Are you pursuing a teaching role after your degree? Wondering how to get started on your job search journey into academia post graduate school? You may be getting ready to apply to academic positions. Well do not worry, the Graduate Student Resource Center has you covered. This month the GSRC hosted our 2023 After Grad: Teaching Careers Week where we hosted a variety of workshops, speakers, and panels. From finding your inner metaphor to guide your teaching to tips on how to prepare for the academic job market, the speakers had something for everyone. Below you can find a summary and important insights from the events.

Keynote Address: Community Colleges w/ Dr. Kristi Woods

[Imagine Description: Dr. Woods looks at the camera and smiles]

Kicking off this week was Dr. Kristi Woods. She spoke about her journey as a teacher and on the importance of teaching at a community college. Dr. Woods believes it is important to know who you are and how we come into our own. Through that Dr. Woods knew that she wanted to make a contribution through teaching. She shared that as an instructor at a Community College you are able to develop skills that can prepare you to take leadership roles such as becoming a dean at a community college. These opportunities allow you to put on our professional face and gear and be successful.

During the second half of her keynote, Dr. Woods focused on sharing her knowledge on community colleges. She touched on Diversity requirement for faculty and admin based on socioeconomic, cultural, disability, and ethnic backgrounds. If your goal is to get hired at a community college, Dr. Woods shared that one should focus on teaching experience, classroom management, and not so much on research interest. It is important to be interested in teaching and to stay current in pedagogy and content.  Lastly, Dr. Woods left us with a few words of wisdom by reiterating to remember who you are, what you are bringing to share, understand the students, to take the opportunity to grow professionally.

Community Colleges and CSU Panel

This year we held a panel that was focused on CSUs and Community Colleges. We were joined by Scott Hernandez (Professor at Riverside City College), Dr. Judit Gutierrez (Cal State Fullerton), Dr. Maricela Maldonado (Cal State Long Beach), and Dr. Alexander Natale (Santa Ana College). Together, the panelist highlighted reading job descriptions carefully, familiarizing yourself with the skills necessary to teach at teaching institutions, and extensively preparing for your interviews.

[Image Description: Text in a neon background that says, Looking for a job right now. A magnifying glass is sitting above the word job]

For the Community College hiring process Scott highlighted that one should always familiarize themselves with the mission, vision, and values of an institution as you prepare your application material. All the panelist highlighted the importance of having teaching positions in your CV. Another theme was preparing for a teaching demonstration and/or research presentations. Dr. Maricela Maldonado mentioned to be aware that there is a current push for CSUs to do research, therefore she recommends that you keep this in mind as you are applying for positions.

If you do end up getting hired and suffer imposter syndrome Dr. Alexander Natale shared that you should remember “they hired you, so they think there is potential in you.” A theme that came up was that during your first position, don’t say ‘yes’ to everything and make sure you keep a balance of personal time. Scott emphasized to focus on your mental health. Not all these skills are things that may seem important in the moment, but in the end, they may prove vital to your teaching careers journey.

Once you have decided if seeking a new job opportunity at a California community college is right for you, you can get the application process started by visiting cccregistry.org. This website provides services and resources for those seeking a job opportunity at one of the 116 colleges in the CCC system. Other hiring tool recommendations include the book The Professor Is In , the UCR Teaching Certificate Program , and the UCR Career Center.

[Image Description: Headshots of Scott Hernandez, Dr. Judit Gutierrez., Dr. Maricela Maldonado, and Dr. Alexander Natale]

Teaching Philosophy/Statement Workshop

This year Lauren Hammond, the Graduate Student Lead Consultant of the UCR Graduate Writing Center, led us through the Teaching Philosophy/Statement Workshop. The purpose of a teaching philosophy/statement workshop is to demonstrate an evidence-based story about your classroom experiences that are grounded in key-values and real-world experiences. The teaching philosophy/statement offers logic and rationale for creating specific experiences that you reflect on in the document as well as a positive outcome these experiences have in terms of student success. It is concrete evidence that will address what you teach, how you teach, and why you teach. Your teaching philosophy/statement should be 1-1.5 pages, single spaced, 12-point font, one-inch margins, it should be in first person, keep it jargon free, and make sure that it is well written.  

Lauren reminded us that we may be challenged with our theme but remember that it is important to help frame your statement. Your teaching philosophy/statement should articulate your current knowledge in the field. Remember you are often more experienced than you give yourself credit for. Lauren recommends the following additional resources as you work on your teaching philosophy/statement The Chronicle of Higher Education and the UCR Graduate Writing Center.

[Image Description: A pencilly animation of hands writing on a laptop with a cup of coffee on the left side]

Teaching Philosophy/Statement Clinic

We closed out the week with a Teaching Philosophy/Statement Clinic, where graduate students had an opportunity to bring a draft of their teaching philosophy/statement to the clinic and worked with Graduate Writing Center consultants to tailor their teaching philosophy/statement to potential job applications.

[Image Description: Lisa Simpson saying “Writing is the hardest thing ever!”]

To check out the recordings of this year’s workshops please visit the GSRC's past workshop recordings page on our website.