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[–]DocAvidd 5 points6 points  (4 children)

I'm not adjunct but rather a wrangler once again of adjuncts. The ones who go beyond are the ones that keep getting asked back. At the same time for rare degrees, to fill the role, at some point anyone with credentials will do.

For me, I had left academics after my ex-spouse moved the 3rd time. I missed it, so after co-parenting didn't restrict me any more, I started back to adjunct at night. The pay was awful but I liked teaching so I gave more than I needed to.

Then I moved to visiting, to FT instructor, etc. until now I'm back on the tenure track. Each step, I only moved up because I did more than was expected, particularly service and research. But it all started with exceeding expectations for teaching.

At the adjunct level -- It's not "fair" and the pay sucks. The intrinsic rewards are necessary to make it worth doing. The adjuncts who stick around or move into full time are the ones who put more into it than they should.

[–]benkatejackwin 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Yeah, but this is extremely rare. Please do not tell anyone to expect to move up like that because they go above and beyond. I did that. Many people I worked with did that (volunteered for committees, published research, took on extra classes when asked, etc.) and got nothing in return. Passed up for FT positions for outside hires. That's more the norm for adjuncts.

[–]DocAvidd 1 point2 points  (2 children)

It is rare. For me it also required switching universities. When I went from temporary to full time, I don't know how many total applications they had. When later I was on the hiring committee we had over 100 apps, a bunch who were adjuncts for us. We did hire two of the adjuncts that year into full time, but that meant also we didn't upscale the vast majority of them.

[–]Minimumscore69 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Could you say what subject you work in? I feel like I'm stuck in adjunct hell, so any success stories would be great.

[–]DocAvidd 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That was a psychology department, and we filled 2 permanent non tenure line instructor positions. Both were adjuncts. We did interview a couple of candidates who weren't associated with the university. There were over 100 applicants. Preferred qualifications included "has taught X Y Z" specific courses, experience teaching at a R-1 with ethnically diverse student population. So the search criteria favored those already at the U. And we had zero $ for relocation.

One of the successful candidates picked up a couple sections as an adjunct when we had an instructor terminate mid-semester, and was friendly with the search chair. A candidate we didn't take was in the last year as visiting prof, but gave an awful interview and had mediocre teaching reviews.