[A blue screen appears with text that reads ‘Subject Matters: A guide to teaching in Victoria. Vodcast hosted by Gorgi Coghlan’.]
Gorgi Coghlan, Host: Hello and welcome back to series two of Subject Matters the vodcast that aims to share all you need to know about teaching in Victoria. I'm Gorgi Coghlan. I'm thrilled to be your host again. I'm a former secondary school teacher with a passion for science and storytelling. Throughout this series, I'll be joined by some incredible inspiring guests who are at the frontline of the education profession. We're going to chat all things teaching, including the benefits of teaching in Victoria, the various routes into the profession, and how you yourself can make your mark as a teacher.
Gorgi: Welcome to episode seven. Today, we're tackling the question. Is it possible to restart your career to become a teacher? We're gonna be chatting to Jake Muir and Career Coach Leah Lambart to discuss what it's like to transition from corporate to classroom and the different pathways available for professionals looking to make the switch. Jake and Leah, thank you so much for joining us. Maybe if you could tell a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Jake: Sure. My name is Jake Muir, I’m a secondary school teacher. I teach music and philosophy, I teach at Preston High School.
Leah: And my name is Leah Lambart. I'm a Career Coach, self-employed and I started my business about eight years ago to help people find their true calling and their best fit career, having had several careers myself before I landed on this career.
Gorgi: So Jake, what led you to teaching? Have you always been a teacher or did you come into it through a different pathway?
Jake: I certainly haven't always been a teacher. It was quite a complex series of events that led me into teaching. First off, I was a musician mostly I've done a music undergrad and was performing in various places. I guess what led me into it was sort of this process of starting to teach private one-on-one lessons with students. It started off to pay the bills. It was just a sort of a in-between performances, I was sort of like, well, I need some sort of cash flow. So I started teaching guitar and piano and singing to students. And I discovered that there was something there that I was interested in. There was something about getting other people excited about something that been so important in my life.
Gorgi: So let’s bring you in Leah, and particularly with people that are coming to you I imagine saying how do I get into teaching? How do I pivot? Do you believe that people are born to teach or can they pivot, can anyone pivot?
Leah: I definitely think there are people, certain personalities that are more geared towards teaching. But having said that, then different personalities work in different areas of teaching. So some personalities might suit high school teaching others might suit early childhood or primary, I think for people like Jake who have had an opportunity to do some coaching or working with kids in some way. That's a really great way of testing whether it is something that comes naturally to them. And of course, if it's something that energises an interest in as well. But I think there's certainly people that can move into teaching that may have never even had that opportunity. But there's certainly people that have natural strengths that I think that make them better teachers.
Gorgi: So tell me about the transition. So you're working in that role. How did you go from there to end up in teaching? What were the steps?
Jake: I've had some friends who’s done teaching course, a master's degree. And so I asked some questions, what was your experience doing master’s of teaching, and how are you enjoying teaching now? It was sort of I don't know what came over me to be honest. I just sort applied one day and I don't think my fiancee at the time, I don't even think we really talked it through too much. I remember going okay, I'll look it up the website, there was the big apply button. I was like, okay, I guess I'll get it and see what happens. And then I think she came home and like sort of applied for a master's of teaching and she was like, what were you thinking, I really enjoyed the classes that I’ve been teaching with my students. And so, you know, from there, I just let the process take over. And at some point, I found myself in the master’s of teaching, I was like, okay, I'll see how I enjoy it. And I always knew that from friends that there was going to be placement at some point during the master’s of teaching. So I knew that at some point I'd be in a school pretty early on in the degree and my friends told me you'll know pretty soon what it's gonna feel like to be a teacher because you get to experience teaching during the degree. It's not like you get to the end and then you'd have to discover what it's like to be a teacher. I remember being on my first placement and being like, yeah, I made the right decision, it was something about the year seven music class I had, they were in a semicircle with guitars. And I thought this is adorable. And I just really enjoyed being in the room and being able to share music with the students who maybe wouldn't have gone and signed up for music lessons.
Gorgi: So it sounds like you’ve got this passion for learning, and love the student connection. What are the other flow on positive effects such as the staff?
Jake: You know, I've mentioned since I became a teacher, my wife then saw how much fun I was having and also how much the career had set up for me, she also became a teacher. So she's in her first year this year. But I’ve really enjoyed the culture of education. It was something that came out of the master’s of teaching that it sort of started me on a journey of really enjoying the intellectual side of teaching, like the theory and practice of it. At our school, we get really into it, like we're able to have fun and it's a wonderful place to work at, but we are big nerds about education theory like we read the books for fun at home, we read and share the theory of practice, and we observe each other’s teaching, it’s the intellectual curiosity that is really addictive. And that's what makes me feel like a teacher like an educator. It’s like there's a sort of corpus of knowledge here that I really love digging into and getting better at.
Gorgi: So the actual process of transitioning to teaching didn't sound as complicated as I would have probably been a bit worried about. Is it complicated? Or was it quicker than what you thought? Because that can probably feel daunting to someone.
Jake: For me, it was fairly simple. What I found really valuable was those placements. So my master’s of teaching degree had three placements on it. And so I got to go to three different schools with three different experience mentor teachers there, and getting their sort of passed on wisdom. And also getting to be apart of a school really made me confident during that degree that it was what I wanted to do, but also was a perfect leading off ramp to eventually scaffold me into having a classroom where there's no one else in the room with me. It's just me and the students.
Gorgi: So what's your advice? I'm a client that comes in to you and I'm ready to change from a particular career might be corporate and I want to go into teaching. What are you going to say to me and ask me?
Leah: With career transition, there’s a number of recommended steps. The first step I would say is self assessment. And that's really understanding yourself, understanding what motivates you at work, understanding your personality, like I said, your natural strengths, what your interests are, and particularly your values. Values, you know, what is important to us at that time. So I think going through that self assessment to first of all work out what is going to make you actually happy at work. And then the second step, like Jake mentioned, is talking to people. So I would encourage you if you came to me as a client, Gorgi to go and speak to as many teachers as you can. Teachers from different areas within schools, different stages of their careers, some recent graduates. And actually interview them about their job. I call it an information interview. And that just means getting the pros and the cons so that you can make an informed decision
Gorgi: When you're hearing that Jake, can you relate to that in terms of when you made the transition and your wife made the transition? Like did you ask yourself about values and will this fit into our lives? And how are the values gonna drive our happiness here?
Jake: Yeah, I think the value question I didn't mention it before, but it was a vital step. I feel a strong ethical duty to the education of the next generation. For me, the point it's not necessarily that they go off and become musicians, but that they have that I put in the values of understanding the beauty of music.
Gorgi: So Leah, someone might be listening to this or watching this and think, oh, I didn't even consider going to a career coach. What are the benefits of doing that? Because it's a massive change, isn't it? A huge leap.
Leah: So for someone like Jacob mentioned, it sounded like it was a fairly easy transition. For others, there's a lot of fear. And I think it also depends on what stage you're at with your career, and also what you're currently doing. Most of the people that come to us for career change advice, they want to do something that helps people they want to feel like they're doing something that's personally meaningful, contributing to society in some way. I guess going to a career coach, they can do some assessments. We can talk through some insights from those assessments. And then they can go out and speak to teachers and perhaps understand what questions they need to ask to see if it really is the right fit for them.
Gorgi: Jake, what advice would you have to people listening and watching who are considering a move into teaching?
Jake: My advice would have to be to start off with putting the feelers out, talk to people who are teachers, and also reach out to some of those resources about those experiences like this podcast, you know, look at and read about as much as you can about the profession and talk to the people who were involved in it.
Gorgi: Leah, any final words of advice?
Leah: Similar to Jake I would say don't rush your decision. Take your time. At the end of the day, I think you have to get to know yourself and be true to yourself.
Gorgi: Fantastic advice. Jake and Leah, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thanks so much for watching Subject Matters. For more information about teaching in Victoria, and why it might be the right career for you, Visit vic.gov.au/teachthefuture. See you next time.
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