Firstly, thanks to 80,000 hours for your inspiring work!
I’m writing to seek some advice on making a career change.
Currently, I’m a teacher of English as a foreign language and while I enjoy learning about and working with people of others cultures, sharing knowledge and helping students I feel I need a greater intellectual challenge, to develop new profesional skills and I feel that my efforts are not as fruitful as I’d like.
I’m considering returning to study after 8 years and doing a post-grad. My educatiom background is a BA in Hispanic Studies and I’m drawn to an MSc in International Development.
The questions I’d like to ask are:
does this seem like an effective transition into a new and more impactful career?
what skills should I learn and/or what experience should I try to gain in the meantime?
should I focus first on finding more fulfilling roles within my organisation, which has some affiliations with charities such as UNICEF?
Finding roles for skilling up within your organisation sounds like a good idea to me—that seems quicker and cheaper to try out than doing a whole new degree. Longer term, an MSc in ID does sound like an impactful degree. The jobs it leads to could be fairly competitive though—you might like to look carefully at what jobs you’d be aiming for afterwards, and try to get some sense of whether you’d be likely to get them if you had the degree (eg by reaching out to the organisation). You might also like to do some related MOOCs, to give you a good sense of how much you’d actually enjoy the MSc.
Hi everyone,
Firstly, thanks to 80,000 hours for your inspiring work!
I’m writing to seek some advice on making a career change.
Currently, I’m a teacher of English as a foreign language and while I enjoy learning about and working with people of others cultures, sharing knowledge and helping students I feel I need a greater intellectual challenge, to develop new profesional skills and I feel that my efforts are not as fruitful as I’d like.
I’m considering returning to study after 8 years and doing a post-grad. My educatiom background is a BA in Hispanic Studies and I’m drawn to an MSc in International Development.
The questions I’d like to ask are:
does this seem like an effective transition into a new and more impactful career?
what skills should I learn and/or what experience should I try to gain in the meantime?
should I focus first on finding more fulfilling roles within my organisation, which has some affiliations with charities such as UNICEF?
Thanks for reading!
Finding roles for skilling up within your organisation sounds like a good idea to me—that seems quicker and cheaper to try out than doing a whole new degree. Longer term, an MSc in ID does sound like an impactful degree. The jobs it leads to could be fairly competitive though—you might like to look carefully at what jobs you’d be aiming for afterwards, and try to get some sense of whether you’d be likely to get them if you had the degree (eg by reaching out to the organisation). You might also like to do some related MOOCs, to give you a good sense of how much you’d actually enjoy the MSc.