Join me for this episode of the Teacher Career Coach podcast where I interview Luke Owings from Invited MBA. Luke has experience working in both higher education and at education companies. Now, he works for Invited MBA with the mission to support others with business education. Follow along as we talk about everything from translating your teacher skills to gaining new skills and confidence that can help you find success in the corporate world. So, if you’ve found yourself battling imposter syndrome or feeling inexperienced when applying or interviewing for corporate roles, this is the episode for you.
Recap and BIG Ideas:
- Understanding the language of the new business or industry you are entering can help you better understand it in a holistic way, helping you understand how you can provide value within the company.
- As you transition into the business world, it’s important to gain conversancy in the industry language, connect to new people in the industry, and build your confidence in entering conversations within the industry.
- Regardless if you’re coming in from a new industry, the business world is always changing. Therefore, a willingness to find confidence as you grapple with ambiguity in a place of uncertainty is just as important as any other skill.
- Instead of letting a lack of industry experience hold you back, get your hands dirty by getting started in freelancing to gain exposure and show yourself you can do it.
- Understanding how you create value allows you to then navigate your career in a way you see opportunities.
- Now more than ever, the language of learning and the language of business are coming together to help organizations train, develop, and retain their people in whole new ways.
- Invited MBA helps you translate your experience onto a resume and cover letter, helps you prepare to discuss your experience in interviews, and continues to help you build connections through an alumni network even after the 12-week program is over.
- While the business world might seem overwhelming and the language might seem overwhelming, you’re more equipped than you give yourself credit for.
Listen to the episode in the podcast player below, or find it on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Hear Luke’s Impressive Background and Why He’s Interested In Helping Teachers.
Daphne: Hey, Luke, how’s it going? Thank you so much for joining us here today.
Luke: Hey, Daphne. It’s great to be here.
Daphne: I wanted to invite you on here to share your expert knowledge when it comes to everything business. But first, I really want to hear you explain your impressive background working in both the education and edTech space, as well as the business world.
Luke: Absolutely. Let me just start by saying I think what you’re doing here is awesome. And thank you so much for having me on. I come from a long line of teachers. Both of my parents were teachers at university. I’ve self-identified as a teacher for about 10 years, but I didn’t start that way. I actually started my career as a consultant at the big consulting company, McKinsey and Company, for a number of years. And then when I went back to business school, and I went back to grad school, I saw a flyer on the wall and decided to become a teaching fellow. And quite honestly, it changed my life.
When I was at Harvard, I was a teaching fellow for their undergrad economics class. I had 30 people who I saw through from one end to the other. And I have to say, it was a lot easier than what a lot of our K-12 teachers have to deal with. It really did change my life, though, because it showed me how I could bring to bear some of the skills I had in a new space that was rewarding and satisfying. It really shaped my career from then on.
After I graduated from business school, I actually joined an edTech company in Cambridge. I spent the next three years running the operations trying to build out month-long business boot camps. Then I left that position to run a people department where I oversaw learning and development in a new organization of about 500 people. My job there involved thinking about what skills they needed and what skills they needed going forward.
Lastly, I went to McKinsey and spent the last three years working with clients as part of McKinsey Academy in our capability-building group. There, I really got to see what great teaching, facilitation, and instructional design does, even in the corporate space. And so, in my current role as the Head of Product at a company called Ability, I oversee a program called Invited MBA. Invited MBA is one of our programs that actually helps people translate skills they have into the business world. Teachers are one really important segment that we would love to work with, which is one of the reasons I’m on this podcast.
Daphne: I agree that there are so many ways that teachers can translate their skills to go into a corporate environment. I think that teachers come in with a strong footing for learning and development roles, such as Corporate Trainer types of positions. But then there are skill sets that they still need to add on top of being able to translate the skills that they’ve gained through their experience in education.
Skills Teachers Should Add to Their Resume For Corporate Positions.
Can you talk a little bit about what types of additional skills you think teachers should be adding to their resumes?
Luke: Absolutely. I love how you laid that out as skills that teachers already bring to the table and translating them. There are the communication ones, the organizational ones, and the facilitation ones. There are just so many. There are more and more opportunities in that space right now, whether that’s within HR departments or learning and development departments. Whether it’s within edTech companies that are changing and growing, and being funded at a higher rate than we’ve ever seen before, which is quite amazing.
So, in that world, there are new skills to learn. And when we think about our program in specific, we think about three types of things to offer. One is, how do you get conversancy in the new language of business? That includes understanding financial concepts, management systems, strategy, and how the company actually creates value. So, getting some conversancy in the new language of that business world actually helps teachers translate in a huge way.
Secondarily, I think as teachers move out of the classic education space and move into the business world, wherever that may be, I think there’s this really important thing in getting connections. Right? In getting the connections with people who do new things. Getting connections with people who have new roles, so that you actually have a supporting scaffold as you move into that business world and have people you work with. And so we think the connections are the second part.
And then the third part that we think is so important is actually having the confidence to step up into these new spaces. If there’s one thing about the business world right now, it’s that everybody is always learning because things are changing so, so, so fast. And so, as we think about that translation of skills from the teaching world into the business world, we also think confidence is so important. So how can we get you the confidence to step into these conversations? Step into the ambiguity? Step into the new language of the world you’re entering? So that you can really bring to bear your full set of skills.
From the teaching side, we think that conversancy in a new language, connections to new people and a new type of scaffolding, and then confidence in terms of entering these new conversations is so very important.
The Benefit of Understanding How Businesses Operate.
Daphne: I want to touch a little bit on financial understanding when it comes to companies and the business world. Teachers get into teaching because they have a good heart and because they are not looking for something lucrative. They’re looking for something that’s intrinsically motivating. I think a lot of hesitancy to get into the business world or a corporate environment is due to the fear that the second they start hearing about the financial, or economic types of parts of this environment, they start to feel like it’s greedy. Or they’re working for someone that’s not going to align with their values.
I want to dive into that a little bit. Because there are education companies, there are edTech companies, there are companies even like Teacher Career Coach, that have to bring in revenue to be able to provide great support. There’s part of that business functioning where that’s needed in order to have a dedicated team and to continue to produce or engineer solutions that help solve these problems.
Do you feel like Invited MBA can help people better understand how a business works without making them feel like they’re greedy? Or like they’re taking advantage of people?
Luke: Absolutely. I mean, there are so many dirty words here that we’re getting into. There’s revenue, profit, and that dreaded ROI. What’s the ROI of this learning? Or the return on investment of this learning? I’ve heard this challenge from many people moving over from the education space before, and even from other spaces as well. It’s, “How do I go there without selling myself out?” I think that there’s a really important thing here. And that’s understanding the language that that place operates with?
At the end of the day, businesses are a bit like magic. They’re manifested out of nothing. It’s just like you manifested Teacher Career Coach and created it out of nothing. You started it with the value. You started it with the mission. You started it with the people you were trying to help. And then you had to understand the terms of revenue, the terms of profit, and the terms of ROI of your time in order to understand how to make it grow and fulfill that mission.
I think many businesses are very much like that. I think one of the first steps I always encouraged, and we certainly do as part of the Invited MBA, is to encourage you to understand the language that place uses to operate. Businesses do use profit and ROI. They do use that type of language to understand whether or not to do something. Once you understand that language as a tool for actually helping you manifest the vision you have and helping you create value in the ways that you want to, then it just becomes more powerful.
The biggest thing I say is, don’t not go into that business world because you’re worried about that. Understand the language, push forward with it, and understand how those people make decisions. Then you can actually help impart your values in a new way. I think the business world is looking for people who can do that. The edTech world in particular is looking for people who can bring the values that are so inherent to that teacher mindset into the business world and help create value.
Daphne: Yeah, you have to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk. But then, once you’re able to translate those skills and after you’ve built your foundational knowledge in this capacity, you can choose the company and the mission and the values that you want to work for. I couldn’t agree more.
Learn How Invited MBA Can Help Build Your Confidence as You Transition Into New Roles.
I want to go a little bit more into what you mentioned about confidence because that’s something that everybody listening, myself included, struggles with. Everybody struggles with their confidence when it comes to trying something new. It doesn’t help that, on paper, corporate roles feel like very male-dominated roles. Or a role that everybody already went in and got their masters in some sort of business or finance. Teachers are intimidated to try and wiggle their way into this world that they think that they’re going to get laughed out of.
Luke: Do you see that a lot from people who you’re talking with?
Daphne: I get a lot of imposter syndrome and a lot of hesitancy to join things. And I know from my own experience working outside of education that women can be in roles from everything from product managers to CFOs. I’ve seen former teachers in really high roles at education companies that are all women. But, just on paper, people who are already struggling with imposter syndrome or low career self-esteem, may feel like this might not be the right role for them.
How can an Invited MBA help someone who’s struggling with low career self-esteem actually feel more confident in these types of positions?
Luke: Yeah, I think it’s a great question. And there’s a lot to unpack here. There’s the one piece about the male, female dynamic, particularly in this space. And I’ll say that one of the great joys of my life is that I’ve worked for some truly amazing female executives. In my roles in education, HR learning, and even at McKinsey, which is very classically a male-dominated world, most of the partners who I worked with were women. And so, I think that you do see a lot of changing on that very specific front, thankfully. Very slowly, but you do see change happening on that front.
The other side is this imposter syndrome piece. And you know, as well as I do, all the old studies where some people who look at a job description see 10 different bullet points and look for the one they can do and say, “You know, what? Let me apply for this job.” Versus the people who look at the 10 different bullet points and see nine of them they can do and one that they can’t say, “Well, I don’t fit that one. I’m not going to apply.” And so what we try to impart at the Invited MBA is first, a willingness and language to put forth. It’s saying, “Hey, this is where I really do offer value.” And I think some part of confidence comes from understanding that you do offer value. And you and I have gone over a couple of things that teachers often bring, like organizational, facilitator, and communicative skills, right?
So, the first thing is actually having the confidence to say, “Yes, I offer value from what I bring.” And then the second one is a willingness to walk into a place where you’re like, “Well, I don’t know exactly what that is. But I know I can wade into that ambiguity and do that.” And from an Invited MBA perspective, when we designed our 12-week program and went for it, we designed it around experiential learning. And we designed it around both of those things. One is understanding what you’re good at, and being able to communicate that, step forward and say, “I am good at this.” And then being willing and able to do that, which those with imposter syndrome often aren’t willing to do.
And then, secondarily, it’s about creating an inclusive environment where people get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Where they get comfortable with the ambiguity in the business world. And so, if you look at our 12-week program, our three Capstone experiences of each piece is an experiential simulation that we’ve put together to help you wade into conversations around finance, management, and strategic leadership. That way, when you are looking at jobs, when you are looking at an interview when you are walking into that interview and someone brings up a topic that you may not have familiarity with and it’s ambiguous to you how you create value in that space, you’ve actually been in an environment that’s inclusive. An environment where you can share your own value, so you feel comfortable and confident wading into that uncertainty.
So, that’s how we tackle the confidence side. The truth is, the business world is so big and crazy, that every week, you’re going to have to be learning something new. We often think that grappling with ambiguity, that willingness to find confidence in a place of uncertainty is as important as anything else.
Daphne: Yeah. And I think that this is coming from somebody who has teaching experience. It seems like you’ve built this with an “I do, we do, you do” kind of format, where you’re giving them the foundational knowledge that they need. But then, by the end of it, they have to kind of create these little projects to prove their understanding and to get their hands dirty. And that is something that I always talk about. Learning about something, like Product Management for example, is a lot different than actually trying and doing it.
Diving In and “Getting Your Hands Dirty” is the Best Way to Learn Something New.
I think that’s the piece that a lot of people are missing. They’re saying, “How am I actually going to get experience in this world if I don’t have a job in that position?” And so, a lot of times I talk about the idea of getting started with freelancing in that position to get your hands dirty and just get exposure with a couple of different clients in different industries.
And that way, you can understand whether or not you actually like something. It’s easy to think you might like one position on paper, but once you start to get your hands dirty, you realize that you don’t like it. Plus, this gives them more exposure to various types of departments within a business organization.
Would you agree?
Luke: 100%. And let me unpack one thing you said there that I think is really important. You said that will help them to prove that they can do it, right? And I think that there are multiple people you’re proving it to, right? One is yourself. And it’s really important that you’re proving to yourself. That’s one of the main reasons we do everything experientially at Invited MBA and why we focus on the simulation experiences, where you’re going through something and proving, “Hey, you know what, I can do this.” That’s why we also do project based work where it’s like, “Yeah, I actually am doing it. So, I proved to myself, I can do it.”
Secondarily, from the proving side, there’s this whole thing about proving it to those around you and so you can actually communicate it. We have a lot of people who go through our program, who then use the experiences they had in the program to talk in interviews that they go for. They say, “Actually, you know what? I had consulting experience. I did an action learning project as part of this 12-week Invited MBA, and I actually helped a real entrepreneur. And I know I can do this, because I did that.” And I think that’s inherently different than, “I think I could do this. That might happen. I might be able to get there.” But, it’s. “I know I can do it because I did it.” And I think that that is where we really focus.
And I think if there was one thing I disagree with you on, is that “I do, we do, you do” pedagogy. We actually say you do first. And then we’re going to talk about how it works. We’re going to provide you with the scaffolding. We’re going to provide you with the coaching and feedback. We’re going to provide you with the support. But you need to get out there doing it by yourself. Because again, with people who come in with skills, we think it’s so important to throw them in the deep end and then support them as they figure out their way.
After a 12-week program, they’re going to be thrown into the deep end in other places. We want to make sure they know that it’s not fatal. That type of discomfort with being thrown into a new place is not the worst thing in the world. And so, I would almost put “you do” first. And in you doing it, we can then help you get to where you need to be because that’s actually how the business world works.
Learn About What Topics Are Covered In Invited MBA.
Daphne: What types of things do you talk about in the Invited MBA when it comes to human resources departments? A lot of people who are listening are interested in becoming Human Resources managers, or even part of the learning and development team that might fall under a human resources department.
Luke: Yeah. We talk about a lot of different things here. We talk about the very micro aspects, where we talk about how to become a good manager. Becoming a good manager is one of the core skills in the business world because we’re always working with people. Whether you’re managing people formally or informally, and you’re having influence networks, becoming a good manager is really important. It’s also important how you balance your time as a good manager.
Secondarily, we talk a lot about the more macro side too. The operations of a company and how that fits into the creation of company culture. It’s really not uncommon for people coming over from the teaching world to find themselves in the HR world. Culture is being measured more at companies, and we’re trying to understand how it works. And so, through case studies of really interesting companies, we actually look into how that culture gets created, how we measure it, how we think about it, and then how businesses actually make decisions based on it.
And so, a lot of people, particularly those teachers who come with more of the psychology or the organizational behavior background, really get attuned to that and really enjoy that. And it’s a bit of exposure in terms of how we think about people, systems, people, processes and people metrics at large organizations.
Daphne: I don’t even know how to follow up. That was awesome. I can’t even think of a follow-up question.
Corporate Advice for Data-Driven Educators.
Luke: Do you mind if I say something about that, then?
Daphne: Of course. Go ahead.
Luke: For those who haven’t been in the business world for the last five or 10 years, I think you’d be fascinated to see just how sophisticated things are getting around the measurement and the understanding of how people work together. And I can use an example from my last job at McKinsey. We had something called the Organizational Health Index, where we tried not only to measure, but to define, what the culture of an organization is when that organization has hundreds of thousands of people. And I think that this is the type of area in the business world that a lot of teachers really gravitate toward. Because they got into the teaching space because they loved creating environments.
They got into the teaching space because they loved, for lack of a better phrase, this idea of creating the constraints that set people free. Teachers do that every day in every classroom they are in. People departments and HR departments are getting more sophisticated about that. And as part of the Inviting MBA, we want to first expose you to let you know that is happening, and then help you have the language to integrate into that conversation. It’s a fascinating place where companies are going.
Daphne: Yeah, I just want to build on that a little bit. At one of the education companies that I worked at recently, the people department would send out surveys and just ask about employee satisfaction, ideas that employees have, and how they were feeling, especially about their managers. And then they would go and do small group coaching sessions with the managers who were struggling in specific areas revealed through that data.
So, any data-driven educator who still wants to do some sort of coaching or supporting to continue to scratch that teacher itch, that’s a role that they would do great in. However, they do need to understand how these different departments work. How a sales enablement team works. Why the marketing needs to function in the way that the marketing team functions. Because they’re still going to give very strategic coaching when it comes to those specific departments. They’re going to have to differentiate the type of teaching or learning that they’re actually giving to these groups of people within the company.
Luke: 100%. And it’s a fascinating thing, because at the end of day, we’re measuring how organizations work. And we’re measuring how you can create value in an organization. And, like you’re saying, understanding that language of what sales enablement actually does, and how they think about their job, actually helps you coach them. It actually helps you teach them. It actually helps you help their learning in a more robust way.
I also think having the basic language helps you understand how you’re creating value. And I think that’s one of the core tenants of what we think is so important here. Because understanding how you create value allows you to then navigate your career in a way you see opportunities. And the truth is, teachers coming over to the corporate world are going to see opportunities in a broad array of different ways, right?
You’re going to have people who see opportunities in the gig economy, wondering, “Okay, how do I actually plug into this type of company and work with them?” Understanding how that company creates value, and how the departments work together is really important there.
You’re also going to see people who join companies in full-time roles. In that case, understanding how the company creates value and understanding how the finance team thinks about the world actually helps you say, “Okay, well, this is how I can actually make the case for new learning for the people. Actually, make the case for new employee development programs.” And then understanding that broader idea about culture. Measurement of culture helps you really understand, “Okay, where are these companies going? And where can I step in to bring my unique skill set and my unique self to create value for this organization?”
And so, I think that in any of the above situations, we try to create the language, create that conversancy, and then create the confidence to help you step into those worlds.
As a Teacher, Being a Forever Learner Will Help You Transition into the Corporate World.
Daphne: Yeah. And going back to that icky term “return on investment,” you have to understand the financial implications of taking time away to do professional development on something. Or taking one week to specifically focus on well-being or productivity in the workplace. You have to be able to show the return on investment, if you’re trying to pitch those types of initiatives at a company. Even with my small team for Teacher Career Coach, where we’re talking about implementing new systems and productivity, all that comes with a cost for software. The question is, is there a return on investment? Are we going to be able to make the income or the revenue with the time that is saved by implementing these new systems?
You have to be able to talk about that. You have to be able to prove it. You’re smart enough to do it. It just takes learning some new skills and understanding some new concepts. But then you’re on your way.
Luke: And just build on that for one second, a lot of teachers will know the concept of Kirkpatrick, right? Kirkpatrick as a way of measuring learning efficacy, both in the moment and over the different stages along the line. They’ll know the concept of Bloom’s taxonomy, right? They’ll know these concepts pertaining to learning design and thinking about learning efficacy. This is a place where I’ve seen more and more the marriage of teaching skills and classical business language and business skills in the corporate world. When a new learning development program or a professional development program comes up, you have more and more business leaders saying, Okay, well, let me understand how efficacious this learning is. Let me understand how it actually fits in.
This is where teachers say, Well, this is what we see in the moment. This is what we see in behavior change down the line. This is what we see in the actual impact of those behavior changes. And this is what we see in terms of outcomes. Being able to step on those and say, From a learning efficacy, we see the value here. From a business efficacy, we see the value here. And that actually allows you to make things happen.
And it’s a really important place where the language of learning and the language of business are coming together into a hybrid to actually help organizations train, develop, and retain their people in whole new ways. And I’ve seen it more in the last five years than I ever saw in the 10 years before that. But it’s a place where we think the marriage of learning and educational knowledge skills and behavior fits with the business skills and behavior into creating new value in new ways.
Daphne: And teachers are forever learners. We’re all addicted to it. We like to continue to grow. A lot of people who are listening right now might just be struggling because they feel a little stagnant in their current position. And there’s not an opportunity for them to keep trying new things, because they’re the type of person that wants to continue to grow. The ability to level up and continue to grow in a way that matches your experience level is something that I feel has been lacking in the teaching profession.
For me, I’m a dork. I’m obsessed with learning about business management and any sort of business strategy. This isn’t something that I expected from myself. If you would have asked me five years ago, I wouldn’t have been reading these books or listening to these podcasts that I do now. But, teachers are forever learners. So, when you go into this new corporate world and when you start to understand these concepts, you’ll quickly realize as you’re picking it up that you’ll be going down a rabbit hole. You’ll be wondering what different companies are using and what is efficient in other places. Because you’re a forever learner and you want to implement it to see if it works.
Luke: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said.
There are Several Ways to Benefit from Invited MBA, Even After the Program is Over.
Daphne: So, I want to talk a little bit more about Invited MBA. Does this program offer any sort of certification for people who are interested in enrolling? Does it work where you can put it on your resume or LinkedIn? What have you seen other people using this for?
Luke: Yeah, that’s a great question. We see it in a couple of different places. We certainly offer a LinkedIn credential, so you can put it out front and center on LinkedIn. We also help people put it on their resumes so that they can actually describe the experience. In those two places, what we find most useful about it is that it starts a conversation about how they’ve actually continued to push their own learning. It starts a conversation for alumni about how they actually have learned something new, and then actually applied it. And we hear from alumni all the time about how they put it on their LinkedIn or resume where a company asked them about it in an interview. They described the action learning project from Invited MBA, and then the company went forward with it. And so we actually help communicate it that way and spend some time getting that in good shape to go.
Secondarily, we offer access to our alumni network and we run alumni events regularly. We run time actually helping you push forward with your career, wherever that may be. And that happens in a more one-off way, at this point, both peer to peer and also us working with you. And so, while our accreditation ends up being on these public-facing sites like LinkedIn, we also offered the support to actually continue your career because we believe everybody’s going through transitions over and over in their career nowadays.
Daphne: It sounds like you are likely to walk away with a lot of great artifacts that you could use specifically for portfolios when it comes to interviewing. I know a lot of teachers struggle with the idea of creating something towards this new audience when they don’t have any experience with that particular audience.
If they’re doing presentations, and they’re creating artifacts for your course, have you seen anyone using it for portfolios?
Luke: We haven’t seen them actually putting the presentation up. But, we have seen people really adapting their resume after completing the program to highlight the experience they went through. They also spend a lot of time putting that in cover letters and putting that out there in the interviews and actually talking about it.
So, to give an example, one of our action learning projects was working with an edTech company that was starting to grow and starting to scale. Their action learning project was all about helping crack the code of scalability at a profitable unit cost for this edTech company. We heard from many people on that team about how often that came up in the interview process after they put that on their resume, and then how they were able to describe what their team did, and their specific role within that team and how it fit to the job they were applying for.
Daphne: And it’s a great confidence builder, like you were talking about before. It helps to just be able to articulate what you did and how it can be used and utilized in this new company that you’re applying for.
Learn More About The Invited MBA Experience.
I also want to ask a little bit more about the mentors and the program. Specifically, how do people inside the program interact with mentors?
Luke: Yeah, so we have a couple of different ways that occurs. One way is that we try to actually have a slew of different mentors with different backgrounds who lead different parts of our program. So, we bring in different mentors who have business experience and who have experience across many different fields, to run our simulations. Those make up six of the important moments in the course.
We also bring in mentors to actually lead the study group conversations. So, when we’re dissecting a company, we bring in people who have dissected the companies. Who have done these analyses and helped them shape the language and shape and facilitate the conversation like that.
Lastly, we spend some time actually connecting to companies that are out there as well. Some of those connections happen through our action learning projects, in terms of helping companies continue to grow and get access to executives that way. And some of them happen through guest speakers who we bring in to share their message and where they’re coming from, and then to connect with the participants.
In every case, we think that the first step for mentors is exposure to people coming from different worlds and with different experiences. The second step is creating an inclusive community where that conversation can happen. And so, we focus those around case study discussions and guest speakers. And then the third step is creating the network and the connection so that people can connect with them afterward. We always make the time to say, Okay, how can you connect with that person, if you have a shared affinity or if you need support with them afterward? And we spend a lot of time thinking about that, and creating those connections.
And those mentors come with all different backgrounds. A lot of them come with MBAs, and ones who went into those MBAs when they were transitioning. And if I think of our mentors last time, one of them had gotten his MBA when he was transitioning out of the military. And that’s another transition point where we find people trying to translate skills from one world to another. Others of them come with years of experience in the business world, where it’s like, Hey, you know what, I used to actually run an HR team here. And now we’ll talk about how that goes. And then the last group comes with experience in very specific spaces that are probably useful for teachers, which are facilitators. These are people who actually do independent contracting. People who have actually built up their book of business as coaches and facilitators for corporate learning and professional development. And so we expose participants to a lot of those people as well.
Daphne: I have an episode coming up where I chat with a former teacher who works with the leadership and development consultants that do all those trainings. So anybody who is tuning in, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so that you can hear that follow-up episode.
Learn About the SPECIAL OFFER Invited MBA Has for the Teacher Career Coach Community.
I am so, so happy. I know that we covered so many topics today. And I wanted to talk a little bit about the special offer that you guys are offering for Teacher Career Coach listeners. Especially because it’s a time sensitive offer.
Luke: Absolutely. So, we have a special offer going on right now where the first 10 people who sign up and use Teacher Career Coach as their referral get a special deal. We’re doing it for the first 10. I will say, however, as someone who oversees the program, we started this program with the mission of making business education and business language accessible to everybody, and making it accessible to broader populations where they have a set of skills that they want to translate. Well, that’s all you teachers listening.
So, if this sounds interesting to you in any way. If taking your teaching skills and figuring out how they fit into the business world. If building the conversancy in this language of business and building some connections, and building your confidence as you enter into a new space, sounds interesting to you, come reach out to us. Come to our website and let us know you’re interested.
We want this to be accessible. We never want financials to be the reason holding you back. And so, don’t let that stop you. Certainly, we have this special deal. And Daphne has done such a great job of helping us get the word out and helping us understand how we can work with teachers. So, thank you so much for that, Daphne. And we will honor that and be super happy about that.
Even beyond that, to anyone who’s interested, please do reach out to us. Please do connect. Please do your own research. There’s a lot of stuff out there. And a lot of it is vaporware. We have something really real and really valuable that we would love to have you be a part of. And so, if you’re so interested, please do come and reach out to us. We’d love to talk to you. We’d love to connect.
Daphne: And once again, you can find that in the resource section below. And for the first 10 people who use Teacher Career Coach as their referral, Invited MBA is offering a $1,000 scholarship.
Luke, I appreciate you so much for coming on.
Luke: My pleasure.
Daphne: And I mean, this is so much information. And I know people are really excited about having more experts like this on the show. So, I just appreciate you for taking the time to be here today.
Luke: Oh, my pleasure, Daphne.
What You Do as a Teacher is Much Harder Than Anything You Will Do In The Business World.
Can I give one final story here?
Daphne: Yeah, absolutely.
Luke: For all of you teachers who are worried about entering the business world, let me say that what you do right now is much harder than anything you would do in the business world. And I can say this from a very specific experience. Last year, when I was an associate partner at McKinsey leading our capability-building group and teaching all these clients all the time, I thought I had it hard.
And then COVID hit and I went and stayed with my sister and my eight and 10-year-old nephew for a couple of months. There was one day where I was responsible for teaching my eight-year-old nephew the difference between a ones column and a 10s column. And after thinking that I was quite a teacher myself and quite a facilitator in the corporate space, I found myself at a total loss that day. And it was by far the hardest thing I’ve had to teach for the last six months.
And so, let me tell you that the business world might seem overwhelming. The language might seem foreign. But, the things you’ve dealt with are much harder. And we appreciate it so much. And our goal is to help you now translate those skills and translate where you come from into this world that that really is valuing them now.
And so if it feels like a void you’re looking into, if it feels like ambiguity, just know that’s normal. And know that on the other side there are plenty of great things for you to do. And we’d love to help you get there. So thanks for all that you’re doing. And Daphne, thank you for having me on. Thank you for helping us get out the message. If there’s ever a way we can help, please let us know.
Daphne: I really appreciate that. Thank you so much, Luke.
I want to give a huge thank you to Luke and his team at Invited MBA for setting up this amazing interview. If you want to apply for the Invited MBA program, head to the resources below! Participants of the invited MBA program learn the nuts and bolts of what makes organizations successful, how to grow value, and how to leverage their unique leadership traits. It’s a great program. It’s held online and available at night and on weekends, so it can easily fit into your teaching schedule. This program is offering a very generous $1,000 scholarship opportunity for the first 10 applicants from our audience. So make sure you mention Teacher Career Coach in your application.
- Enroll in Invited MBA: The first 10 applications that use Teacher Career Coach as a reference will earn a $1,000 scholarship!
Where to start
If you’re just beginning to think about leaving teaching, brainstorming other options is a great place to start. But if you’re like many others, teaching was your only plan—there never was a Plan B. You might feel at a loss when it comes to figuring out what alternatives are out there.
Start with our free quiz, below, to get alternative job options for careers that really do hire teachers!
Taking the First Steps to a New Career
If you’ve already taken our quiz, it may be time for the next steps. I want 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.
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—trying to juggle teaching, figuring out a resume, researching jobs and hoping to nail down some interviews before signing next year’s contract.
You don’t have to do this on your own.
If you are considering a career change from teaching, I have a resource that can help you today. With the help of an HR expert with over 10 years of experience, I’ve created a guide to support you in the early stages of your transition out of the classroom.
In the Career Transition Guide, I’ll walk you through the factors to consider and answer those first-step planning questions including:
- A compiled list of over 40 careers that teachers can transition into
- An overview of how to read job descriptions
- How to evaluate the risk of leaving a full-time teaching job for the unknown
- Example translations from classroom-to-corporate resumes
- A checklist of everything you’ll need to do for your career transition (so you know you aren’t missing anything!)
- and more…
Take the first steps on your path to a new career now for only $19 $9!
