Teachers develop strong transferable skills that can be valuable to potential employers, public speaking, strong organization skills, relationship skills, and strong communication skills are highly valued in the private sector. Don't expect potential employers to recognize that teachers have the skills they need, you need to sell it and explain how it applies to their needs. Probably the single most valuable skill that companies look for is communication skills, verbal and written, and a teaching background is pretty much a guarantee of strength in that area. Your resume gets you the interview, research the job and explain how you have those skills in a summary of qualifications, apply teaching to the skills they are looking for, don't expect them to figure that out on their own.
Teaching experience and advanced education in teaching maps directly into careers in corporate training which has expanded into include other areas like instructional design.
Project and program management are lucrative careers in a broad range of businesses, teaching skills like communication, organization, and planning map into those program and project management functions well.
Sell your ability to communicate, in almost any business success is a matter of selling yourself and your ideas, the single most important skill that defines success in business, is the ability to communicate, press that as your superpower wherever you go.
A lot of management skills parallel teaching skills, as do sales jobs which can be very lucrative. most sales jobs are a matter of teaching customers about your product or service and explaining how it benefits them, most sales jobs are just teaching plus the ability to close. Sales jobs typically pay for performance, especially the most lucrative ones, so don't be shy about telling them you are hungry for more money, they want to see that, in a sales interview, you like teaching, it just doesn't pay enough. Tell them about the 80/20 rule, (80% of sales comes from 20% of the salespeople), tell them you have the skills and want to be in that 20% group since that's where the big money is, that will help overcome concerns that a teacher might be naive about the competitive business world. I hired quite a few teachers into sales jobs in my career, usually it was a great move.
If you want to pursue a lucrative sales career, let me coach you on how to nail the interview. Sales is pretty much teaching plus the ability to overcome objections, and most importantly, the ability to close, it's pretty straightforward to explain why the skills you developed teaching applies to their needs but make sure you walk them through it to show them you understand the task at hand, overcome any objections they bring up, that's a test. Once you do that well, the only question they have left is "can you close", so when the interview is coming to an end, typically that's when they ask if you have any questions for them, ask them what the most important quality a salesperson can have is, many will say the ability to close, but if they say anything else, tell them you think it's the ability to close, and then ask for the order, tell them you are closing them, ask when do I start. They will either hire you, or tell you they have others to interview, if you can't close them in the interview, ask them to make you a promise, if the other candidates don't try to close them, then they will give you the job. That will convince them you can sell, tell them you aren't just a teacher, you are a salesman who has worked as a teacher, and it will also make them compare every other candidate to you, and I guarantee you they will eliminate anyone who doesn't try to close them in the interview.
I managed salespeople in a very high-tech industry for decades, most sales manager's know they can teach you their product or service, what they are looking for in the interview is someone who possesses the skills that are very hard to teach, as a teacher, you can convince them you have those skills, tell them that you have the skills that are hardest to teach and you know they can always teach you the technology, product, or service, you should be convincing that you have developed those skills through teaching, and then you close them.
I spent a lot of time talking about the career path I know best, but like I said, teaching develops a range of skills that port very well into a broad range of careers, learn what the job entails, recognize how well your teaching skills prepare you for that, and go sell yourself.
Last thing, wear a dark blue or charcoal gray suit, white shirt, maroon tie, that's the classic business power suit, go to the interview looking like a businessperson, not a teacher.
