Career Development: A Complete Guide for Teachers

Balancing “kids come first” with respect for educators.

As teachers, we live in a “students come first” world.  The expectation of parents, schools, and even society at large is that teachers should prioritize kids above all else.  OK, fine — this attitude may have a place in the educational landscape.  After all, school buildings and teaching jobs exist for the purpose of educating young people.  

Let’s just be sure we balance “putting kids first” with a healthy respect for the highly-educated professionals who serve those kids.

Whether you’re just starting out in your teaching career or looking to make a mid-career change, career development is essential to achieving your goals.  

What is career development?

Simply put, career development is the act of assessing where you are and where you’d like to be in your professional life.  Successful career development requires the thoughtful implementation of short-term goals that guide us toward long-term career dreams.  

When it comes to your career: be strategic!

I envy other professionals for how strategic many are with their careers.  Millennials introduced the country to the idea that you do not need to stay in one job forever and Gen Z popularized the side hustle concept.  These ideas have put an emphasis on making decisions that are in the best interest of the “worker” rather than the company.  It has affirmed the fact that it is okay to prioritize yourself and your career and that the old “rules” can morph into a more employee-friendly focus.

We want educators to view personal advancement as one of their main teaching job responsibilities.

Types of career development:

1. Gaining Experience

Plenty of opportunities exist within education to vary the type of work you do – this is especially true for newer teachers. Perhaps you’ll discover a particular skill or affinity for working with at-risk students.  You might learn that you prefer working with first-graders as opposed to the fifth-graders.  This form of career development helps you discover what you want and what you don’t want from a job.  It can also inform you what your particular strengths and/or areas for growth are.  

2. Adopting a “professional mindset”

In education, teachers essentially promote themselves.  What we mean is it’s unlikely your principal is going to pop in out of the blue, compliment your hard work, and then offer you the assistant principal role along with a raise.  Advancement only happens when the teacher takes the initiative.  Embracing a growth mindset — that you can learn to do anything through hard work and practice — will help when you decide to step out of your comfort zone at work.

3. Goal setting

Start with creating larger long-term (3-5 years or more) goals.  Then, create smaller, more manageable short-term goals that can be achieved in 2 years or less.  Realistic timelines are helpful to keep on track.

4. Skill acquisition

Constantly learning and growing is a key part of career development.  Yes, this is about gaining new knowledge and skills.  But perhaps more importantly,  we’re also referring to building a resume.  Participate in that training, go to that conference, and try out that new assessment technique – especially if they meet one of your short-term goals.  Don’t forget to add them all to that resume.

Why is career development important?

Control 

Above all else, having the ability to control where and for how long you work is the ultimate in professional autonomy.  You might love your current school, but will you feel the same way in five or ten years?  The neighboring district got another pay raise while you and your colleagues are stuck with your 2015 salaries.  The daily grind of the classroom is taking its toll and you might want to try a new role.  If you have a career development plan, you possess a transcendent ability: self-determination.

Opportunities

In the educational calendar, you probably already know about the season of change: April through June. Every Spring, people leave and jobs open up like clockwork.  With a master’s degree, you’re in the running for that instructional coach position.  Your training in language development makes you a great option for the district lead on ELs.  Or maybe you’re ready to apply for that vacant assistant principal position — now that you have your admin credential.  You get the idea.  You cannot always predict when you’ll feel ready for a change.

Money

Career development leads to promotions and, often, higher salaries. We go into greater detail in our post on ways you can increase income.  Unfortunately, there is still a stigma when it comes to educators seeking financial gain.  Don’t fall into that trap.  Money provides security, peace of mind, and freedom.  

Personal Fulfillment 

Of equal importance with money, in our opinion, is the ability for you to successfully guide your career through the philosophical, political, societal, and instructional trends that education will undoubtedly face.  You greatly reduce your risk of getting stuck in a situation (classroom, grade level, school, or district) in which you are stagnating.  A career development plan provides you with options to seek personal and professional satisfaction in a number of ways. 

Three career development phases for younger teachers.

Note: we’ve included year numbers, but these will vary widely from person to person.  If you’ve been a great classroom teacher for 15 years and are now starting to consider a jump into administration, then your phases will look slightly different.

Years 1-3: Survive and advance

Typical teacher experiences: As we start our teaching lives, we learn what children of that age are like and what we can expect from them.  The first three years are a time to gain experience and make mistakes.  Nearly every new teacher will need support, encouragement, reassurance, comfort, and guidance to survive. 

The first few years are characterized by a focus on self: what you’re doing (classroom management and relationship building) as well as what you’re teaching (curriculum development). 

Actionable career development moves during this phase:

1. Establish reasonable time boundaries 
2. Find a positive mentor or role model. Edutopia posted a good piece on how to find the right type of mentor.
3. Begin to accumulate your continuing education units.  Ask your colleagues how and where they are getting their units.  Continuing education is part of life for teachers.  Not only does it mean continuing to learn as a professional, but the units typically result in salary advancement.
4. Explore options – be open to taking on new challenges. Volunteer for that challenging assignment, lead a club or coach a sport.  You might discover a passion or skill you didn’t know you had.

Years 4-6: Hone your “professional” mindset

Typical teacher experiences: You’ve moved from mere survival to streamlining your classroom.  You get comfortable with your own competence and become confident in what you’re doing. This phase is characterized by a shift in focus to the students and their needs.

For some teachers, years 4-6 is when they begin to tire from doing the same thing every year. On the personal side, you are likely in your late 20s and you’re beginning to settle down, get married, and maybe be thinking about starting a family.

Actionable career development moves:

1. Get your masters
2. Force yourself to do things outside your classroom, especially leadership opportunities
3. Complete a self-assessment: create a list of strengths/weaknesses, address weaknesses
4. Update your resume
5. Participate in staff and department meetings
6. Join professional organizations, read magazines or journals
7. Know your district’s contract and perhaps serve as a union representative.  Knowledge of your local contract is useful in many roles, including administration. 
8. Attend conferences, workshops, and seminars
9. Acquire experience and skills  (and add those to resume)

Years 7-9: Time to make your move

Typical teacher experiences: This phase sees your philosophical maturation.  You begin to view education holistically and start to ask questions. How are school- or district-wide decisions made?  Where is the school headed?  Where is education headed?  Is site leadership doing a good job?  In your personal life, big changes may be afoot – you’re fully an adult.  Maybe you have a spouse, kids, a mortgage, and retirement accounts. 

Actionable career development moves:

1. Decide what type of work you want to do.  You know enough about each role to know if you want to become an administrator, remain a teacher, or seek other roles.
2. Polish that resume and practice your interview skills – you’ll need them.
3. Make a job change.  You’re “nine years in”…it’s time.
4. If you’re not quite ready to make the leap, create a 24-month plan to get there. Here are two examples:

It’s never too late to take the initiative. 

Though many professions value “moving up” and “getting ahead,” that, traditionally, is not the case for education.  The expectation is that teachers need to prioritize their students and not their own careers.  This outdated belief leads to the villainization of anyone who makes some sort of a career change–even if they are staying in education.  

There is nothing wrong with thinking of education as a career–in fact, viewing education like any other highly-educated profession serves the profession well.  Thinking of your career strategically and planning career shifts is essential to continually feeling energized and excited by the profession.  Career development, assessing where you are and where you’d like to be in your professional life, is the way to do that.