Teacher or Solicitor

I’m Really stuck
Hearing horror stories etc. I dont know what to do
Should I pursue teaching
I’m inclining to teaching but all these horror stories are scaring me
From my understanding as long as u enter a supportive school then the workload etc. will all reduce
Please help
Im stressing out

What are your reasons for thinking you'd enjoy teaching?

What are your reasons for thinking you'd enjoy being a solicitor?

The career that is best for you will depend heavily on what sort of person you are, what you enjoy, and how resilient you are! However, I've heard becoming a successful solicitor can also be quite a stressful and competitive process.

Have you had any experience?
You havent hear any horror stories about being a solicitor?

No havent ever taught but ive asked my secondary teachers
they say if youre in a supportive school then you’ll be fine
i dont want teaching to take up my whole life
if i could perhaps make it a wake up at 6 am - go gym shower n eat breakfast then go to skl at X time to print resources
then leave at 5:30 pm after finishing everything with lesson plans for the next day. Then i would love to teach
gymming, and overall looking after myself and looking good is very important to me & im afraid teaching will take that right away from me

due to the extensive work.. i understand the pgce and nqt years are hard but if I can manage my time so it is 7:30 am- 5:30 pm job? I’ll be happy

Tbh I would love to teach ideally
Having my own classroom and teach them but there’s all these unnecessary things you have to do
Like I have no issue with planning and marking
But I have issues with going to pointless meetings and have expectations from teachers to run afterschool clubs if you have alot on your plate already
I personally think it depends on the school?

I dont have any other alternative careers atm, but I need to decide before applying this year For uni

I’m in the same position as you right now! Don’t know if I should go into teaching because I feel like it will take away my personal life from me! Can I ask, do you have a degree already?

Why do you think being a solicitor will be any different or any better?
At what stage of your education are you, what sort of uni attended, what sort of A level grades and degree?

I’m sooo happy i found someone in the same boat

I’m at a levels and will be apply to uni next yr

It does depend on the school for sure, and whether you're doing primary or secondary.

My experience in secondary is that there's been no expectation at all to run a club. I think it depends somewhat on the subject though - all the PE teachers are involved in clubs, and so are a lot of the 'creative' subject teachers. It's just like how MFL teachers and Geography teachers are expected to run trips outside of their normal teaching hours. However, if you're incredibly put off by the idea of sometimes having to work outside of 7:30 - 5:30, then it might not be for you. Some weeks, there is just an inevitable need for you to stay later (twilight meetings / parents evenings) or a need to work longer hours that week than you usually would (lots of exams to mark at once with a tight deadline / lots of reports to write). Honestly, I'd say that most of my colleagues do manage just working 8am - 4pm and only taking things home when there's extra to mark, however this almost certainly won't be the case in your first few years and if that's going to cause you to burnout, it might not be for you.

If you're deciding between a Law degree and a different degree, then yes, you should decide before attending university. However you don't have to decide on teaching now. You can do basically any degree and then do a post-graduate teaching qualification to become a teacher. I know a chap who trained to teach History with a law degree.

Edit: Just to add, you might have a different perspective on this after having spent a few years at uni. Don't feel like you have to decide now. Priorities change as you move out, experience living alone, and further your education.

do you want to teach primary or secondary?

I’m at college taking bio psych english lit

I need to apply to unis and wanna teach english specifically

Ideally, I want a typical work day to last from 7.30 to 6pm max on off-exam season.. because I do want to have a social and positive well-being

Again, I’m only comparing teaching and solicitor roles because it offers the same amount of long hours with a MUCH better salary
I’ve always wanted a rewarding job, not a draining one like a solicitor. I have no issue with marking etc, but it is that I dont want that pressure upon me to do extra things
Again, I want my mental and physical well being to be a priority, and I dont want to over tire myself

I think it's definitely possible to achieve that. I'm at the end of my NQT year now, and for me, the experience was that from Christmas onwards, I was able to work a lot more quickly and efficiently. It helps that I am at a school that places a heavy emphasis on promoting good work-life balance. If you're prepared for the fact that the hours will probably be quite intense early on, and you're just aiming to reduce workload in the long-term, I think that's an achievable goal. But I don't know anybody that managed to completely avoid working during weekends during the training year. I think part of this is down to the fact that sometimes, it's hard to motivate yourself to work a lot after school has ended, because a full day of teaching can be exhausting, and it's easier to push that work off to the weekend.

Like you've said, work-life balance depends somewhat on working at a 'good' school. However, this isn't something you can necessarily rely upon, especially if you're wanting to teach English, which isn't hugely in-demand like some other subjects. You'll find that often, these 'good' schools have a reputation that makes the jobs that come up more competitive, and also they usually have good staff retention so jobs come up less frequently.

If you're still unsure, do remember that you can always switch to teaching after your degree, it's not something you have to concretely decide upon now.

Then just focus on your exams and get the best grades possible to get into the best uni and come out with the best degree.
You can do law later without a law degree if your grades and uni are good enough. It is highly competitive so if you end up being average I wouldnt bother.

I mean, depending on the hours of the school you'd potentially work at, you wouldn't even need to get there that early. When I did some school experience, most people would arrive at 8-8:15 for an 8:30 start, and most of that was (at least in my department) making coffee, logging in etc.
As for the evening, it varies. Some people like to take off almost as soon as the kids do (and I assume doing work at home), others prefer to stay later (but 5:30 is pretty late even then).
Teaching is a hard job that does require a lot of outside work, and it's not for everyone, but wanting to do it is a good start. Personally I feel it's unlikely you'd be able to do ALL the extra work just 2 extra hours after school, but you could probably manage your time so you have most/all of your weekend/Friday and Saturday night free if that's what you want.

I’m Really stuck
Hearing horror stories etc. I dont know what to do
Should I pursue teaching
I’m inclining to teaching but all these horror stories are scaring me
From my understanding as long as u enter a supportive school then the workload etc. will all reduce
Please help
Im stressing out