Hi all,
so I browsed reddit a lot as a teenager. Thought I hated working, the rat race, and wanted something meaningful with a good work life balance.
So I became a maths teachers. I studied pure mathematics (which I loved) and education. I've been teaching for 2 years now and I love my job since it's very fufilling. I work 6-7 hours a day and my job is fun. I get to play sports, go on camps, do fun experiments and clubs, teach a subject I love, and my classes are freaking awesome with amazing students. I thought I was out of the rat race as I don't do it for money but the pay is OK (I', guaranteed to make low 6 figures eventually), I am out of office politics since I don't need to negotiate pay and the staff are the best people I have ever worked with, and I am out of the corporate world I thought I despised so much.
I don't ever work past 4:30pm (that's my latest) two days a week and other days between 1-3pm and start at around 8:45. I travel internationally 3-4 times a year due to school holidays and get paid for it.
But I'm bored, my evenings and weekends are spent on youtube, reddit, video games, movies, sport, spend time with my girlfriend, and a couple of hobbies. When I was at uni I was having 10-12 hour days and studying and now it's like I have all this free time on my hands. I miss the complexity of the problems I did at uni. While not having to negotiate pay is great, it feels like there's nothing to strive for while I see people around me getting promotions and stuff and working on big projects in careers such as programming, or engineering. While the salary isn't bad, I see salaries in these careers making 2x as much and I feel like I'm in a dead end. It's less about the money but more about knowing I can make that much. It's not that I see promotions as a status thing but that you're skilled enough to take on more resposibility.
I thought I didn't want to work, I deamt of retiring as soon as possible but now I can't imagine not having a job. So right now I'm torn, I guess I achieved what I wanted but I feel kinda empty. I feel like I'm a nobody and that I've 'stagnated' despite this being the point I thought I wanted to get to and I don't know what to do now. My dream has always been to work overseas. I'm going/was going to start applying next year since I'll have met the bare minimum experience for a decent school but if I switch careers, I'll be at least 4 years away from that (2-3 year degree, 2 years experience) and I'm pretty impatient for a change in scenary atm. But also worried changing will be more difficult when I come back if I decide to stick with teaching since I'll be starting new again. I also know in tech I'll have way more of a chance of landing a job in Europe (it's basically impossible in teaching since I'm Australian) but teaching opportunities often provide housing which seems difficult to get in Europe atm.
Do I focus on myself and making life outside work more interesting or do I change careers? This is something that's been bothering me for about a year now and I sometimes wake up in sweats due to being indecisive. I am not sure if I'm happy or not. Even if I were to change, I'm having a hard time deciding between data and web development and how to approach it. Is this a grass is greener scenario? I'm asking this thread because it seems retirement is what people want. What do you do/plan to do in your spare time or if you had this spare time?
Thanks a lot for your time.