So you decided to update your vita. Where do you start first? You start with the CV Doctor. Then you keep the tips in mind as you revise.

Remember, just like writing, vitae are a recursive process!

If you don’t have a vita, you should start one — even if you’re not planning, necessarily, to look for another job. Why? A vita chronicles your experience and describes your expertise. At the very least it shows you how much you know and helps you reflect on how far you have come. Doing that lets you see options for where you might go or what kind of professional experiences you might want to add to your life. Also, a vita is an important professional document, one you might need for any number of reasons including: to look for other positions, either as an adjunct, full-time adjunct, or tenure-track; to use for a graduate school application; as part of some grant proposals; if you seek review or author work with an educational publisher; if you desire to become a speaker or consultant; and so much more. The longer you wait to begin your vita, the harder it is to create because the more you have to do from recall. The best step is to start a vita early in a career. But if you haven’t started one yet, the next best step is to start one now.

Here’s some useful vita advice:

Start it when you are not in desperate need of it.
A vita can take hours or days to compile, let alone to format. Check for factual accuracy and be sure to proofread and copy edit. Get it done when you are less pressured for time so that it is ready when you need it. Because when you need it, you’ll likely have other pressures to focus on like writing a good cover letter, writing a grant proposal, or preparing a presentation.

Keep it updated.
It is easy to get lost in the day to day details of teaching. Updating your vita regularly reminds you of your professionalism, what you have achieved thus far, what your current goals are, and what you are working towards. If you attend a conference, add it to your vita. If you present a workshop, add it to your vita. It is easy to forget our accomplishments in the midst of our busy, busy lives.

Clearly label your vita filenames so you know what versions you have.
As your letters of application will vary depending upon the job you are applying for, so, too, will your vitae. Rather than constantly readjusting and saving one vita, why not have a vita for writing center jobs, a vita for adjunct jobs, and a vita for writing gigs. This way, your arsenal is prepared and ready to roll. The only trick is to remember to update all your variations regularly!

Save multiple copies in multiple locations so you’re not bereft if your favorite hard drive goes kaput.
An unsolicited plug for Google Docs: saving vitae here is easy. The only problem with GDocs is that the docs are not as easy or flexible to manipulate as in Word or other word processors. That, however, is a minor detail. Saving your vitae at GDocs, as attachments to emails sent to multiple accounts, and on several USB and hard drives, will keep you safe. Plus, be sure to have hard copies.

Is this overkill? Perhaps. However, it is far better to have too many copies of a clearly labeled document that are easy to locate than one document that disappears or is destroyed due to divine intervention or human fallibility.

Keep a clean and uniform format in your doc so it is not difficult to maintain.
I make sure I have clear and clean designs on my master documents. Then, if I want to gussy things up with fonts or type sizes, I can. But I do not do that to my master copy. Why? Because frills rarely transfer, always tweak the spacing of the document, and thus cause me volumes of frustration. While the problems are probably the result of my technological ignorance, I try to reduce my frustration by avoiding potential pitfalls. A clean format also makes it easier to keep word processor versions for hard copy and html versions for WWW storage. Clean copy = easier work.

The goal of this post, indeed this blog, is to save you time, frustration, and effort while helping you advance your own career and/or experience. If something frustrates you, find a new solution. Don’t keep repeating the problem. It took me several years to learn that about formatting issues. I urge you to avoid a similar experience.

If you post online, then potential employers can see it and thus serves as an impetus to stay up to date.
You never know, but some post you make in an email group or blog may inspire an unseen tenured colleague or a hiring colleague to take note of you and your work. Or, perhaps, another adjunct will network with you. You can copy your online vita and turn it into print easily. There is nothing like a competitive job market to force you to stay on your toes. Last, but not least, do you really want people thinking the you of today is the same you from four years past? I didn’t think so.

When issues of contingent academic labor hit the media, it is almost always about adjuncts working at four year universities. Many adjuncts, however, work at community colleges. Similarly, when graduates look at career and job search information, often they find material that is focused on tenure-track positions at four year schools. While this may be the ideal for many in the field, it is not the whole picture. Thousands upon thousands of us teach part-time at community colleges around the nation.

In order to provide some clear, honest, and useful information to adjuncts — and potential adjuncts — about the community college job market, I requested interviews with several individuals who do the hiring at these institutions. This first interview is with Dr. Dorie Goldman. As the District Academic Chair of the Communications Division, Dr. Goldman hires part-timers and adjuncts — people like us — to staff the three campuses, three satellite centers, and two skill centers for Central Arizona College, which serve approximately 12,000 students.

You spend a great deal of time hiring and working with adjuncts. What is the greatest benefit you see adjuncts bringing to their students in the classroom?

Adjunct faculty often bring a wealth of teaching experience from other places (thus they bring in great new ideas) and/or experiences from outside academia that are beneficial for our students. The students receive new perspectives on classwork and the broader world.

How do you think an adjunct can make the most beneficial use of their part-time stint towards advancing their career?

By building a solid teaching philosophy/teaching portfolio as well as making connections with other faculty.

When you hire adjuncts, what significant illusions or misunderstandings do you encounter?

This doesn’t happen often, but a few part-time faculty are under the impression that I can get them a permanent job. I, as an individual, hire part-time faculty. The process for hiring full-time faculty differs greatly. For instance, the application or cover letter which got an instructor part-time work may not wow a search committee looking to make a full-time, permanent hire.

From your perspective, how can an adjunct make a great first impression?

After mailing the application, follow-up with either an email or a phone call and make an appointment to visit with me. Bring along transcripts, photocopies of certifications (i.e. a secondary school reading endorsement certificate), etc. This informal meeting can serve as an interview and also demonstrates to me that you really want to teach for us.

When you review a vita or application, what do you look for first?

1. Some form of teaching experience and/or letters of reference/teaching evaluations — I, unfortunately, don’t have time to teach novice part-time faculty how to run a class, manage students, etc. I can (and do) provide model syllabi, invite part-time faculty to observe my class, and encourage novice faculty to enroll in our online-faculty development program (which is currently subsidized by a grant). However, I want to try to make sure that I’m hiring faculty who know how to teach.

2. At least one academic degree from a bricks-and-mortar institution — I often get applications from individuals who have earned every degree at an online university. Those applications go to the bottom of the pile because (as misguided as this bias may be) I don’t believe those individuals can connect well with my institution’s students — many of whom are here because they wanted a small, personal, high-touch college experience.

3. A sense of who we are as a community college — I’m always thrilled when I read cover letters that show me that the applicant has checked out our website by mentioning, for example, that even though we are a CC we have residence halls at one campus, or by stating they are willing to teach at more than one location (we ALL teach at multiple locations and/or via different modalities), or a line or two that shows some deeper understanding of the area/student population we serve. I know that the pay for part-time work is, well, limited, and sometimes one isn’t going to receive an ideal schedule, and, as a result, individuals may be reluctant to draft a 2-page cover letter that resembles one that would be appropriate for a full-time position application. But I don’t need two pages. A line or two that shows me that you have done a little bit of homework and found out a little bit about the institution goes a long way.

Are there any things adjuncts should not put in their letters or vitas?

Aside from the obvious things about race and age, I generally don’t need to know about book proposals or conference papers as we are a teaching institution. I also don’t need to know about one’s corporate or business experience unless one can clearly show me how that has taught an individual how to teach. I’m also often surprised by how many applicants send me applications that look “corporate” – meaning the vita is really a resume (that is, it’s abbreviated, or it doesn’t highlight academics or teaching skills). When I receive one of those “corporate” vitas/resumes, I have to often search for the information I need, and that is the last thing I want to do when looking at an application.

Jason Heath goes into a detailed analysis of the actual costs of being a freeway-flying instructor by examining the not-so-hidden cost of travel.

Dennis Baron’s Web of Language delivers reliable, humorous, and sometimes controversial commentary on language in the news. A thirty year veteran of teaching, Dr. Baron is currently a Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was kind enough to agree to an email interview about Web of Language, blogs, and aspects of adjuncting.

You have been writing and publishing Web of Language for several years now. How do you see this as contributing to your professional development? Or do you do this for personal pleasure and satisfaction?

I’ve been doing WOL for just over a year. I have always looked at—and commented on—current issues in language, writing about them in more traditional forms of academic research (scholarly books and articles) and also in other forms designed for more general readers, such as op eds, and so blogging is a logical next step. But I initially did it as part of a project on the impact of technology on writing. I wanted to see how blogs worked, so I could write about them. And language was something that I could blog about. I continued to do it because I can’t help myself—it’s become a passion.

The role and value of web-based writing — especially in blogging — in professional development does not seem very clear at this point. Some departments recognize it while many do not. Do you recommend that young or new adjunct faculty pursue such projects? How important is this, relatively speaking, when compared to attending conferences and publishing?

So far, my blogging (remember, I’m no Matt Drudge, and that’s probably a good thing) draws some professional attention from colleagues around the country, but no professional “rewards” in terms of having it count for much outside of public service teaching. But blogs are only one kind of web-based writing. English is slow to move to online publishing compared to other disciplines (medicine and science seem far ahead in doing this).

Do you see the kind of writing you do at WOL as a viable and useful mode for adjuncts? Or should they spend their time on other forms of professional development? Put a different way, is there any kind of online writing you would recommend to adjuncts?

That depends, as all writing does, on the writer’s goal. If the goal is to find a professional outlet for ideas and discussion, then blogging is a fine way to do that, though I have found that few readers respond to my blog posts, in part, some tell me, because they are required to respond with a verifiable email address and many respondents prefer anonymity, particularly those whose responses are off-the-wall and over-the-top.

If the goal is to secure a tenure track teaching post, or to build a resume, then no, blogging does not seem to fit those goals, at least as it is currently viewed. I myself wish it might count more officially, not because I do it (I do it, as I have done a long series of radio commentaries in the past, and as I have written op eds for newspapers, as a way to connect the academy with the public beyond it, and as such my own blog serves an outreach and public service function, as well as a teaching function).

Indeed the tendency in the academy, especially in the traditional fields, is to be skeptical of the blog as a form of discourse, because it is viewed as non serious and therefore something a true scholar would avoid.

I disagree, however. And I intend to teach a new course this summer which will involve students in blogging on language in the news topics.

I also teach a unit on the blog in my history of writing technologies course, treating it as a new genre that has coalesced in the past decade. I find the blog to play off such forms as the diary, the belletristic essay, the op ed, and the billboard, but it is different from all of them, not simply because it is digital, inviting multimedia and interactivity, but also because it occupies its own niche in the worlds of discourse.

What do you think newer instructors should remember when they start using blogs in their classroom?

That depends on what purpose they’re supposed to serve. Since I haven’t actually done this yet, I can only say what I think I want to accomplish, and that’s:

a. to have students writing blog posts on language in the news as a way of getting them comfortable with discussing language and public policy issues which they locate for themselves and explore

b. to have students comment on one another’s blogs—as well as my posts—to get a conversation going

c. to look at the blog and examine it as a new kind of writing genre, from the point of view of the writer, the reader, and also as an observer of the phenomenon of blogging.

Do you have a favorite lesson or application of blogging that you care to share with readers?

Some of the posts on my blog draw some pretty rabid responses. I don’t print these, in part because I don’t enter into public conversations with nut cases—I’ve found that’s a losing proposition. But what I do is collect these rabid responses (they tend to be rants against immigrants, or angry teachers saying I know nothing about the classroom, or vigilantes who think I shouldn’t be allowed to teach). And what I write is pretty tame, considering what’s out there in the blogosphere! My students find these amusing, and scary, as do my colleagues. I try to shrug off the wilder criticisms, but there’s something unnerving about getting anonymous hate mail in response not just to posts defending multilingualism or assuring readers that immigrants pose no danger to English, but also to nonpolitical posts saying that punctuation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or that there’s nothing really wrong with splitting infinitives. Seems like, when it comes to language, lots of people are spoiling for a fight.

How have your students responded to your use of blogs in class?

Well, they occasionally do comment, sometimes even comment favorably, on the posts. But I don’t impose the posts on the students — I don’t assign them as reading for the class, though I occasionally mention them when they’re on a subject we’re covering. I do assign them other essays that I’ve written, ones a little more in the scholarly essay mode, so it’s not out of modesty that I haven’t made my blog the center of the course. And in the course I’m planning, it will be the students’ blogs that will be central, not mine.

Your wife, Iryce, has been an adjunct for a number of years now. You have an inside view of adjuncting professionally and personally. When people are offered tenure, what aspect of adjuncting do you think people forget first? Why do you think this happens?

I spent a year as an adjunct, early in my career (but after I had held a couple of tenure track positions). And my wife has been adjuncting for 20 years or so. So it’s not so easy to forget how adjuncts feel about how they’re treated (and when I am in danger of forgetting, she is always quick to remind me). What’s most visible to me, though, is that in real terms — or dollar terms — adjuncts spend as much time as tenure-track faculty on their job, but typically teach more classes for scandalously low pay.

As a tenured professor, what lesson or lessons of value do you draw from such an intimate view of adjuncting?

In addition to equitable pay and humane treatment — both of which are all too rare — it’s important for those who adjunct long-term to have a career path to prevent such appointments from becoming dead end academic McJobs.

You mention equitable pay and humane treatment as key issues for adjuncts. When it comes to reforming the use of contingent academic labor, what issues do you think should be tackled first?

Renewable appointments (with a system for professional development as well as performance review and evaluation by mentors); equitable pay; upgraded working conditions; establishing a formal role for adjuncts within a department’s structure (membership on committees, voting rights) that is also accounted for in the salary structure (no point assigning committee work if you pay a pittance or don’t listen to an adjunct’s concerns and advice).

Is there an aspect or two of adjuncting that you wish you had but cannot because you are tenure track?

Do I long for the good old days of not knowing where or whether I would teach, of not having my own desk, let alone my own office, or being able to choose my own books? Or having colleagues who act as if I were invisible? No.

Is there anything you would care to add?

One of the things I’ve seen that puts adjuncts at my institution at a disadvantage is that while graduate students may unionize under Illinois law, adjuncts can’t do this very easily, as the law is currently structured. I’m not sure whether this has been a problem for adjuncts at UIUC, but it is potentially inequitable, and organization could certainly be a way of making this important group of instructors visible to the university administration — and to one another across departments. Humanities adjuncts tend to be treated very differently from those in the sciences and engineering, or the professional schools, but in many cases they — and most other people as well — are unaware of the disparities in pay and working conditions that pertain. The university won’t address this as an institutional problem unless it’s forced to, it seems to me. I think it’s important for adjuncts to take up this matter.

These tips are intended for new adjuncts. When I first entered the field my colleagues and mentors gave me excellent advice. When I followed their advice, things went very well. When I forgot or ignored it, my career got a bit bumpy.

Much like developing your own writing style, there are no hard and fast rules to surviving and thriving as an adjunct. However, the more you understand the system you are in, the more likely you will find quality solutions and avoid trouble. The advice below is not meant to fuel paranoia. Its purpose, rather, is to provide practical tactics that have been field-tested by contingent academic laborers.

Many more tips can surely be found by talking to other adjuncts who have been at your school longer than you have. Learn how to learn from others.

1. Keep Your Ears Open
Listen to what people say as well as what they do not say. Rather than jumping to conclusions based on your observations, recognize that you have gathered other folks’ opinions. You can learn a lot from paying close attention. Consider your workplace to be a text, and know how to read it.

2. Keep Your Mouth Shut
If you are the new kid on the block, then there are probably many things going on at your institution and in your department that do not make sense. In time, you will probably figure out what they are. Some things will make sense while others will not.

Remember, you are a temporary employee. You are there to teach; you are not there to reform the department, alter student learning outcomes, or oust an old-timer. Focusing your efforts on your performance will not only keep you out of political quagmires, it will benefit your students and your teaching.

3. Ask Intelligent and Relevant Questions of Your Colleagues and Boss
If you do not know something, ask. It is what we expect form our students, so why not of ourselves? If a simple question or two results in a problem, that should tell you plenty about the department. If your questions open up further discussion and relationships, that is also good to know. It is wise to check out the nature of your department and college early on so when problems or challenges arise, you have an idea of what kind of support and treatment you will receive.

4. Fly Underneath the Radar
Do not come to the attention of higher authorities — especially if you are new. Remember those classic Greek plays? Virtually anyone the Gods noticed was tormented. Be smart, be discrete.

5. Discretely Familiarize Yourself with Chains of Command
Just in case there is a problem, make sure you know who to speak to before something happens. Knowledge of these routes for professional and student-related issues can save you much stress and effort.

6. If There is a Union, Locate Them
Locate them, meet them, and make sure you have an understanding of who they are. Discretely determine their commitment to protecting you and your colleagues. They may end up being your last, best, and/or only hope; as such, it is nice to know how far they will go to assist you.

7. Double-Check All Official Paperwork
When you are hired, paid, or required to fill out forms for your school, double-check all of your work. Triple-check all of their work. If there is something that is not clear, then ask until you get an adequate explanation. A simple oversight by someone could cost you fifty dollars or five hundred dollars if you are in the wrong pay grade. It is comforting when people genuinely offer you their word. Word guarantees place second to printed and signed contracts. Make sure you know exactly what you are getting into and what is expected of you.

And the bonus…a drum roll please!
8. Smile When You See People
It’s such a simple gesture, but a smile, a good handshake, and patience will go a long way in making people glad you’re around.

This is an invaluable blog if you want to know what is happening in the world of academic hiring. RSS it asap.

While it is featured at a Law-related blog, this discussion on how to become an adjunct could be very useful for those new to or considering the field. Be sure to read the comments in the discussion.

Lore passes around the adjunct lounge, across the pool table, or outside on the green. “No one is that stupid.” Huge caesura. “Are they?” Unfortunately, every one of us makes mistakes. Sometimes they are small, and other times our gaffes are epic. As a contingent laborer, a gaffe can result in your appointment getting slashed. It’s the truth. In order to avoid being dismissed for doing something blatantly foolish – and often all too tempting – the following list of reminders is offered.

1. Badmouthing Other Adjuncts
Other adjuncts may not hire you, but they are your colleagues and peers. Sowing dissent among your own makes you easier to exploit. Plus, it is professionally discourteous and potentially disastrous.

2. Badmouthing Tenured Folks
Next to professional suicide, this is a second option. You never know who will become department chair, the WPA, or run your classroom observation. Doing this is hard to resist, but it is key to not making many fast enemies.

3. Talking Trash Online
Anonymity online is a joke — everyone slips up and so will you. If you blog anonymously, chances are low another member of your department will discover your work. If they do, it can wreck a career. Just because you are behind a screen and keyboard does not mean you are anonymous or safe from payback.

4. Ignoring Advice
If faculty or adjuncts offer you advice, try to listen to it. If you ignore it, have good reasons to do so. Generally, people mean well and are trying to keep you safe and well off. Plus, blatant disregard for advice may be read as you disrespecting them.

5. Being the Martyr
Unless you have been issued tenure, you have little to no protection for retaliation. You are always literally 15 seconds from being fired. Therefore, if you challenge authority figures, make sure: the issue is worth your job; you have followed college procedures to a “t”; you have support; you have other income lined up; and you have media behind you. Without these, you will likely lose your job, few people will know about it, fewer still will care, and the conditions you protested will probably be even worse.

6. Not Seeking Advice
If you think you don’t ever need advice and that you know all you need to always know what to do is hubris; it also tempts others to put you in “your place” — wherever that may be. If you’re just shy about asking for advice and help, try to find a way to get around that so you don’t appear a know it all. One way to ask for help or advice is to take advantage of times when advice is easy to get: when you’re doing something new people are often ready and want to help; when you are faced with a new situation — student behavior you haven’t experienced before, a new book you’re told you need to teach from, get some help. It demonstrates collegiality, a desire to learn and grow, and the ability to listen.

7. Ignoring Rules and Regulations
In the end, what people say matters far less than what is written in the rules. When problems arise, everyone turns to the rules — especially administrators and their counsel. If you ignore the rules and regulations of your course descriptions, department, or college, then your chances of being dismissed are exponentially increased. It is not relevant that others in more powerful positions get away with it — ninety-nine out of a hundred times you are accountable to them, not them to you. Playing it safe is not only professional, but smart.

8. Disrespecting Staff
Even if you’re in a situation where conditions are tough — no office to work in, little time that you can be on campus and part of the community, large course loads — and where you might be frustrated somewhat, be careful not to disrespect the staff on campus. If the department secretary needs a book order, get it in on time. If you’re in the office and need something, ask nicely, even if you’re harried. Smile. Colleagues on staff work hard and play key roles. And they’re often a sounding board for the department chair and others who might evaluate your performance and renew contracts.

Graduate Research Network: A forum to connect researchers with other researchers and discussion leaders. The GRN meets several times a year, and it emphasizes feedback and encouragement from more experienced researchers with graduate students and adjunct instructors.