically inspirational. But, when we are not feeling positive or confident, it can lead to feelings of self-doubt, as we assume that others didn’t feel those same feelings of anxiety and fear on their journeys. They did. They’re just out of the other side now and celebrating the end result!

02 | Identify Specific Fears

Anxiety can often feel like a big swirling ball of discomfort and confusion. Get specific - what exactly are you struggling with? Is it a fear of failure? Is it the idea of financial insecurity? Is it the loss of identity? Likely it will be at least a number (or all!) of those things, and that’s okay too. Breaking down exactly where that fear sits makes it easier to tackle those concerns one by one. Journaling, or chatting it through with a loved one, can help with this.

03 | Confront & Reframe

Once you’ve identified some of those specific fears, it’s time to tackle them. If you haven’t already, write them down. Gently question yourself over their validity - is this true; is this likely? Prompt yourself to ask the same questions each time those fears pop into your head. For any valid fears: accept them, whilst remembering that they don’t have to dictate your decision making. Next, seek to find out more. Much of fear is rooted in the unknown so do your career change research, access support and reflect on your past success to boost your confidence and reframe your thinking … we have so many tools that can help you if you don’t know where to start with this.

04 | Take Action

Making a decision on whether to stay in teaching or step into the unknown, and getting started with that change, is often the hardest part. There can be huge relief found in taking action - with small steps to start!

05 | Take Care of Yourself

Burnout and anxiety go hand in hand, and if you don’t start being kind to yourself then it’s going to be hard to shake those feelings of stress and discomfort. If you need help dealing with burnout, this article is a great place to start when it comes to recognising the signs of burnout and my top tips for dealing with it.

Feel the fear … and do it anyway?

Whether you ultimately decide to leave teaching and get started on your next adventure or not, it’s important that fear is not the sole thing holding you back in that decision.

Remember:

Fear is a companion, not an enemy … even if it doesn’t often feel like it! Big decisions and big life shifts are always going to be accompanied by fear - it’s driving you to get prepared to give you every chance at success.

Setbacks will be a part of the process. That’s okay. You’re not going to know what you want right away, your first CV draft might not be perfect. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” (Martin Luther King Jr).
Focus on what feels good. Career change offers the opportunity for a renewed purpose, the excitement of learning new things, the chance to feel valued at work again and to achieve a healthier work-life balance. Remember why you want to make this change and don’t let the fear hold more weight than that.

If you’d like some help in dealing with career change anxiety, as well as practical advice and support to get moving on your teacher career change journey, you’ll find exactly what you need in the Adventures After Teaching Academy membership - join us to access value-packed teacher career change resources, workshops, templates, live coaching and an awesome community celebrating your every step! I can’t wait to help you get started on your next adventure …

Categories: : Psychology of Career Change