James Moan looked at the people higher up in his sector and didn't want to be like them. So when a personal passion began to grow into a potential career path, he focused his efforts on retraining. Here, he shares how he found fulfilment in a new industry, and the challenges he overcame along the way.
Name
James Moan
Old Position
English Teacher
New Career
Personal Trainer
What work were you doing previously?
I worked in education for 22 years, starting as a teacher of English and progressed to running English departments in schools.
Most recently my wife and I had moved to Shanghai for six years to work in international schools.
What are you doing now?
I’m a personal trainer and instructor at the University of St Andrews’ sports department.
I run eleven classes a week, work with 20 personal training clients, and I’m really busy.
Why did you change?
When I hit 40/41, I just thought that I’d been teaching for 21 years at that point, if I continue it’ll be the only thing I’ll be able to say I’ve ever done.
Also I think because it coincided with Covid in China being particularly harsh, the romance I’d had for teaching was kind of waning. Everything had gone online and we weren’t in the classroom.
How did you go about making the shift?
I’d lived a very active lifestyle outside of work.
When Covid hit in China, I took a lot of hope and satisfaction from looking after my health and training in the gym. I started developing little programs and patterns for myself, listening to podcasts on the subject and researching.
I became more involved in coaching with the gaelic football team I played for, and people began to ask me if I could help them out with their fitness.
During lockdown I began to lead two or three online fitness classes a day. I began to look into becoming involved in the fitness industry professionally.
I retrained on top of my teaching job.
I had to do two – three hours a night towards this qualification on top of what I was doing as a teacher.
At times it was exciting, new and fresh, but there were times when it was ridiculously hard. It doesn’t get easier to learn things as you get older, so there were struggles.
One thing led to another and we decided to move back to the UK. I looked for jobs in the fitness industry and ended up getting very lucky, landing my job at the University of St Andrews.
How did you handle your finances to make your shift possible?
When we lived in Shanghai, the international schools we worked for paid for our rent.
We earned good money, we had our health and medical paid for, we were living a bit of a dream.
So as a family we had to discuss me stepping away from this well paid job. I knew I was going to be taking a hit in terms of finances.
There were times in the initial stages of the shift, and every now and then, where you have to make financial choices and go without something as we’re not earning as much as we used to.
While you need money, you can cope and survive on less with a bit of logic and sense.
What would you advise others to do in the same situation?
Take the time to make sure you’re not making a big change as a reaction to something. Everyone has bad days, you don’t want to do something you’ll regret so make sure the change is an informed decision.
If you know you’ll likely have to take a big pay cut, make sure you can afford to do that if you have a mortgage to pay and mouths to feed.
If there’s any opportunity to get a bit of shadowing or experience in the new sector do it.
