How to be a Good Adjunct Professor

I’ve taught at Columbia Business School for four years now. It’s been a rewarding experience and I’ve learned enough to now feel like I’ve gotten the hang of it. These are the highlights of what I’ve learned over the past four years. While every discipline is different, the rules below should apply to teaching as an adjunct professor pretty much in any subject, anywhere (adjunct as in an expert practitioner in a field, not as an academic replacement for an actual professor but at a lower cost). 

(1). Teach real life. That’s what the students want. I see it all the time, both from talking to them and in their course evaluations. They get plenty of theory from very smart people who have never worked in the real world. They are desperate for the opposite. You don’t need to sound erudite. You just need to be able to offer practical advice and give tangible examples of how and why things actually happen.

(2). Treat the students like adults. I teach business students so they’re typically in their mid-20s or older. But even if it’s undergrads, you’re just an adjunct. You are not part of the “caring for them and turning them into high functioning adults” process. You’re there to teach them what you do for a living. Treat your students like you treat your colleagues. Treat them with respect and courtesy and they will appreciate it and it will make the class much better. (This may be harder if you’re teaching, say, students just starting college, but that’s an argument not to adjunct for students that young).

(3). Be candid and transparent. The students are hungry for real world knowledge, regardless of whether it’s how you want the world to look or not. The more you reveal what’s behind the curtain, the more they’ll trust you and the better the class will be (and at least for those of you who come from profane laden professions like politics and finance, sprinkle some of that in too). 

(4). Use the freedom wisely. The good news is, as an adjunct, getting fired doesn’t really matter (it likely doesn’t pay enough to impact your life one way or another). The bad news is, depending on what you do to get fired, it could still be a problem. I certainly use the freedom to be more open with my students about the merits and pitfalls of business school and even whether it’s a good idea that they’re there in the first place (which I assume the administration would rather me not discuss). If I get fired for being too candid about how venture capital works or how tech works or how politics works or whether business school itself is a good investment, whatever. So be it. But just like you need to treat all people in the workplace – and in life in general – with respect and decency, that applies to the classroom too. If you act like a schmuck, it’s going to come back to haunt you. 

(5). Everyone loves guest speaking to students. Teaching a whole semester is hard. Showing up for an hour to mainly talk about yourself and take questions is fun and easy. That’s why you can always, in my experience, attract really top people from your industry. They’re flattered to be asked and the students love it (if the speaker is any good). We do occasionally let people speak via zoom but it’s never as good (so it’d better be a really big get to make it worthwhile).

(6). Engage at all times. I remember once going to a U2 concert in Baltimore. My friend Sheila was running Bono’s foundation at the time and I was allowed to go backstage to hear him speak about his causes before the show. For the first 5-10 minutes, it was so cool. Bono! So close! But after that, I started wondering if I could look at my phone. No one wants to hear anyone speak for too long. So even for the lecture part of the class, make it participatory. Ask questions. Ask for their opinions. Ask follow ups to their questions. See if other students want to take the other side. Pivot if new questions or ideas come up during the discussion (a lesson plan is not written in stone). The more it’s a conversation and not a lecture, the more fun it is for them and for you. 

(7). Use the intellectual opportunity. I like trying out new concepts that I’m mulling over on my students. Sometimes they’re ideas about public policy. Sometimes about wellness and happiness. Sometimes about investing. But they’re a great sounding board because the students are smart, they want to hear new ideas, and they’re excited to be the first to see what you’re thinking. And if you have other platforms too (I tend to run new ideas through the grist of my podcast, my Daily News column, my books, giving speeches, going on other people’s podcasts, going on tv, speaking at other people’s classes and talking to my own students), using class as a forum for your ideas can be a great component of the intellectual flywheel.

(8). Be accessible. I budget about 10 hours a week total for everything related to class (preparing, teaching, getting there and back, and meeting with and talking to students). I try to be as accessible to my students as I am to my colleagues and investors and clients and friends. I think it works. A former TA of mine is now the chief of staff at our newest portfolio company. I met an interesting defense tech venture fund through another student. A third worked at Tusk Strategies. Another just included us in a competition where I can test out my idea of using AI to hold politicians to their campaign promises. The relationships can work both ways and it’s worth putting the time and effort into them.

(9). Don’t overdo it with student presentations. Business school especially tends to be a lot of group work and presentations. They’re important learning tools because students can present their ideas and get feedback (and the other students learn from both ends of it). But, it can also be repetitive and boring. I’ve learned that when it comes to student presentations, less is more and it’s better to space them out over several classes than having too much of any one class taken up by them.

(10). You have to be intellectually engaged. There’s only one reason for me to teach – my own intellectual fulfillment. Is it a public service? Maybe, maybe not (if I were teaching nursing school or social workers, that’d be different; most of my students go into management consulting and investment banking). I don’t need the money. I don’t need the validation. I don’t need a resume boost. I do it because it’s interesting to me. When that stops being the case, stop teaching, because that means it’s also not interesting to them. Having taught the Economics and Politics of Disruption for four years, I’m pivoting to a new class called How to Sell Ideas. I really enjoyed last semester, but now that I’ve taught the same class multiple times, it’s starting to get rote – and rote is bad. A new class will be a lot more work for me, but it will also be more stimulating, I’ll learn new things, meet new people, and probably even engage with slightly different types of students (every student interested in venture capital takes my class now but that’s not necessarily going to be true for the new class). A lot of good can come from teaching but if it’s something you’re choosing to do as an adjunct rather than as your full time profession, only do it for as long as it’s keeping you intellectually engaged. Otherwise, it’s not worth it for anyone.