Making the Switch from Classroom to Corporate

Aug 9

This blog post is part of a series of articles researched, written, and formatted by Juno interns. As leaders in the recruiting industry, Juno aims to provide learning opportunities for young professionals to grow and develop in all aspects of their future career path.

As I begin to navigate the looming post-graduation job search, I grow worried I’ll find myself stuck in a field that once captivating, now drains me; teaching. This concern drove me to spend my summer in a new place, trying something I truthfully had a limited knowledge base on: recruiting. The recruiting world is mesmerizing, new, daunting and yet oddly familiar. As I started to meet my coworkers and learn about their background, I observed that they each had different work and education backgrounds, and no two shared the same story. Everyone seemed to just fall into recruiting one way or another, which intrigued me more once I met Alyssa, who was a teacher for over 8 years before finding recruiting this past January.

I resonated with many of the statements Alyssa made about teaching; she felt undervalued, overstressed and completely drained at the end of each day. As a student in this field, I’m catching a glimpse of the complex array of emotions tied to growing bitterness towards your work. It’s only natural to have doubts as a college student, but the lingering feeling of discontentment hasn’t subsided, especially after seeing the passion my coworkers have for their work. After briefly chatting with Alyssa about her career as a teacher, I grew curious as to how her skill set transferred into recruiting. Because recruiting seems so different from what I prepared myself for, the same being true of Alyssa, how could the transition, just 6 months in, appear so seamless? As she described similarities between her teaching and recruiting careers, it was clear the two worlds were not as disjoint as meets the ear, the overlap of skills is significant. Being the outline-making lesson-plan-writing education student I am, I grouped our conversation into 3 main takeaways.

TEACHERS ARE PEOPLE-PEOPLE, AND SO ARE RECRUITERS.

While the skills and needs —and age—of each target group are different, the people-centered aspect is certainly the most obvious similarity between teaching and recruiting. From building trust and connections to meeting the needs of those you’re responsible to, being people oriented allows professionals in each field to excel in their work. There’s a quote I often come across with my classroom experiences: while we don’t always remember what a specific teacher taught us, we often remember how they make us feel. I would have to argue that what they teach us matters quite a bit but the premise is connecting matters, because connections are how we reach people. In my conversation with Alyssa, the theme of connecting continued to reappear. She was connected to someone who happened to work at Juno, and now feels comfortable and enthused with her work because of the team’s commitment to meeting her where she was.

ORGANIZATION AND TIME MANAGEMENT; THE WAY OF THE WORKING WORLD

Relating to time management, Alyssa mentioned that a school setting is largely more structurally organized than her typical day as a recruiter, but her experience planning as a teacher has been greatly beneficial in self-structuring her days as a recruiter. I’m inclined to say the workforce largely agrees that these skills are crucial to anyone, but this is magnified when these skills are depended upon by other people. Teaching is inherently a plan-based field. The success of a student, while multidimensional and complex, is enhanced through a teacher’s ability to plan in a way that supports the student. Recruiters may not be writing lesson plans, but the theme of dependence is present through responsibilities to clients and candidates.

BEING “WITH-IT” AND PROACTIVITY

Proactivity looks different for a teacher, partially because safety is a concern working full-time with young people, but the skill itself translates well into recruiting. A term I like quite a bit is withitness. Coined by Jacob Kounin, the term describes the more popularized euphemism of teachers—or parents—having “eyes on the back of their head” (or knowing what’s happening at all times). The ability to “keep tabs” and preemptively intervene contributes to being a good teacher. When it comes to clients and candidates, the ability to prepare and work behind the scenes, acting proactively, exerts professionalism. Alyssa may not be working with Kindergarten students full-time anymore, but her proactive mindset in the classroom only enhances her approach to recruiting.

I’m grateful to Alyssa and her willingness to share her experience with me especially as I ask myself some of the same questions she did prior to her career shift. What I loved most about our conversation was how honest and genuine she was. She mentioned that at one point she simply googled “jobs for extroverts who love helping people” and just a bit later found herself in recruiting, which is the perfect picture to describe the career-encompassing path of recruiting.

Interested in becoming a recruiter but don't know where to start? Juno's got you covered - reach out to info@junosearchpartners.com for more resources.