======= Date Modified 11 58 2010 12:58:57 =======
Hi All,

I don't have any TA experience as yet, and am approaching my final year of a Ph.D in the social sciences. I'm wondering if this will harm my chances of success in finding an academic role afterwards? I'm hoping to have 2-3 publications by the time i finish.

Anyone have experiences on this to share?

For a research job no, for a lectureship, yes, I think it would be a problem even at a research intensive institution. I was surprised how many questions I was asked in interviews about teaching experience. From what I've heard the political emphasis being put on improving university teaching and the impact of the NSS means that teaching matters in a way that it didn't so much 5 years ago. More to the point, if you haven't done any, how do you know you'd like to be a lecturer? I know several PhD students who very rapidly changed their minds after TA-ing for the first time, when they realised that for most academics in the social sciences, teaching and student-related matters are a very large part of the job and that they hated teaching.
But it's not too late. This is the time of year when teaching crises hit for next year, so I'd get a speculative application for TA work in at any nearby unis if your own doesn't offer any. When I was in my final year, I got offered teaching work at a new university in August as one of their army of underpaid part-timers decided to desert academia in search of a wage more in line with her qualifications.

It's as Bewildered said. Obviously very important if you go down the teaching route, less so if you go down the research route. Usually if you go down the research route there are chances to gain some teaching experience here and there so you can move over into a teaching position with greater ease later.

If you're approaching your final year then you've got two semesters of possible teaching. See if your Uni has any teaching assistant spaces going. I only managed to get a semester of TA experience over my PhD because of the way the positions were given out You might be able to supplement the experience on your C.V or personal statement by including whatever teaching experience you pick up alongside presentations and assisting with supervision if you get the chance. They're all part of the same skill set really.

I've been applying speculatively for lecturing positions but I'm not holding out much hope. Some advertise and mention they are suitable for the recently qualified, which i assume means they take into account that there may not be a wealth of teaching experiennce present in the candidates but, because of the way jobs are at the moment, even those positions are going to be highly competitive, with a lot of later career applicants with more experience.

I've seen and applied for a few teaching fellow positions though as they seem to require less teaching experience. Very much the first step on the teaching ladder aimed at the recently qualified and perhaps not vastly experienced, as far as I'm aware.

I'm rambliing :-) Sorry. In short, try and get what experience you can. It's essential and as Bewildered said how can you know you even want to teach if you've not given it ago. When you do come to the application stage for post-doc jobs and you're unsure if you have enough experience it's always possible to send an informal query about the level of experience they're expecting.

Hey! I think you should try to get some experience if you can- the job market is so competitive that it might just work in your favour. Given that a lot of academics have to teach at some point even if they are mainly into research, it would be a good idea to be able to put it on your CV. I'm in Psychology, also just going into third year, and have managed to get a bit of experience teaching 2nd and 3rd year undergrads on different modules, and am also supervising MSc students. I'm not saying that I have loved every moment of it, but I'm glad I've done it! I'm sure if you want to volunteer to do a bit of teaching, they will find you some to do! Best, KB

I'm in Psychology too but I found chances to teach a bit thin on the ground. I've only taught on one 2nd year module and done some technical 3rd year undergrad supervising. Am rather envious of your experience!
:-)