For seven years of my life I wanted to be the best band director ever. Now, I'm not even sure if I want to be anything when I "grow up." It's been seven months since I left the classroom, and I think it's about time I wrote something more extensive about it.
More often than not, when I tell a teacher friend about leaving, the first thing they say is usually "wow" followed by "how?" So this is it.
I hope this is useful to those that need it.
Luck. Lots of it. Someone I didn't even know at the time gave me a chance.
It's not that I was ill-prepared for the job I now have. Every interview question I was asked I had already written down somewhere. I did well on "tests" for time management and detecting spelling errors. BUT:
I could have paid hundreds of dollars for a career course. But I didn't. I could have gone to graduate school. But I didn't. I could have done a tech bootcamp. But I didn't. I could have networked and hustled my way into the industry. But I didn't.
All of the different ways LinkedIn says "how to get a new job" I didn't do. It's not that I didn't want to do any of it, it just never happened in my search. The only money I spent to directly get this job was $8 on a book and $4 for a Starbucks decaf americano as a courtesy to do my interview there. In hindsight, I could have even borrowed the book from the library for FREE and went without buying a coffee.
The reason why I want to emphasize how I got the job is because people like you and me get so worked up about results and success. I got my job from random meaningless luck. So for you reader, keep this in mind: no one is trying to prevent you from getting a job. There are more forces out there that want you working than those that don't.
Getting a job is so random that if you put too much responsibility on yourself or "the system" you'll find yourself having mood swings all over the place. So don't get all self-congratulatory when it works out or shame yourself when it doesn't. Just be grateful when you find something and keep your head on your shoulders when you need to keep looking.
Again, I want to emphasize my job search was complete luck. My former supervisor who hired me didn't really know who I was when she did. But if you want to know the complete tale of my job search, here it is.
Back in summer of 2020, everyone's favorite summer, I created an account on Headspace and did their intro course. I found this retention pond by this plaza in walking distance from my apartment, and my unenlightened butt thought it was the perfect place to meditate! It had birds, trees, a Tijuana Flats, and some fern looking things which I thought were necessary for a meditation. I wasn't impressed by the act of meditating, but I knew I had to stick to it "to see the benefits" or whatever. As "my journey" went on I heard about a woman named Tara Brach through a Tim Ferris podcast. The main reason I looked into Tara Brach's teachings were because they were free. The first time I saw her meditations I groaned a little bit. "18 minutes??? Who has time for that?" Oh, that's right... everyone did summer of 2020.
Then I found this. And I don't know what happened in my brain but it said: "You can love yourself, and it doesn't matter what you do." And I cried. I never realized I trapped myself into the identity of my job. I was nothing more than that. Doing anything else that wasn't "productive" always made me feel a little guilty because it wasn't making me a better band teacher/saxophonist. It was up to me to define who I was. I didn't have to be a musician or a teacher even though I paid lots of money to be one. I had to realize that was just the cost of learning.
I started reading about business, psychology, and all sorts of other things that "weren't in my field." But it made me a better teacher and more confident in what I was, even though it seemed unrelated. Sometimes we don't know how our own definitions of ourselves hold us back. I learned to let change pass through.
Fast-forward to August 2021. This was supposed to be the post-COVID good year. As we all know, it wasn't. For a lot of teachers, including myself, it was probably worse. This was the school year of the "Devious Lick" and all sorts of other destructive trends.
By week 7, I was D-U-N done.
Burnt-out, stressed, I felt all of the stereotypical reasons a teacher quits. But somewhere deep down I thought it was a me problem. I was convinced the reason I felt this was because I wasn't a good enough teacher or I just didn't have the right mindset for the struggles of teaching. I was at a better school than most of my county. How "weak" was I that I couldn't handle it? Being stressed wasn't a good enough reason for me to leave, so I had to suck it up or find a better reason.
I thought leaving for graduate school would be a good reason to leave, for self-development and stuff. I was looking at studying psychology, because I enjoyed the subject and I could possibly explore music psychology. I'd have to apply ASAP and take the GRE which I would have been ill-prepared for. The only place I could really go (for various reasons) was the University closest to me, and it wasn't the best school. So that plan was ruled out.
Then I came across an interview series with Will MacAskill and Sam Harris.
The series was about Effective Altruism, a social movement trying to figure out how to do the most good through philosophy, economics, and technology. This group felt perfect for me. I became a teacher because I wanted to help people with the skills I had, but to help the most people seemed even cooler. I did some math and I realized that I could have a job doing literally anything else, donate 10% of my income and save hundreds of lives during my lifetime. If I started donating, I would be doing way more good than I ever could as a teacher, without all the stressful parts.
On top of that many, many smart people are trying to fix education, and not much progress has been made from it. Statistically, how much more could I bring if I also added on to try and "fix" schools?
So with that, I had some better reasons to leave teaching that weren't all about me.
Through the next couple of months I spent about an hour every day doing career research. I completed an introductory course about Effective Altruism and met some really cool people through it. What helped me the most was completing this career guide from 80,000 hours. 80,000 hours is an Effective Altruism aligned organization based on a simple premise: When you go out for a two hour dinner, you'll usually spend five minutes planning where to go. If you spend 80,000 hours of your life working, you should spend a proportional amount of planning your career. Unlike other career help, this guide was completely free and still is. It took me a few months, but I completed it. I had some ideas for roles and career paths that were a bit more tangible, and exciting to me. Now that I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do with myself, I had actionable steps I could take.
I want to also mention 80,000 hours has free career advising and luckily I was able to book a session, but it ended up being months from when I first applied.
Let's rewind the tape for a second.
I originally decided to become a teacher on a whim. In my senior year of high school, my band took their annual trip to Florida State University for the Marching Chief's High School Band Day. It was a recruiting event for FSU where you went to a football game and followed the band around before and during the game. Me and my friends got the short end of the stick and didn't make the cut for the bus. With clever arguments and some puppy dog eyes, the six of us were able to convince our parents to take my Mom's minivan from Orlando to Tallahassee and back to go to the game. What could go wrong with six 17/18 year olds driving through the middle of Florida from 12-4am after watching an entire college football game?
Nothing would end up happening, but my band director caught wind of our plan and was of course worried about our safety so he ended up driving us back home after the game. It was a car ride I'll never forget. He was a second Dad to all of us. He told all sorts of stories on the drive and asked us about our families and really tried to connect with us. On this trip I was so grateful for him to be driving us home, but not only that I became grateful for all of the things he did for all of us throughout high school (for context, we all had him as a teacher for 3+ years). He supported us in tough times, pushed us to be our best, encouraged us to take on challenging opportunities, and gave inspirational "life lessons" in class.
It was on a stretch of bleak darkness on I-10 after the game that I realized that I wanted to help students just like he did for me. And that's how I decided I was going to spend the next thirty years of my life. I would become a music teacher.
It really is a romantic story with all of the ooey-gooey "follow your passion" juices coming out of it. But from a decision-making standpoint, this was not a good way to decide something. My brain wasn't even fully developed and I was making this huge decision costing me and my Mom thousands of dollars? For a career I ended up giving up after only 3 years of working?
Fast forward to January of 2022, I didn't regret anything about majoring in Music, but looking back on all of it I knew I didn't want to make a decision like this again. So to be sure I wasn't leaving a stone unturned, I needed to be doubly sure the types of jobs and career path I pursued were the best fit for me. As part of the 80,000 hours guide, I made some "experiments" for myself. These were a mix of things I could see myself doing, but I could sample for a low cost. It included reading Cal Newport's Be So Good They Can't Ignore You as a general career resource, taking coding courses on Codecademy (specifically HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) to try out coding, reading Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock to see how I would like a mix of psychology and economics for graduate school, and reading Operations Management for Dummies to see how I would like learning about business operations.
I decided that I would have the most leverage for doing good through operations or project management ideally for an Effective Altruism aligned organization.
In late February, it was finally time for my advising session from 80,000 hours. I filled out a bunch of forms prior to give my advisor some background about me. We started talking and after a bit she said, in here elegant British accent, "looks like you know what you're doing and it sounds like a good plan." "So when do you think I should start applying for jobs?" I asked kind of puzzled how confident she sounded. "You can start now!" "Oh, okay!" And then the rest of our time we talked about applications and meeting some other former teachers. I guess I had to wait for someone like that to tell me to get started, but in hindsight I might not have needed that. I had done everything they recommended so I guess that was enough. I applied to some jobs on LinkedIn and 80,000 hours' Job Board that week.
After just a few weeks of looking an opportunity came up. I tell my Mom just about everything and she knew about my job search. She let me know about this consulting firm called Engage fi that was doing some recruiting. They were hiring an entry level role and she sent me a link to it. It was a simple form that included a spot to upload my resume, how much I wanted to make, and some contact info. They reached out and after a couple interviews sent me an offer.
And that's it!Some of the best things that have happened in my life have come from simple plain dumb luck. In my first few months of college, I ended up meeting the woman who would become my wife. I love her more than anything. I said yes to my first teaching job offer. It ended up being the best school in the county. I said yes to my first job offer outside of teaching. I love working there now.
Should you say yes to the first time something is offered to you?
I can't answer that for you. "The grass is always greener..." "One in the hand is worth..." and the sayings go on. Do you have the security to say no? Does the job make you say "Hell Yeah!" Are you taking the job for someone other than yourself? Those should be your guiding questions.
Here are some other pieces of advice:
In January of 2022, I planned to go to an Effective Altruism conference in Boston. I met so many brilliant people there. You can DM as many people as you want, but there's nothing like face to face interactions and conversations. The job at Engage was already looking promising so I wasn't as bullish about meeting people or getting a job at the Conference than I think I could have been. Since then I found this video by Derek Sivers about how to attend a conference. In the future, every conference I go to will probably take this approach. The job search is easiest when you ask people you're friends with or you know. Sometimes even, they'll just come up to you and ask to work with you! (That was how I got my first job at the Movies when I was 16). Networking isn't about getting other people to help you, it's about making cool friends and asking "How can I help them?"
For interviews, just read and do everything on this page by 80,000 hours and click every link. I did everything on it except read some of the books and doing the free work, but again, I got lucky.
"Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable." - Naval Ravikant
Don't stop learning valuable and fundamental skills. Writing, Coding, Public Speaking, Showing up on time, Problem-Solving, the list goes on. These thing you can probably apply to your current job and they'll help you be prepared for the next one.
P.S. After I wrote this two things came about, I finally updated my contact page with a functional email list if you'd like to receive emails from me, and also I have my email nick "at" nickseier.com set up so please reach out to there if you'd like to chat. The second thing is I found this TED talk and it's more in line with how I view work now. If you don't want to "plan" your life through a guide like the one from 80,000 hours, I suggest this approach.