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[possiblephd]

I am applying to accounting PhD programs and was wondering if anyone could give any insight on what the job market has to offer. Specifically, I am hoping to find a part-time teaching position after receiving my PhD. Is this something that would be possible and what could I hope a starting salary to be? I am not applying to top universities (UNT, LSU, etc.), so I am worried this might limit my options for the type of positions I would be interested in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I finalize my decisions.

[octoprof]

I am applying to accounting PhD programs and was wondering if anyone could give any insight on what the job market has to offer. Specifically, I am hoping to find a part-time teaching position after receiving my PhD. Is this something that would be possible and what could I hope a starting salary to be? I am not applying to top universities (UNT, LSU, etc.), so I am worried this might limit my options for the type of positions I would be interested in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I finalize my decisions.

Why will you want a part time job after finishing your PhD?  That's rather odd.

Not applying to top Unis limits some options but that's probably not relevant to someone looking for part-time employment in a market that is very short of PhDs to begin with.

Can you give me a bit more to go on here?

What are your overall objectives after the PhD program is finished?  (in addition to the very unusual desire for a part-time job)

[profh]

I find this rather odd as well.  If you're only in search of a part-time position why bother with the PhD? Save yourself some cash and time.  In most cases, you only need an M.A. for a part-time position.

[octoprof]

I find this rather odd as well.  If you're only in search of a part-time position why bother with the PhD? Save yourself some cash and time.  In most cases, you only need an M.A. for a part-time position.

A master of accountancy and a CPA certificate will get you a part-time position in accounting, for sure.

[seniorscholar]

The vast majority of part-time faculty positions are as adjuncts, hired for a semester at a time to teach basic courses, and at a salary that can range between $1,500 and $5,000 per semester. Furthermore, many schools pay no benefits for adjuncts, and forbid the adjunct to teach more than two sections a semester. Thus at the schools that pay the biggest sums (usually in expensive locations), the salary would be at most $20,000 per year (without any benefits), and the job would be tenuous, semester to semester. Those are the conditions of part-time faculty work in most fields.

There are exceptions, of course, but most of them about which I know anything involve people with professional or technical experience (e.g., well-known local journalists who teach one course per semester in the journalism department, or judges who do one law school class every spring) or, in one case I know of, someone who teaches one section of German in a Lutheran seminary while holding down a non-academic job elsewhere. An accountant might well fall under this category, but even so I doubt if the income would be commensurate with the training (or the earning possibilities in other part-time accounting positions).

In addition, a great many departments used to have (and some still do) a small collection of faculty spouses with degrees in the appropriate field who regularly taught -- but still at adjunct pay -- a course or two every semester. The only difference between this set-up and the ordinary adjunct work described in the first paragraph is that, because of the department's connection to the person's spouse, the person would go to the head of the list for hiring adjuncts each semester. (The last of these "semi-permanent part-time faculty" in my own department has "retired" now that all four of the children have graduated from the college and the extra income is no longer needed for tuitions at Ivy-league schools.)

[possiblephd]

I probably should have been a little clearer. I would be looking for a part-time position because I have heard that for tenure track positions one can expect to work 60-70 hours a week initially and I will have young children that will need more attention than I would be able to provide with that kind of schedule. I was hoping to get some kind of part-time or less demanding position for the first 5-10 years after which I would be able to handle a more demanding schedule (and I would want to).

My worry is that if I don't pursue a PhD now it won't happen later, but also that if I don't get a position immediately after graduating no one will want to hire someone that hasn't been in the field for 5 years.

[educator1]

We have a number of part (and full time) adjuncts teaching accounting at my school. Non-Phd. holders need not apply (They have a negative impact on AACSB accreditation). The part-timers earn $4,000 - $5,000 per course (one semester). Most have lucrative consulting or other outside gigs as well. It can be agreat life style!

[octoprof]

We have a number of part (and full time) adjuncts teaching accounting at my school. Non-Phd. holders need not apply (They have a negative impact on AACSB accreditation). The part-timers earn $4,000 - $5,000 per course (one semester). Most have lucrative consulting or other outside gigs as well. It can be agreat life style!

Your part-timers have PhDs in accounting? Wow...

I probably should have been a little clearer. I would be looking for a part-time position because I have heard that for tenure track positions one can expect to work 60-70 hours a week initially and I will have young children that will need more attention than I would be able to provide with that kind of schedule. I was hoping to get some kind of part-time or less demanding position for the first 5-10 years after which I would be able to handle a more demanding schedule (and I would want to).

My worry is that if I don't pursue a PhD now it won't happen later, but also that if I don't get a position immediately after graduating no one will want to hire someone that hasn't been in the field for 5 years.

I don't think those sort of positions exist, not for the purpose you want. The general issue is that if you are part-time you are unlikely to be doing significant research (it would be unusual in accounting).  So, when you are ready to go full-time, you are unlikely to be particularly attractive as a candidate if you haven't been doing research all along.

Of course, the market is such in accounting (low supply v. high demand) that you may still be marketable.  Who knows? 

Doing a PhD and purposefully planning to teach part-time is so very unusual that it's hard to predict how it might be viewed in the market.  If the PhD programs to which you apply know that about you, it might hurt your application, i.e. you won't be considered a serious applicant, perhaps.

[jonesey]

I would be looking for a part-time position because I have heard that for tenure track positions one can expect to work 60-70 hours a week initially and I will have young children that will need more attention than I would be able to provide with that kind of schedule.

So, you don't have young children now, but will have them in 7 years when you complete your PhD? 

Or, you do have young children now, in which case they won't be young when you finish.

I'm confused.  A bad career plan is to get pregnant right out the gate in any career, but especially academia, where you'll most likely have to move to get a job. 

As far as adjuncting for 5-10 years and then applying for TT jobs, the fact is that your degree will probably be "stale" by then, further decreasing the odds of landing a TT slot anywhere (if you can't teach FT with kids, you probably won't get much reasearch and publications done either). 

I'd think hard about this career path.