In episode 181 of the Teacher Career Coach podcast, Elizabeth Suto chats with Jacki Lancaster, a former eighth-grade math teacher who transitioned to a corporate role as a talent and people experience partner.
Jacki shares her journey from teaching to higher education and eventually to corporate recruiting. She discusses the challenges she faced, such as job searching while working full-time, and the strategies she used, like networking and tailoring her resume.
Jacki emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, resilience, and leveraging transferable skills. Her story inspires teachers to explore new career paths and embrace change confidently.
Listen to the episode in the podcast player below, or find it on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Find Jacki on Linkedin.
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Mentioned in the episode:
- Sign up for 7 days of free access to Orchard
- 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
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth: welcome back, everyone. We are so excited today to have Jacki Lancaster with us. Welcome,
Jacki.
Jacki: Thank you. It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for having me.
Elizabeth: Well, thanks for spending some of your day with us. Um, we can’t wait to learn about, uh, what you do in recruiting and the talent acquisition space. And we love to kick these off by learning a little bit about your initial experience in education.
Jacki: Yeah, so it seems like a long time ago because I guess because it was, but so I grew up in a very small town and I promise I won’t take you through, like, my whole childhood, but grew up in a very small town. Excuse me. My grandfather was a teacher. I was just at school all the time. You know, I was obviously being a kid in school, but also he was a coach.
So he was there often. I got to know everyone there. Went to a really small school, only graduated with like 89 people. So, being from a small town, when I went to college. I just didn’t really think beyond traditional career paths. I kind of had in my mind like teacher, doctor, nurse, lawyer, like those were the things I was thinking about.
And I’m naturally a helper. I want to make an impact. I want to, I’m a people pleaser. Like I just, I want to help where I can. And I thought, you know, I saw the impact that my grandfather made on students and just on the community. And even after he retired, he would still go back and, and work. So it just made sense.
I thought, okay, I want to teach. That’s a great way to make a difference. So I got my undergrad degree in education. I did a, um, my concentration was 4th through 8th grade math. I’ve always loved math. It’s been my favorite subject, so I was really excited to teach math. And that lasted 1 year I taught 8th grade for 1 year before getting into higher education.
So just some additional background while I was going to college. I worked at the university as a student employee in the orientation office. I was an orientation leader fit my personality. Well, I loved it. And that’s what I really realized. that people work at a university full time. And I just, I mean, it seems so obvious, but I had never really thought like it takes full time people to run this place.
So I started thinking, you know, well, maybe that’s actually what I want to do and not K 12 education. But I also knew I would need a master’s degree to do that. So once I graduated college, I thought, you know, let me, let me just teach at least for a year because I didn’t want to get like five years into my career and then wonder, Like, would I have been a great teacher?
What, you know, should I have just tried this because I did spend four years getting a degree in it. but I kind of knew immediately when I started teaching that I wouldn’t necessarily be there until retirement, but I thought, well, you never know unless you try and then yet within a couple of months, I was like, absolutely not get me back to the university campus.
I want to be in higher ed. Um, so I just taught for that one year and then got my master’s and then I worked in higher education until 2020.
Elizabeth: Thank you for sharing that. And I love hearing the story. It kind of brings up a good point. Like. When you were growing up in your town, thinking about what careers, you know, kind of traditionally doctor, lawyer, you know, I felt similarly, and it’s not until later in life where we kind of discover there’s so many other careers out there. So that’s such an interesting point. And with your experience at the university, can you tell us a little bit about that? And then kind of the point where you decided to transition out of higher
education.
Jacki: Yeah, absolutely. So I, my goal was to work in college orientation because again, I loved it. I was super passionate about. Welcoming new students and their parents and families to the university love the planning of it. The execution just everything. I thought that was such a great fit for me. So I did 2 years and a graduate assistantship position.
So it paid for my degree while while getting my master’s degree. So I did that. For 2 years, and then there wasn’t a position full time there. I also, at that point, I had a daughter, so I had a baby just a few months before I started teaching 8th grade. So I had her in March started teaching that August.
So, it moving wasn’t always an option for me, and I didn’t really want to move anyway. I fell in love with higher education because of the school I went to. So I had this passion for. for wanting to be there. So when there wasn’t an opening there, I thought, okay, where else can I get my foot in the door?
So I actually started, um, my university that year started a one stop program. So I kind of combined advising, financial aid records and scheduling. It was a little bit of everything. And as an enrollment counselor, that was my title. I had a caseload. It was like, 5, 000 students. It was not at all manageable.
Excuse me. And, um, it, I liked it. I enjoyed it, but it was just, it was nowhere near as fun as orientation. You know, when you think of college orientation, you usually think about more fun than financial aid. Most people don’t just love. Um, so I did that for a year, a job, a full time job opened up in the orientation office.
I gladly went there. I was there for a year when I thought I wanted to move back home to my hometown and, um, that I knew that was going to take me out of higher education because again, I come from a very small hometown. So there’s not a lot of universities around. That idea also did not last very long.
And so when I came back to the university, housing is an area I had never worked in, had not really thought about when I was there initially, because I didn’t live on campus as a student, but I just, I knew that was going to give me a lot of transferable skills and. I knew I could do it. Like, it was kind of that feeling of like, I feel like if I can do housing, I can do anything.
Um, so I did. I got a job as an area coordinator. It was a full time live on position. So my daughter and I moved onto campus. My first time ever living on campus, I was probably like 30 years old. Moved into an apartment in the dorm where we worked, or I worked. She didn’t work. She, she loved to play, um, and thought dorm life was super cool.
As a kid and yeah, I was there for almost 4 years. I was there about 3 and a half years, I guess, in housing and just got so much experience, you know, not only just being on call and dealing with all the things that housing professionals deal with, but also excuse me, being, um. Being able to lead certain committees and that’s what I think kind of got my wheels turning about getting out of higher education out of my daughter got older and I knew she was getting ready for middle school.
And I thought, okay, we can’t live here forever. Most people are in a live on housing position like that for 3 years or so. And then they, they kind of move on and move up into something else. But honestly, as I looked at higher education there, I could not really pinpoint. What growth looked like for me. So I didn’t want to be a director of housing.
I think I would have been open to orientation again. But again, I didn’t want to move. And a lot of times in higher education, you know, you have to be willing to make a move for a job you want. And so that’s when I really started thinking, I just kind of felt stuck, I guess. And I thought, okay, what do I really want next?
And I had a couple of friends that I knew had gotten Degrees in higher ed, and he worked in higher ed that had transitioned out. 1 took the more business route. He went on and got an MBA and was kind of in a business world that that did not seem like something I would want to be in. And the other had gotten into recruiting.
And so I remember seeing post on her LinkedIn and on Facebook. And I remember thinking. Okay. She did, she did this, like she made the transition. I know I’ve learned things that can help me. So like, how did she do it? How did she get out of education and make that transition? And so I met with her a few times.
Uh, we talked, you know, resume review, interview skills, cover letter, all of the things as you’re transitioning, you’re, you’re thinking about, um, how to, how to talk about your transferable skills. Ultimately, that’s what kind of gave me the confidence to know like, okay, you can do it. Other people have done it.
I can do this as well. And from there, I mean, it was a huge question mark initially, like, what do I even want to do? Like, I don’t even know where to go. I have all these skills I’ve learned in housing and just higher education in general. How do I know what I want to do outside of education? There was also a lot of guilt around that decision because I was so connected not only to my campus community and like the adults and the peers that I worked with, but the students, like, every year I would find myself questioning, like, do I want to be here?
And then I would think, oh, my gosh, I can’t leave the students in the middle of the year like this. And then the next year would roll around and it would be the exact same scenario. And I’m like, okay, if I keep this up, I’m going to be like, 90 living in a dorm. Because I’m never gonna want to leave them.
Um, so there was a lot of guilt, I think, in that decision to leave. but ultimately, yeah, I just did some research and just had to think, you know, for me, my transition was thinking about, you know, What do I love about my job? And what do I see myself doing every day? And how can I, how can I find that elsewhere?
Like, what does that look like? How does that translate into a job title? And then what do I not like about what I’m doing? And so what can I leave behind? So that’s, that was kind of my mindset is like making list of here’s what I love doing. And then here’s what I don’t love to do. So now, let me go out there and start job searching and try to find some, some titles and some job descriptions that align with this.
Yeah.
Elizabeth: And I feel like that is that initial challenge is trying to figure out, you know, you have all these skills from teaching and university. How do you even know how to narrow it down? And so what a great way to kind of, like, be very explicit mindful. Um, About figuring out your strengths. And then the second thing you mentioned was that teacher guilt. And I think that, you know, that’s so real and it’s something people struggle with and, and kind of when you got to that point where you decided, you know, there is a way I have some friends who’ve done this and getting that confidence to be able to, to make the next step. And I love hearing too, about the, the dorm life, like living with. child at the university and what a unique
experience
Jacki: Oh, yeah, oh, it was so interesting for her for sure. And I will say, thinking about the, the teacher, the educator guilt a little bit, you know, even when I was teaching 8th grade for that 1 year. You know, I come from a family who, and this is a lot of this is a generational thing, right? Like. They did not quit jobs.
If you had a good job, you did not leave that good job. That that idea just seemed crazy. Like, you got a teaching job. You worked so hard for this. Why would you leave? And you’ve got benefits and, you know, summer’s off. There’s all these things when my family would say you need to stay. So I remember my mom telling me.
You know, oh, you’ve got the summer’s coming up. I know you feel burned out now, but the summer’s coming up. You’ll get a refresh and then and you’ll go into next year. It’ll be a different group of kids. Things will be different. And she was saying all these things. And it was very easy for me in my head to kind of say, like, oh, yeah, that’s right.
I think it will be okay. What if I can do this, but I’m honestly so thankful. That I did not push through and allow myself to settle and do that because I think in a previous, you know, in a couple of years before that, I probably would have and I would have really let that guilt, like, drive my decision.
But I remember that year at the beginning of the year, we all got these planners, like, not necessarily a teacher planner, but just like a basic calendar from the county. And so that’s what I used all year as my calendar. And so on one of those days where I had just had enough and I thought, okay, no, I’m getting out.
I know I want to get out, but, and I don’t want to talk myself into staying. I actually wrote myself a note in the back. I’m like a sentimental hoarder. So I probably have it in the garage somewhere, but I wrote myself a note in the back of that calendar that was like, Jacki, remember how you feel in this moment.
You do not want to be sitting here a year from now feeling the same way. Like go, it is okay. Like, I don’t remember what all I said, but it was basically like, look, sis, every time you start thinking, okay, I’ve got it. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I just need to give it the summer and try again next year. Like, no, look at that note and remind yourself don’t do it.
So it was a similar, you know, while I didn’t write myself a note in higher education I definitely had this guilt and this feeling of, you know, Like, am I selling my soul to the corporate world? Because I just didn’t know many people. I mean, my mom even worked at a school. Like, I didn’t know many people that worked in the corporate world.
And so, to me, it seemed so disconnected. I thought, oh, education, so touchy feely and you make such an impact. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I’m meant to do. And corporate just felt so, like, harsh to me. Like, oh, they don’t care about people. There’s no, you know, I’m not going to feel like I made an impact.
And, I mean, I have found that is absolutely not the case. I’m so happy that I’ve been able to find, like, meaning and fulfillment outside of education, but I definitely felt that way at first. Like, is this going to be a trade off? Am I not going to have that fulfillment? And, you know, maybe I have more money, but like, am I going to feel like I kind of sold my soul a little bit?
Um, I’m so glad it doesn’t feel that way.
Elizabeth: you finally got to that space, um, you made your list. You were deciding to go into recruiting and talent acquisition. What was the process like as you started to network? You know, you mentioned you kind of new teachers and kind of had a smaller network at that time.
So how are you able to successfully, you know, branch into the
corporate world?
Jacki: Yeah, excuse me. One of the big things. That that I initially got help with was just was my resume in general. I mean, you know, this the world of education has their own lingo, their own terminology and the rest of the world may have no idea what they’re talking about and vice versa. So that was my 1st step.
My first step was, okay, here, I know I’ve made impact and I know I’ve had a lot of responsibilities and I’ve done a lot of things, but how can I say that on a resume or in a cover letter or on a job application to where other people can understand it? So, that was definitely my 1st step was making sure that my resume wasn’t too.
Education heavy. Um, I also remember there, there’s a certain resume that people in higher education like to see. And so my, my resume was heavily education focused. So I definitely needed to make that update. And then from there, it was honestly looking at again, what do I want to do? And how can I just get my foot in the door?
Like, I don’t need to be thinking so much about. What do I want to do 5 years from now? Because that’s not the job I’m going after. But if I know what that is, how do I get there? Like, what are the best steps to take? for me, it was a recruiting and people coordinating role. So it was a little bit, excuse me, less responsibility as just a full time sole recruiter.
And it was really just making connections and finding a company that saw the transferable skills, and it was willing to make, or to take a chance on that. I understand sometimes with the job market, how it is in the landscape, how it is in the economy. Like, there are better times. Then, not for people to make that leap and to make that change.
There are sometimes when certain recruiters or hiring managers are more willing to take a chance on someone. But, I mean, it just so happened that. And I had multiple interviews. Oh my gosh. I had a spreadsheet and I was keeping track of everything. And every no I got, you know, I was crossing it off the list.
So I had multiple interviews and there would be so many that I would think like, Oh my gosh, this is it. This is my dream job. I’m so excited. I hope I get this one. And then I wouldn’t. And then I would, I would get excited about another. So definitely was hard to hear no a lot. I’m glad I did because it got me used to hearing it a lot, which was helpful.
Um, but it also, the more I interviewed and talk to people, the better I got at transfer at like translating how my skills could fit into the world outside of education. My first few interviews, it was probably. Honestly, like if I was probably such a mess but eventually I started finding my confidence because I knew, okay, I don’t have that exact experience you’re looking for, or no, I haven’t done this exact same thing, but I got really confident in telling the story of something very relatable or similar to where it would click in their head.
Okay, she doesn’t have this exact thing, but she’s showing that she can do it. So that just took time. Like, there was no amount of interview prep. I could have done or, you know, trying to guess what questions are coming next. It just took practice interview after interview of me getting confident and saying.
Yes, I can address a difficult situation I had. And again, thinking about it from the lens of, they don’t necessarily care about this like classroom management issue I might have had, but how, like, what did that teach me and how can I make it make sense to them? So that was another thing. I wrote out a ton of questions.
Just, you know, anything I would think, okay, a recruiter may ask me these things or hiring manager may ask. And then I just started answering them and I would do multiple different answers and different scenarios. And I would think, like, okay, what would make sense to them because they’re not going to understand this certain higher ed situation.
So, like, how can I make it make sense? I, surprisingly, I am, like, not a huge networker. I’m very introverted, actually, which is, like, it baffles some people because they’re, like, you’re a recruiter and you’ve always been in people facing roles. But that is when I get my people time. And then the end of the day, I’m, like, No one talked to me.
Let me watch some TV. Thank you. Like I’m, I’m done. I’m checked out. So the networking thing like, oh my gosh, no, I was not going to go in person to a networking event. I did not want to have a million coffee chats with people because I was already, I mean, I’m, I was working. So when you’re working full time and you’re job searching, it’s like you have two full time jobs.
Um, so I did not want to add more to my plate in that way. So the networking, I wasn’t super great at. It was more about just the preparation and just that practice, like what I need to do and then eventually just like, you know, finding a spot and also remembering It doesn’t have to be the dream job, like that next step out.
Sometimes that is what it is. It is just the next step to get you to where, you know, that’s going to get you the experience that you need for the next step. And maybe that next step is like, okay, this is actually where I really wanted to land, but I couldn’t have gotten here if I didn’t have this, like, like a little interim position, kind of.
Elizabeth: Absolutely. And I love how you kind of built up this bank of questions too. And throughout the process, when you were getting those no’s, it was a learning experience and you were getting better, you know, you, the more you did it, you could learn and see, Oh, you know, I didn’t get this job. Let me look at why.
And maybe like revamp. My questions for next time. So I think that’s
important to tracking it and
Jacki: Yeah, yeah,
Elizabeth: to the best of your ability. And I know it’s tough. People are working, teaching. And then also, like you said, it’s, it’s a job on top of, on top of the job. And now that you’re in the recruiting space, can you tell us what does a recruiter do day to day and tell us a little bit about this position and why
you love it?
Jacki: yeah. So a little bit of everything, honestly, and it’s really going to vary depending on the size of the company that someone’s at. And then also, if they, if someone is a corporate recruiter, or an agency recruiter. So, before I was in recruiting, I didn’t even know what those words meant. And I honestly thought that you might be a recruiter for a person, like, oh, maybe a person goes to a recruiter to find them a job.
And then I’ve since learned. No, recruiters usually either work for agencies or companies. so for me, I have always been in the corporate recruiting space. So that just means. I have worked for companies and I recruit for open roles just at that company. That’s been my preference and what I’ve enjoyed because, and again, this goes back to that education and like orientation background, I love being a culture champion and a cheerleader for wherever I’m working.
So. You know, if, if my team colors are blue and white, like you better bet I want blue and white all day. I’m, I’m ready for like the company tattoo. Like I’m all in. Um, so for me, the corporate recruiter made more sense because I could just feel that connection and really get involved in the company culture.
And that, again, let me kind of feed that, like, education piece that I have a little bit and so those recruiters again, they’re, they’re working for specific companies, hiring for open roles at that company. It will vary again, depending on size of the company. Some roles are truly just they’re more sourcing.
So they’re you’re out there looking on LinkedIn and on other boards for candidates to apply to jobs or to interview for a job that you have if there’s a lot of applications that you already have. Maybe you’re not sourcing as much, but you’re reviewing a lot of resumes. There’s oftentimes a lot of coordination involved.
There is, like, creating and editing job descriptions, so working with the hiring managers for that, posting the open roles online, again, sourcing the candidates, looking at resumes, doing some initial screenings and interviews, scheduling the candidates, and then working with everybody involved on the offer process and kind of some of those pre onboarding activities.
At a larger company, some of those tasks may be a little bit more broken down, and one recruiter may not be responsible for all that. But at your, your smaller kind of startup space, you’re definitely going to wear lots of hats during the day, which I absolutely love. Agency recruiters, if people are interested in that, they don’t, they don’t work for specific companies.
They work for an agency, and then companies that usually don’t have like an in house recruiter And they may have specific needs. They will reach out to an agency to help them. And that’s usually pretty temporary on a contract basis. You know, Hey, we need two engineers. I don’t have a full time recruiter.
I don’t, I don’t need to hire a full time recruiter for two roles, but I need help. I’m, you know, I’m the CEO, I’m not a recruiter. So they may reach out to an agency. Um, agency recruiters, it can be a little bit more, um, high volume, a little bit more sourcing. It feels to me a little bit more sales in a way, like, it can be more commission based at agencies and I hope I’m not totally butchering that and like agency recruiters start coming for me.
It’s not a bad thing. I’m just saying I’ve never had that experience, but in my brain, that’s that’s kind of the bigger difference there in those 2. But yeah, so I’ve only worked at companies and I’ve worked in places where I’ve worn lots of hats and been able to do the scheduling and coordinating and offers and even some onboarding activities and a little bit of everything.
Elizabeth: That’s so interesting. And thank you for going over the difference between corporate recruiter and agency recruiter. And I’m thinking now, like how fun, because there’s so many steps to this and I’m sure, you know, lots of challenges, but like when you get to that end point and you get to offer the job like what a neat little, is that a
special time?
Like when you get to that
Jacki: Oh, my gosh, it is so fun and it’s honestly been at this point in my career as I contemplate. Do I do I want to stay because I’m not your traditional career recruiter that’s always done this right? So my brain is always thinking, do I want to stay doing this? Or do I want to take my skills and pivot and see what else is out there for me?
And it’s almost like that education guilt that came in a little bit. It’s it’s now the, like, New hire guilt that comes in because you’re right. It is so fun to be able to either find a candidate that you’ve sourced. Like you literally just went out there and found that person. Or even if they applied, you still were kind of the gatekeeper.
You got to introduce them to the company, the culture. You had the 1st conversation with them. You worked with them throughout the process. The whole way candidate experience is something I am super passionate about. So you’ve, you’ve built this relationship. And then you see them online starting in your company, and it’s this like, I know you, I helped you get here.
This is so cool. Like, you’re a small piece of the puzzle, but it’s just exciting to watch that process and to know, like, you’ve made a difference to someone. Like, you’ve, again, as kind of a gatekeeper, like, sure, I didn’t give them the job. But I kind of facilitated through that process, and it just feels really good to then see them on their 1st day of work.
So, yeah, it is super cool. And also, 1 of the things that as my brain now thinks about, okay, is this where I am for, you know, what do I want to do when I grow up kind of thing as a 37 year old I’m now thinking, Oh my gosh, could do. I want to get away from, I love that feeling of, you know, being able to introduce, it’s like a professional matchmaker a little bit, you know, and it’s fun.
It’s super fun. So yeah, it’s very rewarding.
Elizabeth: That’s awesome to hear. And I’m curious, you know, I know every job comes with challenges too. One that kind of came to my mind was when you were talking about sourcing and then going through the resumes. I know, just depending on the time, it’s it’s more competitive than others. So how do you really, like, make it manageable to where you’re able to, like, review people and resumes and kind of, kind of narrow that
down?
That’s awesome.
Jacki: Yeah, it’s definitely one of those tasks that the more you do it, you just, you kind of get familiar and you, you start to know like, Oh, okay. You know, I’m looking for a customer success person. These are some key things that you kind of know you’re looking for. first I was very slow because I mean, I thought, okay, I’ve got to read every little thing on every person’s resume.
And in, again, the candidate experience is so huge to me. So I feel like. Okay, these people have taken the time out of their day to consider and apply for this job. And even if they didn’t, and even if it’s just like a quick click and they don’t really care, I’m gonna allow myself to believe that they care and they did it intentionally.
So, I think they deserve to be reviewed and to be looked at. And so, for me, it’s about keeping that load manageable and having that conversation with a hiring manager on. Okay. You know, it may not be the, hey, this job’s going to be posted for 1 to 2 weeks, but it may be. Hey, we open a job and within 48 hours, we have 500 applicants.
We actually need to pause for a second and turn it off because. That’s a lot for me to look through and it’s and it also depends on the workload and how many other open roles you have and you’re working on. But that’s kind of how I like to put a pause on things and say, okay, these 500 people deserve to be reviewed and I don’t want to just leave the floodgates open and let that keep piling up.
If I know I don’t think it’s fair. To the candidate, if they’re applying, knowing I have no intention of ever looking at their resume or their information. Um, so I like to kind of be mindful of the number of applicants that we have and then put a pause on it when needed and and do a review. And then you can always open back up if you don’t have qualified people, you don’t have what you need.
You can always open the job back up, but I think that just kind of making it manageable for yourself in that way, I think, is very important, especially if you are going to give everyone a shot and you do want to review every resume, excuse me, which is always my preference from there again. It just takes some practice on knowing.
What to look for, what type of experience you need, um, is the, the hiring manager in the team willing to take a chance on someone with non traditional experience and what, you know, so I think getting aligned really early on about the ideal candidate profile is really helpful because then it helps the person that’s reviewing the resumes to, to more quickly sift through and like, okay, this is going to be a yes, this is going to be a no.
And that sometimes that also takes time, you know, as you’re with a company longer, you get used to working with certain hiring managers. You start to know what they are looking for, the traits, the experience, um, you start to just know that. And so it makes the review process a little bit quicker.
Elizabeth: That makes sense. And hearing you talk about some of these skills, I’m curious to know, you know, for some teachers who are listening and are curious about recruiting, you talked about collaborating with hiring managers, you know, it sounds like organization is also a huge piece. So what are, what are some of those other skills that you would say are really imperative?
for recruiting.
Jacki: me.
Yeah, I would say, um, communication is huge because you will often be communicating by Phone email, you could be texting candidates if if they do that at your company video interview, if that’s a thing at your company. So it’s a lot of communication between both candidates and. Hiring managers, interview teams, HR people, if you’re looking at headcount planning, you know, it could be HR and just people in different levels at the organization.
So, I think communication skills in general, it’s just huge for a recruiter also. And you might have mentioned this a little bit, just the ability to, um, prioritize and just manage your time. You know, there may be times through the year where there’s a lot of open roles at 1 time. So, how do you prioritize because every hiring manager is going to think.
Well, my role is the most important. We, you know, we can’t do this without an engineer and the sales people will say, well, we can’t make money without sales. And then the customer success people will say, well, we won’t have our customers without us. So everyone thinks that their role is the priority. So it’s really getting aligned on.
Okay. What is the true priority here? How do I manage my day? So I think anytime that teachers can show examples. Of those things in the past, which we know they’ve done right teacher. I feel like teachers could can literally do anything like they want to be a salesperson. They want to be a CSM. They want to be a recruiter.
Like, I know they’ve got the skills. It’s it’s often just a matter of how do you tell someone that you’ve got the skills and you can do it and then just getting him to take that chance on you. So, definitely prioritization and then also empathy. And I know that’s not always a skill we can learn.
Sometimes people just don’t have it. I would say most teachers have it, or they probably would not have been teachers in the 1st place, but that is really important in recruiting because. Again, you are working with hiring managers who have different needs, and you need to be able to empathize with their needs in their timeline.
But you’re also working with people who are searching for a job. And some of them may have a job and they’re just casually looking for a different or better opportunity. And some don’t. Some have been laid off. They’ve been laid off for six months to a year. Um, they have emergencies come up and they need to reschedule sometimes.
So it takes a lot of empathy. And I think just emotional, um, just that EQ it to really work with so many different people all day long.
Elizabeth: That’s so interesting. I’ve learned so much about recruiting so far. This has been lovely. And I want to be mindful of your time too. And we kind of love to wrap these up by hearing about what you learned about yourself from, you know, being teaching, uh, to university teaching, counseling, and now being in the recruiting space.
Jacki: So I learned, uh, well, I learned a lot. Um, I would say thinking about my time early on and those feelings of guilt, and, you know, had I listened to my mom and I stayed, which again, I’m so thankful every day that I didn’t, but I definitely learned that I am deserving of what I want. I should not settle just because someone else thinks I should, or it seems non traditional, or it seems like a risk.
I can take risk. I am resilient. And gritty and I am capable of learning new things and I love to learn new things. Also I can change my mind at any time just because you sign a job offer that does not mean that has to be your job forever. So I’ve already mentioned a couple times. I constantly question do I want to stay in recruiting or do I want to try something different?
So I’ve learned that’s okay. Careers and career paths are not linear. And that’s okay, that should not be looked down upon or looked like, you know, someone can’t make up their mind. So, I’ve learned that I can change my mind and that’s okay. And also, I have, I’ve learned a lot of confidence over the however many years I’ve been out of education really just going on for now from higher education, but I’ve really.
Gain confidence in what I know I can bring to the table to an organization. And that confidence lets me know like, okay, when can I really make an impact? When do I need to stay seated? Or when is it time for me to walk away? Or when do I not want these people at my table? Because again, I know what I can bring.
Um, and I certainly did not have that confidence four years ago. Um, and lastly, just a sense of gratitude, honestly. Um, I. You know, grew up and I went through a big part of my life, highly anxious. I’m not getting that. Well, that that hasn’t gone anywhere. Um, excuse me, but. Very much, um, like, trying to put on this persona and this image that, like, everything’s perfect and everything’s okay.
And look, look how perfect everything is in my life. But I was constantly, like, waiting on the other shoe to drop and there was a time in a job. I had. I had it for about almost three years, where about a year into that role, I was still loving it. I was still super excited. Everything was going great.
And I finally asked myself, like, why can’t I just enjoy this? Like, why am I waiting on something negative or bad to happen? Isn’t it just, oh, like, don’t I deserve for this to just be a good thing? And so ever since then, and that’s been about, I guess, two years ago now, I’ve just had a different sense of gratitude about opportunities and people I work with and the networking that I have gotten to do or anything like that.
And so I try to look at the world and at jobs and my life and everything a little bit differently. And instead of kind of having so much anxiety about stuff and thinking like, Oh, this feels really good, but when is it going to mess up? Because it can’t be good for too long. Instead, just embracing it for what it is and just learning like, Okay.
No, you do it. You do deserve this. Like you do deserve both a job you love and good pay. Like you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. You’re not selling your soul like you can have both. So, um, I think just being, just being gracious and just having that, that gratitude about where I am and how far I’ve come It’s just something that I’ve learned over the past couple years that before I just didn’t have and I was in this constant worry of like, Oh, no, when is this going to mess up?
Or when is this going to get taken away or change? and I finally just had to say, like, just let a good thing be a good thing.
Elizabeth: Oh, I love to hear that. In that little last sentence, you said like, what a good mantra. Just let the good thing be the good thing. And thank you so much for your time today. I’m so excited for everyone to listen and we appreciate you and can’t wait to see what you’re
up to on your journey
Jacki: Yeah, thank you so much. I was so, so much fun. I appreciate your questions and also open to always helping any transitioning teachers or, you know, any questions that people have. I’m still again, like, a helper at heart and a guest person at heart. So, I, it makes my heart happy when people we need good teachers.
Don’t get me wrong, but it makes my heart happy when people say. I know what I want for my life and I’m going to go get it. And they do transition and they’re successful and love it. So always open to help and network.
