next »

[Unlikely Pear]

Thanks to everyone who has ever posted here about the nature of getting started as an adjunct.  Thanks to several posts stating that one often needs to get a resume to the department chair (and not HR) and be available (and visible) right before the semester starts, I landed my first job at a CC.  They had a class make at the last minute with no instructor lined up.  I was literally called in on Friday to take over a class that starts Monday!  Now I have a foot in the door, which is always the hardest part.

[happy for you]

Congratulations!!

[Adjunk]

I'm happy for you, and I hope everything works out, but I do want to caution you not to get your hopes up too high.  As many adjuncts can attest, it's not unusual for the foot in the door to end up getting smashed when they slam the door shut in your face.

[Unlikely Pear]

I'm sure that's a possibility, even a probability.  But for a young scholar making his very first foray into the job market (I'm still ABD) anything beyond TA courses from my institution will look good on a CV.

[Nona]

Experience is good; learn, explore methodology, and have fun.  But there seems to be, correct me if I am wrong, an unwritten convention at many institutions, that when a t-t track position is written, it is written so that current adjuncts (1 year positions included) are excluded from the hunt!

[%sig%]

[Stuff]

This may sound weird (or confirm the necessity of this forum!), but I've actually had an easier time getting adjunct work at the state university where I got my MA than at the local CC.  Fresh out of grad school a few years ago, I left resumes at the CC but never got called back.  After a number of tries I finally got a call from the guy who handles the adjuncts for the department.  He informed me that my resume/CV basically *stunk*, and should be re-written.  So I kept working on things, learning how to present myself, and behold I am now adjunct at my state university.  I never heard back from the CC, even after leaving better resumes.

I guess the moral of the story is that it IS important to learn how to present oneself to a CC.  Unfortunately, straight out of school many graduates may not realize this.  I wish there had been some type of mentoring program in place for me, but this is no excuse for failing to do my homework.

[Adjunk]

Stuff comments on the comparable difficulty of landing an adjunct position at a community college vs. a state college or university.  I don't know if this is true elsewhere, but in my particular geographical area, the community colleges are steeped in local politics, and local politics are steeped in nepotism.  It's very difficult to break into the local cc unless you know someone or are related to someone in county politics.    The same is not true for state or private colleges.

[Claudia]

Re: "Adjunk"

Adjuncting is good, adjuncting for too long is bad, that is my experience.

So, Unlikely Pear, congratulations on landing your first gig, and I hope things will continue to fall into place for you.

Two suggestions:

As other discussions on this thread have shown, it will be a good idea to start looking for possible references from that department from the beginning so that you can add a nice letter attesting to your teaching skills to your application packages in the fall.

And in the hope that you will learn from my mistakes: Keep all preparations, outlines, copies etc., and make some notes after every session, in case questions come up afterwards about content, policies or grading, or (as in my case) you get to teach the same class again later.

Have fun, and good luck!

[milou]

Adjuncting is great for ABDs. The more years the better as long as it doesn't make you delay graduation for years and years. After you graduate it starts to look less good, but then look at me! I adjuncted for 4 years and made it into tenure track. (NOT at any of the places where I had adjuncted, unfortubately.)



                                                        Milou