An Insider Overview
Contingency and Flexibility
As we know all too well, the world of adjuncting is one of contingency. Adjunct positions may be anticipated in the case of planned retirements, sabbaticals, or leaves. More often, they become available in response to immediate, unforeseen, or evolving circumstances of short staffing. Enrollments may have increased or faculty may have retired unexpectedly, gone on emergency leave, completed graduate programs, or cycled out of appointments. A chair or writing director may wish to address a short-term need or add to a pool of long-term adjuncts with recurring appointments. Sometimes, in cases of excellent job performance, a short-term hire is kept as a regular. All of this uncertainty can be extremely stressful, especially when you are depending on teaching gigs as a source of income. Do your best to learn about the departments where you would like to teach, their hiring calendars and their priorities, so that you can maximize the chances you will get steady teaching in a place where you’re comfortable.
Searching Broadly, Showing the Right Fit
Institutions and departments vary tremendously, so cast a broad net. Think carefully and creatively about how you would fit into a specific position at that department at that institution.
For instance:
Teaching at Baruch prepares you well to teach across CUNY. However, it’s still important to demonstrate your knowledge of the demographics, majors, college life of a particular college and how this bears on your effectiveness as a teacher.
Teaching mostly business majors at Baruch may prepare you incredibly well for positions at institutions such as Pace, The Cooper Union, or Fashion Institute of Technology that do not have majors in the humanities. Show in your CV how your experience allows you to generate interest and promote skills acquisition and retention in a subject area your students typically may not prioritize in their study programs or how you pitch your teaching to students with more practical, business-oriented priorities.
Similarly, demonstrate how having expertise in the arts or sciences would give you an advantage in connecting with students at institutions where these are the focus.
Timing and Active Looking
Because of some of the contingencies described above, jobs are not all posted at the same time across different campuses, different sets of materials may be required, and interviews may be conducted quite differently.
Jobs for fall can be posted late spring or early summer with interviews in summer. However, if staffing needs have not been fully met, as is often the case, repostings may occur in June or early August with interviews in August.
Positions for spring may be posted around mid- to later-fall.
Consult frequently resources such as Chronicle of Higher Education, CUNY’s job list, and the HR/Jobs pages of institutions where you wish to teach. You may want to bookmark these pages in a specially created folder. The MLA Job list features few part-time positions at select, typically elite, institutions. These positions may be categorized as either “adjunct” or “lecturer” so be sure to make sure that the description specifies “part time” if you’re interested.
Keep in mind that some departments will not post advertisements for adjunct positions. The best strategy for getting a position at a place that hasn’t advertised is simply to send an email and CV to either the department chair or writing director and indicate your interest in a part-time teaching position. Try to send your materials at a time when you know departments are looking: mid-late spring, mid-late fall, or in August. If you’ve already sent your materials and haven’t heard back or haven’t been asked to do an interview, consider following up politely at a time when you believe departments may be hiring.
Know Which Documents are Required
The documents in an application required for adjuncts positions vary widely. The more a position was anticipated by the department, the more comprehensive the range of documents requested will be. Some will require only a cover letter and CV, while others will also want a Teaching Philosophy and Diversity Statement. Some may require a list of referees or letters of recommendation. Typically, evaluations and the Narrative of a Classroom Activity are not required.
While there is no standard application package for adjunct positions, create a comprehensive one inclusive of all documents required for a full-time teaching-centric lectureship. It is easier to remove documents from an existing package than to have to create them. But be sure to tailor your materials to the requirements attached to a specific position. Do not send the same generic package to every department. Send departments what they ask for.
Your CV, teaching philosophy, and diversity statement should follow the models for lectureships or tenure-track positions.
Stick to the Conventions
The contents of your documents may be less extensive than for a full-time position. In your cover letter, focus on introducing yourself as clearly, concisely, and elegantly as you can. You want to come across as articulate, confident, and thoughtful. Given the desire to stand out, you may feel tempted to open with something unconventional. But it is easy to hit the wrong note. Don’t risk standing out in the wrong way.
Focus on teaching. Because you’re being hired to teach, your cover letter should focus on how your teaching experience and education prepare you to teach the specific courses identified in the job listing.
Do not dwell on service. It is unlikely you will be asked to take on service responsibilities as a part-time faculty.
For first-year writing courses, know the preferred pedagogies.
Most adjunct positions are for first-year writing. However, colleges teach composition in very different ways. At some institutions, first-year writing courses focus on composition and rhetoric, and students read primarily secondary popular and scholarly sources. At others, first-year writing resembles a writing-intensive literature course that may or may not include secondary sources and various lens texts. For such a course, having taught Great Works or electives can be a real advantage.
It is essential to know the preferred pedagogies, approaches to teaching, and preferred types of texts for a specific course at a particular institution. To ascertain this, do your research. Visit the department webpage and look for course descriptions, teaching guides, and sample syllabi provided. If these are not present, visit the faculty page and google the syllabi of those faculty who teach the courses you would be asked to.
For teaching positions that require you to teach upper division electives, show your expertise in the area you will need to cover.
If you’re being asked to teach an elective or content-focused course, your education, relevant graduate coursework, area specialization or minor concentration areas and certificates, and relevant publications or conference presentations are helpful. It’s advantageous to have taught in the subject area, even as a TA or recitation leader responsible for small group instruction, testing, and assessment. This is especially so if you are in or have completed a PhD program.
For courses involving creative writing or poetry, your published works or employment history in publishing or editing will also be useful.
Connections Really Help
Ask your director, chair, or colleagues whether they have any contacts in the department in which you are seeking a position, and whether they would be comfortable making an informal recommendation such as placing a call or sending an email on your behalf.
Ask a colleague with a good history or standing in a department where you are seeking a position to send an email or make a phone call on your behalf. Such informal recommendations that vouch for your teaching expertise and collegiality from someone already within and familiar with that department are incredibly valuable.
Let your director or colleagues know that you’re searching and ask whether they know of openings. Inform colleagues of openings and positions which you know about and offer to place or call or send an email on their behalf if you’re in a position to do so. The more you and your colleagues help each other, the more effective you will become at identifying and creating opportunities.
Finally, it really helps to have an advisor or trusted colleague review your documents for content and tone. If you want an extra pair of eyes on your materials, feel free to write to the chair of the Baruch English Department ([email protected]), the Writing Director, ([email protected]) or Harold Ramdass ([email protected]), a long-term adjunct professor who was recently hired as a full-time lecturer and has played a central role in putting together the mentoring program for adjunct faculty. They will be happy to review people’s job materials. One of them can also set you up with a departmental mentor who can work with you on your application and discuss various aspects of the job market.
(These materials were put together by Timothy Aubry, Harold Ramdass, and Molly Mosher in consultation with numerous other faculty in the Baruch English Department.)