Why Every Business Leader Should Consider Adjunct Teaching (with a crazy story)

My Crazy Teaching Moment

I asked a few questions:

• What’s the size of the class? 110 students.
• Would I have any TAs? Yes, three.
• Is there a course curriculum? They would ask.
• When does class start? Monday.

It was Wednesday. The week before. To be very clear – five days before.

So I said yes.

This might be one of the crazier things I’ve done professionally. Thankfully BYU, my TAs, and my students were amazing and it was a successful semester. And thankfully my career was in marketing and I had taught other classes before. It was a TON of work, sometimes feeling like I was only one class ahead of my students, and I worked some long hours that first semester. And I loved every minute.

Why & How to Become a Professor

There’s something so deeply fulfilling with standing before a group of students and changing how they see the world. For me, every class is an opportunity to help them grow and fulfills a need within me to pass along some of the secrets of my trade.

Adjunct teaching is far easier to get started in than most people think. If you’re interested in becoming an adjunct professor, I would recommend contacting universities you live near and let them know you are interested in teaching. The larger universities typically require a master’s degree, but the smaller ones do not. The first university I taught at, Ensign College, I taught with an undergraduate degree and three years of work experience.

While attending graduate school I was approached by the administration and asked if I’d like to teach a course. “Sure! What topic?” I answered, and they said “Whatever you think is missing from the MBA curriculum.” So I designed a course on Storytelling with Data, which I have taught since.

This is perhaps the most surprising thing about adjunct teaching, in my experience. There is no resume, cover letter, networking, etc. that is typical in most job searches. You can just indicate interest or they may reach out to you. Of course every school is different and perhaps I have just been lucky, but if you have the desire and background there seems to be plenty of demand for teachers.

Do You Get Paid to be an Adjunct Professor?

Yes, you get paid.

Every school is a little different in what they pay, but generally you get paid per credit hour you teach, anywhere from $1k-2k per credit hour. So a 3-credit class you could make $2-6k for that semester.

Once you break down your time (including commuting to campus) the hourly rate isn’t great. I normally tell people you shouldn’t teach for the extra income, but rather look at it as a meaningful way to give back to the next generation. If you’re lucky like me you may be able to teach at your alma mater, which is also fulfilling to walk those halls. I normally buy a BYU Creamery Chocolate Milk on the last day of class, both as a reward but also for nostalgia’s sake. I would drink them all the time when I was in school.

Professor + Full Time Job = How to Find Balance

Many people ask me how I balance teaching with a full time job. The simple truth is that adjunct teaching doesn’t take up much time. Sure, it takes a bit of upfront work to create a course curriculum, but once you have taught the class you are just continually refining it. If you work in the industry you teach in (e.g., marketing) this happens naturally. It usually only takes a few hours per week including prepping, teaching, and meeting with students, and you can choose if you want to teach from one semester per year to every semester.

Besides all of the wonderful benefits of helping students, there’s other benefits too. You do get paid (as mentioned above), you are connected to a university (I go to the BYU Marriott Employee Christmas party every year, among other events), and I feel it makes me better at my job.

This benefit of getting better at my job is very real. For example, after teaching Marketing 201, which covers the fundamentals of business/marketing, when you’re in your day job working through a problem and can use something you teach, such as the 4 P’s of Marketing, it makes you approach problems more holistically and be able to draw on more examples. I found myself invited to more meetings and able to take to the whiteboard more because I had frameworks and principles to guide the discussion.

Reflections After 10 Years

I have now been teaching at a university for 10 years and have had so many wonderful experiences. Here have been some surprises:

• Alumni – the amount of former students who stay in touch, reach out for advice, or with job/consulting opportunities has been incredible. I take the time to get to know each of my students when I’m teaching them and it has a wonderful downstream effect.
• Curriculum – what I teach has dramatically changed in 10 years. I have learned what resonates with students, what was impactful years later, and technology has evolved to make teaching better.
• Students – I always have a mix of wonderful and not-so-wonderful students. It makes you reflect on what type of coworker, spouse, or friend you are and be better. My students teach me how to be a better person. For example, I am a much more low maintenance employee than I once was, as I have learned from teaching that those students seem to thrive more. They are very actively engaged, but not emailing about every assignment.

Conclusion

I highly recommend adjunct teaching if you’ve ever considered it. You’ll love it. Students will learn from you and see the world a bit sharper or in a new light  than before. Please let me know if you are inspired after reading this article – I’ll be the first person to come sit in your class.

For fun: At my job they called me The Professor, so I oftentimes will dress the part.

Note: Parts of this article were originally published in Becoming an Adjunct Professor and Holding a Day Job (with a crazy story).