This document provides career options and advice for those with a Master's degree in education. It outlines that teaching is just one option, and that others include becoming a consultant to help apply educational knowledge, as jobs are constantly evolving. It recommends gaining experience at community colleges, which often hire adjunct teachers and have other administrative roles, and notes the large number of retiring professors creating openings. The document also suggests considering careers in areas like the military, banks, or healthcare that require educational expertise. It advises wearing career experience proudly, and maintaining and improving qualifications to create new opportunities or invent one's own job.

1. CAREERS FOR A
MASTER’S IN
EDUCATION
Gregory L. Jackson, PhD – University of Notre Dame.
MA in Adult Education, University of Phoenix.

2. Think about Expertise, Experience
 Teaching is only one alternative.
 Consultants can help others apply their knowledge.
 Many jobs are not yet invented – I became a college teacher without knowing that online
education existed. I became a social media expert simply by using the social media daily
and studying how it works.

3. Areas of Teaching in Higher Education
 Community colleges absorb vast numbers of adjunct teachers for their classes.
 Community colleges also have other areas for part-time or full-time work: labs,
teaching English as a second language, and administration.
 Academic tradition – one does not teach immediately at the school where the
degree was earned. That is academic inbreeding.
 There are many other universities where the ranks of Baby Boomers will be
decimated by retirement and death.

4. Community Colleges – Start Now
Community colleges normally require a
master’s degree.
Start now to make contacts and find out
where the needs are.
They offer experience for those who want
to teach online in the future.
Evening classes are mostly adults and pay
well for part-time work.
Most community colleges also have online
or they are moving toward it.
Getting into the system leverages all
future job opportunities.

5. Wear Your Career Experience Proudly
Academic skills plus career skills
will combine to offer many new
opportunities.
Some have nursing degrees.
Others have long experience in
computer science. Others are
public school teachers.
A few have a second master’s in
business or another field.
Everything is good – including
special certifications. American
educators love education
degrees and certifications.
Some go overseas and teach,
where an American master’s
degree is golden.

6. Consultants
“The only requirement to be a
consultant is to call yourself a
consultant.” – Walmart Exec
Without being a subject matter
expert, a consultant can show
institutions and businesses how
to conduct adult education
better and get improved results.
One education student taught
bartenders how to pour beer the
right way, without wasting
product.
One became a bank education
officer on the strength of being
in this program – no banking
experience.

7. They Need Education Experts
The military and police train
their people in ever-changing
law.
Banks, insurance companies,
and health care organizations all
face constant changes in
regulation – and a need to meet
compliance demands.
Education is going to expand
while the best educated
instructors retire.
Your teacher’s certifications plus
the MA will open many doors in
this area.

8. Learn from an Old Goat
The job you have may not be invented
yet. Or it may be developing – social
media expert.
You can invent your own job and work
from your home.
A steady improvement in education,
certifications, conferences will make
things happen, sometimes as if by magic.
I took Unix to edit Unix books. That never
happened but it was my door into
teaching at UOP.
A restroom conversation at UOP got me
to apply to a school I heard discussed
among two professors. I still work at the
second school.

9. Be Different by Being Active, Not Pasive
Attend conferences where famous people
speak.
Visit leaders in your field, by arranging a
lunch or a tour.
Pick one or two minor areas and become
an expert: video editing, graphics, social
media.
Join a professional group or two and be
active in it.
Start a blog to maintain a professional
profile and proof of expertise.
Publish a book via Amazon – one of my
recent graduates did that.