By Mel Coffee, University of Kentucky Professor

If you’ve ever embraced the quip: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach,” now may be a good time to reconsider and recognize that more and more, those who can - do teach.

Journalism schools have known this for decades.

Working professionals are now realizing this as the economic downturn continues to force layoffs and firings of good news people who are looking to reinvent themselves in a tough job market.  It isn’t easy.

I made the transition nine years ago in 2000 when promise and perks still prevailed in many newsrooms.  Now, post-9/11 and during an economic recession, it’s even tougher, though not impossible.

Despite thousands of job losses in newsrooms, journalism enrollment has increased 35 percent over the past 10 years. Faculty hiring has not kept equal pace, but journalism schools that are committed to meeting the challenges of new media and new business models are more open to seeking out industry professionals as well as academic scholars.  

If you think this is your time to make the switch, you might benefit from advice from a news guy who has beaten the odds that still belies insight.

Getting the Job Search Started

Typically job seekers will consult the Chronicle of Higher Education online (chronicle.com) and navigate through the jobs tab.  Most schools will list there.  The Broadcast Education Association (beaweb.org) is also a great place to search.

But don’t overlook a valuable resource: colleges and universities in your area.  Ask to be a guest lecturer.  Many will use adjuncts to teach a class.  It’s a good way to get a taste of teaching to see if it’s really palatable.  It’s also a great way to make contacts, lure a mentor, and get a working sense of how Higher Ed really functions.  Go to lunch with department chairs.  I did all these things when I was working at WCAU in Philadelphia, and they really paid off.  I did adjunct work at Temple University and eventually got my first full-time teaching job as a visiting professor at Syracuse University.

Biggest Challenges

Your biggest challenge in job searching may very well be convincing those in academia that you can live among them and handle a classroom.  It’s a really different world.  They speak a different language and move at a different speed.  It can be a shock to the system.  I sat through a year of monthly faculty meetings before I was able to understand what was really going on.  And only then did I realize how lost I was compared to my other colleagues!

Your resume will get their attention.  Boast on your resume about every single accomplishment and contribution you’ve made, and make sure you mention measurable impact.  But be careful not to focus too much on yourself in your cover letter – how you position yourself may determine if you land the interview.

You have to be able to convince the search committee considering your qualifications that you can use your expertise in ways that will enlighten students, enhance the curriculum and raise the profile of the school to which you are applying.  It helps to study the faculty profiles and key in on your unique offerings.  What makes you different from those already on the faculty, and what makes you different from your other competitors?  How can you complement what already exists in the program?  Write about that.

A statement on teaching philosophy is also a good idea.  There are manuals on how to write these, but it comes down to why teaching is important to you, and how your presence in a classroom and on a faculty will make a difference and meet the missions of your department and school.  Be honest.  Be real.  Be yourself.  Write in a language you know.  Don’t be stodgy.  Don’t try to sound like you are a part of the Academy.  They are looking at you because of your wealth of experience.  Put some time into the cover letter.

Three Degrees of Separation

Bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree?  You’ll get different opinions about this. I have a master’s in journalism, which by all standards is considered the terminal degree in journalism even though a few universities offer a Ph.D. in journalism.  Some schools will require a Ph.D., and others will require a master’s.  The difference may very well be the focus the school places on journalism.  You’ll determine this by checking them out online.

You need to determine if you want to focus on scholarly research, which would likely require a Ph.D., or on professional and creative work, for which a master’s is fine. I have found schools that are the best fit for me are designed with a mix of both. 

Mission Accomplished: Biggest Job Challenge

Without a doubt my biggest challenge once I got the job was learning how not to drop the F bomb every fourth sentence.  Newsrooms can inculcate that too easily.  But what I found was that students respond to a teacher who is honest and real, whatever the personality.  They want to know you are relating to them and that they can relate to you.

I have seen several different effective teaching styles, and it all comes down to real communication in a style that is genuinely you.  Students know when you are just going through the motions.  They know when you are not connecting with them.  They also know when you are trying to hard and when it feels unnatural.

And their feedback shows up, the good and the bad, in your teaching evaluations.

Biggest Surprises

The notion that your life slows down, that you have all sorts of free time, and that summertime is a three- to four-month vacation, is indeed a surprise.  Out of curiosity, I accounted for my time over a two-month period.  I spend many more hours per week engaged in work now than I did when I was the managing editor in Philadelphia.

You will be swamped with advising, office hours, lesson planning, grading, meetings, etc.  And as with any job, you will work outside of work.  Just as you are always looking at life to decide where there is a good enterprise story, you will look at news to determine where there is a good teaching opportunity in your classroom.

You’ll spend a lot of time doing research or creative work to build toward tenure if you are on tenure track.  All of these efforts eventually lead to building a program that ultimately will have significant impact on the industry that takes in your graduates.

My biggest surprise, however, is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching.

My students don’t look at me as just a professor, unless you consider that a professor is different to them than it was to me when I was in college.

You are in many ways a life coach.  They and their parents and the school that has hired you are all entrusting you to not only impart knowledge and critical thinking ability, but roadmaps in ethics and diversity and sensitivity.  And it goes beyond journalism.

Students will confide in you about personal and emotional matters before they tell others.  They will tell you what they are afraid of and where they lack confidence.  I have gone shopping with my students to show them how to begin building a professional wardrobe on student finances.  When you communicate well in class with your students, and when you are an effective teacher, they will look to extend that beyond the classroom in ways that help them make the transition from student to young professional.  We expect it of them.  I never knew they expected us to take on such a larger role.  And the evidence of this is further rewarding when at graduation or other occasions you get to meet their parents and guardians. There are tears of appreciation and acknowledgement that you have not only made them a better student, but a better person.

To this day, nine years after I started teaching, I still visit and get visits from students who have moved on.  I’ve been invited to weddings and Passover and family gatherings.  Just as doing journalism is a daunting responsibility, so is teaching.  You are reshaping your students, and if you do it well, you are re-shaping your industry.
   
Final Pieces of Advice

First, find a mentor.  Find someone who can guide you, have dinner and drinks with you and get to know you and your quirks, strengths and weaknesses.  It is amazing how interacting with a mentor in this way can help shape you into an effective teacher.

Second, you know more than any of your students know, so have confidence in the classroom, and you know so much less than your colleagues, so be humble and absorb.  No school wants you to fail.  If you’ve made it this far, there is a reason.  You are an investment to the students and to the school, and both want to see you do well.

Ask dumb questions.  Remember, the Academy speaks a foreign language.  Immerse yourself in it, and you become fluent before you know it, although I have resisted using the word “pedagogy” until here, actually.

Teach with passion. 

And one thought that continues to guide my teaching is a quote from John Phillips who founded Phillips Exeter Academy where I attended secondary school: “Goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind."  After all, that is why we do it.

Mel Coffee is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky.  Mel spent 16 years in television news before teaching.