Sorcha Coyle—Empowering Expat Teachers personally and professionally

You already know that Sorcha Coyle is a force to be reckoned with. She exemplifies the characteristics that define female leaders–impactful, inspiring and purpose driven. She is busy touching the lives of women that cross her path. With her work and achievements, she inspires other women to aspire to similar success in the education industry. No matter how many roadblocks are in her way, or how many challenges she gets to face every day, she is going to be the master at achieving what she sets hermind to. She feels that what we need is the right intent, passion for the vision, and consistency in reaching our goals.

Tell us something about yourself…..

My name is Sorcha Coyle and I taught in the Gulf (Qatar and Dubai) for over 10 years. After my 4 years in Qatar. I saved six figures, which I used to buy a home in Ireland and set up an investment portfolio. I also created the 13,300+ member Empowering Expat Teacher Facebook group here and my IG @sorchacoyle_eet here where I share international job hunting, CV, and money-saving tips each day. Last year, I left teaching to become an Expat Career and Money Strategist, a Certified Professional Résumé Writer, and a Highlands Ability Battery Certified Career Consultant, based in Dubai. I saved 6 figures as an expat teacher and I have also left teaching and now I show my clients how to do the same. I am a huge fan of Murder, She Wrote and I was very sad when Angela Lansbury (the actress who played Jessica Fletcher) passed away earlier this year, at the age of 96.


When, Where, Why and How did you begin your professional journey?
I trained as a teacher in the UK back in 2008-2009. When I completed my bachelor’s degree in Ireland, I did some research and found out that the UK were providing bursaries or grants to train teachers, so I moved across to the UK, completed my teacher training and graduated debt-free. I spent a year teaching in the UK and six months teaching in Ireland which made me realize that I wasn’t ready to move back home for good Then I decided to apply to an international school in Qatar and I became an expat teacher. I spent 4 very happy years there and then I spent one year in the UK at King’s College London, completing my MA. Afterwards, I moved to Dubai to work as a teacher. I spent five years working at an international school in Dubai and then in October 2021, I left full-time teaching to set up my own business as a nExpat Career and Money Strategist. I work with expats to help them find their ideal job abroad with a six-figure career and money strategy. I also help ex-pats change career while living abroad.

What is the secret of your success and what does success mean to you?

To me, success is freedom, flexibility and time. I love working for myself because I can work online I can work from anywhere in the world, so I can spend months at a time at home in Ireland with my family and friends there. I can travel while working. I can set up my own routine and my own schedule. To me, success is being in charge of your own life, being in charge of your own day, being in charge of your own happiness and fulfillment and not necessarily relying on other people or other things to provide that for you.

Any striking incident in your life that had a deep impact on your life or changed the course of your life?

Before I moved to Qatar back in 2011, Ireland was still going through a very severe economic recession where hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, lost their homes and lost their peace of mind and happiness. It made me realise the importance of having financial security and having money and I swore to myself that when I would buy my first home, I would buy a property in cash, so I would never be indebted to a bank or ever be at risk of losing my home if I could not make her payments on the mortgage. That really spurred me to see international teaching as a really lucrative and empowering decision so even though I enjoyed my time I’ve always travelled and I’ve always enjoyed expat life without being frugal, I always had a saving goal in the back of my mind to meet each week, each month, each year in order to achieve that financial security and freedom.


Describe myself as a person…

That’s a great question. I am very ambitious and aspirational. From a young age, I’ve always believed that I could achieve anything I wanted to, once I was prepared to put in the hard work, time, energy, patience and effort to achieve it. I am very loyal and I’m very ethical and honest. I believe humans are more important than anything else and I always try to be empathetic and put myself into other people’s shoes. I believe people are inherently good and that everyone deserves a second chance. As a coach, I would like to think that I’m quite self-aware and a very good listener.


What are the challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?

Another wonderful question that’s making me really reflect on my life! Mindset is a huge part of overcoming challenges, so what I do is allow myself to feel my feelings, first of all. It’s important to acknowledge them because there’s no point in pretending everything is fine or having false positivity. Then I would be kind to myself with soothing self-talk, forgive myself, do some sort of emotional freedom technique, and then I would look at creating some kind of strategy and solution to get myself out of this challenge. I suppose one of the biggest professional challenges I faced was probably leaving full-time teaching to start my own business.


Any Awards and accolades received by you?

I have helped hundreds of teachers find great teaching jobs abroad and I specialise in helping experienced expat teachers secure interviews at reputable competitive international schools. I’m proud to say that many of my clients have secured jobs that were financially lucrative and were able to negotiate better salaries or packages, earn and save six figures, pay off their mortgages, etc.


How do you balance work and family?

I actually don’t have a family yet, so that’s not a major issue. However, I have so much respect for those teachers and entrepreneurs, who manage to balance both because sometimes I barely have enough time in the day to look after myself and to complete all my tasks for my business. In the future, I will most likely rely on my family to help me with balancing everything.


What are your future plans

There are so many teachers in the UAE who wish to leave teaching and change into a career that is more fulfilling and offers them greater freedom and flexibility. Therefore, I aspire to be the number one Expat Career Change Expert with the most popular Expat Career Change Circle programme.I want it to be the number one career change program in the Gulf region.


I’m also interested in working with young people to help them craft a six-figure career and money strategy too, so that’s something I’m looking at developing at international schools in the Gulf region and also in Ireland.


Anything else that you want to tell the readers
Whenever I am feeling sad or overwhelmed, I think of a Hafez quote: “I wish I could show you, When you are lonely or in darkness, The Astonishing Light Of your own Being!”
It reminds me how amazing we are and that we will figure it out eventually.