484: Career Change For Teachers: How To Leave The Classroom Without Leaving Education

Alyssa Barlow 00:01

Even working with HTYC for 10 years knowing all of this information, I still had to shift my own mindset back to, I don't need to answer a question. I need to know what my strengths are and what's important to me, and I will find answers to the questions.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:19

Hey, Happeners. Before we get full into this episode, I just wanted to remind you something we've been working on for over four years now has just happened. Our new book: "Happen to Your Career: An Unconventional Approach to Career Change and Meaningful Work" is available for preorder right now. You can pre-order it on Amazon, and you can pre-order it at many of the other places you might buy your books. Part of the reason I wrote this book is to help accomplish our mission of changing the way that the world does and thinks about work so that more people can thrive in their work. And here's how you can help, buy the book for yourself. Buy it for your friends. Buy it for your family. Share the word. Spread the word. The more people that we get to meaningful work in this world, the more the entire world benefits. Thanks so much. I really appreciate the early support we've already had from our listeners, our readers, and our past clients. All right, here's this week's episode. Enjoy.

Introduction 01:19

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast, with Scott Anthony Barlow. We help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that's unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:39

If you found yourself listening to this podcast for a while now, and occasionally thinking these are great stories, they're inspiring, but I'm just not sure how career changes, like what I've heard, could be possible for me. If you've ever thought something similar, then this is the episode for you.

Alyssa Barlow 01:58

Having that help, worked me through so many of my own mental barriers, so much of the process, getting back to developing my strengths and what I was actually looking for in a job position versus reading a job posting, "Oh, yeah, I can do this. My skills fit this. I think this is a good fit for me."

Scott Anthony Barlow 02:18

Okay, this is a particularly unique episode, partially because I'm not your host today. Instead, you're going to hear from one of the career coaches on our team. This same coach was on Episode 447, sharing her story. And she is extraordinary at helping people prepare for interviews. That person is the one and only Liz McLean. Also, she's the same person on our team, who I turn to when Alyssa Barlow needed career advice and career coaching. Yes, the same Alyssa Barlow you've heard on the podcast many times in the past, and who happens to be my wife. Alyssa has been with HTYC since its inception. She helped me start the organization and eventually stepped in to take over the CFO role. And actually, now that I think about it, she's the one person in the organization that has had a hand in every single role she's done, literally everything that we do for her. Something you might not know, behind the scenes, is that Alyssa and I have been planning to transition her out of HTYC for the last couple of years, but the question became, "to what?" I think you're gonna love this episode, because it's a first hand account of someone who's seen so many people achieve nearly impossible career changes, and how even that person can still experience her own self doubt and mental roadblocks when making her own career change. Here's the spoiler. I'm so proud of Alyssa because she negotiated in an environment that doesn't negotiate. And she made a transition that she herself said was impossible. And in doing so she got her role customized to her and what she wanted and needed in so many ways. Some things that I think Alyssa did very well in her career change, and obviously, I'm highly biased here, but she did very, very well when she changed from finance to a multilingual language specialist in education. She started from her strengths, and she moved back into a field that she's been away from for over 12 years. She negotiated for what she wanted, even though it didn't seem like that was even in the realm of possibility. I want you to listen in later on in the episode as she describes how she did that and how she even thought about it and what got her past that. All right. Here she is along with Liz.

Liz McLean 04:38

Hey, everybody. This is Liz, a career coach at Happen To Your Career and I am joined by Alyssa today the co-owner of Happen To Your Career to tell the story of her most recent amazing career transition to going from being an owner of a business to getting back to her love of working in education and how she could have what she wants and work in her strengths, but do it with three kids at home and a really busy life. And so let's just jump into it. Thanks for joining today, Alyssa.

Alyssa Barlow 05:13

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Liz McLean 05:14

So I got to be there for part of this transition. So it was a lot of fun. And I love that you made the transition using one of our Happen To Your Career strategies or tactics. So if you could tell me about, this probably started last spring when you created an experiment for yourself, can you talk about that?

Alyssa Barlow 05:37

Sure. So as most of you listeners know, I have been working in the background, and sometimes in the foreground of HTYC for the last 10 years, while still raising our kids and trying to keep my hand in education a little bit, subbing in my kids classrooms or for friends that I still had an education. And this last spring, I was approached with an opportunity to take a long term job for a friend who was going out on maternity leave. And I've been approached about this in the past, and I've always said, "No, I wasn't ready to go back into the classroom yet. I wanted to be at home. I was enjoying working with HTYC." And this last year, it felt like maybe this is the time to try and see. Our kids– our oldest is going into high school, the other two are in middle school, maybe they don't need me at home as much anymore. And maybe I was ready to get back into education. And so what better way to try it, then in a really short term experience just for a couple months in something that I used to love to do. I taught kindergarten and it was a kindergarten classroom. One of my best friends was the teacher next door, like how could this be a better way to try my hand back in the realm of education?

Liz McLean 06:46

Yeah, I love that. And it's such a common challenge or story that we hear, right, as far as for moms. And I... returning back to work, like, "when is that right time? How do we do it? How do we do it in such a way that it balances our life and who we are as a person, host being a mom or while being a mom?" I love that. Thank you for going through that. You know, it's interesting because we do these experiments as learning grounds. So could you tell us everything that you learned during this experimentation phase that really sets you up for success when you fast forward to the interview process?

Alyssa Barlow 07:21

Yeah. So when I went into it, I wasn't really looking at it like that. It was more like I just wanted to experiment– "Do I really want to get back into education? Do I want to be back in a classroom?" And what I realized was, there were some things that I didn't even relate to education that I was missing. There were some things like, with working outside the home that I didn't realize I missed. Everyone always says, "Oh, it's so great. You get to work from home, you had all this flexibility, which was awesome." And it is awesome. However, there were some things that going back leaving the home, I was like, "Wow, I kind of miss, like, having to get up and get ready in the morning. And I miss having co-workers to talk to in person every day." And of course, there's hard things too, with losing some of that flexibility. But yeah, so just some of those pieces that I didn't even relate to education. And then some other pieces, like you said, fast forward to the interview process that had I not done that career experiment, being out of the realm of education for almost 10 years in a full time capacity, there were some things that I picked back up that really helped prep me for that interview process. And some pieces I put together that linked my business work to the education world that had I not done that experiment first, I wouldn't have been able to speak to those in the interview process when I did decide that this is what I wanted to get back into.

Liz McLean 08:38

Yeah, when we were working together, Alyssa, I think one of the things that became that we identified in the process was that, and this is probably the first time you have prepped for interviews in this way or post having owned this business.

Alyssa Barlow 08:54

Absolutely.

Liz McLean 08:54

It's really coming about it from a different approach than what we're trained to traditionally do, right? So I would love for you to talk about how you use your strengths as the foundation to make the transition easier, and particularly, I guess, the interview.

Alyssa Barlow 09:11

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in the past, well, it's been 10 years since I've interviewed in general. But in the past when I've interviewed, especially in education, if you're familiar with education interviews, they're very contrived. The questions are just... they're not holistic questions. And so I went into the prep thinking, "Okay, I need to find answers to this question, this question, this question." So I basically knew what they were going to ask me. And then when I started working with you, I came in with some answers to some questions that I thought they would ask. And you're like, "well, let's kind of pull these together and figure out how these things fit together." And we pulled out my strength from the business world as well of the developer. And that's kind of where we focused around. And once we made those connections, all of a sudden, I didn't need answers to contrived questions that I knew I was getting asked. I needed to know how am I strengths applied to any question that they were going to ask me or any role that I wanted to be in. And that was a whole mindset shift for me, even working with HTYC for 10 years knowing all of this information, I still had to shift my own mindset back to, "I don't need to answer a question. I need to know what my strengths are, and what's important to me, and I will find answers to the questions."

Liz McLean 10:24

Right, and then yeah, we'll come from there. I think it's really... It was fun. And it was interesting, because I think we were struggling, like, the first part is when I said, "Hey, let's go back and do, you know, what we do. Let's revisit your strengths and start from that place." And it was a big moment of like, you said, like, "It's the thing. I cannot do the developer, right? I do everything I do." It's just who you are inherently, and then to be able to answer from that place, and really, that lens of where you are strong and valuable, versus just a canned, rigid response.

Alyssa Barlow 11:05

Absolutely.

Liz McLean 11:06

I think... you probably enjoyed it more and connected more to your answers.

Alyssa Barlow 11:11

Absolutely. No, yeah, thanks for sharing that.

Liz McLean 11:14

So we knew, of course, we had no doubt that you were meant for the role and the role was meant for you. And there is that still, and you referenced it in that answer, right. There's still that– the hurdle to overcome. Even as a HTYC leader, you see people do this every day, they create these amazing opportunities for themselves that don't match the original posting. And you still... but there was still doubts, and talk a little bit about that.

Alyssa Barlow 11:45

Yeah. So still, even now, like, I'm shocked that we did this a little bit, because education... and people will tell you this all the time, "Education is different. You can't do different things in education. Education, because it's unionized, it's, you know, there's certain things that you can't do in there." And so I came into it with that mindset, even though I know what we teach people and I've listened to Scott say it for a lot longer than 10 years, it doesn't matter. But I still came in with that little bit of a mental roadblock. Well, I can't ask for things that are not inside that job posting. And so I really had to... Liz had to talk me through it. Scott had to talk me through it. Everyone had to talk me through that you can ask for things that are not inside a job posting, it's okay. And really the big roadblock was, is that the job posting was for a full time position, and I really was not interested in a full time position. We have built a lot of flexibility into our lives, we love to travel. I've been with my kids for 10 years, I didn't want to give some of those things up. And so I had to work myself through being able to lay out what I actually was interested in, what things were most important to me, and how I could fit that into what they needed in a position.

Liz McLean 13:01

Right. Yeah. And you did it, right? It's coming from that we win standpoint, and you did it with them in a collaborative approach.

Alyssa Barlow 13:09

And I think that is the most important piece, I think, that helped me through that roadblock is that it has to be a collaborative process. It's not just I wasn't going in there saying, "okay, these are my restrictions and you hire me or you don't hire me." It was, "this is why I'm a great fit for this position. I do have some things I'm looking for in this position. How can I help you get me to what I want." basically.

Liz McLean 13:35

Right? And how can we make this work?

Alyssa Barlow 13:38

Yes.

Liz McLean 13:39

That's a question for sure. How can we make this work? And you overcame those mental obstacles, that doubt. So kudos to you. You're like, "Oh, well, I had to talk to a lot of people and we had to..." I mean, "You did it. You went and got all this stuff, Alyssa. Make sure you give credit where credit is due here."

Alyssa Barlow 14:00

Oh, thank you. And it is a process and it is not a one and done thing. And I think that's the other thing that gets a little tricky with education because most education interviews are one and done. It's... you do the interview, they hire you. And this was not that sort of process. Yes, I did do the interview. And yes, they were ready to hire me after that. However, there was a long string of conversations leading up to the point where I actually accepted the position because of some of those personal mental barriers as well as learning to work with this, but this team and this person who was my supervisor in order to get the best fit for both of us.

Liz McLean 14:36

Yeah, well they are incredibly lucky to have you. Congratulations. Tell us about the new role. And how you... tell us a little bit more about the "how" right? We have this on the website– Scott's the "Wow", Alyssa's the "How". I feel like you're the one... do you know that cake song? She uses a machete to cut through the cake.

Alyssa Barlow 14:57

Yes.

Liz McLean 14:58

I feel like that's Alyssa. Anyway, Alyssa got the "How". Tell us about how you negotiate it in exactly what you want– this main piece, the flexibility, the part time that was the deal breaker.

Alyssa Barlow 15:10

Yeah. So part of the reason I picked this particular position is because I knew that there was some room for flexibility in it. It was not going into a regular classroom, I'm in a specialist setting. So I am pulling kids to me, and not having them all day. So I knew there was some flexibility there, I knew that there was some flexibility and that I kind of got to set my own schedule around some parameters. So going in, knowing all of that information, I was able to work with the team and my supervisors very creatively in order to take on a role in which it is a full time capacity, actually, in the end, I guess you could say it worked out for the best of all worlds, because I'm getting paid full time for what I initially was trying to negotiate for part time, however, we were able to build in the flexibility I was looking for even in the full time role. And part of their reason for not hiring part time was, one, because they knew I would work full time anyway. Because a lot of times, especially in education, when you take a part time role, I'm going to spend more hours than the part time there and Scott told me that going into it, he's like, "If you take a part time role, you're likely going to spend more hours there than what you're getting paid for." So in the best of all worlds, I am getting paid full time. But I still am able to build in that flexibility that I wanted. And I had some things that I knew... I teach Jazzercise. So I knew that there was a certain start time that I wanted to have a couple of days a week and my kiddos get out of school earlier than the elementary kiddos do, now that they're in the middle in high school. And so I knew I wanted some flexibility to still go to their after school sports games and be there to pick them up some days of the week, things like that. So while this is a perfect ideal role, perfectly suited to my strengths, I get to work with my colleagues, I get to work with students, I have a team of people who I get to innovate with basically because it's a new position to the school district. So I get to help build some of that curriculum and things going back to that developer, I love doing things like that. So it really was the ideal role, and then being able to figure out how to negotiate that flexibility of being a little bit flexible on the start times and the end times and making sure I can still fulfill the role in a full time capacity. But in a way that I wanted to do it instead of the conventional you're working this set of hours.

Liz McLean 17:42

You're at .5 FTE whatever.

Alyssa Barlow 17:45

Exactly, yes. Which actually almost probably would have been more contrived and less flexible in some ways. Because it's harder to fit stuff in that amount of time where now I have the full time, but I can still build in the flexibility.

Liz McLean 18:00

Yes, thank you for clarifying that. And the thing I love about what you just said, and that story is that even you... it's like, even the candidates themselves, right, will come to the conversation or series of conversations, as you've pointed out with ideas of what it is. And then through talking and as you said, creating, maybe there was a shift to be like, "Well, maybe it's not really... is it really part time? Or is it really just that flexibility?" And you get that clarity as you're working together with the other side and coming up with, you know, what's gonna work best for everybody?

Alyssa Barlow 18:39

Exactly. Yeah. And I think that was the key there was that, I went into it thinking, "Oh, I really want part time because I need this flexibility." And then through a series of conversations and looking at schedules and things like that, I realized, well, it's not actually the part time that is the important part, it's the flexibility– that's the important part. And finding that common ground where I could do the full time position, which is what they needed, but still have the flexibility that I needed, made it absolutely like the best fit that we could have found.

Liz McLean 19:12

Yeah, that is fantastic. And I'm so glad that you're telling this story, because I think it's gonna help a lot of people and inspire a lot of moms or people that are feel like they have constrained schedules anyway to get out of that kind of like black and white binary thinking of like, "well, I can't have a job because of X." And it's... so, is that true? Like, and really getting creative on how to do it because we... They need to have that in their lives and people need them to show up and deliver value in these places too. So thank you so much for sharing your story. I think it's really inspiring and gonna help a lot of listeners. So thank you. That's fun doing it. It was a lot of fun.

Alyssa Barlow 19:56

Yeah, thank you for your help walking me through this process and like you said in the beginning, I mean, I've been part of this company for 10 years. I see this happen every single day. And initially, when Scott said to me, "you need to reach out to one of the coaches and have them help you." I was like, "I don't need help with an interview, It's fine." And then after I worked with you for that first hour I went to Scott and I was like, "Okay, you were right. I didn't need the help of a coach. However, having..." Yes, exactly in quotes. I didn't need that help. But having that help, worked me through so many of my own mental barriers, so much of the process of getting back to developing my strengths, and what I was actually looking for in a job position versus reading a job posting, "Oh, yeah, I can do this. My skills fit this. I think this is a good fit for me. It's a great fit for our family." Even Scott said after I took this interview and worked through all these mental roadblocks and finally accepted the position, it was like, "this is clearly something that you were needing that we didn't even know you needed." Yeah.

Liz McLean 21:03

Well, we are all really excited for you.

Alyssa Barlow 21:05

Thank you.

Liz McLean 21:06

We'll obviously, will miss you as much, but you'll still be popping in and...

Alyssa Barlow 21:12

I'll still be there. Yeah.

Liz McLean 21:15

Well, thanks so much, Alyssa. Best of luck and have a great back to school.

Alyssa Barlow 21:20

Thank you so much.

Scott Anthony Barlow 21:28

If you enjoyed this story, you can learn about many more like the one that you heard today. You can find them in our new book "Happen to Your Career: An Unconventional Approach to Career Change and Meaningful Work", which hits shelves on October 18th. But if you're listening to this, and you enjoy this podcast, I know that you're going to love the book. You can go to our website: happentoyourcareer.com/book to learn more about the book, and you can click right from there to be able to preorder it, just about any place you might buy books. And by the way, when you preorder, you unlock some pretty awesome bonuses. Here's a sneak peek and one of my favorites, will actually send you a limited edition copy. One that's not available for sale at all ever. So when you preorder the book, and you send your receipt to me, Scott@happentoyourcareer.com then you actually get a copy of that before anybody else could read the book. If you're listening to this after October 18th, and it's published already, I would encourage you to go check out the book, I think that you're going to love it. Simply search on your favorite place to buy books, and type in Happen To Your Career, and chances are high that it'll pop right up. All right, we'll see you next time. Here's what's coming up next week.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:46

One thing that led me to start this podcast in 2013 was my hope that by sharing others' extraordinary and seemingly impossible career change experiences, I could solve what we call "the exposure problem" that most people deal with today. If you found this podcast, you're probably already suspect that you need to make a change and your intuition about this is likely correct. But your next question is probably change to what you don't always know what your options are, especially, if you don't know they exist. And that's the exposure problem in a nutshell. By sharing career change stories weekly, my hope is that you'll find the inspiration and exposure to see that extraordinary can become possible for you. Personally, I had to get fired before I could recognize what needed to be different to make my life and career the best it could be for me and my family. I don't want you to have to get to that point. I want you to know that meaningful work, that you're excited about, that is fulfilling, feels great, pays well and that you actually enjoy is out there and you don't need to settle in hopes of solving this exposure problem and amplifying the spread of the seemingly impossible career changes even more. I started working on a book way back in 2018. It's been a team effort. And my entire team has been hard at work at this project for over four years. And that time has finally come. That very book is now available. Our new book "Happen to Your Career: An Unconventional Approach to Career Change and Meaningful Work" is finally hitting the shelves on Tuesday, October 18th. It's available for order at all major book retailers. I'm so excited to share this with you. And it's been really wonderful to see this come to life and have a physical book out there in the world that can be passed from person to person, and hopefully change their mindset on what work truly can be. It's crazy to finally be able to say it's book launch week as of right now. In honor of that, I want to share a few of the people that you'll hear in the book that changed their careers and lives for the better. These are people, just like you, who were unhappy or bored or just felt like they were meant for more and we're ready for a change in their career and decided to take action towards meaningful, fulfilling work. The book actually includes over 20 stories of people in all different industries with all different obstacles they had to overcome to be able to get to do work that they love. In this episode, I want to introduce you to some of their situations in hopes that one of their stories will resonate with you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:22

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.