Move up or over?
In the summer of 2014, the owners of my employer at the time chose to stop investing in the company and close it down, just as we had performed a series of very successful field demos for the prototype of our new flagship product. This product had been my primary focus for two years, pushing me to some of my best engineering efforts.
Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! That shutdown took the wind out of my sails, making me wonder if I wanted to ever work that hard on anything ever again. In particular, I wasn't sure I wanted to tie my career so tightly to a single employer.
After taking some time off, I chose to pursue shorter-term employment via both contracts with technical temp firms and independent consulting. Both turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. In particular, the list of contacts and references I had built over the years had been depleted by retirements and relocations: My network had largely evaporated.
In early 2015 I landed a 6-month temp contract with a defense contractor. What was supposed to be a real-time embedded software development contract, on the day I showed up changed into an IT cybersecurity remediation contract: I was tasked to repair over 200 security flaws in each of 11 sub-systems. While completely outside my experience and expertise, I came up to speed quickly and managed to deliver remediation tools barely within the contract duration.
That effort burned me out again. What helped me through it was my many volunteer commitments. As a triathlete, I help coach beginners in open water swimming and running, and volunteer at most local races. I'm a volunteer usher for several local theaters, occasionally serving as an usher team leader. To keep my tech skills sharp, I invested time researching and answering questions on various StackExchange sites, technical subReddits, and similar forums.
I also signed up with Code.Org to support their Day of Code initiative. In October of 2017, a Code.Org newsletter mentioned EnCorps, a non-profit dedicated to transitioning technical professionals into STEM classrooms, as both volunteers and teachers. In November I attended an induction seminar and became an EnCorps Fellow, committing to at least two years of involvement in their program. In December I took the California CBEST and CSET exams. In January I had my first interview to become a CTE teacher. In February 2018 I started volunteering as a math tutor at a local high school.
Being unemployed, I decided to push all my free time into full-time volunteering, with the afternoons and evenings spent continuing my search for contracting and consulting work. After a very fast and intensely direct education on how to tutor high school students, I got the hang of it and started to see real results. I was also able to help other teachers with projects they simply had no time to coordinate or complete.
In June of 2018, this success lead to my selection as the EnCorps San Diego Fellow of the Year for 2018. It was only at this point that I truly committed to expanding my career choices, adding teaching to consulting/contracting. More of my "spare" time became dedicated to learning more about the details of being a teacher.
This month, August 2018, both of my career directions simultaneously came to fruition, just as my savings were becoming depleted.
On the evening of August 16th I was offered a half-time position to teach Engineering at a local high school, where I would be expected to revitalize a program that had seen enrollment fall, the goal being to return the position to full time in the following semester.
On the afternoon of August 17th I was offered a full-time position as a Systems Engineer, a position that would permit me to apply all of the skills and experiences accumulated over my long engineering career.
Yes, that's two job offers within 24 hours, after 4 years with only a single 6-month contract.
The decision was agonizing. My heart was solidly with teaching, as being an engineer had gotten quite difficult. I strongly believed I would become a very good teacher, perhaps even an excellent one. But a half-time position, despite having full benefits, wouldn't pay the bills: I'd need a second job.
The Systems Engineering position would let me apply my diverse engineering skill set all at once, the opposite of the niches I had previously occupied. And I could still tutor on a volunteer basis, and perhaps even teach night school or community college during evenings and weekends.
Money wasn't really a factor: My retirement is in good shape, though I want to delay drawing on it for as long as possible. I simply need to pay the bills, but half-time teaching couldn't quite do it alone. Given that all teachers spend some of their own money for classroom tools and supplies, I knew a second steady income would be necessary if I chose that route. And a "steady" income meant no engineering contracting/consulting, except perhaps during summers.
Were the teaching position full-time, I would have instantly accepted it. A full-time teaching salary would have met my income needs, despite the engineering salary being 2.5 times larger (and 5 times the half-time teaching salary).
With a "joyfully sad" heart I accepted the Systems Engineer offer, and regretfully declined the teaching offer.
The bottom line was that I didn't want my first teaching position to be complicated by external demands. First-year teachers are pretty much always overwhelmed by the job itself, and a second job (or, more importantly, the absence of one) would only sap energy from teaching.
I absolutely believe I have made the right decision, but that doesn't make it any easier.
More importantly, when I step back and look at these recent events, I see just how fantastically fortunate I have been. These 6+ months of full-time volunteering in the classroom have filled me with joy, despite 4 years (minus 6 months) being unemployed. That joy is what enabled me to simultaneously pursue both teaching and engineering employment.
A tough choice isn't always punishment: In this case it is a privilege, a wonderful gift.
Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! That shutdown took the wind out of my sails, making me wonder if I wanted to ever work that hard on anything ever again. In particular, I wasn't sure I wanted to tie my career so tightly to a single employer.
After taking some time off, I chose to pursue shorter-term employment via both contracts with technical temp firms and independent consulting. Both turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. In particular, the list of contacts and references I had built over the years had been depleted by retirements and relocations: My network had largely evaporated.
In early 2015 I landed a 6-month temp contract with a defense contractor. What was supposed to be a real-time embedded software development contract, on the day I showed up changed into an IT cybersecurity remediation contract: I was tasked to repair over 200 security flaws in each of 11 sub-systems. While completely outside my experience and expertise, I came up to speed quickly and managed to deliver remediation tools barely within the contract duration.
That effort burned me out again. What helped me through it was my many volunteer commitments. As a triathlete, I help coach beginners in open water swimming and running, and volunteer at most local races. I'm a volunteer usher for several local theaters, occasionally serving as an usher team leader. To keep my tech skills sharp, I invested time researching and answering questions on various StackExchange sites, technical subReddits, and similar forums.
I also signed up with Code.Org to support their Day of Code initiative. In October of 2017, a Code.Org newsletter mentioned EnCorps, a non-profit dedicated to transitioning technical professionals into STEM classrooms, as both volunteers and teachers. In November I attended an induction seminar and became an EnCorps Fellow, committing to at least two years of involvement in their program. In December I took the California CBEST and CSET exams. In January I had my first interview to become a CTE teacher. In February 2018 I started volunteering as a math tutor at a local high school.
Being unemployed, I decided to push all my free time into full-time volunteering, with the afternoons and evenings spent continuing my search for contracting and consulting work. After a very fast and intensely direct education on how to tutor high school students, I got the hang of it and started to see real results. I was also able to help other teachers with projects they simply had no time to coordinate or complete.
In June of 2018, this success lead to my selection as the EnCorps San Diego Fellow of the Year for 2018. It was only at this point that I truly committed to expanding my career choices, adding teaching to consulting/contracting. More of my "spare" time became dedicated to learning more about the details of being a teacher.
This month, August 2018, both of my career directions simultaneously came to fruition, just as my savings were becoming depleted.
On the evening of August 16th I was offered a half-time position to teach Engineering at a local high school, where I would be expected to revitalize a program that had seen enrollment fall, the goal being to return the position to full time in the following semester.
On the afternoon of August 17th I was offered a full-time position as a Systems Engineer, a position that would permit me to apply all of the skills and experiences accumulated over my long engineering career.
Yes, that's two job offers within 24 hours, after 4 years with only a single 6-month contract.
The decision was agonizing. My heart was solidly with teaching, as being an engineer had gotten quite difficult. I strongly believed I would become a very good teacher, perhaps even an excellent one. But a half-time position, despite having full benefits, wouldn't pay the bills: I'd need a second job.
The Systems Engineering position would let me apply my diverse engineering skill set all at once, the opposite of the niches I had previously occupied. And I could still tutor on a volunteer basis, and perhaps even teach night school or community college during evenings and weekends.
Money wasn't really a factor: My retirement is in good shape, though I want to delay drawing on it for as long as possible. I simply need to pay the bills, but half-time teaching couldn't quite do it alone. Given that all teachers spend some of their own money for classroom tools and supplies, I knew a second steady income would be necessary if I chose that route. And a "steady" income meant no engineering contracting/consulting, except perhaps during summers.
Were the teaching position full-time, I would have instantly accepted it. A full-time teaching salary would have met my income needs, despite the engineering salary being 2.5 times larger (and 5 times the half-time teaching salary).
With a "joyfully sad" heart I accepted the Systems Engineer offer, and regretfully declined the teaching offer.
The bottom line was that I didn't want my first teaching position to be complicated by external demands. First-year teachers are pretty much always overwhelmed by the job itself, and a second job (or, more importantly, the absence of one) would only sap energy from teaching.
I absolutely believe I have made the right decision, but that doesn't make it any easier.
More importantly, when I step back and look at these recent events, I see just how fantastically fortunate I have been. These 6+ months of full-time volunteering in the classroom have filled me with joy, despite 4 years (minus 6 months) being unemployed. That joy is what enabled me to simultaneously pursue both teaching and engineering employment.
A tough choice isn't always punishment: In this case it is a privilege, a wonderful gift.
Comments
Post a Comment