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3 Transferrable Skills Teachers Gain from Teaching Used to Switch Careers

Deshaun Johnson
3 min readNov 19, 2022

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The battered and bruised have acquired tools to switch careers when the going gets tough.

Photo by Sydney Rae on Unsplash

Too often have I heard teachers whine with uncertainty, “I have been teaching my whole life and don’t know what else to do. It’s the only thing I know.”

That, my friend, is the gift and curse. You’re absolutely right: it’s the only thing you know. It’s all you have ever done your whole life. That’s the curse.

But here’s the gift — in your one or even twenty-five-year storied career, you’ve accumulated a wealth of micro and macro skills that will serve you in other professions.

1. Public Speaking and Presenting

Day in and day out, you constantly speak to a large group of people. I don’t care if it’s crisscross applesauce kindergarteners.

The difference between public speaking for businesses and the classroom is that in education, you are consistently honing your craft of audience engagement with a challenging group of people.

Honestly, being asked to speak at a business event or some conference is much easier than the classroom because the business audience is there of their own volition wanting to hear your information.

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Deshaun Johnson
Deshaun Johnson

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