5 ms·

Idea: One of the best things you can do if you are burnt out from a job (esp in tech) is to teach. To see that spark in someone else’s eyes can reignite the spa

Idea: One of the best things you can do if you are burnt out from a job (esp in tech) is to teach. To see that spark in someone else’s eyes can reignite the spark in yours. I wonder if large companies (looking at you FAANG) would be down to put their money where their mouth is and start a part-time teaching program for senior engineers who are near burn out. Keep the engineers at their salary-level, the education boards can subsidize and perhaps the kids can gain a well-connected mentor for life.

guyzero 3y ago
Microsoft is way ahead of you: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/teals https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/teals "Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) is a Microsoft Philanthropies program that builds sustainable computer science (CS) programs in high schools. We focus on serving students excluded from learning CS because of race, gender, or geography. TEALS helps teachers learn to teach CS by pairing them with industry volunteers and proven curricula."
lolinder 3y ago
> One of the best things you can do if you are burnt out from a job (esp in tech) is to teach. To see that spark in someone else’s eyes can reignite the spark in yours. Do you know this from experience or are you just guessing? In practice, most school teachers I know are themselves perpetually on the verge of burning out from having to handle dozens of children who don't want to be there and constant complaints from their helicopter parents. I want to want to teach, but I can't imagine transitioning from burnt-out in tech to teaching in a public school. I'm far more interested in looking into mentoring and after-school programs with voluntary participation.
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  > In practice, most school teachers I know are themselves perpetually on the verge of burning out from having to handle dozens of children who don't want to be there and constant complaints from their helicopter parents. My wife moved from teaching (~12 years, IIRC) to content production in a tech startup. She doesn't write code, but she's definitely getting the full working-at-a-tech-startup experience otherwise (though, not one of the really awful ones). A day rarely goes by that she doesn't mention how much less-stressful this is than teaching was. [EDIT] If you ask her if teaching is good, she'll tell you that yes, teaching kids is good, but being a teacher is only barely about that, and is less so every year, and all the other parts are shitty at best and deliberately abusive at worst. Plus the pay's terrible, to add insult to injury.
  - finite_depth 3y ago
    Former teacher turned tech worker here. Same opinion.
- epcoa 3y ago
  First there is TEALS, this isn’t exactly what the GP describes but it is similar. The other thing is that your attitude and satisfaction can be very different if you are “just visiting” from a relatively lucrative career vs imprisoned in that environment.
- pj_mukh 3y ago
  Yes it’s a well researched issue [1]. Under-resourced underpaid School teachers burning out and senior programmers mentoring students to stop burning out are sorta tangential issues. I’m not advocating putting senior programmers into full time teacher positions with all its scarcity. I specifically said they should be left on their FAANG salaries. [1]https://mentorloop.com/blog/how-to-recover-from-burnout https://mentorloop.com/blog/how-to-recover-from-burnout

guyzero 3y ago

Microsoft is way ahead of you: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/teals https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/teals "Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) is a Microsoft Philanthropies program that builds sustainable computer science (CS) programs in high schools. We focus on serving students excluded from learning CS because of race, gender, or geography. TEALS helps teachers learn to teach CS by pairing them with industry volunteers and proven curricula."

lolinder 3y ago

> One of the best things you can do if you are burnt out from a job (esp in tech) is to teach. To see that spark in someone else’s eyes can reignite the spark in yours. Do you know this from experience or are you just guessing? In practice, most school teachers I know are themselves perpetually on the verge of burning out from having to handle dozens of children who don't want to be there and constant complaints from their helicopter parents. I want to want to teach, but I can't imagine transitioning from burnt-out in tech to teaching in a public school. I'm far more interested in looking into mentoring and after-school programs with voluntary participation.

hotnfresh 3y ago
> In practice, most school teachers I know are themselves perpetually on the verge of burning out from having to handle dozens of children who don't want to be there and constant complaints from their helicopter parents. My wife moved from teaching (~12 years, IIRC) to content production in a tech startup. She doesn't write code, but she's definitely getting the full working-at-a-tech-startup experience otherwise (though, not one of the really awful ones). A day rarely goes by that she doesn't mention how much less-stressful this is than teaching was. [EDIT] If you ask her if teaching is good, she'll tell you that yes, teaching kids is good, but being a teacher is only barely about that, and is less so every year, and all the other parts are shitty at best and deliberately abusive at worst. Plus the pay's terrible, to add insult to injury.
- finite_depth 3y ago
  Former teacher turned tech worker here. Same opinion.
epcoa 3y ago
First there is TEALS, this isn’t exactly what the GP describes but it is similar. The other thing is that your attitude and satisfaction can be very different if you are “just visiting” from a relatively lucrative career vs imprisoned in that environment.
pj_mukh 3y ago
Yes it’s a well researched issue [1]. Under-resourced underpaid School teachers burning out and senior programmers mentoring students to stop burning out are sorta tangential issues. I’m not advocating putting senior programmers into full time teacher positions with all its scarcity. I specifically said they should be left on their FAANG salaries. [1]https://mentorloop.com/blog/how-to-recover-from-burnout https://mentorloop.com/blog/how-to-recover-from-burnout