Please be kind, this is my first ever reddit post. I wanted to give some quick info about myself as I believe it directly relates to my question...
I am 34 years old, married with a 1 and half year old son. I own a home and have become fairly well established or as much as one can be in this current economy. Since I was 18 I have been in the EMS field in one form or another. Worked my way up through the ranks as an EMT, Paramedic and now I make about 80k/year as an Operations Chief with a basic IRA retirement plan and nothing much else benefit wise. This is essentially the top of any single function EMS providers career. I have an Associates degree in EMS from a local community college. I recently returned to school to pursue a Bachelor's in Public Safety and Emergency Management...AND I HATE IT! To be honest I am over the EMS field, I've done my time and the years of PTSD, long nights, no sleep and everything in between have worn me down....its time for a change.
Two things in life I have always enjoyed were history and sharing any knowledge I have with others. I wanted to be a History Teacher in High School but opted for a trade school with less hours and a quicker path to employment. Now at 34, I am wanting to accomplish this dream. I would love to have a PhD once day but doubt that will ever happen. I am not opposed to the idea but I know at this point in my life the time and money just is not there for me. I am exploring the idea of changing my major to a BA in history for secondary education with a path to get an MA in the same area. I would love to teach High School and/or at the Community College level as this is more my style then research and high level academia. Understand, I love school. I believe learning is a life long thing, something I want to instill in my son. The countless hours of reading, writing, sorting through sources and everything else excites me.
Here is the question: Can I expect to find employment in this new field at around 38 years old with both a BA and MA completed online? I know the salary is less than I make now, but trust me when I say I've reached that point where self fulfillment is more important to me. My wife also works at a very stable job and I will always have my expertise and wealth of knowledge as a Paramedic to fall back on. Will I spend years hunting for a high school job? Can I go straight into a Community College position? Or would this work be more of a labor of love for me? Thank you all for the insight and comments, I appreciate it.
It depends on where you live. Generally speaking, yes, you should be able to find a job without too much trouble. Public education is a very different animal than higher ed. There aren't many certified teachers who are out of work except by choice. Most places are suffering from a teacher shortage. While that's most apparent in the STEM fields, all subjects are needed. You can easily look for job openings near your home to get a general idea of how often positions open up around you. It's late in summer so most will be filled by now, so don't necessarily get discouraged if there aren't very many. Keep checking periodically.
If you want to really boost your resume, consider becoming certified in more than one subject area. If you were an EMT I imagine you know a bit of biology or chemistry. I can't speak for where you are, but in my state you can add an additional content area certification to an existing license just by passing a test. I'm certified in both history and biology, and I had multiple offers within weeks of graduation.
Lastly, I'll say that a school teacher is a great job for a parent of young kids. I'll probably never own a Mercedes or a vacation house on the beach. But I'm always home for dinner, I never work on holidays, and every Saturday afternoon I walk downtown with my daughters for ice cream. Pretty fair trade in my book.
I currently work for a community college and the odds of going "straight in" to a position there are not great. It's really no different than trying to get a job at a 4-year institution - they still generally expect you to have a Ph.D. and you're competing with tons of other people who also have doctorates. I have friends who completed an AA at our college, went on to get BAs and doctorates, worked for the college on a contract basis while they pursued that higher degree, and still couldn't even get interviewed when a teaching position opened up, there were so many applicants. The single one who succeeded at getting a job is an adjunct, not a full-time position. I would love to teach at this school once I've completed my Ph.D., but realistically it's not going to happen, and I've been working there as a contract tutor and teaching workshops for five years. The higher ed job market is tough.
This is something I've been thinking about a lot, since I was just accepted into a graduate program and everybody wants to know what you plan to do with that degree. And I'm like, uh, cry on it and beat my husband at Jeopardy, I guess. (Actually, keep my contract job and write historical fiction, but whatever, same thing.) I do see quite a few job listings for high school positions when I go looking, though, so I think aiming for something like that is more realistic.