Dream Job

So, out of the blue, the company that provided my technical training after I retired from the USAF has offered me my dream job!

Provide CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ instructor led training
25% increase in pay over my current full-time position (or, roughly the same amount that I make with three jobs)
Monday - Friday, night classes should I want to teach them
No weekends (I work, usually, Sunday through Friday now)
15 minutes from home (instead of 45 minute to 2 hour commute, depending on traffic and weather)
They provide training and cover certification costs for any certification they want me to get and/or teach
Access to several instructors who hold certifications in the classes I need to take for my degree from WGU.
More free time, so I can volunteer my time, experience, and "expertise" to local charities
More free time to spend with my family (most family stories start out with "Remember when we...oh, wait you were deployed or working...)

My wife and I still have a few questions about the details, which we hope to hash out by the end of this week. All-in-all, we have been praying for a job opportunity that would provide more money, shorter commute time, weekends off, and more time to pursue my degree. Biggest perk, to me, is having more time to devote to my family. Hopefully, the minor details that are causing questions for my wife will be quickly ironed out, to her satisfaction, and I can jump on this opportunity.

Overall, feeling rather blessed!

Anyone else on this forum work(ed) as an instructor? If so, any advise? Also, how many on this forum are working in their dream job right now? Was it what you expected? Lastly, if not in your dream job, what is it and why?

Cheers

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Comments

joelsfood

Congrats!

I've not worked as an instructor, but my dad does, teaching computer science, and loves it. I'm pretty much in my dream job now, though it wasn't to start (company has been sold, bought, and I've left and come back, and transferred within the company), and it's great. Wife and I have talked regularly over offers I get from other companies, and always end up realizing there's no way it could be as good.

So have at it, and consider yourself lucky.

zxbane

Congrats, sounds like the perfect opportunity.

Cyberscum

I have been thinking about these opportunities more and more. I would like to teach at the university level someday, maybe this would be a good alternative in the mean time. I wonder what teaching the CISSP and other security certs would make a year....hmmmmm

Congrats BTW!

anoeljr

Congrats stryder144! It's always great seeing hard-working people get such wonderful opportunities like these. Please keep us updated.

stryder144

Thank you, everyone, for the congratulations.

@cyberscum...reach out to the local technical schools (New Horizons, for instance) and inquire. My understanding is that you can make a pretty decent living teaching those subjects (it is up to you to decide what decent is). Also, a lot of those schools have night classes, so you might add a job as a night instructor while keeping your day job.

Danielm7

Congrats, if you've never taught anything I hope it works out for you. I haven't instructed anything technical, but I did teach martial arts for a long time, very different I know but its still a position of instruction. Some people are good at it, some not so much. Outside of making sure it is a good fit for you everything else sounds like a great change!

auxiliarypriest

Congrats. I always thought about teaching at a local college at some point in my career but I'm not sure if I got the chops for it. Hope it all works out for you!

stryder144

Thanks for the insight, Danielm7. I have taught before, though not quite as formally as this. My various jobs in the military required me to train people in every thing from physical security, alarm monitoring, airfield driving, OPSEC, etc. Additionally, I have taught various subjects (astronomy, knot tying, lashing, fire starting, etc) to 3rd-5th grade boys while volunteering in a scouting program (Royal Rangers, if anyone is interested). For my third job, I provide technical tutoring for those subjects at a company that helps students with disabilities.

Overall, it seems like a perfect fit and hoping it will be as fun as I am anticipating it to be.

TheProf

Part of my current job is to provide Citrix/VMware training.. a week long 9-5 type training. Advice, learn the product you're teaching well, don't be nervous and feel like you need to know everything about the topic you're teaching. Every instructor has their way of teaching, I am always very interactive with my students, I don't like just reading off the PPT or the book. Always try and correlate the topic you're teaching to real world scenario. It's not about covering all topics but about making sure the students understand the topic you're teaching. You will find that some students have a harder difficulty understanding the topic so being able to whiteboard the information you're explaining is going to be beneficial.

I also don't like handing out labs and asking the students to complete them, instead I do all the labs with them and explain the lab as we go.. that way you avoid the situation where the students just follow the steps in the lab manual but dont really understand what they're doing. Then after completing the labs, I give them a small task to do to see how well they understand the topic.

This is something you'll learn along the way, but if you enjoy teaching, you'll be good at it.

networker050184

Congrats!

coffeeluvr

Congratulations! Happy for you!

wolfinsheepsclothing

Congrats!

5502george

stryder144 wrote: »

Thanks for the insight, Danielm7. I have taught before, though not quite as formally as this. My various jobs in the military required me to train people in every thing from physical security, alarm monitoring, airfield driving, OPSEC, etc. Additionally, I have taught various subjects (astronomy, knot tying, lashing, fire starting, etc) to 3rd-5th grade boys while volunteering in a scouting program (Royal Rangers, if anyone is interested). For my third job, I provide technical tutoring for those subjects at a company that helps students with disabilities.

Overall, it seems like a perfect fit and hoping it will be as fun as I am anticipating it to be.

.....Well arnt you just mister perfect.

jk, I always commend people that help out in their spare time...I wonder to myslef, where the heck do they get the time?

Congrats and good luck!

Itrimble

Congrats

cknapp78

Congrats! Finally finding that dream job is a dream come true. I have been in mine for about a month after spending 4 months on unemployment. Work from home 3 weeks a month and only on the road for a week per month. Architect level work doing Exchange, Lync and AD. Training whenever I need it, company card for expenses, and an awesome team to work with.

Best of luck to you man! It may take forever to get there, but as you can see, if you persevere it pays off!

Corey