everyone asks me and i don't know the answer!

LaFille · #1 10-17-2006, 12:07 AM

so last year i taught english abroad for the experience of living in another country, learning a new language, and traveling. now back and looking for a job, i get people asking me 'why aren't you teaching?' ALL THE TIME. from potential employers to networking contacts to people i went to high school with. i have yet to come up with a good answer. i didn't go to school for teaching and have no intention of doing it right now.

so how do i answer this question? i try to turn it into a positive by offering some of the transferrable skills that i learned, but then it just sounds like i'm skirting the question. i can't say 'look at my resume, i didn't study education,' that sounds rude. and they always phrase it like that: 'why aren't you teaching?' is there any good answer to this question? is it really that strange that, at 23 years old, i have not had a straight and narrow career path for which i completely explain every decision?

EDIT: i thought that this whole experience would look nice on my resume (although that wasn't the reason i did it) but instead it has people thinking i should be teaching. also, people look at me like i am going to hop on a plane back to france after a couple of months of work... something i have no intention of doing but again, difficult to explain without looking like i am making excuses.

WorkInProgress · #2 10-17-2006, 10:15 AM

Um...

Because while your experience was worthwhile, it made you realize that you don't have a passion for teaching?

Because you'd like to try something else? Maybe something else in your studied field? Maybe while you are still young, you'd like to try something new before you settle into something?

Because teaching overseas and teaching in the US are very different?

Because you don't want to have to deal with the bureaucratic nonsense associated with teaching?

How's that?

cache · #3 10-17-2006, 12:10 PM

The cheese factor might be turned up a bit high on this one, but I'll try:

"I wanted to immerse myself in another culture, and thought it best at the same time to give back by educating others. Although I enjoyed the experience because of how much it taught me, it was not my career focus. So with this experience under my belt, I feel better prepared to jump into XXX (your particular field) and I know that there are a lot of thngs I learned as a teacher than can be applied both in my career and in life."

wordsmith · #4 10-17-2006, 12:15 PM

Do you have an Ed degree or certification?

Because if you have either of those things and god forbid, look for employment other than teaching, you have to deal with the exact same "Well, why aren't you teaching?" thing. It gets soooo very broken record. I've spent at this point more years of my life newspaper editing than I ever did doing teacher training in 1996-1999, and I STILL get the question. Annoying.

J-girl · #5 10-17-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaFille

so last year i taught english abroad for the experience of living in another country, learning a new language, and traveling. now back and looking for a job, i get people asking me 'why aren't you teaching?' ALL THE TIME. from potential employers to networking contacts to people i went to high school with. i have yet to come up with a good answer. i didn't go to school for teaching and have no intention of doing it right now.

so how do i answer this question? i try to turn it into a positive by offering some of the transferrable skills that i learned, but then it just sounds like i'm skirting the question. i can't say 'look at my resume, i didn't study education,' that sounds rude. and they always phrase it like that: 'why aren't you teaching?' is there any good answer to this question? is it really that strange that, at 23 years old, i have not had a straight and narrow career path for which i completely explain every decision?

EDIT: i thought that this whole experience would look nice on my resume (although that wasn't the reason i did it) but instead it has people thinking i should be teaching. also, people look at me like i am going to hop on a plane back to france after a couple of months of work... something i have no intention of doing but again, difficult to explain without looking like i am making excuses.

Thats messed up. By now every employer should understand that people take a year something off after school to travel and stuff.

You can say you wanted to experience living in another country and meet people of different cultures. And your experience abroad will bring a global perspective to your current employer.

LaFille · #6 10-17-2006, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wordsmith

Do you have an Ed degree or certification?

Because if you have either of those things and god forbid, look for employment other than teaching, you have to deal with the exact same "Well, why aren't you teaching?" thing. It gets soooo very broken record. I've spent at this point more years of my life newspaper editing than I ever did doing teacher training in 1996-1999, and I STILL get the question. Annoying.

no, wordsmith!

i have absolutely not intention of becoming a teacher. i have a BA in english with a minor in french. other than my breif stint in france, there's no other mention of the educational field whatsoever in my resume. i think the reason it's so frustrating for me is that i don't feel that i should have to answer this question... it seems totally irrelevant to me and frankly, some people are rude! not one of the americans i know who did the same thing as me are now teachers. i know i can always bring up the positive attributes of the job as applied to whatever job i am interviewing for, but it still doesn't answer the question! because there is no answer!

i said to one guy, 'actually, i am not trained to be a teacher. i mainly took that position to improve my french and have the experience of living abroad. however, i did learn.... blah blah blah blah...' well, i thought it was a pretty good answer, but from the look on the guys face and his subsequent questions, apparently it wasn't!

LaFille · #7 10-17-2006, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-girl

Thats messed up. By now every employer should understand that people take a year something off after school to travel and stuff.

You can say you wanted to experience living in another country and meet people of different cultures. And your experience abroad will bring a global perspective to your current employer.

that's what i thought, too! seriously, i think it's ridiculous to think that every move a person makes is geared toward his or her career. it's making me think that all the candidates i am competing with did do that though, which is extremely frustrating. i honestly wonder if i were in a more cosmopolitan area if people would be more understanding of this concept instead of thinking i was some vagrant who failed at teaching!

wordsmith · #8 10-17-2006, 12:28 PM

My BA is in English, also, with a minor in theatre. I got a cert. in secondary ed, that, hindsight being 20/20, I wish I hadn't spent time and energy on.

If it makes you feel better, my brother (also a degree in English, and doesn't even have your background of teaching nontraditionally) interviewed for a reporting position at a newspaper recently, and the managing editor looked at his resume and said, "English, huh...well, why don't you just teach?" Because, moron, he doesn't have an ed degree or certification...y'think that might be one reason? And also because if he WANTED to teach, might he not have gone that route, rather than applying at a newspaper? People are beyond moronic.

LaFille · #9 10-17-2006, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wordsmith

My BA is in English, also, with a minor in theatre. I got a cert. in secondary ed, that, hindsight being 20/20, I wish I hadn't spent time and energy on.

If it makes you feel better, my brother (also a degree in English, and doesn't even have your background of teaching nontraditionally) interviewed for a reporting position at a newspaper recently, and the managing editor looked at his resume and said, "English, huh...well, why don't you just teach?" Because, moron, he doesn't have an ed degree or certification...y'think that might be one reason? And also because if he WANTED to teach, might he not have gone that route, rather than applying at a newspaper? People are beyond moronic.

ok thank you, that does make me feel a little better. i seriously think it's an unfair question. any way i answer it i sound bad, or like a quitter or a flounderer. it's like if i knew you majored in english but heard you liked math and said 'why aren't you an accountant?'

what did your brother say, out of curiosity?

wordsmith · #10 10-17-2006, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaFille

that's what i thought, too! seriously, i think it's ridiculous to think that every move a person makes is geared toward his or her career. it's making me think that all the candidates i am competing with did do that though, which is extremely frustrating. I honestly wonder if i were in a more cosmopolitan area if people would be more understanding of this concept instead of thinking i was some vagrant who failed at teaching!

Just a guess, by the English major, but did you happen to go to a liberal arts school? In any case, because you picked a humanities-based course of study, the issue that you're coming up against is that you have a different outlook and mentality than many people not immersed in that sort of school of thought. Studying the liberal arts by definition preaches well-roundedness, experiential education, doing as many varied things as possible rather than a single-track focus. It's a completely different way of viewing the purpose of education. But there are obviously job preparedness tracks that don't subscribe to this same philosophy. And if an employer is used to people from one of those tracks, yeah, they're gonna give you the "I don't get why you'd do something like that" fish-eyed stare.

wordsmith · #11 10-17-2006, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaFille

ok thank you, that does make me feel a little better. i seriously think it's an unfair question. any way i answer it i sound bad, or like a quitter or a flounderer. it's like if i knew you majored in english but heard you liked math and said 'why aren't you an accountant?'

what did your brother say, out of curiosity?

He told me once he got past the dumbfounded "Are you kidding?" incredulousness welling up inside him, he said, "Well, because truth be known, I'm actually interested in writing for newspapers, not teaching." Then he decided that he probably wouldn't like working there.

It's just more of the outmoded and erroneous, yet curiously widespread concept that "English majors can't do anything but teach." People are dumb.

LaFille · #12 10-17-2006, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wordsmith

Just a guess, by the English major, but did you happen to go to a liberal arts school? In any case, because you picked a humanities-based course of study, the issue that you're coming up against is that you have a different outlook and mentality than many people not immersed in that sort of school of thought. Studying the liberal arts by definition preaches well-roundedness, experiential education, doing as many varied things as possible rather than a single-track focus. It's a completely different way of viewing the purpose of education. But there are obviously job preparedness tracks that don't subscribe to this same philosophy. And if an employer is used to people from one of those tracks, yeah, they're gonna give you the "I don't get why you'd do something like that" fish-eyed stare.

yep, i sure did go to a liberal arts school.

where i live now, the reigning industries are in enineering, technology and medicine, so i guess it makes sense that i am coming across more people who were more on the straight and narrow career path and are more practical-minded than i am. apparently this is not helping me. grrrrrrrrrrr!

wordsmith · #13 10-17-2006, 01:23 PM

(Psssst...the hard sciences tend to not take humanities too seriously, from time to time...to understate it)

WorkInProgress · #14 10-17-2006, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wordsmith

(Psssst...the hard sciences tend to not take humanities too seriously, from time to time...to understate it)

Muahahahhahaha. You think? Because, you know, it's all artsy-fartsy. (Although, as stimulating and rigorous as it can be, it was hard not to laugh at the "Literary and Cultural Studies" majors. Imagine explaining that to someone.)

wordsmith · #15 10-17-2006, 02:27 PM

Mmhmm. Because writing well is easy, anybody can do it. Or not. That's why they have to hire me.