Personal Power and Survival as an Adjunct

Personal Power and Survival as an Adjunct

Fire is the test of gold; adversity is the test of strong men. – Seneca 

…and snow and ice are the test of this blog! 

  Tenuous Position, a photo by Melynda Conner

 Goodness gracious! This past month of snow and ice put a temporary pause on blog writing for me in favor of spending time with my family. After all, they were trapped snuggly at home rather than off to their usual workplaces. Working from home can be a blessing and a burden, as all work can be. While there was plenty of time to take care of the three communication courses I teach, as well as to complete the work for the doctoral quantitative statistics course I am currently taking, blogging had to move aside to make room for roasting marshmallows, playing in the snow, reading with my daughter, and spending quality time visiting with family and friends. What a fun month of hearth and home! Now that the snow and ice have melted and everyone has left the building, I can resume blogging and exploring the virtues necessary in higher education.

The virtue theme for March is Strength, and you may have noticed the focus for this week is personal power and survival. So, I am using my personal power of persistence and willing this blog to survive! 

For online adjunct instructors, the qualities of resilience and persistence are imperative. We essentially do education piece-work, charging for one course at a time, one semester at a time, one school at a time. If budget cuts hit a department, if classes don’t make, if a dean decides to restructure a degree program, or if the new full-time faculty member needs to add to his or her course load, the adjunct instructor may not have a job in the upcoming semester. Therefore, consistently applying for positions is the only way to guarantee work for the future.

Of course, consistently applying requires making time to explore job boards like those at HigherEdJobs.com and Inside Higher Ed, ensuring CVs and references are up to date, and constantly creating new cover letters for each position. This is a hefty amount of work, no matter how you slice it. Then, comes the waiting followed by the rejections. This is where strength is needed.  In order to survive as an adjunct, or especially to grow as an “adjunct-preneur” (as Dr. Dani Babb calls those who make a full-time career from adjunct piece-work), you must continue to  find and secure temporary teaching positions, hoping they materialize into long-term relationships with various institutions.

Maintaining personal power, confidence, and strength in this competitive field requires diligence in the area of personal motivation. One business leader I source to buoy myself in tough times is Tony Robbins. I have read several of his books and follow him on Twitter. Another leader I follow I mentioned above, Dr. Dani Babb. Her blog is chock full of tips and helps for those of us in higher education, especially working as online adjuncts. 

So, stay strong, take aim, and have confidence that your positive efforts will land you in a great position!

Feel free to contact me any time. I’d love to hear about your winter struggles as we begin to spring forward. Please post comments and let us all know how you weathered the storm. 

Here’s to thawing out! 

Until tomorrow,

Melynda

@Melynda_Conner

#TCBHigherEd