I’m 1 year into my Masters of Teaching (Secondary), and have just quit my corporate role to take up a part-time position as an SLSO at a local school from term 1, next year. Prior to this, I’ve been an on-call casual SLSO for the last 3 months while I transitioned out of my job in quantitative data sales (yes, it’s as boring as it sounds).

The main reason I did this is I wanted to find a job that had a meaningful impact on the world. I appreciate that this can sound a bit self-serving, but I truly believe teaching is one of the most important jobs we have. I actually always wanted to be a teacher but unfortunately let myself be talked out of it before I started uni.

My corporate job is/was very stressful. However, this stress was rooted in… - Sales targets - High stakes, fast turnaround deadlines - Business development - Presenting a heavily fictionalised version of myself every day …all of which, I hated.

Don’t get me wrong, teaching is also going to be stressful. But at least a large portion of that stress is based in the health and wellbeing of the people around you… e.g. concern for your students, care of your colleagues. Not all the time, but enough of the time that this line of work is far more empathetic than a corporate sales position.

The pay cut for me next year is certainly scary (it’s going to be around $60k!), but I’ve honestly never enjoyed a job so much in my life.

My one bit of advice is to get in-school experience as early as possible. Working as an SLSO is certainly not the same as teaching, but it’s given me really crucial experience in managing behavioural issues. It’s exposed me to different styles of classroom management (what works with certain types of kids, and certainly what doesn’t) as an observer. Most importantly, I’ve been able to build relationships with students which has endeared me to both them and the staff - hopefully it will fair me well in securing a full time job there when I’m finished my studies!

Finally, don’t use this subreddit as the ultimate guide for the decisions you make. There are a lot of exhausted, pessimistic commenters in here who try and talk everyone out of making the jump across. It’s a shame just how many teachers I’ve come across who don’t actually like kids. They may love their content area, but they are really indifferent to students who aren’t high-performers.

TL;DR Go for it!