Teaching Assistant in UL

theprizelamb

I have been offered a place as a TA in UL for the upcoming year. When I went for the interview I was fully committed to taking the position if offered as I was unhappy in my current position (working in financial services).

I have subsequently been offered a new job and more promising role within financial services and now have to pick between the two roles. My question is will my role as TA possibly lead to a junior lecturing role in UL or somewhere else or would the experience benefit me somehow applying for different roles in the future i.e. research.

I do not think the role is of any use to me in the long run if after the role as a TA does not lead on to anything.

Any advice?

Zapho

I TA'ed in UL for a bit while researching for my Phd in the informatics dept. The only real benefit it had was to help me revise the stuff I learned in computer engineering. It in itself wouldn't have lead me into lecturing.

TA-ing also didn't take up a lot of my time. At my busiest, I was teaching 4 hours a week, with about 30mins prep for each, so thats not exactly full time work. Would you not be able to TA and take this new financial position too?

I'm not sure how you go about becoming a lecturer. For me, seen as I work in a deptartment with limited staff anyway, if a lecturer goes on sibatical for a while, one of the PhD students will take his/her place while they're gone. Thats probably the easiest way.

So my advice would be try and do both if you can, even if it means more work.

dK1NG

theprizelamb wrote:

I have subsequently been offered a new job and more promising role within financial services and now have to pick between the two roles. My question is will my role as TA possibly lead to a junior lecturing role in UL or somewhere else or would the experience benefit me somehow applying for different roles in the future i.e. research.

The TA role will be of use in that you get some teaching experience, but of itself will not lead to a J.L. It seems as if the standard throughout the country, at least re universities, is that a PhD is an absolute must before a person will even be considered for a Junior Lecturer position.

Just something to keep in mind. You might also want to check with the department in question beforehand.

wingnut

PhD and substantial publications are now the norm applying for JL.