Adjunct Professor

As an Adjunct Professor, you teach classes on a contract basis for a college or university. You’re basically a freelance Educator who offers à la carte courses in your area of expertise. You’re usually hired because you have a flexible schedule and practical work experience in your subject. For instance, if you teach journalism, you’re probably a Journalist, and if you teach business, you might be a CEO.

Like all Professors, your job as an Adjunct Professor entails developing lesson plans, giving lectures, assigning homework, and grading tests. What makes you “adjunct,” therefore, isn’t what you do. It’s the terms under which you do it. While a tenured or tenure-track Professor works full-time (he or she regularly teaches several courses every term and is eligible for full employee benefits), an Adjunct Professor works part-time (typically only teaching one or two courses, which often are offered only once, for a single term).

Although you’re somewhat expendable, being “adjunct” gives you the flexibility to pursue other projects and new opportunities. And that’s exactly what you want, because you’re not interested in being a full-time Educator. After all, you already have a career; you just want to share your knowledge with students when you can.

The result: You get to have your cake, and teach it, too!