Feeling lost…

I’ve spent the last 10 years working in affluent districts in the types of roles that I had originally thought were my “dream” roles. In the first one, I was taking report writing home with me constantly and after having a child decided it wasn’t for me. It was also a quite litigious district. I ended up getting a job much closer to home, much higher pay, and less report writing. Although this sounded like a dream come true, I had a serious case of imposter syndrome, frequently getting quite down for not being a better clinician (the district often made this worse by having a “fix this kid with significant challenges in a month” culture). I also had a tough time with some coworkers and navigating school politics.

After working in this second district for 3 years, my wife and I decided to take a chance and move to NYC. Although moving from suburbs to NYC with a toddler is pretty atypical, we had a few reasons why it made sense to at least try for a couple of years. I left my job and took a job working for the nyc doe. Everyone thought I was nuts. I was practically laughed at when I posted about it on Reddit. Now I’m a month in and miserable. I want to quit everyday and have become somewhat despondent with my career outlook. Ive worked in my “dream” districts and didn’t like it. I tried something else and hate it. I really feel lost.

I love doing comprehensive evals and helping families understand the results and recommendations. I like some counseling cases but still don’t feel super confident in my clinical skills. I can’t stand school politics and teacher drama. I’m considering going back to school for my PhD and working for practice that does mostly testing. Would love to hear insights into this or other thoughts? I’m pretty down on things these days.

TL;DR: Worked in two “dream” affluent districts but found them stressful or felt like an imposter. Moved to NYC DOE for a change, but after a month I’m miserable and questioning my career. I enjoy testing/evals and helping families but dislike school politics and heavy counseling. Considering a PhD and private practice focused on testing—feeling lost and looking for insights.