Remote Jobs for Former Teachers
Many teachers eventually decide that they want to take a break from the classroom or even leave the profession entirely.
And many of them want to work from home or work remotely, but are there any jobs suited to remote work for teachers?
We think there are and we’ve got an awesome guide to 10 opportunities that are perfect for you and other teachers seeking a career change.
The Best Second Career Options For Those With Teaching Skills
To make the most of a new career working from home or remotely it’s a good idea to ensure you have the right equipment to do your remote job well.
We’d recommend that you check out these laptops under $1,000 for remote workers, these awesome sustainable home office chairs, and these headsets for remote working. That should be enough to get you started.
Educational Consultant
Former teachers work very well as educational consultants and often prioritize these roles in their job search.
You take your existing skills as a teacher and then combine it with school administrator skills to offer input on the design and development of policies and procedures that will be used in schools and other learning environments.
Ex teachers say that this can lead to working in other advisory roles such as for government agencies, non-profits, etc.
However, this is a post that tends to require a master’s degree or equivalent in addition to experience in a teaching job.
Curriculum Writer
Former teachers are perfect for job openings in curriculum development. Here, you will research and develop lesson plans and the resources to go alongside them.
You can work at any appropriate educational level and if you find that this kind of work suits you – then there are also opportunities to develop training programs for corporations and government agencies too.
You need to be a decent writer to make this job work but if you enjoy technical writing and are super organized, then job searching curriculum development might be the best move you can make.
Virtual Teachers
Online teaching is a booming industry and there are opportunities for online teachers in nearly every kind of teaching.
We even know of teachers who’ve gone on to be an online personal fitness trainer after taking a remote job as an online teacher.
If you found working in a classroom to be a bit overwhelming, but you’re still passionate about helping people develop their learning and skills then this is a fantastic job.
We should note though that this is an opportunity that lacks much in the way of “career paths” and you may find it hard to move into a management or leadership role from here.
Freelance Writer
If you have good organizational skills and don’t want to spend your life creating teaching materials then you can always work as a freelance writer.
There is a huge range of opportunities to write for various types of media (including newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, the web, etc.) and they will pay for those with substantive expertise in education.
Retired teachers can often find that this kind of work fits in neatly with a less pressured life and do some freelance writing in their spare time.
You need to be self-motivated and prepared to make sales if you want to work as a writer but it can be a lot of fun.
Customer Success Management
When we talked to various teachers from varying backgrounds such as higher education or private schools we found that many of them had gone into the role of customer success manager!
Why? Well, they said that in this role – you’re essentially looking to understand what somebody wants, show how this can be achieved to their benefit, and manage their accounts.
The skills developed in a life of teaching lend themselves very well to this – emotional intelligence, project management, and the ability to think on your feet, particularly.
Educational Blogger
This is distinct from freelance writing because it’s a full-time job working for a company.
A former teacher can become a great blogger and while there was a time blogging was an amateur profession, the biggest blogs can generate over $1 million a year now.
You can continue to showcase your educational skills from your teaching experience and it’s one of the best jobs if you want to manage your own schedule.
Be warned though, these are great jobs and your transferable skills and a bachelor’s degree are a bare minimum to get hired.
Virtual Tutor
A virtual tutor tends to be more of a specialist than a virtual teaching equivalent.
That means they work on just one or two subjects and as a private tutor, they normally work one-on-one. You might even end up working with adult learners.
This is something that’s very easy to facilitate using video conferencing software which means it’s super easy to join this career path and work from wherever you want. Check out tutors.com for some open positions today.
Online Professorship
If you have serious skills then the human resources department of your local college or university might want to tempt you into an online second career with them.
Professors tend to work with those studying for degree programs and are responsible for all aspects of learning from developing the courses to delivering them, assessing them, and grading them.
Instructional Design
Corporate trainers who do a similar job to curriculum designers are known as instructional designers.
They develop learning materials that help to train workers in new skills. There is a hefty element of digital media expertise required to develop e-learning programs, however, and it might be something that you work towards while gaining experience in another related field.
Online Training Delivery
And, of course, once instructional designers have designed a course, somebody needs to deliver it.
If you like the idea of doing voice-over work, live webinars, and working with adults in the workplace, this can be a great gig for a former teacher.
Teachers can go on to have great second careers they have hard skills that the market is willing to pay for.
And whether your next career is making learning materials or acting as an independent contractor or even something unusual like a museum technician there’s a great life outside of higher education.
Many of these new careers are easy to work at remotely or from your own home and that can be especially freeing for those escaping the hectic environment of a high school classroom.
We wish you luck in your job search and hope these many remote jobs inspire you to find something that makes you happy.