What 6 years in education taught me about being a professional

I chose Bloc’s software engineering track as a transition out of the education industry. After six years in both public and private schools, as a teacher and principal, I didn’t find the passion for my work I was hoping to find, and decided it was time move into the world of tech. Those six years in the classroom were not without value, however. Sure, pedagogy and lesson planning are skills I will not likely call upon as a developer, but I did learn plenty about being a professional and professionalism is something I will undoubtedly bring with me to software development. Here are four important lessons I picked up in my brief education career.

Collaboration Means Communication
Teaching is a highly collaborative field. Constantly I found myself in the presence of other people; whether it was a class full of kids, a meeting room full of teachers, or an office of two inquisitive parents, people surrounded me at all times. In order to collaborate with these people, communication is essential. Through six years in education, I learned three guiding principles of professional communication. First, be transparent; colleagues should know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and if they don’t, it’s your responsibility to communicate that to them. Second, ask questions. The inverse of principle #1 is to know what your colleagues are doing at all times the same way they should know your work. If you’re unsure of how you fit into a colleague’s work, ask and find out. Third, twice is better than zero. In other words, it’s better to communicate something too many times than not enough times. When in doubt, speak up!

Embrace Extra Hours
As a 22-year-old, one of the excitements about my first year of teaching was liberation from homework. Finally, I’d be the one dishing out dreaded assignments instead of completing them. This expectation proved naive as soon as I saw how many additional hours of lesson planning and grading are required. Darn it. Later into the school year I had a shift in mindset—rather than lament the extra work, embrace it as the path to excellence. After taking this mindset to heart, I found myself complaining less about the oodles of outside-the-classroom work teaching requires, and began to enjoy the opportunity to blaze a trail toward better teaching. My students benefitted from this as well considering the quality of my teaching improved.

This revelation is not limited to teaching; any professional in search of excellence in their craft must employ an around-the-clock work ethic.

Who’s Your Boss?
In my second year of teaching, my district-appointed mentor offered an interesting insight. “You know the most valuable thing about being a teacher,” he said, “is that you’ll never have a boss as demanding as a group of 10-year-olds.” At the time I couldn’t help but chuckle at this, but in retrospect he made a very good point. Kids don’t tolerate lateness, they don’t accept laziness, they don’t comprehend poor performance. Kids naturally expect consistent, high quality performance from their teachers day in and day out. As I exited the classroom and moved into administration, I adopted this concept as my personal mantra—“would my 4th graders accept this? Would my 7th grade class understand why I’m doing this?” By framing my work this way I tapped into a new level of honesty and earnestness. If I completed a task such that it would satisfy my students, it would almost certainly satisfy any colleague or supervisor too.

Pride, Not Ego
This one’s tough. There is a very fine line between pride’s end and ego’s beginning. Taking pride in your work is an integral part for any professional; if you’re not proud of your accomplishments then you probably don’t care. Unfortunately, the inverse is equally true; if you’re not upset at your shortcomings then you also might not care. No industry benefits from apathetic employees. Invested, caring, prideful employees bring the most value to a company and industry, the trick is to devote pride, but not ego, into your work. In my situation, I’ll bring ample pride in my coding skills to my career as a developer, I’ll be proud when things go well, I’ll be disappointed and motivated when they don’t. I will not, however, bring arrogance in my skills to my career, I will not allow my work to be a reflection of myself, and I will not take the results personally. Easy to write, much harder to execute. There is a space between pride and ego, but it takes time to find it!