Jobs for former teachers: where the skills transfer, by the data.
Leaving the classroom? These are the careers O*NET links to teacher work, with the skill match, the pay change and how much more preparation each one needs.
Instructional Coordinators
91% skill match with “career/technical education teachers, secondary school”. A data comparison, not a recommendation.
O*NET lists 7 occupations outside teaching (other teaching jobs such as college teaching, tutoring and substitute teaching are left out) as related to at least one of the 14 BLS teacher occupations; the closest skill match among them is instructional coordinators (91%, compared with “career/technical education teachers, secondary school”). The table adds the 11 other occupations, outside education and needing no more preparation (O*NET Job Zone), whose skill profile is closest to a teacher occupation. Of these, training and development managers had the highest BLS median annual wage in May 2025 ($133,000).
Careers O*NET links to teacher work
Data Skill match uses TryHired's published method (see Method). Pay vs the related teacher occupation compares BLS national medians.
| Occupation (O*NET / BLS) | Why listed | Compared with (most similar teacher occupation) | Skill match | BLS median annual pay | Pay vs that teacher occupation | Preparation change (Job Zone) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional Coordinators | O*NET related | Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School + 5 more | 91% | $77,440 | +$11,170 | +1 |
| Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors | O*NET related | Special Education Teachers, Preschool + 2 more | 90% | $64,330 | −$500 | +1 |
| School Psychologists | O*NET related | Special Education Teachers, Preschool + 1 more | 85% | $95,990 | +$31,160 | +1 |
| Training and Development Specialists | O*NET related | Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School | 81% | $69,280 | +$3,010 | same |
| Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary | O*NET related | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School + 1 more | 72% | $105,870 | +$31,610 | +1 |
| Childcare Workers | O*NET related | Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education | 66% | $34,980 | −$3,160 | -1 |
| Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare | O*NET related | Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education | 63% | $59,300 | −$3,380 | same |
| Community Health Workers | Skill profile | Special Education Teachers, Preschool | 91% | $51,850 | −$12,980 | same |
| Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping | Skill profile | Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | 89% | $50,610 | +$8,940 | -1 |
| Choreographers | Skill profile | Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education | 84% | $55,310 | +$17,170 | same |
| Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan | Skill profile | Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | 84% | $45,920 | +$4,250 | -1 |
| Psychiatric Technicians | Skill profile | Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education | 83% | $45,130 | −$17,550 | -1 |
| Recreational Therapists | Skill profile | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 82% | $61,960 | −$12,300 | same |
| Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks | Skill profile | Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | 82% | $50,080 | +$8,410 | -2 |
| Interpreters and Translators | Skill profile | Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | 81% | $60,170 | +$18,500 | same |
| Customer Service Representatives | Skill profile | Substitute Teachers, Short-Term | 80% | $44,770 | +$3,100 | -2 |
| Training and Development Managers | Skill profile | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 79% | $133,000 | +$58,740 | same |
| Health Education Specialists | Skill profile | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 79% | $64,070 | −$10,190 | same |
The skills that carry over
Data O*NET skills rated important (level 3 or more) in both occupations.
- Speaking: rated important in 15 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
- Active Listening: rated important in 14 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
- Reading Comprehension: rated important in 13 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
- Writing: rated important in 10 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
- Social Perceptiveness: rated important in 8 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
- Learning Strategies: rated important in 6 of the 18 destinations and in the teacher occupation they relate to.
Skills to build
Data O*NET skills a destination needs at least half a level higher.
- Management of Financial Resources: needed at a higher level in 12 of the 18 destinations.
- Programming: needed at a higher level in 6 of the 18 destinations.
- Operations Analysis: needed at a higher level in 6 of the 18 destinations.
- Management of Material Resources: needed at a higher level in 6 of the 18 destinations.
- Management of Personnel Resources: needed at a higher level in 4 of the 18 destinations.
Four steps to change careers
Advice Advice, applied to the data above.
- Step 1Start from what transfers
Use the shared skills above as the spine of your resume: each bullet should show one of them with a result.
- Step 2Pick two or three targets
Choose destinations whose preparation change you can cover; a + Job Zone change usually means extra education or training.
- Step 3Translate the vocabulary
Rewrite teacher terms into the destination's language before you apply, and test the resume against a real posting.
- Step 4Close the gap you can name
If a destination needs a higher skill level, plan one course, project or volunteer role that proves it.
How this page is built
Destinations are the occupations O*NET 31.0 lists as related to each of the 14 BLS teacher occupations on the Teachers page, excluding the teacher occupations themselves, every other teaching occupation (SOC 25-1000 to 25-3000 and teaching assistants) and O*NET specialties without their own BLS wage. Ordered by how many teacher occupations list them, then by skill match. Rows marked “Skill profile” are not O*NET-listed relations: they are the occupations (outside education) whose O*NET skill profile is closest to one of the teacher occupations, by the same skill-match calculation applied to every O*NET occupation with a BLS wage, limited to occupations in the same or a lower Job Zone than that teacher occupation. Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Pay change compares the BLS national median annual wages (May 2025) of the two occupations. Preparation change compares O*NET Job Zones (Job Zones 1-2, 3, 4 and 5, from very little to extensive preparation; O*NET 31.0 combines zones 1 and 2).
- Whether a specific employer will hire you without direct experience.
- Pay at a specific employer.
- Which of these careers suits you personally.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license (Job Zones and related occupations). TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).