Anyone here adjunct in addition to day job?

[Anonymous]

My company is fully remote now post pandemic. I still love my job but I need more in-person interaction and thinking about adjuncting. I have my PhD and a wide range of industry experience to draw on.

If you adjunct in addition to a day job, how is it? How did you find your position (bonus if it’s at one of the DC metro area schools)

[Anonymous]

Don't do it for just in-person interaction. You should do it only if you're passionate about passing on your knowledge and experience. It's a net-negative to your finances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't do it for just in-person interaction. You should do it only if you're passionate about passing on your knowledge and experience. It's a net-negative to your finances.

This. I think it depends how close you are to the uni and the amount of time you can spend on creating a syllabus, class discussions, and grading. There is also a good amount of calling on acquaintances to act as visiting speakers. If you have kids, especially young kids, or a demanding career where you can’t be on autopilot for 4-6 months then it’s probably going to be very difficult. A lot of universities advertise on indeed or if you know members of the faculty you can reach out to inquire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't do it for just in-person interaction. You should do it only if you're passionate about passing on your knowledge and experience. It's a net-negative to your finances.

This. I think it depends how close you are to the uni and the amount of time you can spend on creating a syllabus, class discussions, and grading. There is also a good amount of calling on acquaintances to act as visiting speakers. If you have kids, especially young kids, or a demanding career where you can’t be on autopilot for 4-6 months then it’s probably going to be very difficult. A lot of universities advertise on indeed or if you know members of the faculty you can reach out to inquire.

By close I mean proximity.

[Anonymous]

I did it twice, once for a semester and once for a year.

I was asked by faculty to fill in for them.
I got it okayed by my supervisor and left in the middle of the day to go teach then come back and work late. I also took time to have an office hour. You plan, grade and communicate with students on off hours. However it was easy for me to deal with stuff while working my regular job because you never really are busy for all hours of the day.

I enjoyed it a lot. Nice change of pace. Liked being on beautiful campuses.

My husband did as well, went about similarly but courses were all online and he was already working remotely. He did it a lot longer than I did and got sick of it and gave that up but kept his regular job.

I think a few semesters are fine but everyone I know who has taught long-term has dealt with some hard or strange things such as student stalkers, grade challenges, problems they're having at home and mental health issues. I did see a couple of things that troubled me but it was just a hint of it (drug abuse in one student) and not enough to report it.

Friends all say students are having a harder time with mental health issues. I would say go for it but be aware that there can be issues. It was helpful for me to know a couple of the others in the department that I could talk to.

[Anonymous]

^^that is, problems the students are having at home.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who loved being an adjunct and was for many years in a graduate school program for a DC university. They could hold their classes virtually most the time which made it more appealing. They left the role though for two reasons:

-they were given more and more responsibilities without pay increase. And they were given these in a disingenuous manner (department chair would say can you do X and would say it’s like two hours or extra work but it ends up being 10 hours of extra work).

-students were a mess. Never turning in work, handing in assignments that in no way met the criteria, etc. Instead of just giving a bad grade or failing the professor now has to sit in meetings after meetings to support the student. These are grown adults mind you.

[Anonymous]

Adjunct pay is pretty low if one calculates it as $/hour. So do it for enjoyment rather than as a way to earn money. There are higher paying more menial jobs if one mainly wants extra cash.

[Anonymous]

I did it for a couple years. It was way more work than I had anticipated. I was only paid for the class time, but prepping and grading (it was a writing intensive class) took even more time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adjunct pay is pretty low if one calculates it as $/hour. So do it for enjoyment rather than as a way to earn money. There are higher paying more menial jobs if one mainly wants extra cash.

+1 I did it for a year and when I calculated the hourly rate I would’ve been better off as a a sales clerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did it for a couple years. It was way more work than I had anticipated. I was only paid for the class time, but prepping and grading (it was a writing intensive class) took even more time.

I’m thinking about trying to adjunct in a pretty technical law school specialty (legal writing/regulatory interpretation) - I’m thinking that I could develop a syllabus that I can recycle every year and eventually it would be pretty rote.

[Anonymous]

I was an adjunct at the local community college for several years. I absolutely loved it, but others are right:
1. The school was literally 10 minutes from my house. If I had to commute, I don't think it would have been a good idea.
2. The pay was atrocious. I imagine university's pay adjuncts more than cc's but definitely don't do it to make more money.

I stopped when I had my second child - my real job plus kids was just too much. I think I'll probably go back when the kids go to college or when I retire. I got such joy out of digging into the subject and for a few of my students you could really see the spark when they were in my class - that was awesome.

[Anonymous]

I did a long time ago before I went to grad school (I guess back in those days you could adjunct with just a BA at a community college?), and adjuncted throughout grad school and on the tenure track. So, after my initial job, it was in addition to working in academia.

You could try it, but it really is a lot of work (teaching one 3 credit hour class is at least 10 hours of work/week, more the first time you teach it) for very little pay. There are probably better ways to get interaction.

Where I work now we have very few adjuncts, most are retired from careers and have very niche expertise.

[Anonymous]

I worked as an adjunct for many years and really enjoyed it. The money is nearly non-existent though, so be prepared to put in a lot of time and effort without a lot of financial compensation. It's not an easy job and take a lot of time to do well (and if you don't put the time in, the students will let you know it).

[Anonymous]

The pay is terrible but if you do same courses multiple times you can do less prep. I did 1 semester before covid, hired through a work contact for a specialized skill set