Why Am I Not Getting an Interview? Teachers, Here’s the Truth About the 2025 Job Market
Finding a Job Is Difficult: Why 2025 Is Tougher Than Ever - But With the Right Strategy, You Can Still Get Results
If you’ve been asking yourself:
“Why am I not getting an interview?”
or even Googling:
“why is it hard to get a new job in 2025”,
you’re not alone. The UK job market is facing one of its toughest periods in years.
According to The Telegraph, Britain is in the grip of an “unprecedented jobs drought.” Vacancies have been falling for more than three years straight, and there are now 2.3 unemployed people competing for every single job. Compared to 2022, there are half as many openings per applicant, making finding a job difficult for almost everyone.
Bing reports that job vacancies have fallen by 32% compared to January 2024, while Google’s latest data suggests unemployment is creeping upward as firms slow their recruitment and stop replacing workers who leave. This means that if you’re finding it difficult to get a job, you’re not imagining it - the opportunities genuinely are fewer, and competition is fiercer.
What the 2025 Job Market Means for Teachers Leaving the Classroom
For teachers considering life beyond the classroom, this adds an extra layer of stress. Many burnt-out educators are already asking: “What else can I do?” Yet when they step into the wider jobs market, they often find that finding a new job is hard in 2025 not only because of fewer vacancies, but because their skills are not being recognised by automated systems or hiring managers who don’t understand how transferable teaching really is.
The picture is especially bleak for certain groups: midlife jobseekers who feel “aged out” by AI-driven recruitment filters, graduates facing their first prolonged job hunt, and experienced teachers who discover that after years of leading classrooms, managing teams and juggling admin, they can’t even secure an interview outside education.
The Harsh Reality Behind Every Application
For jobseekers, the reality is painful:
There are fewer roles available across nearly all sectors.
Employers are cautious, slowed by higher payroll costs and economic uncertainty.
Automated systems often reject applications before human eyes even see them.
So if you’ve been left wondering how to respond when you do not get an interview, the first step is recognising the truth: it’s not just you. It’s the market. And for teachers especially, it’s the way the system undervalues the skills you already have. The old ways of job searching no longer work in this new environment.
Why Teachers Feel the Pain of Rejection More Deeply
For many, the numbers tell only half the story. The human cost of this jobs drought is far more painful.
The Telegraph highlighted Tina, 49, who has applied for nearly 2,000 jobs since May 2024 and received not a single offer. Imagine the resilience it takes to keep applying, and the crushing weight of rejection after rejection. Another professional, Toby, 51, who once held a highly skilled creative career, now finds himself in a zero-hours warehouse job, saying: “Anyone can do it.”
Teachers stepping out of the classroom know this feeling all too well. After years of long hours, leadership responsibilities, and shaping lives, many are discovering that finding it difficult to get a job beyond education is a common story. Applications disappear into the void. CVs are filtered out by automated systems before a human even sees the breadth of your skills.
The result?
Identity loss: teachers who once defined themselves by their profession now question their worth.
Financial strain: relying on short-term supply work or taking on jobs far below their experience just to keep going.
Emotional toll: every unanswered application reinforces the thought, “Why am I not getting an interview?” and chips away at confidence.
Family pressure: the guilt of bringing stress home, especially when children see a parent who feels undervalued and stuck.
This is where the pain intensifies. Teachers don’t just leave a job when they resign from education - they often leave behind an identity, a community, and a sense of purpose. And when the outside world responds with silence, or a string of rejections, the question shifts from “how to respond when you do not get an interview” to “am I even good enough for anything else?”
It’s no wonder so many feel paralysed, sending out fewer applications, or panic-applying to roles that don’t align with their values, just to stop the silence. The longer this cycle continues, the harder it becomes to believe that a fulfilling next step is possible.
A Real Story: How Strategy Opened the Door to a Dream Job
I recently worked with a client in his 50s who had spent over 25 years in the same role. On paper, he looked stable and secure. But the reality was very different: he was overworked, underpaid for the expectations placed on him, and trapped in a toxic work environment. Breaks became a luxury, stress was a constant companion, and the feeling of being unappreciated followed him home each night.
If you’re a teacher, that probably sounds familiar. Long hours, constant pressure, pay that doesn’t match the workload, and the slow erosion of your confidence - it’s a cycle many know too well.
The turning point came when we began to work on strategy rather than just “more applications.” Through planning, we identified the hidden job market as the key to finding roles aligned with his passions, skills, and need for stability.
The role he truly wanted? Something that wouldn’t show up on any traditional job board: becoming an off-road 4x4 driver. It was completely outside his comfort zone to approach people directly, but with support, scripting, and encouragement, he reached out to someone already working in that field. That one conversation led to an introduction with the boss. After building trust over time, he was offered - and has now started - his dream job.
What Teachers Can Learn: Success Comes from Strategy, Not Job Boards
His dream job that was never advertised on a job board.
It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t endless online applications. It was strategy.
And that’s the piece so many teachers and midlife professionals miss. The roles you want may not be advertised, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Sometimes the best opportunities are waiting behind the doors we’re too nervous to knock on.
When you’re stuck in the cycle of unanswered applications, it’s easy to believe the story that “there are no jobs for me” or “I’m not good enough outside teaching.” The before picture looks painfully familiar:
Exhaustion: pouring hours into job boards only to get silence in return.
Frustration: watching less experienced candidates get interviews while your CV gathers dust.
Doubt: every rejection chipping away at your confidence until you start to wonder if you’re even employable.
Desperation: panic-applying to roles you don’t want, just to escape the silence.
But here’s the truth: the opportunities haven’t disappeared - they’ve just shifted. The after picture, when you adopt the right strategy, looks very different:
Clarity: knowing which roles align with your strengths, values, and lifestyle needs.
Confidence: reframing your teaching skills so that employers actually see the value you bring.
Connections: tapping into the hidden job market through conversations, introductions, and networking - not just job boards.
Control: moving from reactive panic applications to proactive targeting of roles you really want.
Calm: no longer taking every “no interview” personally, because you understand the system and have a plan to work around it.
For my client, this shift in strategy opened the door to a dream role that wasn’t even advertised. For teachers, it can mean discovering careers where your leadership, organisation, communication, and resilience are valued - and finally securing interviews that lead to offers.
The Opportunities Are Still Out There - If You Know Where to Look
This is the transformation: from feeling invisible in the market, to being seen, heard, and hired.
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to figure this out alone. While the job market is tougher than ever, the opportunities are still there - but they take strategy, support, and sometimes the courage to try a different approach.
The truth is, most teachers don’t land their next role through job boards. They find it by:
Discovering the hidden job market through conversations and connections.
Learning how to translate their teaching skills into language employers understand.
Building confidence by being part of a community that “gets it.”
You Don’t Have to Navigate Career Change Alone
That’s why I created From Surviving to Thriving: Teachers Exit Planning - a free online community where you can:
Connect with other teachers who are navigating the same journey.
Learn practical strategies to uncover opportunities beyond the job boards.
Share your experiences and get encouragement when the silence of rejection feels overwhelming.
Leaving teaching isn’t just a career change. It’s a life change. And no one should have to do it alone.
It’s Time to Stop Struggling Alone and Start Applying Smarter
If you’ve read this far, chances are you’re already feeling the weight of the job drought - the endless applications, the rejections, the silence. You know that simply applying harder isn’t working.
The difference comes from applying smarter. With the right strategy, support, and encouragement, teachers really can move from feeling invisible in the market to being seen, heard, and hired.
You don’t need to face this alone. The first step is surrounding yourself with people who understand the journey you’re on, and who can share the strategies that actually work.
That’s exactly what you’ll find inside my free community:
Join From Surviving to Thriving: Teachers Exit Planning today
Take the step now. Don’t keep struggling in silence - connect with others who are on the same path, and let’s start building a strategy that works for you.
P.S. Leaving teaching can feel isolating, but you don’t have to do it alone. The community is a free peer-support space where you can connect with other teachers on the same journey, share experience.
