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Teach at a Community College

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Re: Teach at a Community College

#61

Post by znpy »

spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

In fairness, if community college paid more they would probably be way more expensive for students

Re: Teach at a Community College

#62

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

[deleted]

Re: Teach at a Community College

#63

Post by dazc »

culopatin wrote: post #49
throwaway426079 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might also be someone who already had a career and wanted to do some teaching at the end of it

Might be, but still limits your pool of candidates so much that you’ll have to go with the first person that shows up.

The right candidate for this kind of job is unlikely to be motivated solely by money, so the fist person that shows up may not be that bad?

Re: Teach at a Community College

#64

Post by cle »

neilv wrote: post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

> When I'm hiring, I see a lot of MIT/Stanford/Ivy on resumes, but I also pay as much attention to resumes from people who went to other schools, or who took some other path through their circumstances.

I agree wholeheartedly. As another datapoint, over the years I've worked with many people from "top" schools like MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Ivies, etc. Generally they have not been strong engineers. I don't really have a good understanding of why, but it's just something I've noticed.

The folks who've struggled through non-traditional routes have been stronger engineers. They may not be as strong on the theory side, but they have some intangible "street smarts" or something that makes them overall more effective. Some combination of focus, grit, scrappiness, etc.

There have been some engineers who are from top schools who do have those traits but IME they aren't as common.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#65

Post by tristor »

The pay isn’t worth it, and you won’t enjoy the company of most students. Instead, use VTO and guest lecture at the local community college or university. By guest lecturing you’re time boxing your commitment, doing it for free, and the actually interested students will reach out.

I’ve guest lectured twice and mentored 4 students met this way in their tech careers. Each class had 40-50 students in it but only one or two truly engaged with the material. Those engaged students will almost certainly have fantastic careers and are people you want in your network.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#66

Post by achates »

Mezzie wrote: post #51
roflyear wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CCs aren't charging kids much.

In comparison to other higher ed institutions, you're right. This one in particular (I grew up in the region) has still seen its in-state tuition grow by 300%+ in the past 20 years. Where's the money going?

Right, I just looked it up and the largest community college in my city now charges about the same as I paid to go to the nearby state university 10 years ago. It's clearly not going to the instructors. It must be a combination of new construction and administrative bloat.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#67

Post by tester457 »

ignoramous wrote: post #35

I taught Celullar Networks and Android Internals at my alma mater just this past semester and can relate with TFA. It took 4 to 6 hours of prep to deliver a one hour class. Preparing from existing course materials available online or from YouTube and Wikipedia was the fastest as opposed to going through the text books. I found it very hard to know when to go fast and when to go slow, what to skip and what to include.…

I've only read Deep Work out of those books you mentioned, but the others must be great too.

I envy them for having such an incredible teacher.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#68

Post by SantalBlush »

gabereiser wrote: post #54
neilv wrote: post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

Community College is for people who are busy getting things done. The stigma around community college is that "You weren't good enough for 4-year, let alone Ivy League" when simply that's not true and a stereotype. I started at a community college. This was a long time ago now but I remember having to dance a precarious line between explaining where I went to school and explaining what I know. To this day when people…

>Community College is for people who are busy getting things done.

FiveThirtyEight has a great article from 2016 that agrees with you. [0] It also debunks a lot of the myths of higher education, like the myth that students are mostly majoring in humanities:

>What few journalists seem to understand, Goldrick-Rab said, is how tenuous a grasp many students have on college. They are working while in school, often juggling multiple jobs that don’t readily align with class schedules. They are attending part time, which makes it take longer to graduate and reduces the chances of finishing at all. They are raising children, supporting parents and racking up debt trying to pay for it all.

>“One little thing goes awry and it just falls apart,” Goldrick-Rab said. “And the consequences of it falling apart when they’re taking on all this debt are just so severe.”

>Students keep taking that risk for a reason: A college degree remains the most likely path to a decent-paying job. They aren’t studying literary theory or philosophy; the most popular undergraduate majors in recent years have been business and health-related fields such as nursing.

[0] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/shut-up-about-harvard/

Re: Teach at a Community College

#69

Post by tcbawo »

gabereiser wrote: post #54
neilv wrote: post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

Community College is for people who are busy getting things done. The stigma around community college is that "You weren't good enough for 4-year, let alone Ivy League" when simply that's not true and a stereotype. I started at a community college. This was a long time ago now but I remember having to dance a precarious line between explaining where I went to school and explaining what I know. To this day when people…

I read somewhere recently that the purpose of prestige/Ivy League schools is to provide the very wealthy and the very talented/ambitious the opportunity to mix, where you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#70

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

[deleted]
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