How to Become an Adjunct Professor

Working as an adjunct is very rewarding. It is the perfect job for the teacher who doesn't need full-time work or for those just starting out in the teaching profession. While adjuncting does not usually pay all the bills, it can pay most of them. Here are some tips to finding work as an adjunct professor.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• At least a Bachelor's Degree
• Patience
• Perseverance
• Organization

1. Get your degree. Most universities are looking for someone with at least a Master's degree to teach college classes. However, community colleges and career colleges hire adjunct professors with only a Bachelor's degree to teach prep classes.

2. Put all your professional information in one place and keep it organized. Keep your resume, transcripts and reference letters where you can access them quickly. Consider scanning important documents to your computer so that you can upload them instantly when making applications online.

3. Make a thorough search of your immediate neighborhood for every college you can find. Almost every major city has a career college or two and they are always hiring adjunct professors. Also, there are technical schools for everything from culinary arts to real estate to massage school. You may just have skills that they need in their classrooms. And some of them hire with only a Bachelor's degree.

4. Prepare your resume. Have a professional look over the resume to see if you can beef it up at all. Have print versions and online versions of your work available for potential employers.

5. Sell yourself. When you go in for the face-to-face interview you need to bring everything that you can think of that will sell you. Know your area of expertise backwards and forwards so that you will be comfortable. Run a search online for possible interview questions. This will help you feel more prepared during the interview.

6. Relax. Patience is one gift you will need in your search for an adjunct position. It may take several years before that call comes asking you to fill a position. Be patient but persistent. Watch the colleges you applied to for openings and call them to remind them that you are available and your paperwork is already on file. That is how I landed my first position and I was off and running after that.

Tips & Warnings

• Fill out all the paperwork when applying for jobs. Your application will be not even be looked at if all the documents requested are not present and accounted for.
• Don't expect to become rich by adjuncting. Adjuncts are paid fairly decent but they are only allowed to teach a certain number classes each term.

Resources

• Jobs for Adjuncts

[ddavisreid]

on 8/26/2009 I would like to become an adjunct professor for a community college. Most require a MS. I am currently working on my MS in psychology. I do have a background as a software trainer, and thought it may be good to use that as a route to get into training at the college level for the technical or career training programs. My goal is to teach psych or sociology courses when I graduate with my MS. Any other suggestions?

[redbone1953]

on 8/10/2009 How do I become an adjucnt professor? I have 29 years (still currently employed) experience in Human Services. Recently graduated June 2009 with an MSW.

[kathamy]

on 4/5/2009 Thanks for the link to www.theadjunct.net!

[theadjunct]

on 2/1/2009 For me discussion about adjunct professors, you might want to check out www.theadjunct.net where teachers of all kinds, from tenured faculty to part-timers such as myself can post and talk to one another about the sad, secret lives of teachers.