Adjunct & Part-Time Teaching
Community & Two-Year Colleges
Administration & Other University Career Positions

When you're in an Ivy League graduate program like Brown's, it's often easy to lose sight of the fact that there's more to working in academia than securing a tenure-track faculty position at a large research university. Many graduate students find employment in academia in other capacities: working as teachers at community colleges or building careers in academic administration. This guide introduces you to the career opportunities available beyond the tenure-track professorship:

Adjunct & Part-Time Teaching

A lot of ink has been spilled in academic circles over the plight of adjunct teaching instructors. Adjunct, part-time, and temporary instructors often make much less than their tenure-track compatriots, teach heavy course loads, and often work without the benefits accorded to many other university employees. However, many adjunct instructors find their experience to be a rewarding one. If you're a recently-minted Ph.D. with little teaching experience, work as an adjunct can provide you with the opportunity to sharpen your teaching skills, develop syllabi, and teach a wider range of courses. For some, the heavy teaching load of adjunct work enables them to do what they love best-- teach.

Featured Article: "Why I Like Being a Contract Faculty Member" by Nancy Fasnacht. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Many part-time and temporary instructors use their adjunct experience to transition into more permanent, tenure-track positions. Other adjuncts, use their role as a part-time instructor to balance careers in teaching and college administration: teaching a couple of courses and developing a writing center, to name just one example. If you're considering working as a part-time or temporary college instructor, it's important to keep in mind why you're adjuncting, so that you can get the most from your experience. The following articles and resources offer a different perspective on how you can use adjunct teaching to advance your career goals.

Featured Article: "Getting Started as an Adjunct" by Jill Carroll. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Tips on how to land an adjunct position.

Resources

Adjunctnation.com
News on issues facing adjunct instructors, links to funding sources, professional development resources, and job listings for part-time faculty. Includes access to the Adjunct Advocate, the national news magazine for and about adjunct college educators. Some sections of the site require a free, one-time registration.

Adjunctopia
A website that matches adjunct instructors with colleges and universities. You can post your CV online.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's archive on adjunct issues
A collection of past articles on issues facing part-time and temporary college instructors.

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Community & Two-Year Colleges

While tenure-track faculty positions continue to be the envy of many aspiring academics, teaching at community, technical, and junior colleges can also be a rewarding career experience. Unlike the heavy research and publishing demands at major four-year universities, community colleges allow you to focus on teaching. They also offer a smaller institutional environment. Working at a community or two-year college often entails a heavier teaching load, but the pressure to publish research is often less pronounced. Many academics who've pursued careers teaching at two-year colleges say they enjoy teaching to diverse student populations.

Featured Article: "Not a Bad Gig" by Rob Jenkins. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Applying for a job at a community college may be quite different from the applications process for major research universities. Since teaching is the primary vocation of most two-year schools, be sure to emphasize any teaching experience you have, particularly if you have had a chance to develop your own courses. Expect to spend much of the interview discussing your teaching experience and pedagogy.

Resources

Community College Week online
Community College Week online contains news on community, technical, and junior colleges, as well as a link to "CCjobsonline.com," a database of job listings at two-year colleges.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Community College archive
An archive of past articles on teaching at community colleges.

Stanford University's "Community College Job Search" Guide
An overview of the application process, a timeline, and sample interview questions. You may download the guide from Stanford's Career Development Center website. From the link, scroll down to "Graduate Student Career Guides" and click on "Community Colleges."

Job Listings

Graduate Career Services: Academic Job Listings
Many of the websites featured in our academic job listings page have listings for community and two-year colleges.

CCjobsonline.com
Website devoted exclusively to listings for community college jobs.

American Association of Community Colleges - Careerline
Listing of community college positions available nationwide.

California Community Colleges
Extensive listing of community college positions available in California.

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Administration & Other University Careers

Colleges and universities abound with career opportunities beyond teaching and academic research. When you hear the phrase "university administration" you probably think of deans and college presidents, who determine broad educational policy, govern universities, and act as their public faces. In addition to these leadership roles, many colleges and universities offer a wide range of employment opportunities in program administration, career services, and fund raising, to name a few. Many students who've pursued administrative or non-teaching careers at universities say they enjoy remaining in an academic environment while being able to adopt a more regular 9 to 5 work schedule.

If you're interested in pursuing an administrative or non-faculty career in academia, the challenge lies in finding what kind of career you want to pursue. The following careers are just a few of those available:

• High-level university administration
• Public Relations & Communications
• Fund-Raising & Development
• Admissions Officers
• Business & Finance Officers
• Counseling
• Human Resources
• Institutional Research & Planning
• Residential Life
• Library Administration
• Student Affairs and Services

This guide offers some helpful online resources that can introduce you to the kinds of careers available in academia beyond the faculty professorship. Many professional associations connected with the administrative jobs listed above offer career development resources and job listings on their websites. For a list of administrative associations, consult the following article:

The Chronicle's "Information about Administrative Jobs in Academe"
A list of links to administrative associations on the web. These links offer a quick means of exploring various administrative careers, including counseling, business and finance, development, institutional research and planning, admissions, and more.

Other Resources

"Moving Up" series in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Tips on how to advance your career in university administration.

WRK4US Careers in Academic Administration Discussion
Part of the 'Humanities at Work' project.

Job Listings

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