Melanie Gow’s documentation of her transition from the teaching world to the business world

Part II

When one exchanges the life of a teacher for that of an office worker there are some sacrifices to be made … such as holidays.

I started “scouting” for other employment opportunities while I was still teaching – actually almost a year ago! The first thing I did was revamp my C.V. How you might ask? I find compiling my C.V. is like writing my own obituary -  a little bit “positively-nauseating” because of the emphasis on  winning character traits, top achievements, unique experiences and career highlights.

What about the lowlights? Aren’t these the experiences that we grow and learn from? Anyway, I managed to get past that and paint a glowing picture. But it was still to “teacher-ry”. Great if it was another teaching post that I was applying for, however, I enlisted the help of two of my friends in corporate jobs and they came up with the key word “skills”. My CV was very experienced based and I needed to translate those experiences into skills:

“Planned and co-ordinated the Extra-Mural sport programme for the Intermediate Phase”  became “Organising, managing, resource development”. From experience to skill.

In doing this, I realised that teachers have many skills that can be transferred from the classroom to the office environment. We just don’t know it!

Now I was ready to roll. I applied to all the jobs that I thought I could d and waited for the response, or in some cases the rejection! I had some very challenging interviews – but on the whole they were enjoyable learning experiences. To keep my options open I had applied for one or two teaching jobs as well. It was tough to turn down a teaching position that I was offered but I wasn’t ready to abandon my quest just yet! It was during one of these interviews that I met Dereck Marnewick – the MD of EvaluNet. I became interested in his company, did a bit of research and after a 3 hour interview … here I am!  I have now been with EvaluNet for a few months and am learning, learning, learning!