Katie Campbell

Age at time of shift

24

Gender

Female

Education level

Graduate

Universities attended

University of Southampton

Shifted from

Medical Research Assistant

Location

?

Salary

£0-£20,000

Years in old career

2

Shifted to

Science teacher

Location

?

Salary

£20,000-£30,000

Years in new career

5

Year of shift

unknown

What was your role in your old job?

Asthma research - experiments, collecting, interpreting and presenting data and contributing to research papers.

What is/are your new role(s)?

Key Stage 3 Science, Biology and Chemistry GCSE, AS A2 Biology.

Why did you change?

Lack of job satisfaction.

Are you happy with the change?

Yes - training year and NQT year very demanding (great deal of time and energy!)

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

Miss - nothing! Don't miss - frustration of experiments not working/lack of progress.

How did you go about making the change?

Researched options, including using Internet. Established that there was a GTP (Graduate Training Programme) scheme available.

What was the most difficult thing about changing?

Funding whilst re-training as a teacher; had to spend time in a school as part of GTP, and had to use annual leave from existing job to be able to meet this commitment.

What help did you get?

There was an organisation called Timeplan that assisted with advice on GTP/helped you get onto it; not sure it it still exists now.

What have you learnt in the process?

Any career change is possible if you put your mind to it and pursue it 100%. Also be prepared to make a few sacrifices along the way, mainly time and money! But long term benefits outweigh short term hardships.

What do you wish you'd done differently?

Nothing!

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

You'll only sit there wondering 'what if' if you don't give it a go!