Career Changes

By tadgeobrien, 26 January, 2012

For the last 8 years I worked at a local education organization. My role was an Instructional Technology Specialist, which in theory works with teachers on integrating technology using relevant educational strategies. Over the course of my work in the organization I have grown and seen different ways that technology could benefit learners. However the demands being put on educational organizations in general has also changed. Education in the United States is once again being put under the microscope. I could go on about my own educational philosophy and how I believe that technology needs to be a central part of K-12 education, but that isn't the goal of this post. No the goal is to simply share that I have moved on. After 8 years of wonderful work with teachers, students, and my co-workers I decided to make a change.

I interviewed an took a job as a Network Engineer. Yes that's right a former teacher is a Network Engineer. This has been a big jump for me and I am really enjoying it so far. It has really been stretching my brain, and I am being exposed to so much. There are a whole set of protocols to learn about, there is everything about the firewall, intrusion prevention, the OSI model, and about a million other things that are floating around that my brain often times is swimming at the end of the day. Its entertaining to me to see the amount of web pages that I have open at the end of a day, and then even funnier when I realize that I have reopen the same page multiple times, sometimes not realizing it.

The hard thing at this point and time, is this wasn't a career shift, this was a career change. I have some surface level understanding of Networking, but not nearly the same competence as my peers. This would have been different had I stayed in Education and shifted from one role to another, even if that role would have been more technical. I would have had the comfort of knowing what teaching and learning should and does look like.

Here I often feel the first amphibian coming up for a breath of air. I know that I can breath, but its just so new that I am gasping to get the rhythm down right.

So I am hoping that I take a bit more time and share what I am learning and continue to reflect upon the change that I have made. I do hope that someday I will be able to work in education again. I truly enjoyed working with others who were learning about something new as well.