If you are a teacher considering a change, think about your favorite parts of classroom teaching. Working with kids? Presenting to an audience? Creating learning resources? This will help you determine what new career path you want to pursue. Some teachers truly love presenting in front of a group and educating people. For those teachers who love presenting, we rounded up the top five presentation careers outside the classroom.
Transferable Skills For Presentation Careers
One of the most important steps in a career transition is showcasing your skills for the positions you apply for. Teachers have a multitude of transferable skills that allow them to excel in a new field. Presentation careers, in particular, have a heavy focus on public speaking. If you enjoy public speaking, think about the skills it takes. Here are some transferable skills teachers can highlight for presentation careers:
- Communication
- Leadership
- Listening skills
- Organization
- Confidence
- Creativity
- Passion
Presentation careers require all these skills along with instructional ability and knowledge of your content. Teachers have instructional experience and often a vast knowledge of a particular subject. In presentation careers outside the classroom, you may instruct a group of colleagues on how to use a new program, present an idea to your leadership team, or pitch a new product to a group of investors. No matter the audience, teachers who love presenting would feel right at home in this type of environment.
Top 5 Presentation Careers For Teachers
Once you determine your transferable skills suited for presentation careers, it’s time to narrow the path. Do you enjoy training adults or instructing children? Do you prefer the challenge of convincing someone to purchase a product, or helping others build knowledge? The following presentation careers are great options for any teacher with a love for instructing.
1. Corporate Trainer
Corporate training is one of the best presentation careers for a teacher who enjoys training and instructing others. If you love delivering lessons and sharing your expertise with a classroom of students, then corporate training is a similar avenue. Only now you are training adults. A corporate trainer provides instruction for employees to help them be successful in the workplace. This may include creating instructional materials, presenting employee training, and assessing the progress of employees throughout their training.
Presentation careers such as corporate training are a great way to use your public speaking and leadership skills. Teachers can continue teaching, just in a different environment with a different audience.
2. Learning & Development Manager
Another one of the presentation careers that will allow teachers to focus on educating and contributing to others is a learning & development manager. An L&D manager oversees the learning and growth of all employees at a company. This position focuses mainly on individual needs and professional development, with additional focus on the organization. L&D managers determine different training techniques that can benefit unique individuals at the company.
An L&D manager may also oversee the creation of training materials and evaluate different forms of training that would benefit employees. Their goal is to develop a plan that will maximize learning and growth within the organization. Large organizations often have a learning & development department that includes several employees. Smaller companies, on the other hand, may delegate these responsibilities to the human resources department.
3. PD Trainer
If you want to leave the classroom but continue working with teachers, then a PD trainer may be a great path to pursue. School districts often provide some sort of PD, or professional development, for their staff. External companies do as well. A PD trainer will train teachers in new skills to help them develop within their career. A role like this can go by many different names depending on the district or company. Look for positions such as professional development trainer, professional development coach, instructional coach, or teacher trainer.
This makes our list of presentation careers because you will often be presenting to a large group of teachers and school staff. PD trainers can specialize in a particular type of development as well, so you can choose the best fit for your expertise. Some examples include technical training, curriculum training, leadership development, social and emotional learning, and classroom management strategies.
4. Museum Education Director
One of the presentation careers great for teachers with a passion for history or art is a museum education director. This type of role would allow you to continue teaching kids, but in a different capacity. Museum education directors are tasked with making sure that visitors to the museum are engaged in learning experiences that relate to the museum’s collection. Most museums host lectures, community events, classes and school field trips. The museum education director would be responsible for organizing and delivering the educational content for these events.
If you are a teacher with a strong passion for a particular subject area, check to see if there is a local museum that could benefit from your expertise. For teachers with a passion for storytelling, a museum education director position can be a wonderful use of your teaching skills.
5. Sales Development Representative
On our list of presentation careers, a role in sales will seem the more foreign to a teacher. However, teachers have many transferable skills that can allow you to excel as a sales development representative, or SDR. Sales development representatives are responsible for selling a good or service and convincing customers of the benefits of their purchase. You will often use the power of persuasion, communication, and confidence to make a sale and keep a customer happy.
Effective teachers are good at engaging a group or individual to keep their attention. Isn’t that what it takes to make a sale? Use your knowledge of the product, listening skills, and strong communication to convince someone to make the purchase. Ed tech companies are a great fit for teachers looking to transition to sales. If you have successfully used a product or program in your classroom, then you can draw on that experience to produce sales for the company. Sales isn’t as scary as it may seem, and you already have more SDR skills than you think!
Presentation Careers And Passion
Search for presentation careers at companies you love, believe in, and have a passion for. You are always going to be more excited about a new role if you are passionate about the company or content. Passion will make your presentation more impactful. You should have public speaking, creativity, confidence, and organization skills to pursue presentation careers. But passion is arguably the most important factor. More people are going to learn from you or buy what you’re selling if they can see your excitement shine through.
Passion also helps you build trust with your audience when presenting. People want to understand and learn from someone who believes in what they’re selling. So, when you are searching for presentation careers, think about what you enjoy. Is it an ed tech tool? Social emotional learning strategies? Employee well-being and self-care? Look for roles that you will be excited to present for!
Presentation Careers: Next Steps
If you are struggling to determine what presentation careers could be right for you, take our free career quiz to help you get started.
One of the biggest mistakes that I see teachers make is that they try to navigate this process alone. Often, they put off “researching” until the very last minute. Which sets them up for a very stressful application season. Teacher Career Coach wants to help you get some clarity in the options available to you. To know EXACTLY what you need to do (and not do) in order to get your foot in the door.
You don’t have to do this on your own.
With the help of an HR expert with over 10 years of experience and a team of former teachers, Daphne has created a guide to support you in the early stages of your transition out of the classroom. Tap the button below to learn more.
