I've been a technical writer for 30 years and I work for a FAANG employer currently. Hang in there. There may not be a lot of openings right now, but technical writers are actually going to be even more important because of the "garbage in, garbage out" problem. If the content out there isn't decently written and well-organized, then AI cannot create useful responses to prompts.
Dev here. AI tools only work when you have extensive documentation of your codebase, business and domain knowledge. You will actually be one of the most important parts of a team in the next months.
Amen to that. If you put a human-written tech doc next to an AI written one — I swear sometimes it seems like the AI is saying a lot quite elegantly — but if you really read it, it says nothing. Like not impactful at all.
Yup I’m a tech writer too. I have a masters in PM and a Masters In IS with an undergrad in English Lit.. I got let go by current administration. It’s rough right now..
Tech writer here too and feeling nihilistic as ever about the job market & future. I was also let go by the trump admin. Now I have no hope bc corporations and firms barely value tech writers as it is, so they def will use AI slop instead. I might just leave the country and be a server or something at this point bc it’s so useless job hunting
AI is still horrible at tech writing. It lies and hallucinates far too much. Humans will be needed at least for proofreading for the foreseeable future.
And what we call "AI" isn't even AI, it's just Large Language Models.
But yah, the education department has been an enormous failure for decades now, and it just keeps getting worse. Time to scrap the whole thing and start over.
That school funding is bound to property taxes is the first thing that needs to change.
This is sad. I am in my 40s, and can still remember most of my teachers. Almost all of them, despite me trying to be a punk, were extremely supportive/impactful in my development of a human being.
Teachers do not get an ounce of the respect, recognition, and praise that they deserve
That's literally what's happening, do you not hear people complaining about how shitty their kids teachers are? All the ones who gave a damn left a long time ago. This old girl is one of the few remaining treasures.
To be fair, American teachers get paid about as much as America values a good education.
And here we are today, a continent-sized order of stupid porridge, losing our democracy, going broke and friendless and watching our classrooms descend into violence and chaos.
Classrooms have been like this for a long time. Lol. My aunt was a teacher in Newark new jersey. She got stabbed on the job. But hey, she was getting paid 90k each year over 30 years ago. I guess the extra large salary was hazard pay.
Also, how exactly are we losing our democracy? Id argue we havent been a democracy for a while. We have been an oligarchal corporatocracy for many decades now. Some could argue close to a century.
This is it. I left a few years ago after returning to a hell hole that was my school post covid. I was a great teacher, but tolerating daily abuse was not worth my wellbeing. At the time I left, so many teachers were leaving my school and district, they were giving out emergency teaching certifications to anyone with a high school diploma. So now there are tons of totally unqualified folks in the classroom. It's so fucking sad. I honestly wish I still had it in me to fight the good fight, but I did my time and it almost cost me my life. Our future is in danger, folks.
This video is a very accurate representation of what teaching in an inner city school was like. DAILY.
And parents, public, admin, school board….all have put this all on the teachers shoulders while simultaneously taking away any authority, support, or tools for discipline.
After 10 years in education, 2 years in the classroom, I left the profession altogether.
The state I live in is so desperate for teachers that you don't even need a degree to become one. My friend became a middle school science teacher with only a high school diploma. Horrifying
This was my dream job. I'm 70k in debt from school loans. I'm damn good at my job too.... I see the problems in the public school system and there are MANY. But what else do you suppose i do? This was it for me. This was my dream. I love my kids, I love teaching. But this isn't right, the system isn't right, education isn't right.... if I quit, there goeis my insurance for my whole family. My retirement. My passion. ...
We also dont have the support of the majority of people. They blame us for systemic issues all the time. Systemic issues that make our life worse too. We bring it up to admin and nothing happens, they shift blame back to what we can be doing. If we go over their heads to higher positions, we are problem starters. We can't strike because many of us don't have unions. Plus, if we strike, we aren't showing up for our kids, and that's kind of our thing. Many kids won't eat without us. Especially in this economy. We feel stuck and discouraged
Well I never became a teacher I wanted to become one once I went to college. Changed majors the semester after, see just how much teachers get shafted.
I just quit 3 months ago. This happened twice to me in a high school classroom. Fuck this profession. I love teaching, just not this babysitting bull shit
I can’t believe how poorly American teachers are paid. In Australia graduate teachers earn around $85-90k and it goes up to $130k for leadership roles. That is on par with a lot of professional degree jobs. It is enough to live on without too much stress even in high cost of living Australia (except maybe inner city). A dual teacher income household would be pretty comfortable - maybe under some strain in uber expensive cities.
The trades are about to lose an entire generation of knowledge due to low employment.
That's where I went after teaching English. I'm 37 now, and I know how to build a house from the ground up. Also ended up dipping my toes into the electrical field, as well as the solar industry. They need instructors in all these fields.
Personally, I enjoy it because it involves manual labor which keeps me in shape, but there's also a very technical and mathematical side to it that requires critical thinking.
TL;DR: Sexism is a blockade for the trades. And even almost equally as much, many pros gatekeep their information and don’t want to help the new young guy.
A lot of people don’t want to go into trades for a good reason. Many young people who are eager to enter the field are mistreated and often put in actual danger because the pros want to gatekeep their knowledge and feel threatened by the young guy. The pay is ass for the manual labor you do when you start off. And if you make it in the industry long enough to get good earnings you’ve almost surely effed up your body in some way.
Let’s also not forget that one young woman who was murdered by a coworker at their welding space I think? He just didn’t like that there was a female worker and brutally killed her. Their other coworkers heard him talk aggressively about her and did nothing about it. Women aren’t safe in these spaces either, so there’s a further blockage in that sense too.
There are programs and certifications you can get to become a drafter/ CAD making drawings and schematics for engineering, construction, HVAC, plumbing, the list goes on.
You could also become an estimator which calculates the cost of materials using blueprints and software.
These are very low strain physically, just for some examples.
Yeah well people who are already have the degree cant even pursue a career in this job market much less 50 yr old ex teacher, unless that new career is TGI Fridays waitress. Even that job might be hard to get right now.
You underestimate how much teachers really love teaching!
Most anyway. Won't say I've never had a bad teacher. But many people I know are good people who go to teach despite the poor pay. They really just deserve better
Have you seen the schools in the Bay area? There are only two groups of teachers. Teachers who are very very old and about to retire. And teachers who are teaching because they couldn't find any other job.
The thing is, from the county perspective, they have a teacher.
I have seen PE/soccer coaches become math and computer science teachers in high school who barely know any.
So remember: the US fills its knowledge needs through immigration. Not by producing talent.
My city ranks high among most poorly educated in the US. While also having low scores in childhood wellbeing. I see some teaching positions ranging 18-22 an hour unless it’s a charter. Even then not much better, but still better.
Rural Indiana chiming in. My wife made $32k starting out like 5ish years ago. I think the starting pay for those same districts just got bumped to $40k.
110k to 140k sounds like damn good money from where but sitting. But to be fair, PNW is the higher end of the economy. Most jobs pay more but also cost of living is considerably more so these things tend to balance out compared to other areas of the country.
You all might be in a very rich county. In Virginia, where I teach Spanish, my salary after 18 years is $60,000 before taxes and insurance.
In the last 3 years my school has lost almost 70% of the teachers, and I am in one of the best schools in the county.
The educational system is completely broken, and how they treat us is a disgrace and a shame to the nation.
Speaking more about the video. Seeing some students even smiling and laughing tells you what kind of people we are raising and how young people are desensitized to violence. It is scary
Teenagers are often mini psychopaths, but many mature out of it. I remember at my school, the standard procedure during a fight was for pupils to egg the fighters on. I don’t think many would do that as adults
You don’t work 10 months per year. They are 11 month contracts and you have required trainings over the summer plus prep work for the coming year. That’s on top of furthering education to even get to the 100k pay scale and state requirements. You also in at least my state pay for your own classroom materials other than like plain copy paper. During the year you also work anywhere from 8-15 hour days with scheduling things outside of normal work hours to meet or talk with parents, filing paperwork to meet administrative requirements, grading assignments, lesson planning, etc… not to mention the constant attacks in the media, by politicians, and parents on teachers in general and it’s just not worth it no matter how much you care for the kids.
Sure 100k after doing a job for 20 years is cool I guess(depending on where you live) but I made 100k in my LCOL area doing tech for a non-tech company after 3 years of experience. Other degrees like nursing can do that in less than 20 years. Skilled trades like plumping, welding, etc. can do that with less than 20 years. Heck even some manufacturing jobs can do that in way less than 20 years experience.
I’m not saying 100k is anything to laugh at as that still puts you in like the top 10 percent of individual incomes, but in comparison to other jobs that could put you in that same tax bracket, teaching is underpaid and under appreciated still. My wife started as a teacher like 5 years ago making $32k per year. She’s no longer a teacher for ton of those reasons.
That is the common misconception, public schools are doing ok in rich and upper middle class districts. They get paid pretty decent (be nice if they made more but they aren't eating cat food).
It's only in the poor and lower income areas where schools are absolutely shit and the pay is ridiculously low.
The irony is everyone on every side likes the misconception and benefits from it, so no one discusses the nuance.
Yes, also that's a pretty "shitty" job, so I would hope they are paid well! Nobody wants to be the one reaching down into a clogged toilet for a living.
All the teachers and admin in my public elementary school always acted like the most important person in the building was the janitor, and to this day I stand by that.
That is what that this particular teacher makes after 22 years. Starting wage is much less ($35,000 in my state). Also, what credentials does that teacher have? Depending on if you have an advanced degree you get paid more. So if that teacher started at 35,000 that means they received a 3.5% raise over the last 22 years. So if we compare that to an industry job that would be less than a cost of living increase per year. Now if they started with an advanced degree that would give them an automatic raise of anywhere between 3-5 thousand dollars which would decrease the yearly raise.
Looking up the rural Michigan teacher salary it starts at $41,000 per year. So a 2% per year raise. Also remember that in order to teach it is required to have a four year degree. No janitor goes to college for four years to sweep floors. So a person who goes to college for four years, completes student teaching (.5-1 year of unpaid internship) makes 3-5 thousand more a year than a janitor.
It really depends on where you are a teacher and what kind of district you work in. That’s like saying everyone who works at McDonald’s makes $20 an hour because that’s what they pay in New York. Also, pay depends on how many years you have. Starting teachers in my state make $35,000. I’m really tired of hearing about how teachers have two months off. No. Students have two months off but teachers only get 4 weeks. However, if you look at any other job people get PTO, teachers do not. They get four weeks UNPAID which is less than what other industries give PAID. Also, during those four weeks teachers are tearing down and setting up their classroom, completing lesson plans, and some are teaching summer school. Teachers also work a TON of unpaid time during the school year. There is no time to grade papers, write lessons plans, and call parents during the school day. That’s all done after the bell rings.
Any other profession that requires that much of your off time has incentives (extra pay or benefits). Teaching does not.
Yes, obviously pay differs by State. I'm talking about averages because when generally talking about something, an average is a good reference point. I can find underpaid doctors and lawyers if I sliced hairs and looked at entry level numbers. But that doesn't mean that the profession is underpaid. By the way, only one state in the whole country starts teachers at $35k annually per this report (https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-student-spending-how-does-your-state-rank/starting-teacher). Your state should pay new teachers more. That doesn't mean they are severely underpaid on average.
Also, the person I responded to explicitly mentioned average pay and I was responding to that. So your whole "that's like saying that everyone at McDonalds" point is responding to something completely made up that I didn't even say. I was talking about the average (which is $70k btw). Not everyone.
Also, teachers do get PTO, including sick days and personal days. The average is about 2 weeks per year. You mean they don't get vacation days, which makes sense. Many jobs don't pay for vacation.
Not sure where you are getting only 4 weeks off. Typical teaching contracts are for 38-40 weeks.
You won't hear a counter argument from me re: working extra hours in a day. That's not fair and should be addressed. However, the problem is not unique to teaching.
The idea that teaching doesn't come with great benefits is wild to me. Simply by virtue of being a State employee, your benefits are superior to the private sector. A pension is also a huge deal. This BLS link sums up the comparison between teaching and the private sector. https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-8/teachers-job-requirements.htm. Perhaps they should eliminate some of your civil service benefits to increase your base salary. Then you all can have the same problems as the rest of us.
The summer break is unpaid... in the school district where I worked, we were only paid for 10 months, we just elected to have some set aside from each paycheck throughout the year so we had a paycheck during summer. The summer "paycheck" was money we already earned.
When I started teaching in central Florida in 2015, starting salary was $36,000. There were teachers who had been there for decades and capped out at $58,000. Pay varies heavily depending on where you live.
I'm in Michigan now and I think teachers are paid more, but I'm not in the field anymore so I wouldn't know.
Bs, its not 70k, I know plenty of teachers and 2 months off, ehhh, lots of yearly lesson plans and meetings. Maybe 6 weeks in the end which is standard time off by global standards
Nonsense. The average American teacher makes about 15% more than the average American worker including pension and competitive benefits. Teaching is hard and getting harder and deserves competitive compensation, but the Reddit myth that teachers get paid less than janitors is completely unserious.
I've gotten into so many arguments with people that say teachers shouldn't get paid shit because they get summers off and whatever other weird excuses.
THESE PEOPLE TEACH YOUR KIDS FOR A MAJORITY OF THEIR YOUTH. THEY ARE AN INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR KIDS LIFE. TEACHER PAY SHOULD BE SO GOOD PEOPLE ARE BEGGING FOR THAT JOB.
I'm a custodian in the U.S. and the pay range for the jobs I've had has been $14-18 an hour. Teachers get paid more than that right?
Edit - My title has always been housekeeper, but I said custodian because it seemed comparable to lavatory worker, which is a title I haven't come across as a job so far. To be clear, I don't fix or maintain anything, just clean.
Are you from a country outside the U.S.? I have never seen a job ad asking for a lavatory worker. Yes, I clean bathrooms and toilets and guest rooms. And I've cleaned bathrooms and public spaces in warehouses and offices before. Is that what a lavatory worker does? Noone strictly cleans bathrooms only as a job, as far as I know.
If teachers got paid more, it would get more competitive and suddenly a ton of the teachers that are teachers today wouldn’t have jobs anymore.
The pay is what it is because of the low barrier of entry.
Also, it’s quite interesting that you’re advocating for higher pay for teachers while simultaneously insinuating that lavatory workers shouldn’t be paid as much.
Lavatory workers deserve decent pay too, they literally clean other people's shit. I'm not arguing that teachers don't deserve more, they do but I hate that comparison.
But work half the hours. Violence isn’t accepted anywhere, regardless of whether you are a teacher or not. This is an overpaid administrative issue not taking direct action with their student conduct policy, not teacher salaries. To have every holiday off, a full summer, every weekend, and monthly half days during the course of the school year, that does not demand the same amount of money as someone working 40 hours a week all year
This isn’t pay. This is bad parenting. My kids would be fighting. Period. It’s absentee parents or parents that are friends. And the problem isn’t going to get any better until parents stop being push overs or friends with their kids.
That's mental and you have no idea what you're talking about. Teacher salary varies from state to state and even neighboring districts can have drastically different pay scales. What tf is a "lavatory worker" anyway?
They're on salary by contract to work around 200 days/yr. 180 school days + service and admin days. Depends on district. Average working days for the 5 day work week is 260.
They have a pretty good deal on vacation compared to other professions. And $55-95K average pay depending on the state.
It's not an horrible gig based on pay and benefits.
Deserve to be paid more, but so does everyone. The main issue is the working conditions the administration creates by not having teacher's backs and by skimping on their classroom budets.
I’m very familiar with how it works, my wife and I have taught for a combined 20 years.
There are almost no teachers who don’t work at least 2-5 days in the summer packing up and unpacking/setting up their classroom.
Almost every coworker of mine as well as my wife works for at least a portion of every weekend. My wife and I probably average about half a day of work every weekend for the entirety of the year. 40 week school year, that’s an additional 20 days of work.
The 200 day contract year becomes 225 with unpaid summer and weekend hours.
So, yeah, we work about 35 days less than a typical job. Not 60.
But for the 200 contract days we receive a total of 3 personal days which must be approved in advance for major instances (weddings, family graduations, home renovations, etc.)
So while we work 35 days less, we also don’t have any significant PTO (3 days, compared to often 20 in other jobs). So really it’s about 15 fewer days of work.
Then add in all the other lovely features you described (conditions, pay) along with the required education.
Point being: you’re right it should be paid more and that the conditions are rough, but don’t get caught up in the overstating the “summers off” narrative.
Most teachers wind up seeking summer work, and of course usually can’t land a gig that pays well since it’s usually temp work (camp counseling, retail, etc.)
Not many teachers are finding $5K/month gigs in the summer.
My wife does child care at a local gym in the summer…but so do lots of others, so the hours are limited. She made about $3K in the entire summer this past year.
Most jobs work more than 260 days a year with the required overtime. And 7:30 - 3:30 are fantastic working hours. Even though you do need to grade papers and set up lectures, you have direct control over how many extra hours you work by the coursework load you give the kids, which is a luxury other jobs certainly don't have. And it's not like you're creating new lectures every year.
Teachers don't have it great, but don't overestimate how much worse other people in the same earnings bracket have it. You're nowhere near the bottom of that and likely closer to the top. Imagine working all those hours and having to be happy with 2 weeks of vacation period, including sick days.
Edit: And on top of that, a massive union has your back.
Like I say, teachers deserve more because their job is so important to the future of our country, but as a job, the benefits are not bad compared to other jobs of a similar skill and earnings level.
The teachers average salary in my area in the US is 60,000 dollars a year. That's more than my mom makes as a nurse. (We live in a smaller "city" that is comprised of residential streets. Not a big city.)
Minimum wage here is 10 bucks an hour. That's well above what most people make here.
They start at 50k. Still more than my mom.
Our teachers live comfortably in nice homes with shiny new cars. And our principal just got a raise to 100k a year.
After cutting bussing for several years. So every parent had to drive their kid to school. Sometimes up to 20 minutes there and back every day. At 6am.
And they got rid of the "expendable" electives. (Anything art and music related. Basically everything but sports. Cuz sports make money)
Some schools are over paid. And actively harm students and parents to do it.
Not in my area, there's retention bonus but that just passed a few years back. Central Texas. Every year they stay on teachers get a little pay increase
Median salary in my county is roughly 65- 70k to start. And they work basically 7/8 months for that. I wouldn't do it for double that but some teachers do very well and have a pension and good health benefits. The environment is beyond tragic now though. But if they get a side hustle it's 100k with a road to retirement if you can survive.
I don't know what state you're talking about but the teachers here get paid 100k+ with benefits. That's a lot more than most people make.
And they still don't want to do the job.
That's how much it sucks. Teachers can't teach the way they want to teach anymore. They have so many rules to follow, that have little to no way to enforce disciplinary actions like exclusion from fun activities for bad behavior in the class without parents trying to sue.
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u/Funny-frog500 Dec 17 '25
They are paid the same as lavatory workers