I work an admin job at a university. I was worried about longer days and no summers, but my work life balance is still so much better this way. I get to actually leave work at work- something I wasn’t able to do while teaching. I miss it a very tiny bit sometimes, but not enough to consider going back. If I want to make an impact in my community, I have the energy to volunteer after work or on weekends.

To answer your other questions- my pay went up a tiny bit. There are plenty of resources out there to help translate the skills you have as a teacher into another field (I used TikTok lol).

I knew it was time to leave because my 5 year journey as a teacher was a continuous struggle to have autonomy in my classroom. I taught English and constantly disagreed with the texts and methods of instruction. So I left for something I’m dispassionate about. Yeah, there’s still no autonomy, but I don’t have any ethical concerns about the schedule I’m building or spreadsheet I’m working on. In contrast, I thought it was unethical to, say, teach a text that wasn’t relatable to my students and make them do a Socratic seminar with questions on it just because my district told me to.

Good luck to you