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Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

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Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#21

Post by blowski »

trashface wrote: post #15
spicyusername wrote: post #2

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

Possibly not great for men: "One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you'll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. "What is it about young kids that appeals to you?" is the kind of question you hear. There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in tho…

...and repeating such stereotypes like this only serves to further them. Let's not spread such nonsense.

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#22

Post by mlyle »

trashface wrote: post #15
spicyusername wrote: post #2

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

Possibly not great for men: "One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you'll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. "What is it about young kids that appeals to you?" is the kind of question you hear. There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in tho…

Early education --- preschool and perhaps early elementary --- is admittedly a tough place for men.

On the other hand, someone who's spent a lot of time honing technical skills probably belongs not teaching preschool & kindergarten but in upper elementary, middle school, or beyond. And I've found that a perfectly welcoming place as a middle school & high school teacher (and running after-school programs for upper elementary).

A dirty little secret, too, is that men often have a much easier time with classroom management, etc, because of cultural biases.

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#23

Post by ispo »

ekhaliul wrote: post #17
ispo wrote: post #9

Start a PhD.

Did that.. and a postdoc. IMHO it's a waste of time and does not get you any closer to your goals. Exception could be when you end up on a project that could become a startup business idea, but that is not what OP is asking.

The OP will easily get a tenured job in any tech related branch after a PhD, while just going directly for teaching (as others advised) would result in long term socioeconomic downgrade.

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#25

Post by nopenopenopeno »

trashface wrote: post #15
spicyusername wrote: post #2

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

Possibly not great for men: "One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you'll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. "What is it about young kids that appeals to you?" is the kind of question you hear. There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in tho…

A close friend just moved across the country and back because what he thought would be his dream teaching job turned out to be laced with dramatic and patently insane identity politics as described. He is himself a socialist passionate about helping poor working class people, but his coworkers were snotty out-of-touch liberals with no conception of class divisions at all. They were intent on dividing society along gender lines.

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#26

Post by elvis70 »

trashface wrote: post #15
spicyusername wrote: post #2

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

Possibly not great for men: "One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you'll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. "What is it about young kids that appeals to you?" is the kind of question you hear. There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in tho…

I hope you are exaggerating

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#27

Post by germinalphrase »

the_only_law wrote: post #19
laomai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Become a substitute teacher first. I've heard good STEM substitutes are hard to find. (and frequently rebooked) It'll also a low bar way to test out whether you enjoy teaching, and which age range you prefer to teach.

How does that pay though? I know OP mentioned they’re fine with a paycut, but I my understanding was subs tend to get a low per-diem pay that would probably end up much less than 1/3 of what they were getting in tech. Most subs I remember tended to be rather old and I imagine they were mostly supplementing other income.

In the upper Midwest, somewhere between 100-200 per day is typical.

Re: Ask HN: In mid 40s. What non-tech job can I do?

#28

Post by blowski »

plim8481 wrote: post #4
spicyusername wrote: post #2

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

How would you break in to this without going through school again to get certified?

It's a huge amount of work, but I've met a couple of people who set up their own out of hours "school" and have been running it for years. That said, they lost money on it and even now it only breaks even in a good year, so it depends whether you're looking for a worthy occupation to fill your time, or something to do.
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