The Adjunct Alert › Online teaching guides

How to land your first online teaching job

How many applications does it take to get an online teaching job?

Plan on about 100. Many new online adjuncts send three, five, or ten applications, hear nothing, and decide something is wrong. Nothing is wrong. That is simply too few.

Landing the first online class is harder than most people expect. It is a numbers game, even for people with strong backgrounds.

Online adjuncts tell the same story. It often takes dozens of applications to get a first reply, and 100 or more to get a first class. Some send close to 50 a week when they are starting out. Even experienced instructors can spend months and hundreds of applications to land a few offers.

Why does it take so long to hear back?

Most adjunct openings are pools. The college collects applications all year and looks at them only when a class needs an instructor. Your application may sit for months and then turn into an offer with little notice.

Some adjuncts get the call a year or two after they applied, long after they forgot about the posting: "We need someone to teach this class next month. Are you available?"

Silence is not a no. It usually means no section has opened yet.

Should you apply if the posting does not say it is fully online?

Yes. Many postings cover every format the department offers, and many online sections are filled from those pools. If the posting mentions online teaching at all, apply. Say in your cover letter that you are looking for online sections.

Skip a posting only when it clearly says the job is on campus.

Should you only apply in your exact subject?

No. Cast your net as wide as your background allows. If you only apply to postings that name your exact specialty, you will run out of openings long before you reach 100.

One degree can qualify you for courses in many different programs. Take a graduate degree in statistics as an example. Statistics courses are not only taught in math and statistics departments. They show up under different names all over the college:

• Biostatistics is in public health programs.
• Statistics for Evidence-Based Practice is in nursing programs.
• Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences is in psychology programs.
• Educational Statistics and Quantitative Research Methods are in education programs.
• Business Statistics and Quantitative Analysis are in business programs.
• Statistics for Criminal Justice is in criminal justice programs.

Take Biostatistics. It sits in a public health program, and your degree is in statistics, not public health. You can still teach it, because it is a statistics course.

So do not apply only to math and statistics departments. Search nursing, public health, psychology, education, business, and criminal justice programs too. The same idea works for most degrees.

Your work experience counts too. A statistician who has worked in a hospital or a health department is an even stronger candidate for Biostatistics. Colleges often look at the degree and the experience together.

• List every subject where you have graduate coursework.
• List every field where you have real work experience.
• Search for the programs where those two lists meet, not only your degree title.
• Give the closest matches your most careful applications, and still send the others.

How do you send that many applications?

Treat it like a part-time job for a few months. Set a number for each week and hit it.

• Keep your CV, a cover letter you can adjust, and your unofficial transcripts in one folder.
• Save the answers you type again and again, such as your teaching experience and your courses taught.
• Apply the day you see an opening. Some close in two weeks or less.
• Do not wait to hear back before you send the next one.

Why should you track every application?

After 30 applications you will not remember where you applied. Keep a simple list: the college, the job title, the date, the posting link, and who to contact. When a department chair calls three months later, you will know which job it is.

Should you follow up?

Yes. A short, polite email to the department a few weeks before a new term starts puts your name in front of the person building the schedule. That is often when a pool finally gets opened.

Get your references ready first

This is the step people skip. When you send 100, 200, or 300 applications, you will be asked for references again and again. Many colleges email your references directly, and some will not move forward until they answer.

• Choose a core group of people who know your work and will speak well of you.
• Ask each one before you list them.
• Tell them you are applying to many colleges, so they expect more than one request.
• Pick people who answer email quickly. A slow reference can cost you the class.
• Keep their names, titles, emails, and phone numbers in one place, ready to paste.

What if you get discouraged?

Almost everyone does. The instructors who end up with online classes are usually the ones who kept applying. Ten applications with no answer is normal. So is fifty.

The slow part is finding the openings. That is the part we do for you. We track about 4,000 college career pages and send you the online teaching job leads in your discipline, so your time goes to applying.

Common questions

I applied to five online teaching jobs and heard nothing. Is something wrong?

No. Five is too few to tell you anything. Keep applying, and judge your results after about 100.

How long does it take to get a first online teaching job?

Plan on months, not weeks. Steady applications over several months work better than one big push.

How many references do you need?

Many applications ask for three. Have at least that many ready, with one or two extra in case someone is slow to reply.

The Adjunct Alert Team