Career switching teachers have many skills to transfer to your business
I don't know if this is an Australian thing, but I'm beginning to think there is a roadblock that is holding me back at the moment.
I am seeking a development role - I'm not really fussy about the role, I really want to work in an IT team. I'm wanting to work with experienced developers in an office environment where I can work with real adults and develop something, anything really. I would prefer to work with python or obj-C/Swift.
I have experience in Python, Objective-C, and .Net languages and frameworks, web technologies, and multiple operating systems. I have deployed example applications on google app engine, and used django and flask as web frameworks. I adopt an agile workflow, and am semi-religious about developing solid code using test driven development. I am familiar with design patterns, and databases. I have team leadership and middle management experience, I have awesome client communications skills, and I can create training experiences and packages in my sleep.
I have just applied for my 160th role on seek, as well as making direct applications to software companies large, small and medium sized based in Tasmania, Victoria and recently Sydney. I'm prepared to relocate. Find me a pub with a room and internet capability and I'll be there by the end of the week. my family will follow by christmas. If you don't mind a remote worker I can start within the hour.
The reason I keep hearing from every application that gives me a second look, is that I "lack commercial experience". So lets examine this in the context of a modern teacher. Modern teachers of IT live in the same world as you. Except we have to have a few extra tricks. Firstly we have to self-teach as we are rarely working in a group. Even when we have more than 2 software developer teachers in a school the chance to sit together, and pair code is very limited. We acquire our skills by practising, and practising hard. In the last 4 years I have made applications to support the work of a teacher including report generators - a program to convert grades to ability statements.
I suppose that I may have not had a string of commercial successes - I have however created an application to scan students folders for movies and music on the school server. I have created applications to support sports days, timetabling, and resource management within the context of the school I was working at. These applications were rough, and delivered as a third or fourth level of priority for a management team whose understanding of IT is often barely enough to turn the computer on. However I have supported these applications with user training, and often had to support iterations of the software as the requirements have changed. If commercial experience is generating working applications - I have done that - just within a smaller context.
I have also created, led and assessed performance in over 60 student IT project applications, written in 5 languages, designed for desktop, mobile and web in the last 7 years. The nature of the school day often means that when student projects are on students do not prioritise your time well. They turn up for their hours lesson, often with the idea that the teacher can solve their problem if they just ask. Often teachers are presented with a set of code, and having to give debugging clues with students competing strongly for your time. Think back to your student days - if you had a computer science teacher in high school, did you email your teacher the night before the class with the question you wanted answering, or the bug you were struggling with? Probably not! Even using github, students often expect magic on very short deadlines. If commercial experience is about working to tight deadlines - then I have that in spades - working with people like you, before you learned about time management.
Education is a very rapidly changing environment. With a rapidly changing context and highly skilled staff who sometimes struggle to keep up with things. When IT recruiters see 'teacher' on a CV, are we being lumped in with the teachers you had when they were at school? If this is the case then maybe you need to get into a school and work with a couple of teachers now you are an adult. Some of us are highly adaptable and flexible. Think of the range of things we do as part of our roles. In the last 4 years I have led and managed a plethora of tasks - from sports days, drama productions, engineering days, marching on ANZAC day, managing a departmental budget, blogging, recruiting and interviewing, CV assessment, excursions. My sheer flexibility should make me a solid consideration.
If you are an IT recruiter, and you are receiving a CV from a teacher, please think twice before submitting that application straight into the bin. If your reading this and think you may have a space then my linkedin profile can be accessed here.
I am seeking a development role - I'm not really fussy about the role, I really want to work in an IT team. I'm wanting to work with experienced developers in an office environment where I can work with real adults and develop something, anything really. I would prefer to work with python or obj-C/Swift.
I have experience in Python, Objective-C, and .Net languages and frameworks, web technologies, and multiple operating systems. I have deployed example applications on google app engine, and used django and flask as web frameworks. I adopt an agile workflow, and am semi-religious about developing solid code using test driven development. I am familiar with design patterns, and databases. I have team leadership and middle management experience, I have awesome client communications skills, and I can create training experiences and packages in my sleep.
So why don't I have a job yet?
I have just applied for my 160th role on seek, as well as making direct applications to software companies large, small and medium sized based in Tasmania, Victoria and recently Sydney. I'm prepared to relocate. Find me a pub with a room and internet capability and I'll be there by the end of the week. my family will follow by christmas. If you don't mind a remote worker I can start within the hour.
The reason I keep hearing from every application that gives me a second look, is that I "lack commercial experience". So lets examine this in the context of a modern teacher. Modern teachers of IT live in the same world as you. Except we have to have a few extra tricks. Firstly we have to self-teach as we are rarely working in a group. Even when we have more than 2 software developer teachers in a school the chance to sit together, and pair code is very limited. We acquire our skills by practising, and practising hard. In the last 4 years I have made applications to support the work of a teacher including report generators - a program to convert grades to ability statements.
I suppose that I may have not had a string of commercial successes - I have however created an application to scan students folders for movies and music on the school server. I have created applications to support sports days, timetabling, and resource management within the context of the school I was working at. These applications were rough, and delivered as a third or fourth level of priority for a management team whose understanding of IT is often barely enough to turn the computer on. However I have supported these applications with user training, and often had to support iterations of the software as the requirements have changed. If commercial experience is generating working applications - I have done that - just within a smaller context.
I have also created, led and assessed performance in over 60 student IT project applications, written in 5 languages, designed for desktop, mobile and web in the last 7 years. The nature of the school day often means that when student projects are on students do not prioritise your time well. They turn up for their hours lesson, often with the idea that the teacher can solve their problem if they just ask. Often teachers are presented with a set of code, and having to give debugging clues with students competing strongly for your time. Think back to your student days - if you had a computer science teacher in high school, did you email your teacher the night before the class with the question you wanted answering, or the bug you were struggling with? Probably not! Even using github, students often expect magic on very short deadlines. If commercial experience is about working to tight deadlines - then I have that in spades - working with people like you, before you learned about time management.
Education is a very rapidly changing environment. With a rapidly changing context and highly skilled staff who sometimes struggle to keep up with things. When IT recruiters see 'teacher' on a CV, are we being lumped in with the teachers you had when they were at school? If this is the case then maybe you need to get into a school and work with a couple of teachers now you are an adult. Some of us are highly adaptable and flexible. Think of the range of things we do as part of our roles. In the last 4 years I have led and managed a plethora of tasks - from sports days, drama productions, engineering days, marching on ANZAC day, managing a departmental budget, blogging, recruiting and interviewing, CV assessment, excursions. My sheer flexibility should make me a solid consideration.
If you are an IT recruiter, and you are receiving a CV from a teacher, please think twice before submitting that application straight into the bin. If your reading this and think you may have a space then my linkedin profile can be accessed here.
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