Teaching at a local Community College

[cbr shadow]

I'm 30 years old and have 8 years in the manufacturing/engineering fields, but would like to teach 3D modelling (AutoCAD, Solidworks, Revit) classes at the local Jr. Colleges. I'm not sure what steps I need to take to qualify for that type of position. I have a bachelors degree in Industrial Technology from an Illinois state school.
What would the next steps be?
Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,
CBR

[Rural]

 For courses leading toward a degree, you need a masters degree, but for courses leading toward certificates, often a bachelors is enough.


Your first step, really, is to look at job listings at the local community or technical colleges. Even if they're not in your field, the minimum requirements they list should give you a ballpark idea of what you're looking at.

[abner]

Hi, I have done just what you are looking to do. I have a slightly different story though. I worked in machining for 30+ years with some knowledge of 3d (Solidworks, various CAM software). Although no expert. A few years ago an opening came up at the local college for an instructor and some of the classes included were Solidworks and other CAM (programming) classes. I was intimidated at first going from industry to education but have totally fell in love with this career. Being late 40's retirement was a continual thought but now I could easily work another 20+ years because I love what I do and enjoy passing on to new students. One of my sayings is "they actually pay me to do this?"  The college instructor jobs here are fairly hard to come by. Usually someone has to pass on or they don't retire until late 60's, early 70's. (probably including me). My suggestion would be first to keep an eye on college's openings at least every 2 weeks. Next, get to know the current instructors. Don't be afraid to let them know you are interested in teaching. (They probably won't feel threatened and may even look to you to fill in if they are out.) The current instructors will probably be on the interview committee when the next position comes up. If they know you and you may have filled in for them, you will have a leg up. (i.e. teaching experience). Also, see if there may be an opening for a night class instructor. These are usually filled with part-time (adjunct). Adjuncts are usually favored in the candidate pool. Lastly, interact regularly with the current instructors. They are usually hungry to have a good relationship with someone in the field. Maybe offer your place of employment for a class tour.
I hope you can find a position.
I cannot put in words how rewarding this is for me.
Also, the salary is just as competitive as industry here but with 75% less headaches.
Good Luck!

[Urchina]

I also teach at a community college. I was recommended for the position by the previous instructor, as I was a guest speaker for her class for several years. I work part-time (adjunct). At our college, academic tracks require faculty to have a master's degree, but for vocational tracks (in which I teach) experience in the field and professional certifications (such as my state registration) are more important.

I second the advice to visit the school, introduce yourself and build a working relationship with the department you're interested in. Also, as community colleges focus on adult education, any teaching experience you can pick up will be helpful. These are teaching colleges (as opposed to research universities) and many highly value and hire good teachers.

As in any job, it's also helpful to enthusiastically tackle the job no one else wants. The classes I teach now are pretty much the least favorites for all of the other faculty. Nobody else wanted them; I took them gladly. They are thrilled to have me. Great job security.

It's a freaking awesome job, by the way. I'd do it for free, and am still surprised at the insane good fortune of getting a paycheck for the work.

Edited to fix spelling. Posted originally on my phone; given that I teach at a community college, I shouldn't have basic spelling errors in anything I post publicly! <<<shudder>>>

[AllieVaulter]

Adjuncting is probably the easiest way in.  Contact the department chair with a CV/resume and explain that you're interested in teaching.  If you've got contacts in industry you might be able to sweeten the deal with possible internships (or networking) for some of their students. 

As others have noted, a graduate degree is usually required for teachers, so explain that you're interested in vocational education so they don't immediately discount you based on your lack of degree. 

[Goldielocks]

The tech school here offers degrees now but did not ask about a masters.

I just started a night school course.  Project management.

Just call the department head and send a resume directly.  They always need people, plan about 3 months out, and may never post.

After being accepted I had to take a 4 day instructor skills workshop.

[steviesterno]

a really good way to stay up on education jobs in your area is HigherEdJobs.com. you can set alerts to pop up with your city or specific school for keywords you pick. I was adjunct and taught online for 4-5 schools at a time for a while, but that experience enabled me to land a full time teaching gig with great benefits. super rewarding work (emotionally, not financially) but it's a tough nut to crack into.

Typically at the higher-ed level, you need a terminal degree in the field and/or a ton of experience. good luck! it's very rewarding. Might want to volunteer at a HS program in the mean time, that's good practice and looks great on a resume.

[KarefulKactus15]

This also interest me.  I'm an automation technician at a factory and the local tech schools are always looking for instructors. I plan to pursue a instructor job at the tech school up the road when Im FI, along with my side hustle repair business that I'm working on starting.

[Reynold]

I taught Physics as an Adjunct for a year at a local community college while I was job hunting during the recent recession.  I had the advanced degree so it was easy qualification-wise, I never explored what classes could be taught with a bachelors.  The interview was doing 10 minutes explaining oscillators (basic physics concept) as though teaching a class, for the one full time Physics professor and the department head.  No further training for me, I just asked a lot of questions. 

Note that they didn't post openings anywhere, and always needed people for physics/math/technical subjects, so just flat-out calling the department was what got me in the door.  "Higher" education in many places is still in the stone ages when it comes to recruitment.  They love adjuncts, because they don't need to pay benefits, and enrollment at community colleges has been up the last several years because of people training into new fields but they don't dare hire new full time teachers because it is hard to get rid of them.  There are also relatively few people with technical skills who ALSO have free time, especially during the day, to teach and (generally) earn less than they would at their normal jobs.  Thus it is mostly retirees, from what I saw. 

[o2bfree]

I taught voc tech classes at a community college when I had just an Associate's degree (from the same program) and a couple years in the field. The program had an instructor position open for one class, and one of my instructors invited me to interview. After teaching a few quarters I became one of the core instructors in the program. A number of instructors in that and other vocational programs did not have university degrees.

It was an awesome gig, part time but with full benefits, and I even earned a small pension. I did it for 10 years, and had a blast with all my free time. Played A LOT and also had time to get a uni degree. And perhaps best of all, teaching was really fun!

Wishing you luck getting in the door at the CC!

[asauer]

Usually certifications are enough in that field.  What is the most prominent/ prestigious certification for that?  Get it.  Otherwise you'll need at least 18 hours towards a Master's.  That's what most accreditation boards require for community colleges.

[clarkfan1979]

The standard rate for a part-time instructor is 2,000/class. For a full-time instructor it can easily be as much as 10,000/class. Those jobs are competitive and hire based on a national search.

[Rural]

The standard rate for a part-time instructor is 2,000/class. For a full-time instructor it can easily be as much as 10,000/class. Those jobs are competitive and hire based on a national search.

 They only standard rates are local ones, though. You can look up a lot of data about various areas of the country and various fields here:


http://adjunct.chronicle.com

[LiveLean]

You teach something highly marketable, timely, and valuable but you have only a BA.

That makes you part of the unclean masses as far as academia is concerned. The best you can hope for is $3,000 per class per semester as an adjunct.

Now if you had a humanities PhD in something useless and did your dissertation on something read by only 12 people, you could get on the tenure track to a minimal workload academic existence, where you would share your worthless knowledge with students 3 to 6 hours a week.

[Goldielocks]

The standard rate for a part-time instructor is 2,000/class. For a full-time instructor it can easily be as much as 10,000/class. Those jobs are competitive and hire based on a national search.

This is my first year teaching pt evening class,

Here, I earn $3700 for teaching the class and another $1800 to write the course.  It is a 45 hr class, and I am at the top payscale because of my mba, peng and 20+ years industry experience.   But i dont have a STEM masters or PHD.

Still not much as I dont think I could teach more than 4 of these a week.  Many hours needed to write the course, etc.   The max salary is therefore about 72k if you work summers.  The problem is that I would be lucky to get 5 classes a year..  Maybe 15k to 30k per year.   

I am trying it out to see if I would enjoy this during FIRE.

Just for reference to the above post... I imagine that pay varies across states, just like elementary school teacher pay does..

[rtrnow]

I'm in my second semester teaching at a tech school. I have a master's degree but in a different field. A bachelors was all that was needed for my position. As others have said, adjunct is the easy way in. Here in GA, they are hiring adjuncts like crazy bc in reaction to the ACA all adjunct have been limited to 29hr per week. Personally it has worked out great for me. I FIRE'd last year and this is just a way to earn some side money doing something I enjoy. The money is terrible compared to my last 'real' job but it's fun.

[clarkfan1979]

As a grad student I taught 2 classes on T/Th at a community college per semester. This was 8 hours a week for 15 weeks. It was 4 hours a day. It was 1 office hour and then teach 2 classes back to back. Add another 20 hours for final papers and I'm at 28/hour. This includes 1 hour of class prep for each day and email because students rarely come to my office hours.

[clarkfan1979]

On average full-time community college instructors make about the same across the different disciplines. At a University, a business faculty might make as much as twice as much as an English faculty. As a result, an English faculty will many times make more at a community college than at a University. However, the Business faculty will make more at the University.

[grantmeaname]

You teach something highly marketable, timely, and valuable but you have only a BA.

That makes you part of the unclean masses as far as academia is concerned. The best you can hope for is $3,000 per class per semester as an adjunct.

Now if you had a humanities PhD in something useless and did your dissertation on something read by only 12 people, you could get on the tenure track to a minimal workload academic existence, where you would share your worthless knowledge with students 3 to 6 hours a week.

Go look up how much academics actually work before you bitch about it being an easy job. 60 hours is the norm in all the departments I've been around.