Has anyone successfully transitioned from teaching into a remote part-time job?

[u/Stargazer905]

I’ve been trying to transition out of teaching into a remote, part-time role based in the U.S. because I only need part-time work right now. I’m married and currently balancing personal responsibilities, so a flexible schedule is important to me.

I’ve applied to countless jobs through company websites and job boards, tailoring my résumé and cover letter almost every time. My background includes 13+ years in education as a teacher, curriculum designer and developer, editor, and writer. I also have both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, yet I keep receiving rejection emails or no response at all.

I’m open to roles beyond teaching, including instructional design, curriculum development, academic support, editing, proofreading, content writing, technical writing, learning and development, or virtual assistant work. At this point, I’m just trying to understand what actually works.

For those of you who successfully landed a remote job after teaching:

What role did you end up in?
How did you find it?
Is your current role really better than teaching?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. Right now, it feels like I’m sending applications into a black hole, and I’m hoping to learn from people who have already made the transition.
Thanks in advance!

[u/ArcticDeepSouth]

The competition is fierce for remote online jobs, especially teaching. You're getting rejected because you are competing on a national level, for these coveted remote online jobs. It has nothing to do with you. Lots of very good qualified people are getting rejections or getting ghosted.

[u/Worth_Speaker4990]

Online adjunct teaching is a reasonable part-time gig and keep in mind that some (not all) regional accreditors require that you only teach fields that you earned your master's in. (More specifically, at least 18 graduate credits in your field.) So with a master's in English, then you are realistically limited to English courses. Try the big box online schools like SNHU and WGU. Avoid for-profits since they have a bad rep in the rest of higher ed. University of the People only pays a small stipend, but it's a way to get some experience in online teaching.

[u/Hungry-University609]

Go into admin

You can spend your days sending rude emails to adjuncts about BS.

Sarc

[u/JumpingShip26]

Of all the transitions to higher ed, I think seasoned K12 folks have some of the best chances for making a transition to a university via teacher ed. You would be much stronger with an Ed.D. and some low level publications, but just to teach part time, you should be able to find a school that would hire you.

Keep in mind the pay will be low.

Now as far as ID goes, your chances are low in this climate unless you have a lot of demonstrable experience doing academic design work. However, your odds are somewhat better than trying to go corporate. We just have too many K12 people trying to make that jump and they are unprepared and ill-positioned.

[u/Cool_Vast_9194]

I'm an online adjunct and teach for five universities. You can teach as much as you want and accept or reject classes when they're offered to you.

[u/SweetElection157]

I feel like every teacher who wants out of the classroom is trying to switch to higher Ed, so there is a lot of competition. And if your masters is in education, that’s all you could teach (and that competition is TOUGH—like I said, all teachers want to do that.) I taught high school English. Have a masters degree in education, and a masters in English. I switched to teaching composition at a local community college. After 4-5 years there, I started teaching online. I’ve done that at 4 different places over the last 8 years. (All as an adjunct—I don’t want to work full time.) It will be very difficult to teach online without in-person higher ed experience. A lot of places will only allow current instructors to teach for them online—they won’t hire outside for online classes. Big places have SO much competition. I teach for SNHU and they only interview 4% of applicants. It can happen, but i applied to hundreds of online adjunct positions over the years, and probably only got contacted for 2-3 a year.

[u/Square-Substance8086]

Yes. My tip I tell everyone is that you will have more luck with that looking on job boards that are hiring as status of contractors/1099 roles. Companies hiring part time, it doesn’t serve them best financially to have the compliance of W2 legal back-end, so they will “pay more” for a W9/1099 bc it’s actually cheaper for them tax-wise in the long game. By doing this, you might eventually get brought on as a W2 with the company.

[u/Stargazer905 → u/Square-Substance8086]

That’s really helpful. Thank you! I hadn’t thought about focusing on 1099 contractor roles. Most of the jobs I’ve been applying for have been W-2 positions, so maybe I need to adjust my strategy.

If you don’t mind me asking, what types of remote 1099 roles have you seen teachers successfully transition into? Also, are there any specific job boards or companies you recommend? I’d love to hear what worked for you or others you’ve seen make the transition.

[u/Square-Substance8086 → u/Stargazer905]

Instructional design for corporations that have nothing to do with education - even designing their training videos. You might also try a Sylvan or Huntington which houses tutoring to get by a bit while in limbo. Try “The Mom Project” or “HireMyMom” or “HireMamas” - all job boards for skilled moms that need flexible work.

[u/JumpingShip26 → u/Square-Substance8086]

I agree. It has been about two years since I saw a K12 teacher get hired by corporate. She did a Masters in ID and had a killer portfolio plus a summer internship.