Hi all. 28/F here with a master's in bioinformatics and a bachelor's in marine biology.

Long story short: I'm wondering what the best route would be to get into teaching in the area and if teaching would be a good fit for me.

Long story long:

Bioinformatics was supposed to be cool, but it's been soul-crushing instead. I get paid a lot, but I watch my soul float out the window. I'm stuck in the IT paradigm of "it's working, why do we even need you?/it's not working, you're bad at your job" I wonder constantly what the hell I'm doing with my life. I just don't want to get to retirement and feel like I haven't made an impact, you know?

While I was working on my degree (and for some time before and after that), I volunteered as a docent at a public aquarium. I loved it so much that I spent over 1000 hours doing it for free. It was great sharing my passion of science with visitors and getting them riled up, too. I know it's easier to get folks excited about science with a 200,000 gallon tank and 500 lb sea turtle at your disposal, but I still think I could do well as a teacher.

From that experience, I've found strengths that would translate well to teaching. I have experience engaging with people of different ages and educational/science experience and making the material relevant and exciting to them. I've interacted with visitors with disabilities and communication challenges. I speak well in metaphors and allegories for harder-to-grasp concepts. Ever explained climate change to a three-year-old? I also have very little threshold for embarrassment: I don't mind doing potentially "embarrassing" things if that means someone will come away with a better understanding of something.

I've been thinking about this route for years, and after a couple of years post-grad, I'm really feeling it. I know teaching can be crushing at times, too, and you'll get kids and parents and school drama that can make you want to rip your hair out, but I feel like it has to be more rewarding and better suited to me than what I'm currently doing.

So here I am, with big regrets about my master's degree and longing for something different, more impactful, more exciting, more rewarding. I've done a little research and it seems like alternative teaching certification may be the right choice for me if I don't want to take on more student debt, but that it can be really difficult getting a job with alternative certification instead of a proper M.Ed. degree. (But that it's maybe a viable option in an area with great demand for STEM teachers?) I'm also wary of Teachers for Tomorrow, even though our state education department suggests it as a route. I'm feeling super lost and looking for experience, especially in Alabama/North Alabama, or wanting to know if you've seen some other bright-eyed wannabe like me crash and burn when teaching wasn't the right fit for them.

Thanks all.