Another vote for accept the adjunt job ait A and bail later if you get the offer from B. This happens all the time and as others have said, anyone in academia will understand that you have to go where the full time work is.

Anonymous wrote:Commit to A. Stay in the process for B. You'll feel bad if you have to bail on A, but they aren't offering you full time work. This happens all the time.

This but in addition if you havent pursued this yet, you could try to tell Institution B that you have a timeline elsewhere to see if they can get back to you sooner

Commit to A. Stay in the process for B. You'll feel bad if you have to bail on A, but they aren't offering you full time work. This happens all the time.

Adjuncting means they can drop your classes at the last second. And by the same token, you can drop them at the last minute too. I realize it's delicate if these are the only two universities, but yes, I would say accept A and of course dump them if you get a full-time position at B. Anyone would understand.

Also, this happens ROUTINELY.

What happens if you sign a contract committing to teach at institution a but then you get the job offer and go off to work at institution B? They cannot force you to adjunct at institution a because you signed a contract. In theory they could MAYBE go after you for damages, (big maybe) but I don’t think so, and from their perspective in terms of damage control it’s not hard to find someone to take an adjunct role. They may be annoyed, but they will find someone else. And if they are even a tiny bit honest, they will acknowledge that in your shoes they would have done the exact same thing.

Don’t fail to accept what school a is offering you now because you are hoping school B might offer you something. Accept school a and then see what happens. Good luck, OP! Let us know what happens!

I have taught the last year as an adjunct at School A. It has been an amazing experience and a great school, department, team and program but it is adjunct work and contract based. Pay isn't great. They have offered me adjunct work for the coming academic year and kind of went out of their way to find me extra work in the hopes I will come back. There aren't any permanent or full time positions there now.

I recently applied for a full time academic position at School B and I am on the short list. I believe there are 3 candidates left. This would be a permanent full time position and about 3X the pay of adjunct work. School B has expressed significant interest in me however I can't teach one of the core classes that they need taught. They have indicated they can work around this as I have a lot of other wanted experiences and skills but if all else is equal, I don't think I would be their top choice.

The problem is that School A needs contracts signed soon so they can finalize their workload and find other adjuncts if necessary. I have already dragged my feet but they are saying they are going to need to move on if I can't commit. But School B is moving very slowly through the hiring process, has a start date of mid August, and it could be 3-4 works before an offer is sent out even if I am successful (which is only a 1/3 chance). There is no way I can delay signing with School A until everything with School B pans out.

School A and School B are the only two academic institutions in my city that run the program I can teach in.