Anne Emerson

Age at time of shift

25

Gender

Female

Education level

Postgraduate

Universities attended

Uni of East Anglia; West Herts College

Shifted from

Editorial Assistant

Location

London

Salary

£0-£20,000

Years in old career

1

Shifted to

Primary school teacher

Location

Lincolnshire

Salary

£0-£20,000

Years in new career

6

Year of shift

1995

What was your role in your old job?

Collating quotations and images for anthologies, liaising with illustrators and designers, preparing the camera reading copy, liaising with printers.

What is/are your new role(s)?

Year 3/4 teacher/French teacher, KS2.

Why did you change?

Had always wanted to be a teacher but, at the advice of friends in the field, avoided going into teaching for a couple of years as a lot of serious changes were going on re: the curriculum. Eventually, I took the career change when I realised teaching was still very much the vocation I was after.

Are you happy with the change?

Yes. Ecstatically!

What do you miss and what don't you miss?

Missed: being able to take a day off when I wanted to, the freedom you got during the working day to go and get a cup of coffee when you felt like it, the feeling that I was part of an exciting set-up. Didn't miss: Didn't feel that what I was doing was actually helping anyone. Also, teaching is a major creative outlet but my work in publishing was limited, creatively-speaking.

How did you go about making the change?

I knew I needed to do a PGCE (had friends who'd trained as teachers) so I applied and got on the course.

What was the most difficult thing about changing?

All the lesson observation was tough. All that criticism of your personality/presentation (what you were wearing, even!), the constant assessment. As a teacher you feel the whole world is constantly looking at you and assessing you.

What help did you get?

N/A.

What have you learnt in the process?

I've learned to be a stronger person (learned to withstand the criticism). I've also been forced to learn to think on my feet more.

What do you wish you'd done differently?

Applied for the PGCE sooner. You need to think ahead to get onto the course on time.

What would you advise others to do in the same situation?

If you want to be a teacher, do as much classroom observation as possible in different schools to get an idea of what kind of teacher you want to be. Observe all the age-groups - not just the age you think you want to teach - you might be surprised. When you do your PGCE, keep an eye on any gaps in your training and make a point of trying to do something to fill them, e.g. getting more experience of teaching children with special needs. Once you start in the classroom you'll be too busy to fill the gaps!!