u/cryingmybest24

After over a decade of suffering as a teacher, I finally broke free. I’m currently doing an enablement role for a tech brand so I’m still working closely with schools and teachers, but I’m happy to no longer be responsible of young lives and minds. Feels good not to be checking papers on my free time or dealing with faculty meetings that always go overtime, and the teaching nightmares (you know, the ones where I suddenly have to teach something on the fly without preparation for whatever reason) are gone.

I applied to more than 100 jobs and got only 4 interview invites. But honestly, it’s because I mostly applied on job boards with a generic resume. I also tailored my resume for applications in company portals, but honestly that whole thing is a whole full-time job in itself and after four months of applying I just couldn’t be bothered anymore. The 4 interviews I got are all from job boards, I didn’t get any interviews for those I tailored my resume for. But that’s just my experience and it’s not gonna be applicable for everyone.

Much of job applications these days, at least in my experience, is based on luck. ATS filters and recruiter mood are things we can’t control. But what I noticed I had in common across those 4 interview invites was that I was among the early applicants.

I was progressing well for an instructional design job til I flopped the AI test, I was ghosted by one L&D job after my first interview. I got job offers for an academic support role and this enablement role I’m currently at. There are seasons when it’s more physically draining than teaching but I prefer being here, my job ends when I clock out. I have time for hobbies and actually living my life.

This is just my experience, and I’m hoping I can keep this job for a while before I try a better company with even better pay. But just having my time back for now has been a revolutionary lifestyle change.

Pa-rant lang, friends. I’m lucky na I have a job offer which I accepted na and I’m currently attending to my pre-employment requirements, which include the medical exam. In my previous job, wala naman akong nagiging problema sa APE except may isa lang talaga na need ng annual clearance from my doctor, which nagagawa ko naman. But since I am moving to a new company, syempre panibagong medical exam na naman, at tatlo dun ang na-fail/pending ko for some reason hahaha.

So nag-avail ako ng imaging test, nagpa-clearance ako sa internist, and kukuha pa ako ng annual clearance dun sa old doctor ko. And almost 7k ang magagastos ko for all of this (less than 1k lang yung mismong PE). Even then di ko pa sure kung magiging “fit to work” pa ba ako, I feel like I’m at the mercy of the lab’s physician huhuhu. But it’s just my anxiety speaking. Dekada na rin naman ako sa workforce, halos di nga ako nakakagamit ng sick leave! Nakaka-frustrate lang talaga at ngayon pa naisipan ng katawan ko na huwag makisama. And yung hr din nung new company, ang bagal sumagot hahaha so parang may decision fatigue na rin ako kung paano ko ba malalampasan ito.

Kahit na nakakapagod magpabalik-balik ng lab at clinic, I just remind myself ano ba ang pinaglalaban ko, especially pinaghirapan ko rin makaalis sa previous job ko. Fighting!!