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What if being labeled “difficult” wasn’t a flaw — but a sign that you refused to walk away from your integrity?

In this episode of Teachers in Transition, Vanessa continues her anti-shame crusade with a powerful conversation about boundaries, conviction, and why educators who speak up are often misunderstood.

Inspired by Toby Ziegler from The West Wing, this episode explores how integrity can look uncomfortable — and why real change doesn’t always come from being warm and fuzzy.

You’ll also get a practical AI productivity hack to help reclaim your brain space, plus a deep dive into the myth of the perfect resume and how to navigate the modern job search like a journey across different terrains — from jungle-like application systems to endurance-based government hiring processes.

If you’ve been feeling unsettled, protective, or quietly questioning systems that once felt safe… you are not alone.

Ready for More?

If this episode resonated and you’re realizing you might need a guide as you move through unfamiliar professional terrain:

Book a Discovery Session:
https://teachersintransition.com/calendar

No pressure — just clarity, strategy, and support from someone who’s been there before and knows the way out.

Keywords (SEO Tags)

teacher career transition, leaving teaching, teacher burnout recovery, job search strategy, ATS systems explained, USAJobs resume tips, AI productivity for teachers, career coaching for educators, Toby Ziegler West Wing leadership, anti-shame coaching, boundaries for teachers, resume myth, corporate transition for teachers

If This Episode Helped You…

Follow, rate, and share with another educator who needs to hear:

You’re not difficult.
You’re dedicated.

CONNECT WITH VANESSA

• 💌 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
• 📱 Call or Text: 512-640-9099
• 📅 Book a Free Discovery Call: teachersintransition.com/calendar
• 🔗 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• 📸 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
• 👍 Facebook: Teachers in Transition

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzsprout

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Many teachers don’t leave the classroom and instantly feel better—because your nervous system doesn’t clock out just because you did.

In this episode of Teachers in Transition, Vanessa unpacks Complex PTSD (CPTSD) in a practical, non-diagnostic way: how chronic stress, constant vigilance, emotional suppression, boundary erosion, perfectionism, and moral injury can train your body to stay on high alert for years. And how those patterns can follow you into career transition—showing up as overthinking, fear of visibility, people-pleasing in interviews, and a brutal inner critic.

Then we shift into action: how AI is changing the job search, why networking matters more than ever, and one simple AI prompt to decode job descriptions in plain English so you can apply with clarity (not panic).

If you’ve been telling yourself “I left… why don’t I feel better?” — this episode is a must-listen.

In this episode, we cover:

• What CPTSD is (and why it’s about chronic stress over time—not “worse trauma”)
• How the classroom can normalize hypervigilance and nervous-system overdrive
• Why survival adaptations can stick around after you leave teaching
• How CPTSD-style patterns can show up in job search: over-preparing, shame spirals, people-pleasing, fear of visibility
• AI as a thinking partner in your search (translation, pattern-spotting, interview prep)
• The plain-English AI prompt that makes job descriptions instantly clearer

Keywords
CPTSD, teacher burnout, nervous system, hypervigilance, moral injury, leaving teaching, career transition, teacher career change, job search anxiety, AI job search

CONNECT WITH VANESSA

• 💌 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
• 📱 Call or Text: 512-640-9099
• 📅 Book a Free Discovery Call: teachersintransition.com/calendar
• 🔗 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• 📸 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
• 👍 Facebook: Teachers in Transition
• 🐦 X (Twitter): @EduExitStrategy

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzsprout

Support the show

Send us a text

Are you a teacher who feels constantly stressed, exhausted, or overwhelmed—but can’t quite explain why it feels so heavy?

In this episode of Teachers in Transition, Vanessa Jackson uses a familiar question—“On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your pain?”—to explore how teachers slowly normalize burnout, emotional overload, and chronic stress without realizing how much it’s costing them.

Drawing from her own post-surgical experience and decades in education, Vanessa explains why constant strain distorts perception, why “familiar” doesn’t mean “fine,” and how teachers often minimize both their pain and their professional value.

This episode gives language to what teachers are experiencing to help them think clearly, reclaim energy, and make informed decisions about what comes next.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why chronic stress and burnout are hard to quantify—especially for teachers
• How constant emotional and cognitive load shifts your internal “pain scale”
• The Energy Tax Check: a simple question to identify what’s draining you now and later
• Why teachers unconsciously subtract from their own experience and accomplishments
• How to “add the two points back” when describing your work on a resume or in interviews
• What it really means to seek a role with sustainable workload and room for growth

Whether you’re actively job searching, quietly exploring career options outside the classroom, or simply trying to survive another semester, this episode will help you stop second-guessing yourself and start trusting your internal data again.

Because living with something every day doesn’t make it small; it makes it familiar. And familiarity is not the same thing as fit.

🔑 Keywords & Topics

Teacher burnout • career change for teachers • leaving teaching • teacher stress • education burnout • teacher career transition • transferable skills for teachers • job search for educators • emotional exhaustion • work-life balance in teaching

CONNECT WITH VANESSA

• 💌 Email: Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
• 📱 Call or Text: 512-640-9099
• 📅 Book a Free Discovery Call: teachersintransition.com/calendar
• 🔗 Bluesky: @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• 📸 Instagram & Threads: @teachers.in.transition
• 👍 Facebook: Teachers in Transition
• 🐦 X (Twitter): @EduExitStrategy

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzsprout

Support the show