[osidecompass]

Hi All,

Been a while since I posted, hope tests are going well for everyone. Quick background, I am an audit manager at a local CPA firm with approximately 65 employees. There is a good chance that I could teach an intro accounting class at a local major university where I received my Master’s degree. My questions is has anyone tried doing this and working at your firm as well? How many hours per week did you spend doing this? Did you find the experience worth the work? Were your partners receptive to the idea and willing to make it work? Just gathering some information before I formally start talking to people on both sides of the issue. Thanks!

AUD - 99 (10/4/10)
FAR - 92 (11/29/10)
BEC - 87 (1/24/11)
REG - 90 (5/30/11)

[Anonymous]

@Minimorty

I agree with Mla regarding the free tuition and the calendar schedule. Also, one of the main reasons I want to teach is because it appears to be a very good option if I don't want to have the crazy tax season hours of a large firm, and something I can do in addition to another small job, if I want.

But my real main reason is because I just love teaching. I taught in a high school for a short amount of time and although I would love to go back and teach high school or even elementary school children, it may not be so realistic for me. So I hope maybe I can combine teaching and accounting to teaching accounting.

I've taught various subjects and loved it! Even though it was exhausting and I was juggling another job, college and family responsibilities at the same time, it was such an amazing period of my life. I gained so much from the experience and am grateful I had the opportunity to teach then…so I hope I'll have the chance to teach again.

[Lost1]

So to teach at even community colleges, I'm assuming you have to have a masters/MBA at least, correct?

What master level degree do you have? Macc/MSA/MST/MBA

can you teach at community colleges with MST?

"If you can do it, I can do it better."

[J]

I have an MBA and teach business and introductory accounting (i.e. Principles of Accounting 1 & 2) classes at a local community college, which is all I have been doing for the last couple of months. I was working at a local CPA firm while teaching and running a small business on the side before resigning from the CPA firm a couple of months ago so that I could spend some time doing my CPA.

This semester I am teaching 4 classes (12 semester hours), and they are actually 4 different courses. Two of these I have never taught before so while I know the material well, I spend extra time creating assignments, preparing lesson plans, etc. As others have mentioned, the first time you teach a particular class requires a significantly greater investment of time when compared to subsequent semesters of the same course. In terms of an overall time investment, it depends on you. For example, you can pull test and quiz questions from a generic test bank or you can create your own questions (I like to do the latter). You can attend faculty meetings or not. You can show up on campus just for your class or you can spend extra time there in the office, reviewing with students, etc. Personally I really enjoy the interaction with the students who want to be there and want to learn, so I try to match/exceed their effort.

Regardless, I believe a good adjunct adds significant value to a college/university program. During both my undergraduate and graduate courses, some of my best professors were adjuncts who were able to mesh theory with practical knowledge and experience; the latter of which was missing from some of the “full-timers”.

[J]

CPAisonmywayout: In terms of educational level, I think it depends on the college. Where I teach, you need to have an MBA or equivalent for business courses, but there are other departments where a bachelor's degree is sufficient. For those departments, the lack of an advanced degree simply prohibits certain improvements in rank/salary (i.e. if you are full-time, you cannot progress past the rank of “Instructor”).

[Lost1]

what's the salary/benefits like if you're community college level instructor?

those salary info websites vary too much by geographic areas and subject they teach..

"If you can do it, I can do it better."

[Author]

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