Finding the Pivotal Balance

Career Influencer Beth Fain

With a degree in business from Boston College, Beth spent her initial 14 years of her career with a successful stint in corporate Finance, Sales and Marketing working for leading companies in the healthcare industry. She was fortunate in that when she first decided to start a family, her then employer, Johnson & Johnson, allowed her the flexibility to work from home. The lifestyle was not without its challenges, but she managed to continue her career along with raising her two children.

In 2004, Beth felt the need to re-evaluate her career. Both she and her husband had similar work profiles with frequent travel involved and managing family and quality time together had become extremely challenging. That’s when she decided to quit her job and immersed herself in her new role of a full-time homemaker.

A few years later, when her daughter started kindergarten, Beth became an active volunteer parent at the school, which led to her first part-time job in the library, followed by the job of a teacher’s aide. She enjoyed the time she spent supporting the students and teachers and eventually worked full time as a long-term substitute. Since her children attended the school, this position allowed her to have the balance between work and family that she desired.

In 2011, the principal of the school encouraged her to take up teaching as a career. Beth found herself in a dilemma simply because it meant a huge shift from her original career trajectory. What eventually convinced her was her new-found passion for education and the belief that as a teacher, she could bring something different into the classroom. She also realized that with this new career, she would have the flexibility and schedule to continue to focus on her family, especially her two children.

For the next 3 years, she enrolled in a Post-Bachelors Teaching Certification Program and studied on weekends with the support of her husband and extended family. A mother to two teenagers now, she works as a full time teacher at an elementary school and is pursuing a Masters in Literacy-Reading and Writing from Caldwell University, which she attends one night a week.

Her advice to other moms- “Even though motherhood is the most meaningful job in the world, I think it’s important that we have and build something for ourselves, not related to our family. If you continue to seek opportunities and never stop the learning process, you will always have fulfillment”.