In this episode of the Teacher Career Coach podcast, host Elizabeth Suto, a former teacher turned operations manager in the edtech industry, chats with Jay Mueller, who transitioned from a fifth-grade teacher to an edtech sales role in 2019.
They dive into the challenges and strategies for teachers looking to switch careers. Elizabeth shares her own journey and the importance of mentorship, while Jay discusses the stressors of teaching and how he found a fulfilling path in edtech.
They offer practical advice on networking, job applications, and maintaining mental health during career transitions.
Listen to the episode in the podcast player below, or find it on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Mentioned in the episode:
- Use code “TCC” to get 50% off of everything at Aspireship
- Our career path quiz at www.teachercareercoach.com/quiz
- Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
Elizabeth:
Hi, and welcome back to this next episode. Today, I’m really excited to introduce to you Jay Muller. Jay is a former fifth grade teacher who transitioned into ed tech in 2019. He brought a wealth of educational insights to his now sales role. And over the last three years, he’s been a top performer at his ed tech company.
He’s very committed to crafting solutions that not only accelerate efficiency and reduce teacher stress. But also significantly enhance student outcomes. And so today our episode is really structured around how can you stay afloat during this process, during this journey. And it’s a very special episode to me because Jay was a mentor towards me in my search.
So I originally found him, he was an alumni of the college that I went to and we connected and he was instrumental in providing that support as I was going through the process myself a couple of years ago. So I’m very excited for you to listen.
Elizabeth:
Welcome to the Teacher Career Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Elizabeth Suto, and today we’re very excited to get to know Jay Muller. Welcome Jay.
Jay:: Thank you for having me.
Elizabeth:: We’re so excited to have you, and we’d love to get to know a little bit about you before we kind of dive into some deeper questions.
So we’d love to hear what got you into education in the first place.
Jay:: Yeah, it’s actually a good question. I started my journey it stemmed off of a semester at C study abroad program. I was originally on a track at the University of San Diego to study digital marketing and kind of be in the business world. But seeing the discrepancies between America and the rest of the world, I kind of had this like urgent shot of passion that I, that I had to fulfill in my career, especially the early part of the career.
When I was younger, I really wanted to just do something good for the world. That was kind of my like manifesto coming back from this experience being abroad. And then when I got back on campus, coincidentally, uh, I ran into a Teach for America recruiter. The first week back and he approached me and said, do you know what teacher America is?
And I was like, nope. And we got a coffee and that is the start. So that kind of led me, I got placed in Dallas, Texas, where I taught for a few years, fifth grade. And from there, it was, you know, the next few years being a teacher kind of carried on, but it was really this passion, this urge that I still have today to give back to the world and to know That there’s ways that we can give back and improve our communities and improve the future of this planet.
Elizabeth:: That’s so interesting to hear. I don’t think I knew that about you, especially that you started out in looking to go into the business world, then went into teaching and now, you know, you’re kind of back into the business world.
Jay:: Yeah, it’s full circle, right? And like business world with like an asterisk, cause like there’s always this approach of impact versus sustainability, or in other words, like profit versus service that I like to teeter that line nicely. And it’s a big part of my mission now and going forward too. But as I was entering teaching, I was in the thick and throes of it.
We’re thinking that this would be my career. I had this big passion to go teach international school. So I did for a few years in China before coming back to Los Angeles where I live now and I was born and raised. So it was a full circle moment, but I definitely thought I would be a career education specialist in the classroom for a long time.
Elizabeth:: Well, we’re excited to learn more especially about where you are now and, and how that all connects. But what happened with teaching? What was kind of the point where you decided that it wasn’t sustainable for you anymore?
Jay:: Yeah, I think the it started early. During my time in teacher America at a great school, great district. I was very fortunate to get placed in supportive environment. But it was pretty. Evident right away that the classroom environments and the school environments overall are stressful, to say the least.
I come from a volatile household where there’s a lot of fighting and arguments, and I personally, myself found, I’m gonna get pretty deep here like yoga and meditation to be kind of the saving grace starting around 20 years old. And so when I started teaching, With some of the students that I noticed like were holding their breath while getting angry.
I was saying, like, just take a deep breath. And then they did. I was like, Oh, wait, do another one and do another one. And then let’s do this every day. And it started to snowball where my personal passions of. Ways to feel less stress, ways to navigate the world started to trickle into the classroom environment that I was teaching.
And then I was thinking, well, what about my next door neighbor teacher? What about their classroom? What about them as a person, how can I help them? And so I went on this mission starting very early on to help propagate. Simple strategies or breathwork mindful moments, let alone a minute of meditation coming back from recess, especially where it was all about calming down the classroom environments.
When I moved to China and taught international school, it became a full fledged like yoga program at the school where we were doing basically stretching and breathing for lack of a better word, every single morning. And the effects were drastic. Some of the kids really, uh, found a sense of peace, gotten better, you know, health and shape started operating more mindfully together.
And it was really inspirational. I hit a wall abroad as many would and decided to come home and start a life back in, in Los Angeles where I was raised there was a mission that I wanted to carry on this pursuit, and I pretty quickly was met with the force of K 12 public education in America and standardized testing and strict time barriers, and I couldn’t have that freedom.
It also didn’t propagate and spread as fast as I wanted to, but I still then and now have this mission to calm down classrooms. Help make teachers lives more easier and be more efficient. At that time, I was doing a version of the yoga program. I started realizing programs like Freckle and iReady different grading supports, like some of these online tools were actually immediately taking away some of my stress.
And then I started to develop my thesis, you know, still around the same end outcome, but my how and my medium to get there. Was starting to shift and I was like, well, if some of these tech tools can save me my three hours on a Sunday night, or, you know, I can dish out quick targeted tests, get back standardized groupings with materials to intervene with targeted groups from there that would save me more time.
I would feel better and then I can go to yoga on the side. And that kind of became the forefront. And so there became a breaking point where I was like doing it pretty well at my school my last school. And I was like, well, let’s take this next level. And I started asking, well, who makes these buttons behind the screen?
I was like, I remember that phrase in my head. I was like, what? There’s probably companies, right? Like organizations, there’s, Probably all teachers, I should probably look into that. And that’s what led to the founding. But even then, and even now, and early on, it was, you know, I’m still in the pursuit of this singular mission of helping relieve the stress in schools.
Elizabeth:: So with the yoga, you know, you were working with breath work with the kids. And did you kind of spread that as well or help teach some other teachers to do that too?
Jay:: Yeah, there was about a two part approach to it. There was like my singular classroom, I’d say three parts, my singular classroom and the things I can easily control and influence, then there was like the teacher direct, so we would meet, you know, Wednesdays afternoon, for example, at three 30 kids leave like.
A group of teachers would go to the field and do like outdoor yoga and like kind of end in Shavasana for 10 minutes and just, okay, let’s remember that we have this like middle of the week pause moment. So there was aspects of that that played out in China and in Texas and back in California. And then there was, you know, once a month, get all the different grade level classrooms together, all fifth grade together and do kind of collective big circle yoga.
And it was really inspiring. Like, and I had a lot of hope there. But I started realizing it was a much quicker way to hit the same outcome that became the passion.
Elizabeth:: So it’s interesting that you share that because you did land in a sales role in, at an ed tech company and now you’re senior partner rep at that same company. And so tell us a little bit about, cause I’m thinking in my head, you know, you, you kind of spread this within your school kind of had that selling aspect to it.
And now you’re in sales. So how did you narrow it down to know that that’s what you wanted to go into?
Jay:: Into sales particularly? Yeah, I didn’t. So when I was listening, like you may not know where the journey ends or where it takes you to. At that point I just knew that I needed a bridge. Yeah. And that my stress level at school and those around me wasn’t sustainable. Also, I wasn’t making enough money to even pay my own rent in Los Angeles.
I had the foresight to think, you know, 10 years out, how will I raise a family, you know, in this situation? And that kind of got to me to be probably the biggest motivator, a combo of stress and just seeking more financial freedom and financial abundance. Yeah. That I was constrained by especially with a long term vision.
So with that, I knew I had to, to make a change. I just didn’t know what it would be. And I think all teachers out there who are looking, especially that you’re working with to see enablement, implementation, training as a continuation of those teaching skills. So I really started there. Looking at even learning and development at general companies, not only at tech, it was kind of everywhere thinking like that would be my bridge.
And it was only later that the sales role opened up from there. And we can get to that later, but first, like this a little bit about the journey I started, you know, it was just a couple of months in, I remember one time I was walking the kids back from, from recess. And I was just thinking in my head, like, I gotta make a change.
And this was like October of that year. And I didn’t find my current or employer and the, you know, the transition job until April or May of the following year. And it was a very long journey. There was a lot of days where I lost hope. There was a lot of days where. I stayed up way too late searching around a variety of sites and LinkedIn.
And it wasn’t until I found EdSearch in April, which was my saving grace, education technology kind of hub for job boards, that things got hopeful. And then I found my current employer And so, you know, there’s a piece of this story that is very tough as well. And it’s not that I was doing yoga on the park and then I jumped over to the other side of the screen and started training on the the apps that people were using.
Um, that was a long journey to get there.
Elizabeth:: Thank you for sharing that. And we’re going to get into a couple of specific ideas and thoughts about how to help and support those teachers who are listening. You mentioned a little bit about this before we move forward, but has your work life balance changed since you’ve left the classroom? I know you mentioned, you know, you were not affording rent and then you were figuring out you had to find something more financially stable.
How has that changed?
Jay:: Yeah. And shout out to anybody out there who has anxiety issues. Cause that is where I live as well. That journey of overthinking worrying, a little bit of OCD mixed in there has certainly, it never left me. It’s part of my makeup. But it is far less exacerbated now than it was then. My quality of life is through the roof comparatively.
General happiness you know, flash forward a couple of years. I was able to purchase my first home. We’re getting married soon. I just feel like every day is like a blessing. And my general life. Significantly accelerated in terms of my happiness level and my anxiety significantly decreased in the years following, uh, and even the days following, the day I got the job offer, I remember a significant release over my shoulders and that feeling that like there’s hope for me and that my anxiety can find a way to, to settle down.
Elizabeth:: Thank you for sharing that. And I really appreciate hearing that. And I also want to congratulate you. I know by the time this episode comes out, you might be married and hitched. So
Jay:: Thank you. Yeah, thanks.
Elizabeth:: Well, I’d love to get into a little bit about how we met, because I met you when you were already working in sales at this ed tech company.
I didn’t know you at all. I reached out on LinkedIn, we both went to the same college and, you know, I was looking into your company and that’s how we became connected and you were this mentor towards me, you know, and you were always so supportive with wanting to pay it forward and help people get into better situations.
And so. I just very much appreciate and value that. And I’m so thankful that it’s been a couple years now and we’re still in touch. So it’s so nice to have you to take your time and support us and teachers with this resource. So we’d love to dive in and just ask you a couple of questions. Now that you’re kind of on the other side and some of these teachers are struggling now with the job market.
So would you mind if we go into that a bit?
Jay:: Yes, please. Yeah.
Elizabeth:: Perfect. Well, a specific question that came up is that teachers are working full time in the classroom. You can relate, remember back to those days then they get home at night, staying up late, applying to jobs. How can they structure their schedule? Do you have any tips to make this more manageable?
Because it’s almost like working these two full time jobs on top of each other, and how do you stay sane and keep it together?
Jay:: Yeah. At times you don’t, at times it’s hard and I think there’s a big acknowledgement. There’s a couple of acknowledgments I want to make throughout our conversation, but definitely one is that it’s not easy. And that you got to be ready to go through it if you’re serious about it because of the level of competition.
That is at least a disclaimer. Number two, like. There’s a sad reality out there that, you know, you and I and other people and the abundant amount are leaving education. And I think this has a big brain drain, but it’s juxtaposed with. Like our own happiness and freedom. And so it’s, there’s no easy answer.
It’s a very gray area. It’s a very confusing situation on both the macro level. It’s sad. And on a micro level, it’s an amazing journey and one that you got to take. So it’s hard. And structuring the day is one easy way to, structuring your weeks is an easy way to help alleviate that. So you really want to think about this as like alleviating the stress.
And the diehard passion that you have, that you must have to say, I’m ready to move on into another form of employment that could come out to look something like instead of every night when I get home at five or six and I, and I pick up food on the way home and I work on my applications and reach outs from like six to 10, like I do that Tuesday and Thursday from seven to eight 30.
emails for the next morning. And I structure and I time block my opportunities to reach out. So I’ll do more with less time. I’ll be more intentional and I’ll be able to still nourish other parts of my life, like my relationships and my activities and my exercise. Because the approach of saying, I can, And this is what I had, and I’m not saying I did it right, is every single day after school, thinking of this as what I do at night time, throwing some yoga classes in there and some runs.
But otherwise this was everything that hurt my previous relationship. It was very stressful and very hard. And I wish that I picked up on this kind of tip that I learned towards the end. And then I share with other people to really time block and structure. Uh, so that you don’t see it as an everyday after school thing.
You see it as a two times a week from X time to Y time and then maybe Sunday from like four to six when you’re prepping for the week. Do that ahead of time, stop and then go back to a little bit more and kind of allocate blocks of time.
Elizabeth:: That makes sense. Be intentional, have it on the schedule. And then that brings me to earlier you mentioned that you hadn’t narrowed it down to sales yet. You kind of went into training first and then sales. So when looking at. teachers who are trying to narrow down their path, find some career clarity.
Would you recommend that they get a little more specific there? Cause I know a lot of teachers have been applying to multiple some even hundreds of jobs. So is there a strategy around applications, you know, job titles that you want to apply for?
Jay:: Yeah, I think it’s a must. Especially like I think every teacher out there needs to know like the competition has never been more than it is right now. And it probably is only going to get more and more. So you have to be incredibly targeted with who you’re reaching out to, why you’re reaching out to them, what you can do that adds value.
And that includes what role within the org. I think Etcher does a great job on the left hand side of their job board. They have a bunch of filters. I’d say customer success sales technology or IT engineering products. What these are the major buckets here. I would say 90 something percent of educators who transition into education technology, especially in probably tech overall.
operate around the customer success and the learning and development role. If you can find your way to thrive within one of those sectors with a particular niche for example, if you’re really big in SEL, you shoot for an SEL company and specifically emphasize your background with that, like you’re going to have a much better chance.
Then if you didn’t care about SEL, but are applying for an SEL job at SEL company. So being like strategic with who you reach out to and why in a specific role is really important. You want to loop in, uh, if you’re working for a, you know, entry level product manager role right away, then, you know, you may want to reference times that as a teacher, you were a participant in some Case studies with some companies that reached out to teachers that you were able to advise on that.
And you were part of that process, right? You got to have some kind of in a narrative around why you’re doing what you’re doing, not just in the role, but also in the company that you’re shooting.
Elizabeth:: That makes sense, having your why and being able to share that story. So then the employer understands the story and how it correlates to the job description. And what you’ll be doing on a day to day basis.
Jay:: You got it.
Elizabeth:: And then, you mentioned your, you know, outreach as a part of the process. And so, a couple of teachers have reached out currently.
They’re on LinkedIn, sending messages, you know, Hey, I applied for this job keep me in mind. And. A lot of people have been doing that. Is there a better way when you reach out and you network, how do you make an impact or how do you get responses? Can you be more targeted in that way?
Jay:: Yeah. A good piece of like data is I would estimate that I get at least three to five. teachers reaching out a week to me with templated messages on LinkedIn which is the primary source. Everybody must have a strong LinkedIn. I think we should talk about LinkedIn as well as part of this. There’s a couple of tips there, but I get reached out to three to five times with the templated text.
And there’s just like a spray and pray hope to this. There’s a much better way to go about it, and it’s a number one, if you have it, and if you can leverage it, use your current network, use those that you went to school with, like you did with me, like we overlapped at San Diego. So that’s what your entry is going to be.
And, and there’s the idea of alumni helping alumni, there’s the teacher America past, there’s different programs. And if you find people within that network, whether you know them or not, like. And in your outreach, you start with that, you know, Hey, Elizabeth, I noticed that we overlapped at USD in that you transition teaching.
Like, I’m also looking forward to the same thing. Like, can you hop on a call for a few minutes? There’s an informality to that. That’s opening. And that’s kind of how you reached out to me the first time. Right? And of course I’m going to take that because it’s like, there’s a purposeful reason that you connected with me and that you attempted to connect with me.
So everybody has to, in order to get the reply, you have to have thoughtful, strategic outreaches versus a spray and pray because those won’t get you very far.
Elizabeth:: Okay. And I think this will help to, you know, back when we were talking structure, your approach that way, you’re not sending hundreds of LinkedIn messages, you know, on Tuesday night, you’ve got these five companies you’re looking at. These are your five messages you’ll spend time on and you’re going to get, it’s going to be a lot more impactful than, you know, saying, okay, I’ve got these 20 people on LinkedIn.
Let me just use my template here and go.
Jay:: It’s the same thing too. And like standard sales now. So, you know, to answer an earlier question, after training for a year and a half, the sales were opened up and they said, you know, Jay, with your personality and your product knowledge and your history, like, I think you’d be good at this and long story short, I took the leap.
And in, in this role. If you go reach out with template at email, it’s just like, everyone gets to their personal email box. Like you don’t read them, but if somebody says, you know, Hey Jay, like I saw you posted on LinkedIn about the power of AI to grade papers and saving time, I’m making this up by the fly, that really intrigued me.
I also saw this other article in the hyperlink, right now I have something to click on, like what other articles. And now I have like a reason to connect with this person. Like. That’s going to be a lot more powerful. So you find the right companies and you find the right people at the companies with an organic message to send out.
And by dropping that hook, you may only catch one out of 10 fish in that regard, but it’s one out of 10 instead of one out of a hundred. Uh, so you get, you know, 10 hits for every hundred in that case, instead of one for every hundred. So I definitely would encourage strategic, thoughtful outreach.
Elizabeth:: I like the fish metaphor.
Jay:: Yeah.
Elizabeth:: And let’s go into LinkedIn then. You mentioned tips there. I know when I was first starting out, you said, you know, and some others make a LinkedIn. And I thought, well, what I’m a teacher. I don’t need that. So to have a LinkedIn presence what do we need that would be helpful on there for teachers?
Jay:: Let’s see a couple of key things. A, if you like your opening header, like the most common misconception or mistake that I see teachers make that identify them as part of the wave, let’s call it Is overdoing the who you are, right? Like, passionate educator devoted to improving the lives of others through pedagogy technology and this comma dash open for work.
And it’s like, versus dedicated educator. Transitioning to tech or math expert seeking curriculum design projects. Like who are you? Be blunt, be simple, be serious, and put out some kind of trait, like math specialist, math expert, something that is going to be very poignant to the role that you’re applying for as well.
And that’s back to the targeted, not just going for whatever, you know, you can get applied to, but. Going for something that makes sense. So the headers is important. In your bullet points within your job title job descriptions You want to have things that connect ideally to the core focus of what you’re applying for?
so I think a big theme we’re accidentally purposely hitting on right now is Being targeted. And so that includes explaining your history. So when I was applying and working for implementation and training roles, I was talking about how I helped my school adopt GoGuardian and how there wasn’t a strong rollout for screen monitoring and student success.
I started building my own little cohorts of teachers where I was guiding them through some of the tools, which are amazing. And that kind of took off. I use that on the LinkedIn. I use that in the interview. And I was saying, I’m already doing what this job is calling for. And that’s really powerful.
I think when you are showing that you already have some of those skills. And that’s the third thing is the recommendation. So you can say a lot about yourself, but if somebody like a principal or a teacher coach were to write you a nice recommendation. And if somebody visits your LinkedIn profile throughout the process, they see a clean purpose.
They see relevant. And then they see the ethos. They see the character behind as from, as told from somebody else’s words. Uh, that’s really powerful. So collecting those organically over time, like a Yelp review. You don’t want all of your restaurants Yelp review from yesterday. You want them to be from spread out.
So there’s a long game here. To collecting those recommendations, but they go a long way in adding credibility to your your application
Elizabeth:: Awesome. So it sounds like simplify a bit, you know, with the heading, be intentional. And then also what are you doing in the classroom that directly relates to what you’re applying for? And then again, that just brings us back to being targeted because, you know, if you’re applying Sales and customer success and implementation and human resources.
You’re going to have to be changing that constantly which, which I remember it did happen to me initially, you know, I would be like changing these resumes to fit these different job descriptions. So it’s going to save you time. And make you happier in the long run because you, you have somewhere you want to go, you’re interested in a career and you know more about it.
Jay:: totally and with that Targeted approach. It’s the simplicity too. It’s not just with your profile layout and look and key points It’s also with what you post what you comment on how obvious you’re being About looking for a job in your linkedin messages, right? You got to come in with an inquisitive approach some kind of connector rather versus like a blunt.
I’m looking for a change We overlapped at USD, you know, talk to me, like have some swag with that. And finesse.
Elizabeth:: That’s such a good point about the LinkedIn being public as well. So people can hop on there. They not only can see your profile, but what you like to. If you’re liking other things, so be intentional about what you’re doing on LinkedIn as it’s a public platform.
Jay:: You got it.
Elizabeth:: And then, I know you’re curious about this AI, are, I know you’re using it a lot in, probably in your role with, as all the companies are doing now.
Are there ways that teachers can use AI to help them be more efficient in their job search?
Jay:: Yeah. I think that the, and I’m incredibly passionate about being on top of this and I’m passionate about it, but really about like making sure that, cause it’s not going anywhere. So I’m a firm believer that. You got to be the best at using it, not either in or out. Like just it’s coming, you have to be in.
So how do you use it, but how do you use it without ruining the human touch? That’s the magic across every, I think, job and industry company. And so you can tell, like, if I write with ChatGBT and send out an email campaign, asking people to buy our software, it is so obvious when it’s written by ChatGBT, sometimes when I don’t use ChatGBT at all, my emails are going to be much better received.
When I purposely break grammar rules, when I do stuff like that. So there’s an element of that, that I’m wary of, and that I actually don’t use a very commonly, but I do heavily use it in the prep and the show me another word choice for this uploading a few cover letters that you have written and then asking it to rewrite this, but using the same phrase.
So understanding prompt engineering. You can start saving a lot of time by grabbing job descriptions and plugging it in a thread that you have that you’re maintaining within a single thread on ChatGPT and saying, well, how does this one connect to a previous one? What do you know about this company?
How can I align my skills, which you’ve uploaded all of your skills from LinkedIn, or you can just teach the thread and then start connecting it to the job descriptions and start getting a little bit of a Framework there, then you write organically your emails or your LinkedIn’s while you use chat to help.
So I think it really helps in the background, not in the foreground. And I think that’s a big mistake. A lot of people are making across all industry is relying on it too much in replacing which I think is the wrong idea because. The thing that makes you special is your voice and your tone. And that needs to shine through with your outreaches, but it absolutely can help you understand the job market, understand companies, make connections to your roles, give you a starting spot, a hundred percent.
Elizabeth:: I’m so glad you brought that up and just hearing the dissection between using it on the back end, using it for research, how can it inform what you do on the front end, I think is That’s just such a good point, because you’re right, when things are fully written with chat GPT, people will see, put to the side and move on,
Jay:: Yeah, that’s another thing, too, about the application process that all teachers know, like, because Chapter T cover letters and a lot of the standard processes that have been around for the last 70, 80 years are dead. Like if a company posts a job, they get a thousand applicants within three hours right now, because a lot of AI companies that you can partner with will submit your rep’s resume automatically.
We’ll write a cover letter for you related to that job. Like they’re getting inundated with that. And so you have to have some kind of criteria on your resume or through your connections or referrals that gets you flagged, and then they’re going to go for the voice touch as soon as possible, they’re going to narrow the list down, the recruiter.
We’ll schedule a quick 15 minute chat and start screening you there. And so actually like what used to be the cover letter as the first touch actually now is the phone when the recruiter calls you to ask what you should put in a normal cover letter virtually, like immediately over the phones in a synchronous fashion.
Elizabeth:: Very cool. And when our teachers are applying, you know, they’re starting to use some of these new strategies things are feeling a bit better for them, but they’re still tired. They’re still working for full time. I know you mentioned yoga helps you exercise. Do you have any things It’s kind of self care tips that you use or you did use that supported you and still do.
Jay:: Blood sugar. I know they chuckle when you hear that, but keeping fed with healthy foods is probably a huge support throughout your normal day as a teacher, which we know we don’t have time to go to the bathroom. We don’t have time to eat lunch. Like, so having ready made food in Tupperware, for example, or glassware, like that’s huge maybe making some, that’s just meal prepping for lunch and meal prepping for the next day’s dinner.
Or if you know, you’re going to have your Tuesday, Thursday, then on Monday and Wednesday, you’re prepping for both lunch and dinner, but you’re staying fed. You’re working in exercise. You’re doing all that. You’re sleeping. Well, you’re doing all the things because when you feel better, you come off better in your writing and in your interviews and in your work and at school and so by having a solid footing and a good feeling, you’re going to be more successful in your transition.
And yeah, I would come back to the basics. It’s sleep. It’s eating healthy and frequently, especially before you’re about to do a good work, like eat something. And I don’t know if I said, yeah, sleep, exercise and food, period, love, friendships, you know, all the classics. If you want to get into the meditation yoga stuff, things like headspace you know, every morning or when you get home from school, having some kind of routine to slow down the noise by all means, you don’t need to be hitting a point of silent thoughts, but just a slower thought is what you can shoot for.
Throughout, you know, 10 minute breathing focus moment with your eyes closed. Like that stuff really helps me. Some people love that. Some want to go on a run, whatever your thing is, you do your thing. That’s actually what I would say. You do your thing. It’s rock climbing, go rock climbing. And then go do the applications.
Elizabeth:: Makes sense. Re reinvigorate yourself. Rejuvenate. And we do have some teachers who are on the fence about leaving, you know. They’re thinking about staying, continuing on in education, but also struggling. And we talked a bit earlier about, you know, a lot, lots of teachers are leaving the profession.
What’s this going to do to the profession? What would you say to these teachers who are on the fence and not quite sure that they’re ready to make the next step? A career change?
Jay:: I’d say they can smell it. If you’re not, if you’re not wanting to leave, they can smell that. If you’re not wanting the company, they can smell that. If you don’t want the job, they can smell that. So it’s gotta be organic.
And I would say to those teachers, Potentially soft outreach, but don’t put so much pressure on yourself while you still like your work and serving kids and, you know, working with students and their families and the environment, you If there’s joy in that, we need you.
Elizabeth:: Mm hmm.
Jay:: We absolutely need you. We need more teachers that are really brilliant and willing to dedicate and enjoy the day to day work. Like, you know, as we have a family in the future, you know, this is me speaking to my future community. Like, I hope it’s full of good teachers. So if you’re one of them out there and you love it, like, thank you.
And keep going and we’ll fight for your pay raises. And sometimes it’s just the principal that could get better. Sometimes it’s the schools and it’s the district. Like sometimes it’s, if it’s a charter or traditional, if it’s your subject, you’re teaching, if there’s ways to troubleshoot the issue, there’s ways to adopt a tech tool.
That helps combat or solve some of like the biggest issues that are facing you. Like, absolutely. You want to troubleshoot that first, and then if you feel that there’s no doubt, which I, that happened to me on the way back from recess, that moment, I remember calling my friend like on the way with the kids in line, it’s probably a bad move, but I was like, I got to get out of here.
I got, I got to transition. I’m like, if you hit that moment, go for it. And if you’re not there, go for it. Thank you. And there’s things you can do to troubleshoot before you make that jump.
Elizabeth:: That’s super helpful. And I think such a good point too about just You could change your environment, potentially a different grade, different school, different type of learning if you’re unsure about transitioning careers, try an environment change first and see how that goes. And I’d love to just kind of bring this back to the beginning.
We were talking about, you know, you wanting to make things more efficient when you were in the classroom teaching, you started using some of these ed tech tools. Things were easier for you, more helpful for the kids. So now in your position With your work, if you’d love, if you’d like to share, we’d love to hear a little bit about how you help make things more efficient for teachers since you work in a tech,
Jay:: Yeah. And it actually makes me also think of like something I want to share, like, why am I, why are we on this podcast? Why did I help you? And why, and this is a big one too, kind of connecting because I got the help. And there’s a, A big need for mentorship amongst transitioning teachers that you find somebody that can help guide, and that could be, you know, TCC, that could be a former teacher friend, that can be somebody you connect with organically on LinkedIn in the best case scenario for the company you want to work for, like, somebody to help guide you through that.
Uh, because I 100 percent had that, and so I felt it was like my duty to pass that along to help because I do have that big heart. And so as it relates to the current role, there’s things like automatic grading of assignments. If we have millions of teachers out there who have taught a 2×2 multiplication millions of times, then why am I having to create that lesson?
Like, do we have a lesson bank? Like, better lesson, but on steroids that can Adapt to my needs and my student population. Do we have progress monitoring that I don’t need to grade the questions and find the common misconceptions in there. The system will do that. Like I am so passionate about living my or driving my career forward towards solving a lot of these problems so that the core of the work.
Is maybe it’s in the multi lingual departments compliance needs that are taking too much time and away from language instruction. Maybe it’s SEL, there’s too many meetings that they’re not doing enough modeling of good strategies with kids. So like my quest and the quest, I think, of the EdTech world overall is to simplify and solve as many problems as possible for the best possible price point so that the focus is on working with students directly, working with families.
And doing what we signed up to do originally and not getting caught in the things that we don’t like to do. The question I have is how can tech accelerate those automates make far more efficient so that we can do what we love to do.
Elizabeth:: that makes sense. And thank you for doing that. And I’m so glad you mentioned the pay it forward and the mentorship, because I do think everyone needs some sort of support during this process. Like you said, whether it be the community, a parent, a friend, someone on LinkedIn. So that support aspect is huge.
Jay:: And it’s kind of manifesto of a session and, you know, taking notes and then writing down your journey on the way and writing questions and solving those questions and knowing that it’s a journey, that’s the biggest thing. Man, it is a journey. Like, there’s no doubt about that. And it takes time sometimes.
Sometimes you get really lucky. I’ve had some transit teachers that on their first kind of attempt, they landed a gig at an edtech company. And so it doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be a strenuous journey. But oftentimes and knowing how to navigate that with targeting, with having a sense of organic nature to your outreach it’s really, really important along the way.
Elizabeth:: Well, speaking of journeys we like to kind of wrap this up by asking you, what did you learn about yourself during this career transition journey?
Jay:: I think it, it’s a call back to that profitability versus impact. It’s acknowledgement that when you do transition out of teaching, you’re no longer on a stable pay scale bump. Like you’re in the dogfight of salary bands of performance reviews. Because that’s what the company is on. It’s how much money can we make to then funnel back in and develop our tools.
To hit our missions. And so understanding that this is a different ball game out there. And knowing that I love that, knowing that I thrive with that too. I didn’t know that. Like I said, originally I was planning on being a career international teacher, traveling the world, going to different countries, teaching, maybe coming back to America at some point, just like thriving with yoga in schools.
And I had no push for the profitability aspect. So knowing that that’s there in combo. With my impact mind and my service mind is the biggest thing that would take away and reflection, uh, is that it’s not bad to be a capitalist that these companies are only around because there’s the word profitability involved with this and that at best they’re doing truly beneficial work for, uh, the schools and the districts and students and teachers.
But that if you just have that mindset, you’re going to get called out to, like, just like we can smell candidates who are inorganic, like school districts can smell reps or companies that don’t come in with true values aligned. So you have to have the values aligned. You have to have the money mindset as well.
And the fusion of those two together, I, I love, and I didn’t think that that was part of me, but I’m now embracing it fully.
Elizabeth:: Ah, that’s so cool that you learned that about yourself as you went through. Well, Jay, thank you for sharing your why and your how. I think we got a lot of great actionable. Tips, next steps for teachers transitioning. So we really appreciate you spending your Friday with us and have so much fun on your wedding trip in a couple of weeks and thanks for joining us.
Jay:: Thank you for all you’re doing too.
