[thearn4]

Not a "side project" in the usual sense, but I teach as an adjunct professor (mathematics) every so often, and at a rate of about $1000 - 1200 per credit hour (depending on the institution) I can make a little under a grand a month after taxes. Teaching can be fun for many people, and I think it keeps me grounded in the fundamentals, where my day job is entirely application oriented.

The trick is that after a few times around, the courses require a bit less preparation.

Adjuncting is an absolute nightmare if you are trying to do it as a full-time job. But as a side thing for beer money when there is a staffing need? It's pretty light on stress. Since I am not gunning for tenure track (or even a full time position), there are little to no stakes involved.

Weirdly, I think the folks in my position (teaching as an adjunct as a side gig) along with the tenured full-professors on the opposite end of the academic spectrum are actually very similar in that regard.

[tom_b]

Adjunct side-gigs can be fun. Teaching students who started at zero and wound up quite capable of sophisticated hacking was very rewarding for me. If you have been curious about teaching and find an opportunity, I highly recommend trying it just for this aspect of teaching.

But I taught a course as an adjunct and the preparation time totally killed me. I wound up re-working the entire course from scratch. Worse, the course started almost as soon as I was asked to teach. By the end of the course, I was often prepping for the class the night before lectures.

Despite promising myself to not repeat the experience, I have just accepted another adjunct lecturer side-gig for the spring. The main difference is that excellent and up-to-date materials already exist. I'm hopeful these materials make the course prep less intense.