I got a job at Deloitte after quitting teaching. Here's the path I took to pivot my career in 8 months.

• Amina Ahmed quit teaching after she felt burned out and got a job as a government contractor.
• The 27-year-old refocused her résumé and got a job at Deloitte eight months later.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 27-year-old Amina Ahmed from Virginia. Business Insider has verified her salaries. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I was in my last year of university in Virginia studying public health when I was approached by a recruiter from Teach For America.

Teaching wasn't something I'd wanted to do, but I'd enjoyed mentoring kids and volunteering at local middle schools while at college. I thought: "I love working with kids; why not pursue this?"

It was an intensive two-month interview process. After that, they offered me a job teaching high schoolers biology for two years at a public school in Baltimore.

It was hard to earn high schoolers respect

We were given six weeks of training, and then I was thrown to the wolves.

I was 21 and working with high school seniors. With such a small age gap, it was hard to gain their respect. I was teaching international baccalaureate, which I found very challenging.

The school didn't have a curriculum for the baccalaureate, so I had to find one online and figure it out based on what exam papers were available.

I was idealistic. It took me a while to realize that while I could be there for my students, I couldn't fix an entire education system myself.

I found myself working 16 hours a day and on weekends. I felt like I could never take a day off. I felt as though I was spending every day being stressed. I couldn't hang out with my friends or family. I was barely sleeping.

I wanted to leave teaching, but I couldn't

After finishing my two years at the school, I knew I wanted to transition out of teaching. I'd always wanted to work for the government — my father has worked for them for 30 years. But I kept getting rejected for government jobs.

I got another job at a school in Washington, DC, in 2020, teaching middle-school science at a charter school. It was like a breath of fresh air. Working with middle schoolers was easier, and the school had more resources. I stayed there for one year.

At first, I was teaching online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I eventually went to school toward the year's end.

It was a lot of responsibility, but I learned leadership skills, how to communicate, and public speaking.

I highlighted my transferable skills on my résumé

Through my friends, I met someone who worked for the government. They helped me highlight my transferable skills on my résumé, such as my leadership skills, public speaking and using tools such as PowerPoint and my initiative. I used examples, such as creating a new curriculum, to showcase my skills.

I landed an interview for a job working as a government contractor. In preparation, I copied out my résumé and highlighted transferable skills for the role.

I landed the job in June 2021. It was a $9,000 annual pay cut. I had to move back home and live with my parents in September 2021.

It was so much slower than teaching. I loved that I could turn up, do my job, and leave. But I knew I eventually wanted to work in consulting for one of the Big Four firms. I worked in the contractor role for eight months until I saw a job I wanted at Deloitte.

I reworked my résumé to highlight my skills from my government job, with examples for each skill. I landed the Deloitte job in February 2022. I first worked on software development and then moved to data analytics within the government and public sector department. All my clients are federal government agencies.

My Deloitte salary was almost double the government job.

I love my job now — the flexibility of working from home, the tasks, and being able to step away if I need to.