Well, the one adjunct job has come through with flying colors! Contract in hand, and it looks like there’s already above the minimum number. Lots of paperwork to fill out and a school catalogue to read! They’ve even given me an email box and I LOVE the wallpaper—it’s a cute cartoon one…OMG, I sound like What’s Her Name from Kalamazoo, the Perpetually Cheerful….Okay, deep breath, dial it down a notch or five. After all, still have to wait for final headcount and make sure it doesn’t get cancelled or that my previous employer doesn’t talk smack about me for sheer vindictiveness…..The other position’s interview with the Chair went well. He was sending my C.V. to the Dean, who was just returning from vacation. I haven’t heard anything yet, but hope to by next week. Both colleges have conducted internet searches on me already. Notifications from Academia.edu and Brand Yourself confirm this—must be a good sign.
The thing I’m strangely excited and worried about however, is landing the part time clerical job that will give me enough to keep paying the really important bills. You know, internet connection, groceries, and oh, yeah, the mortgage. They’ve informed me that they’re still interviewing, and originally they were supposed to make a decision by Friday. My palms are sweating. What’s wrong with this picture?
Oh, and if this weren’t enough, over the weekend, my spouse went to a restaurant, where another adjunct was discovered! Hmmm….if this other part time job doesn’t work out, I may just troop over there and fill out an application!!!!! Learning to bake bagels might be a real survival skill in his new millennium…..
With all respect to you, AA (I'm contingent, too), what amazes me is the amount of time, energy, emotion, etc. we put into getting and keeping jobs that do, indeed, require us to then go find other jobs that will make it possible to support ourselves. It's hardly strange to be excited or worried about landing the job that will pay the bills; in any sane universe, that would be the one in which you'd be investing the most thought and energy. If I'm remembering correctly, you're just starting out, so adjunct work does have some value in building experience, etc., at least for a few years. But that value decreases with each year of teaching the same courses, however well you do it.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, a "Plan B" of any sort, even one which involves bagels (how much does the manager of the bagel shop earn? ), sounds pretty good to me.
Just be sure the contract has actual numbers in it. You don't want to find out you're being paid a couple of hundred less than the already low number you were initially told. When it happened to me and I asked the chair about it, he cheerfully said, eh, close enough. When I said no it's not he got very somber and said it's actually the lowest they've ever paid adjuncts in his 15 years there. And I was happy for it!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking my Plan B will involve getting a real estate license or lunch seminars for companies on things like "corporate culture".
@ Cassandra--thank you for letting me know these experiences have a shelf life, and perhaps best and worst of all, I am not alone in being concerned about landing a part time job to pay bills. Yes, I am just starting out and by the way, loved your swamp analogy in regards to my first post. Yes, we are all slogging through an academic swamp!
ReplyDelete@Bucky--thanks for the tip on not getting "baited and switched" on the pay. As you said, it's low enough, who wants or can afford a cut? Plan B sounds like a good idea. I'd go with the lunch seminars, though, real estate's not doing so well. You could cater to the underemployed or those desperate for career coaching at the lunch seminars.
I have to teach 7 classes a semester to get by, and I'm lucky that I can get that most semesters. But in the summer, classes are slim and the ones the universities do offer are taken by the full time faculty. What do I do to pay the bills? Thank my lucky stars that my husband is now working and can help, and, well, I work as a lifeguard. I may be the most highly educated lifeguard you'll ever meet, but I can't find any other seasonal work where I can make as much per hour. Do I like it? Not really, but I have to do something to pay the bills.
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