The EdTech Industry is a Mess, I am Going Back to the Classroom

I was a teacher for ten years, and ten years ago, I faced a choice. 

I needed a path to advancement, a path to advancing my family's fortunes, and a path to further my career. 

At that time, I had become enamored with the EdTech world. It was such a fun place to be in 2014. It was a world filled with fun startups making a difference in classrooms. Most were free because they were just worried about user growth. There were fun speakers, conferences, and things to do. I dreamed about what that world could be for me and jumped headfirst into it.

I started in 2014 as a tech coach with Kennesaw State University. This role kept me in schools (we were contracted out), but  it also let me spread my wings in the EdTech world. I worked with schools on personalized learning initiatives and spoke at conferences. I built a decent brand and helped create a MakerBus. By the time I got to  2018, I felt like I had done everything I could do there. That choice came back.

I faced either returning to schools in some capacity or joining the EdTech vendor side. In 2018, an opportunity came up on the vendor side, and I took it. I spent five years with this vendor, supporting teachers with my hands in almost everything that impacted our education users. I had a great mentor, and I loved having the ability to help teachers from around the world. When 2021 hit, this vendor went through what every vendor wants. They got acquired, and that acquisition has been an unmitigated disaster. Someday, I will tell that whole story, but I need to wait for many reasons.

That bad acquisition meant that choice came back again. Do I stay in the EdTech industry or head back to school? My first thought was always the EdTech industry, but getting the proper role in the industry proved challenging, and it started with my previous experience.

I was working for the EdTech vendor in a role that had left me in a vulnerable spot. The vendor had always kept their team small, and in reality, my role with them crossed several standard lines. I supported customer success, professional development, and even helped manage product development on some of their teacher-facing features. It was a role I loved because my hands were in many pots, but as I started to interview, it became clear that it was a role that was hard to define. I did not have one of those standard titles, and without that, it’s tough to get noticed.

My experience as a teacher did not help that much either. While many EdTech companies want former teachers, the roles best suited for them (things like PD and community building) either did not have salaries that worked for my situation or had just dried up. EdTech just wasn’t this same anymore. I could see it when I went to conferences. Booths were almost all hardware vendors or massive companies that you had to buy into their whole portfolio. I could see it with friends of mine who had their jobs either eliminated or downgraded. Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a great example. Microsoft decided to kill the product and make it a Teams feature. It also meant their whole team (who had built one of the best communities in EdTech) got laid off. The fact that Microsoft could not find a way to repurpose these notable personalities made the direction I needed to take clear to me. It is time to return to the classroom and return to my roots. 

While I learned a great deal at the EdTech company I worked for, I made a mistake going there. One of the many reasons I started as a teacher was for stability, and I let myself get to a place where that wasn’t the case. I let myself get lost there, but going back to the classroom has given me a new sense of purpose. I have landed at a great school where I can make a difference every day, and it's just in time to be on the sidelines with my son. After the chaos of the acquisition years, being in the classroom makes me happy.

Many teachers feel like the grass is greener on the tech company side. I am here to tell you it isn’t. While the flexibility can be great, the instability makes it not great. The salaries aren’t necessarily better (I am getting a raise in the classroom.) The healthcare is better in schools. The retirement package is better in schools. You would think the pressure is less, but it is not. The overall stability is a huge reason to stay with a school system and work yourself up that way. 

So, you're saying it may be all bad with an EdTech company?  No, but if you want to move onto the vendor side, I would measure if the juice is worth the squeeze. You only need to examine two factors: 1) Is there long-term stability? 2) Is this a position that can quickly transfer to another company? In retrospect, I should have answered no for both of those questions. 

The company I went to was a startup looking for an acquisition. While an acquisition can be lucrative, it also can be a significant hindrance as it goes south. You can also look at others challenges. Flipgrid ended as a feature in a Microsoft product with that whole team moving on. I knew almost the entire team at Nearpod before Renaissance acquired them, and nearly all of those folks have moved on. If you're looking for long-term stability, you can limit your search to just a few (Apple, Google, Adobe, Clever, ClassLink, Canvas, Schoology, and others). Even Microsoft isn’t necessarily stable, as their EdTech side recently went through multiple layoffs.

I was also not in a transferable position. I did some of everything in the startup world, including support, PD, teacher community, LMS management, customer success, and even a little product development. It meant my title was unique, which was great when I was happy, but it killed me in the EdTech job search. You would think being involved in everything would help, but when competing against thousands of others, getting through the first culling of resumes is hard if an AI is just looking at job titles. If you want to go to the EdTech world, your best route will always be a revenue-generating position, whether direct sales or customer success. That just comes with a whole other group of challenges. If that’s the route you want, just make sure the company is committed (in writing) to giving you time to learn it.

​Looking back at my time, I will get value out of it. I can lean on my experience in support doing customer service as I work with parents. I have seen the other side so that I can deal with vendors more efficiently. I can help others by telling my story. I am excited to do all that while returning to my roots and doing something rewarding. I will even get to rebuild Big Guy in a Bow Tie. It’s time to get to work.