By David Keyte
My first job, being made redundant, starting a business, closing a business and making the best decision of my life — becoming a teacher.
If you had asked the 18-year-old version of myself what I wanted to do as a career, a teacher would have been a long way down the list.
With dreams of taking on the world as a Sports Agent, I was accepted into Southampton University to study Managing and Developing Sport. When at school, the world of employment seemed a long way away and realistic career options are something that are perhaps considered a little flippantly.
My first job
After leaving university, I found myself in the position that so many other graduates will have found themselves in, endlessly trawling job boards in the hope of finding the perfect job. After weeks of searching and a few unsuccessful interviews, I had the opportunity to meet with a woman who had recently set up an independent medical marketing agency and was looking for someone to join her in the role of Marketing Assistant. Our discussions went well, and I was offered the position, a role that provided me with 18 months of employment and some fantastic opportunities to develop my skills.
All was going rather well until I was told that I was being made redundant: the business hadn’t grown as quickly as she had hoped and having been offered the opportunity to take on a major role at a large London hospital, she was going to close her company. I must admit to being shocked and quite upset by the news and found myself job hunting again.
After a few weeks of trawling through job boards again and applying to everything in sight, I was invited for interview at a local recruitment company and successfully gained employment as a Recruitment Consultant. My role here was to convince large pharmaceutical companies to allow me to find candidates for vacancies they had in their organisations.
I worked in this role for just over six months and got a taste for the world of recruitment and headhunting. I must mention that throughout this and my previous role in medical marketing I regularly volunteered at children’s holiday camps and coached rugby and cricket to children on an ongoing basis.
My own business
After six months, a friend and I decided that we were going to take a punt and have a go at starting our own recruitment company. We had always dreamed of starting a business together since we had met at university six years previously, and with experience in the industry (albeit limited on my part), a shared apartment that would act as an office, and an initial investment of £15,000 each, we decided to give things a go.
We proceeded to run our recruitment company, placing candidates in jobs within Oil and Gas, Architecture, Marketing, Catering, Travel and Healthcare amongst other industries. The experience I gained during this period of my life was invaluable and certainly something I look back on fondly.
After 14 months, we had reached a point where our business was profitable and steady; however, our personal circumstances had changed. We had each got into relatively serious relationships continuing to live and work together was simply not feasible. Realistically it would have taken at least another 12 months for us to be in a position to afford an office space and grow the business into more than the lifestyle business that it currently was. We made the extremely tough decision to close the company to both gain employment, thus ending my period of life as an entrepreneur.
Moving on
I joined a local travel recruitment company in a highly targeted sales position with a clear emphasis on making the most money I possibly could for myself and my company. I was in this role for 13 months and must admit to doing rather well in this time. In this period of my life, I earned more money than I have ever earned, was able to afford things I simply haven’t been able to afford before or after this, and on the face of things was living a very good life indeed. I must admit that I felt that something was really missing for me during this time though, I was earning well but my job seemed to lack real purpose.
My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) was training to be a Primary School teacher through the Surrey South Farnham SCITT course. Each evening, we would chat about our working days and I couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of envy about her working day compared to mine. Of course, her role wasn’t perfect, and she would regularly talk about situations that had been tricky or frustrating for her, but one thing that really shone through was that her job really meant something to her in a way that mine didn’t mean to me.
Becoming a teacher
As someone who was a bit of a rascal at school, the idea that I could become a teacher was something that I simply hadn’t considered, until I found out that the SCITT route offered a very realistic opportunity for me to get into the profession. I decided that I wanted to find out more so set about arranging to get some experience in a school to see if this job really could be for me. I took a week of annual leave and spent this time in a primary school, gaining experience across a range of different age groups. I have to say I absolutely loved it and went back to my day job the following Monday with a genuine feeling that I was in the wrong profession.
The following week I attended a local SCITT open evening and learned that a local Headteacher, Dave Cole, was involved in the SCITT course and that it may be worth having a chat with him. I exchanged a couple of emails with Dave and met with him one day before work. My plan was to arrange to gain further experience in a school setting for a week at some point later in the school year and apply to start the SCITT course the following September. But a combination of my desire to change career path, Dave’s overwhelming passion for education, and a couple of very strong coffees led to me leaving his office with a plan to hand in my notice from my current job and begin at Yattendon School as an LSA immediately after Christmas.
This was an extremely exciting (but logistically difficult) situation. I was tied into my house rental for a minimum of another four months, I had outgoings far exceeding the salary of an LSA, and I hadn’t yet applied to get onto a teacher training course so had no guarantee that I would be starting teacher training the following September. Despite these obstacles, I made it work. I moved in with my girlfriend’s parents (both of whom had taught me as a youngster), paid off my house rental and secured a position as a trainee teacher on the Surrey South Farnham SCITT.
The best decision I have ever made
Aged 29, as a Newly Qualified Teacher, I must say that making the move into teaching was the best decision I have ever made. Yes, it has challenges, but it really is the most wonderful job in the world. I get out of bed every morning with a spring in my step knowing that I can make a genuine positive difference to several peoples’ lives that day.
I have made some wonderful friends within teaching, joined and contributed to a fantastic community of educators through Twitter, and found myself interacting with adults and children that I simply wouldn’t have had the pleasure of crossing paths with if I hadn’t decided to become a teacher.
Of course, teaching has its challenges, but as someone who has worked in several positions outside of education, I can confirm that other jobs do as well, and the highs in these jobs don’t come close to those I’ve experienced in a classroom.
I would urge anyone considering a career as a teacher to get into a school, see for yourself what it is like, and ask yourself — do I want to make a difference? Because as a teacher you really can!
Follow David on Twitter @Mr_K _Teacher
