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My job as: A Lecturer

Tom Dunne

Occupation: Lecturer in Information and Communications Technology
Qualifications held: BSc. Information Technology, MSc. Computing, industry certificates
Previous Jobs: Techncical Trainer, IT Support Team Leader, Programmer, Database Administrator, IT Consultant (roughly in that order). Oh, and Lecturer in a number of Institutes of Technology.
Daily/weekly/yearly routine: Preparing classes - approx. 40% of time, delivering classes - approx. 50% of time, other stuff (i.e. personal development, doing courses, etc.): 10%. Towards the end of semester this shifts to exam preparation, assignment marking and planning for next semester
Age bracket: (optional): 30-40
General comments: While I always enjoyed computers and IT in general, I can honestly say I love lecturing. It's far from the handy number some people think it is, but I am very much a people person and I get a kick out of standing up in front of a class sharing my knowledge and experiences. I am currently working in a new third-level college in Bahrain and enjoying every minute of it.

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randylonghorn

Tom,

thanks for leading off.

When you were doing your LC, where did you see yourself heading for, careers-wise? Lecturing? ... or did you go into industry and then gradually move sideways? What was the process?

Tom Dunne

randylonghorn wrote: »

When you were doing your LC, where did you see yourself heading for, careers-wise? Lecturing? ... or did you go into industry and then gradually move sideways? What was the process?

I got my first computer when I was around 12 or so, from that moment on, it was obvious to me I wanted a career in computers, specifically, programming.

I pretty much fell into technical training while working at an IT company. From that, I found that I really enjoyed it and set my sights on becoming a lecturer. So it really "happened" rather than being something I planned.

Papa_Lazarou

I dont know how the semesters work in bahrain but what do you find yourself doing the summer time off? Is the workload so much that you also spend a lot of your weekend doing college related material. Overall what do u find most enjoyable and worthwhile about your job.

Personaly would love to get into lecturing in the future.

Pygmalion

Perhaps a bit of a vague question, but how did you actually get into lecturing?
It doesn't seem like the kind of job that you'd see an ad for in the local paper, and it also seems like there'd be a fairly limited number of places available in it.

Don't think I'm enough of a "people person" to seriously consider it but always found it interesting.

Tristram

I think a few of the Bahrain positions were advertised in the Irish Times.

Tom Dunne

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

I dont know how the semesters work in bahrain but what do you find yourself doing the summer time off?

Going mad. Seriously. I need to be kept occupied, so I found I had to do lots of things to keep myself busy. Things such as IT projects, reading non-computer books and of course maintaining the house/garden.

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

Is the workload so much that you also spend a lot of your weekend doing college related material.

Not if you do it right. Also, and this is a massive help, what I am teaching at the moment, I have done a thousand times before, so there isn't a whole lot I have to brush up on. Yes, I have to prepare lesson plans and activities to keep the students awake, but in general, the workload is manageable.

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

Overall what do u find most enjoyable and worthwhile about your job.

The fact that I am making a difference to people's lives. When I worked in industry, in large organisations, I was a cog in a machine. When I am dealing with students, I am working one-on-one, guiding, directing and encouraging.

The occasional text message and e-mail I get after results come out over the Summer make it all worth while.

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

Personaly would love to get into lecturing in the future.

I utterly love it, but be warned, it is nigh on impossible to get into.

Pygmalion wrote: »

Perhaps a bit of a vague question, but how did you actually get into lecturing?
It doesn't seem like the kind of job that you'd see an ad for in the local paper, and it also seems like there'd be a fairly limited number of places available in it

By law, colleges have to advertise positions in the paper. Of the three Institutes of Technology I have worked at, two of the positions I got from an advertisement in the newspaper. One of them I got out of a chance discussion. Luck, you might say.

Especially around August, there are a significant number of part-time, evening jobs advertised.

Tristram wrote: »

I think a few of the Bahrain positions were advertised in the Irish Times.

And the Irish Independent and Irishjobs.ie and Morning Ireland and the Matt Cooper show.

Plus, they are hiring now.

dlofnep

Thanks for the insight Tom. I want to lecture in IT at some point. I'm currently in 4th year at the moment, with intent to go on to do a research masters in IT (currently considering security). I love to help where possible, and could certainly see myself lecturing as a permanant role.

StrawDub

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I utterly love it, but be warned, it is nigh on impossible to get into.

Hi Tom,

I am extremely interested in getting into lecturing, I have a passion for helping people and am also told I have great patience.

I have a Masters in IT with a business degree. I am currently working for a US IT multinational and enjoy what I do but ever since I left college I have had it in my mind that I wanted to be a lecturer.

You say that its near impossible to get into it? Is that given the current economic climate or its just historically difficult to get into?

I am currently attempting to assess how I best position myself to get into lecturing be it in 2-3 years (or sooner) time with an upturn in the economy.

I am considering a PHD however I do not want to pursue a PHD without valid reasons as to why. Thanks for any info

Kinky Slinky

what sort of job opportunities related to I.T would be available for students who finish the degree your teaching in Ireland. I have a big interest in I.T. but have been told by several people that many company's are outsourcing their I.T departments out to country like India and it's hard getting a job that would be related to your degree

Tom Dunne

StrawDub wrote: »

You say that its near impossible to get into it? Is that given the current economic climate or its just historically difficult to get into?

I've been trying to get a permanent position for the last 6-7 years. Not a hope in hell.

So I would not say it is related to the current economic climate.

StrawDub wrote: »

I am currently attempting to assess how I best position myself to get into lecturing be it in 2-3 years (or sooner) time with an upturn in the economy.

I am considering a PHD however I do not want to pursue a PHD without valid reasons as to why. Thanks for any info

I've a thread dedicated to this over on the Teaching and Lecturing forum. I basically detailed how I got into lecturing (note: I have only lectured at Institutes of Technology, but others in the University sector have also replied). In short, look for part-time, possibly evening hours, then it is a matter of playing the waiting game.

Kinky Slinky wrote: »

what sort of job opportunities related to I.T would be available for students who finish the degree your teaching in Ireland.

I'm not actually teaching in Ireland at the moment, however, the degree course I am teaching is pretty much a standard IT degree. It is suitably broad to allow a student to go into a wide range of jobs, anything from programmer to networking to tech support, web developer and so on.

Kinky Slinky wrote: »

I have a big interest in I.T. but have been told by several people that many company's are outsourcing their I.T departments out to country like India and it's hard getting a job that would be related to your degree

Answer me this - how do you outsource support that is time-critical and needs hands-on attention? For example, simple repair of a computer - you can't outsource that to India. What about network and database support? If you have a network that goes down, or a database that has trouble, it is not always possible to sort these things remotely - in a lot of cases you need people standing there at the switch or server, fixing things. No amount of cheap labour in India is going to solve these types of problems.

So, I would say yes, there are certain jobs that can be outsourced, but there are also quite a significant number of jobs that simply cannot be. That is where you should be aiming.

buzzb123

Hi,

I would like to go back to college in september and am hoping somebody could give me some advice....

A couple of years ago I completed the IATI exams an am now working as an accounting technition.Is there any feedback that anyone can give me on what courses they went on to do afte the IATI exams? I am sure that I would like a career that inter-acts with people more and also helping them.

Ideally I would like to teach art but I think its too late for me to start all over again

An area that I have become interested in is teaching or eventually lecturing.I'm sure at times this can be very stressfull but also very rewarding.Is there any advice on what route I would need to take to do this or how long it would take? Also would my IATI exemption give me exemtions from any relevent courses?

Finally, I would like to note that I am a lone parent so the majority of the course would need to be done from home and self thought (this is how I did the IATI exams.I would need to continue working as I did the last time, part time if needs be)

I would be very gratefull on any advice or any thoughts:)

GTE

Hey there,

I came to this thread from a link in the Motors forum and who ever came up with the idea for these threads deserves a few pints!! Great stuff.

Im not heading in an IT direction but I want to get into a carear teaching music production and sound engineering.

I was talking to someone in Queens in Belfast this week and he said that there are two main types.

Lecturing and teaching he called them.

The lecturing he said was delivering classes and also presuing an area of research personally which would also advance the uni you work for, and the teaching was full on teaching all the time.

For the lecturing whats coming in more and more is the need for a PHD, I guess for the research aspect, and for the teaching its a masters or degree. Though he made a point in telling me thats not across the board.

Would you have any insight into what he was saying?
The holidays would work out great for me as I plan to have a recording studio on the side but like you I love sharing my experiences and helping others understand things that I have an interest in.

(edit: you seem to have answered this in detail in a post I missed, my bad)
My main question is how do you get into a career in teaching in third level. Id say a masters at least would be a fantastic place to aim for first.

Thanks very very much
bbk

Tom Dunne

buzzb123 wrote: »

I would be very gratefull on any advice or any thoughts:)

The first thing I would suggest you do is be clear on what you want to do. Do you want to become a teacher or a lecturer? If it is the former, you need a H. Dip, if it is the latter, you don't.

bbk wrote: »

My main question is how do you get into a career in teaching in third level. Id say a masters at least would be a fantastic place to aim for first.

I've also answered that in detail in the Teaching and Lecturing forum.

Briefly, see can you pick up some part-time hours in the evening, with the amount of people going back to college, it shouldn't be too hard.

GTE

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Briefly, see can you pick up some part-time hours in the evening, with the amount of people going back to college, it shouldn't be too hard.

Thanks

By evening work do you mean teaching the part time courses (evening classes) that some colleges offer or offering your own grinds type work?

Tom Dunne

bbk wrote: »

By evening work do you mean teaching the part time courses (evening classes) that some colleges offer or offering your own grinds type work?

Teaching evening courses. Typically, in an Institute of Technology, the evening classes go from 6:00pm to 10:00pm.