Career Change: The Doubting Phase

This is the 3rd installment of my "career change blog."

I know I promised everyone my next blog would be the Onboading Process. That blog is nearly completed and I will post it next.  But something came up today that I thought I'd share:  The Doubting Phase.  <shriek>  Okay, it's not as bad as all that, but I did start having some doubts today.  Not on the career change - that is still going strong.  In fact, I realized recently that I have been either learning or teaching my entire life, therefore my commitment to education is deeply rooted.  Even when I wasn't in a traditional academic institution (high school, college, etc.), I was always learning - whether it be taking dance, acting and voice lessons, learning to play the ukulele and the kazoo or even the 8 months that I spent learning American Sign Language just for the hell of it.  I love to learn!  As for teaching, I've mentored fellow co-workers and young actors for years, which is a type of teaching.  All good.  No doubts at all on changing my career.

No, my doubts were a little more cerebral than that.  And I have Ron Howard to thank for this issue.  "Ron Howard?" you say.  Okay, maybe it's actually Gary Marshall who's to blame.  Anyone want to hazard a guess??  Yes, Happy Days!  Today, I was on the commuter bus to Boston in which they were showing episodes of Happy Days for anyone who cared to watch.  No, I wasn't watching them - I was reading (naturally), but seeing those episodes up on the small screen brought back memories of my youth.  Invariably it also brought to mind what kids today are watching.  I grew up watching The Brady Bunch, Happy Days and The Love Boat.  All of which are a far cry from The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and Gossip Girl.  That was when the doubts started to creep in.  How in the world am I to reach these streetwise inner city school kids?  Yes, I lived in NYC for a long time, but I never really was a New Yorker.  I could put on the act of a New Yorker as a survival mechanism, but it wasn't really where my heart was.  I am a genuinely nice person who genuinely wants to help and nurture others.  To be a real New Yorker, you have to be a cutthroat b***** and have no qualms about stabbing people in the back and stepping on them to move up in your career.  It's probably why I failed so miserably in my performance career.  I was way too interested in wanting my friends to be successful and I didn't have that ruthless mentality to succeed.  Oh well.

Are these tough kids from Boston or Lawrence going to be interested in Shakespeare, Austen or Dickens?  Okay, even if I move away from the classics - because quite frankly I didn't love the classics when I was in middle and high school.  But will they even want to read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?  I hope so!  And while I know that teaching these inner city kids could be a tough row to hoe, I really didn't have many doubts until today when I realized that there are huge generational issues between these kids and myself.  All I can say is:  "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated."  Anyone, anyone?? 

Career Change: The Application and Interview Process

This is the 2nd blog in my "career change blog series."

As I mentioned in my first blog, I had decided to apply for a teaching position within a teaching corps (specifically Teach for America), in the hopes that I would be able to quickly jump start my career change.  Teach for America is a highly competitive teaching corps.  "In 2010, the organization received more than 46,000 applications resulting in 4,500 new corps members. These applicants included 20 percent of the senior class at Spelman, 12 percent of all Ivy League seniors, 7 percent of the graduating class at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and 6 percent at the University of California-Berkeley [see this press release for more information]."  I was going up again the best of the best that this country has to offer.  To say I was nervous is a complete understatement.  If I wasn't accepted by Teach for America, it would be back to square one and, with an acceptance rate of less than 10%, the odds were not with me.  I had the additional problem of having a background in English when most corps are in desperate need of math and science teachers.  [deep breath]

Starting in late September 2011, I began the Teach for America application process - a process that would take nearly 4 months to complete and could be derailed at any given moment.  The prerequisites for joining the Teach for America teaching corps are:

• Hold a bachelor’s degree by the first day of assigned summer institute (June 2012) - Check
• Undergraduate cumulative GPA of at least 2.50 on a 4.00 scale - Check (3.86)
• U.S. citizenship or national/permanent resident status - Check

The initial application to the corps needed to be completed by mid-October 2011 which included personal, academic and professional information, a copy of my current resume and a letter of intent on why I was applying for the corps.  Easy enough.  I then waited to hear if I would be invited to continue the application process.  By the end of October, Teach for America invited me to the next two phases: the "online activity" and phone interview.  Quite frankly, I don't remember too much about the online activity phase.  What I do remember is that it consisted of a few teaching scenarios and my responses to those situations. The phone interview was a standard interview with a current corps member in which we discussed my educational and professional backgrounds and why I was interested in teaching and Teach for America. Both of these phases occurred in early November.  After completing these two phases, I waited to hear if I was accepted to the final step. A couple of weeks after my phone interview, I was invited to continue on to the last portion of the application process: the Final Interview.  Yay!  I was one step closer to becoming an educator.

The final interview took place in late November 2011 on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and it was by far the most interesting part of the entire process.  In addition to meeting some prior corps members and other TFA applicants, I received a more thorough understanding about the Teach for America structure and how it supports its corps members.  Additionally, all applicants were required to present a 5 minute sample lesson.  Have you ever tried to teach anything in 5 minutes?  It's harder than it seems.  I chose to teach a scene from William Shakespeare's, Hamlet and it went quite well - if I do say so myself.  The other applicants' lessons ran the gamut from physics to basic ABCs.  Then I met with a Teach for America staff member for the final interview - a grueling and thought provoking interview.  In addition to the final interview, I needed to have submitted to Teach for America my official college transcripts, citizenship documentation, coursework information, assignment preference form and a list of recommenders.  For the assignment preference form, you have to indicate which 6 areas of the country you are most interested in teaching; indicating which one of these areas is your first preference.  My first choice for assignment was the Greater Boston area (having just spent a great deal of money moving to the Boston area, I was loathe to move again).  After that, my additional preferences were Rhode Island, Connecticut, Phoenix, Colorado and Los Angeles.  Upon completing the final interview and getting all the documentation finished and recommendations in, another waiting game commenced.  I was to receive the final decision by mid-January 2012.  It was the longest 6 weeks in recorded history...okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it was a loooooooooooooooong wait!  

Finally, mid-January rolled around.  Huzzah!  I received notification that I was indeed one of the lucky few who was invited to join the 2012 Teach for America corps.  Additionally, I had been accepted to my first preference area - the Greater Boston teaching corps and would be teaching English.  I would not have to move and would be able to teach a subject matter that I LOVE!  I was excited beyond belief.  Now began the hard work (and the subject of my next blog) - the Onboarding Process.

Career Change Can Be Terrifying...And Exciting!

At the request of a friend, I will be spending the next few months writing about my upcoming career change which has been a long and  interesting process - in the hopes that it will inspire and/or help others who are similarly motivated to change careers.

Background:  I've spent a good portion of the past 26 years working in various corporations and law firms in a number of different administrative and marketing positions. The succession of jobs were my means to an ends - monotonous office jobs which would support my life and allow me to continue my dream of being a stage performer. Finally after years of performance disappointments (never getting that Broadway musical or Spielberg movie role), I decided it was time to give up on my dream.  At this same time, I realized that I was working in positions that were completely unsatisfying and that I was helping soulless corporations make the rich richer and the poor poorer with all the work being performed by those of us in the middle.  It was not how I wanted to spend my remaining productive years - doing mindless, soulless, meaningless tasks.*  It was time for a career change.  I wanted to find a career which would be purposeful for me and would make a difference by improving the world for the better. 

My decision?  Return to my original plan of becoming a teacher.  (Before deciding to pursue a performing career 26 years ago, I had planned on being a high school teacher, but this plan got derailed by my performance dreams.)  Teaching will give me the opportunity that I am looking for - that of changing the world for the better by instilling knowledge to our youth.  Growing up, I had many teachers who made a positive impact on my life and I would like to have the opportunity to pay it forward.  But the difficulty in this decision was how to go about making this change.  I have minimal teaching experience so my options were limited as to how to get into the classroom.  One option was to take a teaching preparation course at a local university.  Another was to apply to a teaching corps.  I decided to attempt the latter because if accepted into a corps, I would be teaching in a matter of months rather than going through a 2 year teaching preparation course.  For me, the chance to work with "at need" students is the most important factor and why I was most interested in applying for a teaching corp position.

What is a teaching corps?  Teaching corps are programs which are created to improve elementary and secondary teaching in predominantly low-income areas. These programs are geared mostly for recent college graduates but they do encourage career changers to apply.  Most have a two year commitment and provide the corps members with training and guidance on being effective teachers in some of the most challenging school districts - generally inner city districts. 

But which teaching corps to choose?  I did some research on the options available and found that there are now a bevy of various teaching corps looking for qualified applicants:  Teach for America, NYC Teaching Fellows, Inner-City Teaching Corps (Chicago), Mississippi Teaching Corps, Oakland Teaching Corps and many more.  I chose to apply to the Teach for America 2012 corps - for a few reasons.  One, they are one of the oldest and most respected teaching corps in the nation.  Two, they are a national corps which means they cover more than just one urban area - greatly increasing my chances of acceptance (plus they cover the Greater Boston area).  Lastly, they were named one of Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For -  not an important feature but a 'nice to have.' 

I had my plan in place.  Now to implement my plan.

Next blog:  The Application and Interview Process

* Please do not mistake my dislike of my corporate jobs as a reflection on others who work in these industries.  I have some of the utmost respect for people who do these corporate jobs and do them well.  If you enjoy your corporate career, Mazel Tov!!  They're just not the right fit for me.