next »

[smirky]

Hi there - I left my TT position to work at a big non-profit - love my job but find that I miss teaching quite a bit. How do you find out about adjunct positions? There are quite a lot of big unis and colleges in my city, but I can't find an opening on their human resources websites. Should I contact dept. heads or human resources with inquiries or just leave busy people alone and wait for openings?

Smirk

[zharkov]

Don't wait for job ads; schools frequently just dip into the "adjunct pool," and don't need to advertise for adjuncts.  So your aim is to get into the pool.  You do that by sending (or emailing)  your CV and a cover letter that lists specific courses you'd be interested in teaching to the department chairs.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

Adjunct gig #1: I cold called the department head to ask if they were hiring adjuncts, for what and when. My timing was such that I picked up a class that started a few weeks later. I sent in the application materials right after the phone call and I met the person I had spoken to on the phone after I had been working at the college for a while.

Adjunct gig #2: Cold called again to another institution close by. The chair asked me if I could attend his college's small, but relevant conference in the coming weeks so we could have a brief interview. In the meantime, I sent in the application materials. I went to the conference, we talked, and he offered me classes for the following semester.

[seniorscholar]

This is a good time to send your c.v., an indication of the classes you can teach (have taught, especially), and a letter of inquiry to the department chair of appropriate departments. (Adjunct hiring is almost universally done by department chairs or even the director of programs within the department, so neither HR nor the Dean knows anything about it.) Om big cities like mine the smaller colleges (but not generally the universities) sometimes run an "adjunct pool sought for [name of several fields]" ad in the local newspaper just about now.

Why now? Many schools conduct registration for spring semester classes in mid-October, so a couple of weeks from now department chairs will begin to be able to count how many adjuncts they'll need to hire. Of course they have regulars to draw on, but some of the regulars will not be available. And though the great majority of adjunct teaching is in the lower level required courses, sometimes a need for someone to fill upper-level classes will develop about now because of family leave requests, scheduled medical procedures, and surprisingly large registration in a certain area.

[neutralname]

An email expressing interest to the dept chair is probably enough.  If you don't get a response, then you could follow up by sending your CV and a letter of interest in hard copy.  Where I am, most chairs like to keep a list of potential adjuncts, because there's often a lot of change as adjuncts move around or get better jobs elsewhere. 

[smirky]

Thank you, folks. I will get on this over the weekend and get some letters out in the coming week. Hopefully I'll be on this forum again soon, talking about classes and whatnot.

[mrs_sunshine]

The idea to contact department chairs is a good one. I read that piece of advice in the forums a few months ago and then contacted the chair at a local CC. She said she'd keep me in mind for the next semester. Well, it's time to schedule courses for the next semester and I just received a call to teach two sections! I'm thrilled! So, I wanted to say thanks to those who suggested it and that it does work! :)

[watermelon_man]

I've been called with offers to apply because the other adjunct professors knew me, even though the chair didn't. Always at the last minute. I called one college mid or early August every year for several years, then got in.

[hopeandfaith]

Thank you to everyone who participated in this thread, and to the OP for asking......it helped me a great deal.

My uncle is a pastor and taught as an adjunct professor for 1 semester.  He had to stop because it was too stressful and called for more hours than he expected.  I suspect adjunct faculty turnover is great in most universities.

[infopri]

Don't wait for job ads; schools frequently just dip into the "adjunct pool," and don't need to advertise for adjuncts.  So your aim is to get into the pool.  You do that by sending (or emailing)  your CV and a cover letter that lists specific courses you'd be interested in teaching to the department chairs.

This.  It's important to include the list of courses you can teach--and be honest.  If you say you can teach it, you'd better be able to follow through, if they offer you the opportunity.

I started adjuncting at MyCity U when I was still a doctoral student, so they knew me and knew what I could teach.  I got my current gig there through my former doctoral advisor, who was retiring and knew that I could teach his course--a particularly difficult course to teach online.  The associate dean (whom I knew, but not well) interviewed me about the challenges of that course, liked my answers to his questions, and has hired me most semesters for the past several years as a result.

But I just landed a new gig in Somewhere Warm doing pretty much what zharkov recommends.  Because the CC in Somewhere Warm has a lousy website (pretty, but very little info), it wasn't clear who the department chair or department faculty were, so I sent an email to the director of HR asking whether we could meet (so I could learn more about the school, etc.).  I included within the email a list of courses I could teach, and I attached my CV.  He blew me off, saying he didn't have time to meet with me.  But two weeks later, the department chair emailed me and asked me whether I could cover two courses.  The only way she could possibly even know I exist is through the HR director.  I've just received the new-hire paperwork, and I'll have three or even four sections to teach this spring, on top of my MyCity gig (which is online only).  And it turns out that she may have a full-time position available next year (although I don't know yet whether it would be TT), and she seems to be hoping I'll apply for it. 

So, yes, zharkov's method works.