If you dont know what to do after university by all means be a teacher. Even if its just for your 20s. However, the pay thing is a huge stop for a lot of people and even more so for certain subjects. For example, Im have PhD in industrial mathematics. My day rate is £1500 doing freelance consulting. Why would i want to be a high school maths teacher for £24k a year? And even if i wasnt a PhD, even with just a bachelors degree, there are job roles starting at £35-50k/year with less hours and more benefits. This is why the UK has a shortage of mathematicians and even more so why there are shortages of maths students. We now have non maths specialists teaching mathematics in high school.
If you dont know what to do after university by all means be a teacher. Even if its just for your 20s. However, the pay thing is a huge stop for a lot of people and even more so for certain subjects. For example, Im have PhD in industrial mathematics. My day rate is £1500 doing freelance consulting. Why would i want to be a high school maths teacher for £24k a year? And even if i wasnt a PhD, even with just a bachelors degree, there are job roles starting at £35-50k/year with less hours and more benefits. This is why the UK has a shortage of mathematicians and even more so why there are shortages of maths students. We now have non maths specialists teaching mathematics in high school.
We shared a similar career transitioning experience. I really like your deep thought and motivation!