Civil Engineer with 13 years experience, how do I get into lecturing in an IT or Uni?

david4791

Hello all,

Im a civil engineer with 13 years postgrad experience in the private sector, I have a level 8 B Eng Civil Degree.

Do I need a level 9 qualification to lecture?

How do i get into an IT or Uni?


What type of hours/salary could one expect?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

Demand?

DC

There's quite a few threads on this already. I've yet to add in my tuppence-worth, so here goes.

In your case, I'll be perfectly honest based on my experience in the IoT sector.

Level 9

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Accepted by many IoTs, but not Unis. Minimum is said to be Bachelor honours, but I doubt that anyone with just Bachelor honours has been hired in an IoT for years. Some IoT will also expect PhD, but some will consider Masters if it comes with a lot of industry experience.

Getting in

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Only realistic way is to do part-time hours and make yourself flexible and available to the head of department. Try to do some part-time day-time hours, fill in for others when asked. This can be a long process that takes years. No one is getting hired directly as a Lecturer - only Assistant Lecturer.

Even then, you will not automatically be handed a job - IF invited for interview IF an Assistant Lecturer post opens up (and then probably fixed term only), you will be in competition with other candidates, most of whom will probably have a PhD, so you would really need to stand out with only a Masters - you would need to demonstrate an intention to do a PhD, be able to talk about your innovative teaching techniques, how your teaching directly resulted in students receiving job offers, etc. And the interview process is tough - in front of a 6-person panel - e.g. heads of dept, head of school/faculty, HR person, high-ranking academic from outside institution - plus a 10-minute presentation at the beginning on a provided topic. Perform badly and you have no chance.

Pay
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Assuming you have not worked before as a part-time lecturer prior to 1st Jan 2011, you would start at the bottom of the Assistant Lecturer scale - €35, 743. The only experience taken into account for incremental credit is analagous lecturing experience - your 13 years of industry experience are ignored. It's not fair, but that's the way it is since 1st Jan 2011.
Take into account pension levy, superannuation, maybe spouse and child pension payment and any upcoming cuts and you would not be taking home a great amount for the work done.

If you had any lecturing experience prior to that date, they should take into account your relevant experience when calculating incremental credit.
If you have prior experience as a lecturer (in a public sector institute) then you would start on the higher scale - anywhere up to the 6th point of the scale (only experience POST your 4-year honours degree is counted).

So, it could be anywhere between 5 and 10 years or more before progressing to the full lecturer grade.

Hours

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IoT - 20 teaching hours for AL. Probably 20 to 40 hours on top of that starting out if you have to do a lot of your teaching materials from scratch. Possibly add more time to do teaching and learning masters and PhD (possibly at the same time). It's tough starting out, but gets easier and maybe after 5 years or so you can get away with 35 to 40 hours a week.

Prospects

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In your area, I would say slim enough (unless the government changes tack on the issue of apprenticeships). If you were in an in-demand sectory like Computing or Biotechnology, for example, there would be a prospect of picking up some part-time hours and maybe in 5 years a position might open up when someone retires and maybe you might put in a good performance at the interview and not lose out to the PhD candidate who has brought in hundreds of thousands in funding.


Don't let me discourage you though - if you really want it, you have to play the long game. Do that and eventually the opportunity will open up. That could be 3 years or 15 years.

david4791

Thanks DC, sounds like a closed shop

DC

Nothing stopping you applying for any advertisements for part-time casual work. It's a foot in the door and might put you in a good spot when the construction sector picks up (I'm assuming civil engineering requires this) - you'd be ahead of the Johnny-come-latelies. It's how most people have been hired into the IoT sector in recent years.

Melanoma

I lectured for a year with a masters degree. At the time I was doing a sick leave contract. The next year they hired a PhD grad. I was gutted but that is what they need. It would have been wrong for them to have kept me on more permanently.

It is a great job but maybe do a masters in computers if you need work instead. It is ultra competitive especially with so many PhD folks finding it hard to get industry work.

Good luck.

DC

I got in with a Masters recently enough. But I am almost the exception to the rule. An excellent interview performance is what made the difference for me versus a lot of other PhD candidates. I'll be starting a PhD soon, though.

You have to be in the right place at the right time, hence getting the foot in the door with PT hours, being friendly, flexible, etc.