So, it took 10 years, but I got my Ph.D. (Whether or not I should have is a question it's way too late to ask. :)

My field is Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on foreign language instruction, particularly Spanish. However, I'm stuck right now teaching high school, which is (a) a BAD fit for me in terms of the workload and in terms of having to spend time on stuff like "tuck in your shirt," "put on your ID badge," "you've shown up without pencil or paper again?" and (b) it's exactly what I was doing before grad school, albeit with better pay. I'm teaching English and had hoped at least to switch back over to Spanish this year to see if that made it better; I like the kids, we just bought our first house and it's 5 minutes from work, and did I mention the pay is good? I have to stick to jobs that have benefits because my husband's unlikely ever to get them through his own work, so I can't afford to do a part-time version of my dream job, community college Spanish, because part-timers don't get insurance.

The few full-time community-college teaching jobs are incredibly competitive. I have taught part-time at the nearest CC both before I got my full-time job and while doing that job. I loved it and got great teaching reviews from my supervisor, but she was very frustrated by my difficulties staying on top of deadlines for paperwork and getting grades done and in. I feel that I might have done better at that had I had a full-time position, which would come with some dedicated office space and hours to see students; nonetheless, it's true I have trouble with some of those same aspects of my HS teaching job. I have a feeling that her frustration with the deadlines (she, too, was working a full-time job elsewhere, and doing far more paperwork than I had to, so it's not as if I could say a lot about "Well, if it weren't for my other full-time job"). I have the feeling my reference from her has slipped -- not necessarily to anything bad, just no longer the rave review that I need for such competitive positions. A mentor has suggested I contact my supervisor to ask about this, and even offered to go over any notes I might write out as preparation; even so, the thought is highly intimidating and I haven't yet forced myself to write out what I'd say. For those who are wondering, yes, I will try as soon as I hit "post this new thread."

Teaching at a four-year college is almost unthinkable, not because I couldn't like it, but because my grad school didn't know what to do with someone who didn't have a master's going into the Ph.D., so what I did during my coursework didn't prepare me to try for faculty jobs. I didn't even know I was supposed to be doing some of the things it turns out "everyone" knows Ph.D. students are supposed to do so that they will be ready to teach college by the end... see, another thing I didn't know that "everyone" knows is that a Ph.D. in education is basically for people who want to teach and/or research at the university. So those jobs expect publications, evidence of scholarly output or at least potential, and so on. Not only would I need them in order to land the job, but I'd likely need them in order to keep the job. Add to that the fact that, as I mentioned before, we just bought a house at last, so after years of being in a position to move anywhere in the region that I might find work, I'm now tied to my current city. On the bright side, it's quite large.

I'm not 100% attached to staying in a teaching position. If I could find either an education-related position in something like student services OR helping educators OR curriculum development OR education policy OR work with some kind of non-profit organization, those all appeal as well. Unfortunately, for reasons I've already stated, it would be hard to be able to afford to go to the entry-level jobs there, though I wouldn't think myself above the work, and when I've tried for jobs that don't require an advanced degree, the degree to which I'm overqualified works against me in the committees' consideration.

I do own _What Color Is Your Parachute?_ and already have multiple versions of my résumé, so those bases are covered. My mentor said that there was a workshop on interviewing that she highly recommended, though I don't know when it will be offered next; need to find out, true. I'm not trying to find a perfect or stress-free job, nor to get rich. Basically, I want to provide for us, try to avoid relocation, potentially work in a job where my degree does me a little more good (though that's an expendable goal), and especially, I'd like to work in a job where I don't think every week, WHY am I in a job that involves so many things I'm not good at?!? but rather, "OK, so this is an interesting challenge..."

Thoughts?

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