Greetings Everyone, Since discovering this place a few weeks ago a whole new world has opened up to me. So now that my project finished this past Friday I now need to look for a new project (or job). I have always wanted to teach and I enjoy learning so I will give it a valiant attempt over the next few weeks to see if anyone is remotely interested. I am not too hopeful since I have been out of school for now 12 years and stuck in business. Three basic questions to get me started (and please forgive me if they have been asked before and I did poor job on the search function): - Should I even bother if my education only goes up to an MSc? (For background I have a BA Hons from Univ of Toronto and MSc in Econ Dev't from LSE). - I have ZERO experience teaching in an institution of higher learning. Again should I even bother? I have taught a lot ... BUT at church and at clients and at conferences... - Should I teach at an unaccredited school? Will this hurt any future prospects? I thank you in advance for your help. If some of these have been asked before please point me to the right place. Regards!
Many teaching positions only require a masters and you will be in even better shape if you can teach a high need area such as accounting. I would highlight any teaching experience you have. It can never hurt. I would not teach at an unaccredited school unless it is at a school that has a good reputation and is unaccredited. There are not many that are like that but as a general rule I would stay away from an unaccredited school.
Thanks Randell. I have been kind of discouraged about applying for adjunct positions seeing that there is so much competition and a lot of them have PhD's (this is the impression I get from lurking and reading at DegreeInfo). But I will try and muster the will again and send out a few ones to test the waters. I will include any and all experiences (training, conferences and church).
It never hurts to try. Your econ. dev. background may open up some good doors for you. Highlight your teaching experience even if it is not in higher education. Get your resume out there aggressively. I highly recommend contacting program directors/chairs directly in addition to going through the school's HR portal. Good luck.
I think that the reality is that every school and situation is different. There is no "one size fits all" in this conversation. We could say that PhDs will open more doors for you, and that is probably accurate, but there are exceptions. There are some schools that couldn't care less about whether an applicant has a PhD or a MA. For instance, when I applied to my current employer for my current job, I was interviewed, etc. in competition with several others who had made it through the screening process. I was the least experienced, and newest MA holder of the bunch. One of the other interviewees held a PhD. I have an MA (for now). I later found out that I barely made it through the screening process, because of my inexperience. But when we interviewed, I knocked it out of the park. Yeah, I am a good interviewee. We did a sample lesson for the hiring committee. After it was over, I got the job. So the PhD might generally be the best bet, but if you keep applying, you will find those places where you are what they are looking for. At least that has worked for me.
Certainly being a good interviewer helps. Some interviews I have aced ... while others I have bombed. I guess I will take it one step at a time...
I'm resurrecting this thread to ask: What undergrad classes could Joe_HC teach with an economic development master of science? Economics? I would imagine the minimal degree for that would be an MBA or master's in economics. I ask this because I am getting one of those weird master's degrees that don't exactly fit into the traditional categories.
I think the OP has a good background for economics courses, but I do know what specfic courses he has in the topic. In my experience, MBA's are not the best choice for adjunct work. They are generalist in nature and often do not focus enough on any one area to give you enough credits (18 hours) to teach in that area. It really depends on the school. The "18 hours in a subject rule" is tossed around here frequently, but beware that just having 18 hours may not meet the requirements for some schools. I was eliminated for consideration for a faculty position in emergency management (EM) because I was told that while I had 18 hours in emergency management courses, they were cobbled together throughout several programs and were titled either "homeland security " or "public administration ." I was told that my credits did not meet accreditation standards for the school in regard to hiring faculty (SACS) and that a position in EM required a Masters in EM - no more, no less. Granted this may be a strict interpretation by that particular school, but it is being applied by some.
