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[foreigner123]

Hi, I´m graduating soon from a top-10 school, have publications (one in a top journal), conference presentations, etc. However, I don´t have much experience designing and teaching my own classes since I have only had the opportunity to teach as a TA and only lower-division courses.  To remedy this, I´m thinking of adjuncting at a few places that aren´t very prestigious but that will allow me to create and teach a wide variety of courses in my field.  This would also allow me to teach the entire range of lower and upper-division courses normally offered at any good R-1.  My question is since I eventually wish to work at an R-1 institution, will having taught at a virtually "no-name" school ruin my chances of ever doing so?  I also hope to keep publishing as much as possible while I´m doing all this teaching.  

Thanks so much.

[systeme_d_]

Teaching at No-name U is a terrific way to acquire teaching experience, and even R-1s like to see teaching experience. 

Of course, getting hired at No-Name U with no teaching experience is another matter altogether.

[reener06]

Yeah, I gotta say, it's like tigers circling a skinny piece of rotting meat where I am. Multiple name and no-name schools in and around university town, and I was told 4 times this week "thanks so much, you are quite impressive, and we will add your name to the pile of adjunct possibilities." They also want formal letters, CVs, transcripts and letters. Yup, for one adjunct class maybe.

For the record, I have 8 preps ready to go, did a VAP, taught 10 classes in the last year (large & medium lecture; online, and grad seminar), have 7 publications, am co-editing a volume with press in hand, have given over 3 dozen papers and chaired a dozen symposia. All to say, it may be hard to get that adjunct position.

[glowdart]

See if your advisor has any connections with these schools. 

Like reener06, we also have tigers circling a strip of charred bacon here, but we're not above doing favors for people who have done us favors in the past.  Sometimes we can help; sometimes we can't, depending on what we need covered.  But if your people know their people, then getting your CV out of that adjunct pile is one of the few places in academia where I've seen the business call-up work. That, and when a local school calls the local school with a grad program in desperate need of someone to take on a last-minute VAP. 

It's worth a shot asking your profs anyway.

Of course, getting hired at No-Name U with no teaching experience is another matter altogether.

And yes, this might well be a problem.  Everything above doesn't apply if we can't drop you into a class and know it will go well. 

[paulsa]

My question is since I eventually wish to work at an R-1 institution, will having taught at a virtually "no-name" school ruin my chances of ever doing so?  I also hope to keep publishing as much as possible while I´m doing all this teaching.  

It won't ruin your chances. For R1 schools in the fields I'm most familiar with, the publishing part is quite a bit more important than the teaching anyway (reverse that for some but not all SLACs). It seems to me that demonstrating competence as a teacher does matter just to get your foot in the door at an R1, but where you're teaching pales in comparison to where you're publishing. If you're publishing well enough, not demonstrating gross incompetence as a teacher may be enough. And if you're publishing extremely well, you may even get away with demonstrated gross incompetence as a teacher and still get hired at an R1. Though a "no name" school would want nothing to do with you. 

[mleok]

It won't ruin your chances. For R1 schools in the fields I'm most familiar with, the publishing part is quite a bit more important than the teaching anyway (reverse that for some but not all SLACs). It seems to me that demonstrating competence as a teacher does matter just to get your foot in the door at an R1, but where you're teaching pales in comparison to where you're publishing. If you're publishing well enough, not demonstrating gross incompetence as a teacher may be enough. And if you're publishing extremely well, you may even get away with demonstrated gross incompetence as a teacher and still get hired at an R1. Though a "no name" school would want nothing to do with you. 

To be honest, I think it would hurt your R1 prospects if you taught at a no name school full time after graduating with your Ph.D. Ultimately, as paulsa mentions, the currency of the realm for being hired at a R1 is research, so your post-graduation plans should focus on finding an opportunity that is conducive to you churning out high quality research, and it is rarely the case that a teaching position at a no name school is well suited to such a task. Depending on your research area, you probably need access to a well-endowed research library, lab resources, or analogous field-specific research resources to be able to conduct research efficiently, so a postdoc position at a major research university where you would interact with the top scholars in your field tends to be the standard route to positions at R1s.

[mleok]

I should also note that a R1 typically has large enough departments that it is not necessary for an incoming faculty member to be able to teach every single course offered at the undergraduate level. Such experience would probably be more desirable to a small SLAC.

[glowdart]

I should also note that a R1 typically has large enough departments that it is not necessary for an incoming faculty member to be able to teach every single course offered at the undergraduate level. Such experience would probably be more desirable to a small SLAC.

Humanities talking here, so filter and adjust as appropriate for your discipline, foreigner123:

What mleok writes here is true, but I would also remind the OP that the vast majority of jobs out there in most disciplines are not at R1 schools.  I would advise that you prepare for the reality of the market to ensure that you get a job rather than limiting yourself only to preparation that is appropriate for a miniscule proportion of posts in most disciplines.  Reach for the R1s, but recognize that most of the rest of us want teaching experience; if you have none, then we, for example, couldn't even justify a phone interview with you.

[janewales]

Reach for the R1s, but recognize that most of the rest of us want teaching experience; if you have none, then we, for example, couldn't even justify a phone interview with you.

I'm at a public research university, and we want to see teaching experience too. We don't need a ton of it, and it doesn't have to be in every possible course in our discipline, but we do want there to be solid indications that you can handle teaching and will be good at it. That's on top of the research profile.

[scion]

I think the role of teaching at R1 universities is generally underestimated on the fora. Of course they have research expectations, but some of these universities care greatly about teaching experience and potential. Like everything else, I'm sure this focus varies from field to field.  I am a finalist for a TT position at an R1 and I can tell you that at least 75% of the 45-minute phone interview was devoted to teaching.

[ruralguy]

Though mleok might be right, I don't think, OP, that you should take the risk of NOT adjuncting a little.
It probably won't hurt you for SOME R1's and would likely help for every other type of school you'd apply to.
If you are only going to apply to R1's and thats only where you'd take a job, then perhaps I'd revise the advice to say, "only adjunct if it doesn't signficantly hurt your efforts at research and attending conferences, etc."

[mleok]

I should perhaps clarify that I am in mathematics, where the tradition is for new PhDs to take up postdoctoral positions with a reduced teaching load, and the opportunity to develop an independent research profile as well. So, while some teaching experience is expected, a R1 mathematics department would tend to dismiss a candidate who had a primarily teaching job at a no name university. In engineering, tenure track faculty are routinely hired with no instructional experience at all.

[mleok]

I think the role of teaching at R1 universities is generally underestimated on the fora. Of course they have research expectations, but some of these universities care greatly about teaching experience and potential. Like everything else, I'm sure this focus varies from field to field.  I am a finalist for a TT position at an R1 and I can tell you that at least 75% of the 45-minute phone interview was devoted to teaching.

In my experience, I have never heard of/experienced a TT search at a R1 which involved a phone interview. Usually, it's just a short call to see if the candidate is still available, and interested in the position, before inviting them out for a campus interview. I agree this is probably field dependent, so perhaps you could share if you're in the humanities, social sciences, or STEM? Another thing is that R1s still constitute a fairly broad range of research universities.

For the record, I've been a finalist in about a dozen tenure track/tenured searches at R1s over the last decade.

[anisogamy]

I think the role of teaching at R1 universities is generally underestimated on the fora. Of course they have research expectations, but some of these universities care greatly about teaching experience and potential. Like everything else, I'm sure this focus varies from field to field.  I am a finalist for a TT position at an R1 and I can tell you that at least 75% of the 45-minute phone interview was devoted to teaching.

In my experience, I have never heard of/experienced a TT search at a R1 which involved a phone interview. Usually, it's just a short call to see if the candidate is still available, and interested in the position, before inviting them out for a campus interview. I agree this is probably field dependent, so perhaps you could share if you're in the humanities, social sciences, or STEM? Another thing is that R1s still constitute a fairly broad range of research universities.

For the record, I've been a finalist in about a dozen tenure track/tenured searches at R1s over the last decade.

Am I remembering correctly that you're in math?

In my social science field, pretty much all of the TT searches at R1s include a phone, Skype, or conference interview, according to the reports from my colleagues who've been getting them, the practices at places where I've been a student or adjuncted, and contributions on the wiki. Searches at DRUs or master's comprehensives, in contrast, have seemed to go straight to the campus visit stage without a first round interview on a few occasions since I've been on the market—but first-round interviews are still the norm for those schools as well.

[ruralguy]

In my experience at my school and my own search a number of years ago, plus what I witnessed among colleagues at other schools, there really seems to be no regular method, at least not in STEM, for an ordering of screening interviews, campus interviews and such.
I had an interview at an R1 that didn't do it (phone or skype). I had a number of "comprehensive" interviews that did, and my own SLAC now regularly does this across disciplines (if they haven't already been able to screen at AHA or MLA, etc.).

I will say that the one R1 I interviewed at really only cared about teaching to the extent I'd be (or the selected candidae anyway)
happy with the regular load there, and that I'd be able to begin teaching immediately. Didn't say much about quality or experience.
I also had one comprehensive interview during which it was never mentioned, and I didn't have to do a lesson (ok, I already had 6 years on TT and they saw some summary eval scores). Everyone else cared.

The history of my field was to not care about teaching, and not really prepare graduate students for it (its a physics related field).
The "good grads" would get the "good jobs", some others would get the "bad jobs" and suffer through teaching, and the rest would get no job.  That was the philosophy. But its changed quite a bit. Some people, even at the top of the food chain at big r1s have tried to get more grant money and university money for grad student teacher training in physical sciences.

I'll just go with my original advice: if you plan to apply to anything but R1's, definitely teach. If only R1's, then maybe teach, if nothing else suffers for it. But, I am sure this is quite field dependent advice.