Singaporean asks: “Do you regret quitting your corporate job and going into teaching?”

SINGAPORE: A Reddit user wanted to know if teaching in Singapore is worth pursuing after her mother, a teacher herself, feels otherwise.

u/Southern_Concert6764 asked on r/Singapore on Sunday (13 Aug) if anyone who has gone down this path regrets it. Moreover, “How do you find it in terms of pay and progression?” she added.

“My mum is completely dead set against me going down the same teaching path as her cos she says it’s just extremely draining and difficult – not worth the compensation and holidays at all. I thought it might be a meaningful career but am frankly unsure now.”

A woman who quit the corporate life to work as a school counsellor and whose husband is also a teacher said it’s worth it for her but added that this is “highly subjective.”

“Honestly, if you find teaching meaningful and are willing to take the risk, you might enjoy it,” wrote a Reddit user with several teachers in his family.

“Work-life balance is subjective, really depends on the individual teacher,” opined another.

One wrote that he would not recommend it. “You either support it with passion (where you work long hours and feel the burnout), or you do it minimally (which doesn’t really help in progression).”

Another Redditor highlighted the downside of teaching: “Cue mountains of paperwork, study plans, frivolous complaints from parents, micromanagement by senior teachers and HODs, marking, CCAs, ‘volunteering’ for events’, he couldn’t make time for his family, and struggled for the better part of three years.”

One suggested: “I think a great way to satisfy your teaching passion would probably be private sector tuition.”

However, a person who did just that—switched from corporate to teaching—wrote, “I only know I’m charged up to work, a sensation I haven’t felt in 5 years.”

/TISG

Is $5K monthly salary for teachers too high? — Netizens are divided