🛒 You walk into a supermarket after a long day to choose something to eat.

You find flow in walking up and down the aisles and a few minutes in, you have to bring your attention back to what you were meant to be buying.

🍞 After wandering through the middle aisle, you walk from one end of the store to pick up a pint of milk and to the other in search of a loaf. You remember that you were supposed to be here to choose what to have for your dinner.

🍕 You pick up a pretty uninspiring Margherita Pizza, on offer, from the end fridge.

Who chose this?

Behind every supermarket layout there are choice architects. Experts who know exactly what to do to get you spending. That’s why the milk is at one side and the bread is at the other. You have to walk past every aisle, often picking up the not-so-special offers.

Items on the shelves are placed according to a science – a science that you are rarely conscious enough to have control over.

👀 You might not notice it when you walk down the cereal aisle, but you are being watched. Cereal mascots are designed to make eye contact with you. Children's cereal mascots have characters whose eyes are trained to look at a downward angle. They're looking directly at children.

Is someone else making your choices?

Many of us teachers drift. Aside from the very few you meet who say they always wanted to be a teacher; the drifter in us can move us straight out of university into NQT and later leadership roles. Blink and you are a decade or more in!

🕰 But just as you drift from the milk to the bread, so too you can drift up the school hierarchy, often with others becoming the choice architect of your career pathway. Positions become available, you become more senior. Often this happens without even making conscious decisions or just by ageing into roles. Temporary step ups become permanent. Terms turn into years.

You can work incredibly hard and still drift. You can get promoted and still be drifting - especially if it isn’t the path you want.

It’s never been more important to make intentional decisions about your career as a teacher or school leader. That’s why I set up Diverse Apply Recruitment. Poor career choices are quickening exits from the profession - but there has also never been a better time to get after the role you want.

We are helping a rapidly growing number of teachers, leaders and schools combat this right now.

📩 Get in touch for free career advice or support to secure the role that you want!