Careers: Success Is Doing What You Love

Like many of you reading this publication, I began my career in ESL as a teacher. A love of languages led to exciting opportunities to teach both in the U.S and overseas. But an underlying desire to go beyond the classroom and explore my potential in other areas shaped the path I chose.

In the late 1980s, when I was finishing my Bachelor’s degree in French at the University of Oregon, the Business Administration and Computer Science departments were growing at break-neck speed. Corporations were pouring money into new buildings with white boards and comfortable theatre-style padded seats in the classrooms. The Romance Languages department, on the other hand, was housed in the bottom of a drafty old building where professors were, believe it or not, still printing handouts on a mimeograph machine with purple ink. The disparity was hard to miss. Many of my more future-minded friends would ask me what in the world I was going to do with a degree in French. My response was: "What in the world would I do without it?" I loved what I was doing and could not imagine my life without it.

There is a danger in spending too much time trying to decide on the "right" major or in preparing for a specific career because you may miss out on extraordinary possibilities that are only as far away as your imagination. The guiding principle of my career path—not to mention my life—has been "Do what you love."

While working on my Master’s Degree in Texas, I taught at the Intensive English program on campus. The program was small—and dwindling. The director was on the way out and the teachers were, in spirit at least, nearly spent. I had no good reason to believe that I could take over this program and turn it around (I had no management experience and was still finishing school) but I did believe it. So I asked for the opportunity to prove myself…and I got it.
Things went from bad to worse to wonderful. I started observing teachers—so they all quit. The secretary stopped showing up one day. So I hired a new staff, and my husband took over all of the marketing. The enrollment doubled in eight weeks, and then doubled again. The quality of the academic program increased dramatically. The University was happy to be getting some revenue. We were on our way.

When I finished my M.Ed., we left to open an office in Portland, Oregon with the owner of two other programs (whom we eventually bought out.) We now had a group of three schools that were operating, for the most part, independently of one another. Our challenge was to turn them into a cohesive system of schools. Our goal was to standardize certain universal functions while still maintaining the unique features of each site.

This was a time of great personal and professional development for me. I honed my skills in administration and management, and I found I had an insatiable appetite for learning what made a program good. I spent a lot of time talking to other ESL administrators and studying criteria used by external agencies to judge strong programs. I started finding many commonalties among programs that I felt to be academically sound, such as:

• lParticipation of site directors and teachers in writing curricula and course descriptions that are shared throughout the school system;
  
• Centralization of financial, marketing, and business affairs so that site personnel can focus on academic matters;
  
• Establishment of clear forms of communication so that information can be shared between all of the sites and administrative offices;
  
• Participation in the greater ESL community through conference attendance, presentations, and board memberships.
  

After spending a great deal of time focusing on our infrastructure and the academic quality of our programs, we felt that we had developed a strong platform from which to expand.

In 1994, we went from three to six programs—and had a baby. This was a period of great fulfillment—both personally and professionally. Overseas representatives were taking us very seriously, our enrollments were high, and we were able to build a large, talented staff. At this point, we came to a crossroads: Should we continue at our current level (which was very comfortable)? Or should we expand again? We chose the
latter.

This is when I started recognizing my own entrepreneurial tendencies. While I thoroughly enjoyed the technical and managerial phases of my career—and would certainly feel comfortable in any teaching or administrative position—there was something particularly exhilarating about testing your limits and feeling that full wing span.
I believe that there are certain qualities that indicate an "entrepreneurial bent", including:

• greater than average risk tolerance;
  
• greater ability to recognize talent around you and to empower it;
  
• Being able to listen to others and learn new things;
  
• Strong desire to see your vision become a reality;
  
• High level of comfort with change.
  

In 1997, we acquired the four International Students of English programs that were formerly operated by World Learning, Inc. If we thought that we'd reached a new level in 1994, it was nothing compared to this. We realized that by acquiring a competitor, rather than simply continuing to open new sites, we had done something that was unusual for a growing educational company: We started being noticed. Everyone from large competitors to venture capitalists wanted to talk to us.

It took awhile for the concept of selling part or all of the company to sink in; it had become a way of life, and it was hard to imagine this changing. But I had a very compelling reason to want to step back a bit. We now had two young daughters, and we knew that, realistically, we would have to focus all of our energy to keep things growing and dynamic. I felt very strongly that I should not try to keep up this kind of momentum at the expense of our children. We started thinking that taking on a partner or merging with a larger organization might make a lot of sense at our current size and complexity.

After a great deal of soul-searching, we decided to go with a large, public company because we felt it would offer our employees almost unlimited opportunity for career development and advancement. We also felt that the company understood and valued the growth that we had achieved without ever having compromised the quality of our programs.

Now I am in a new phase of my life, which is filled with tremendous freedom and unlimited opportunity. I am thoroughly enjoying my young family—and whenever I feel the need for intellectual stimulation I take advantage of opportunities to write, teach, or speak at conferences. And my belief in "doing what you love" is stronger than ever.

Clearly the ESL field is filled with opportunities for teachers who wish to pursue administrative careers or entrepreneurial ventures. If you are interested in hearing more about career development, a panel of ESL professionals (including myself) will be speaking on Career Paths at TESOL 2000.