The Waiting Room

This could take a while...

Friday, January 09, 2015

Hustle's the Name of the Game

Posted by Seeking Solace |

Back in the day, when I was adjuncting n Lake Effect Snow Central, I became quite good at hustling additional adjunct gigs. I started with only one class at For-Profit College. By my third semester, I had four. I showed those in power that I was not only qualified to teach certain classes, but I was ready, willing and able to go. When I moved on to SLAC, I was only scheduled for two classes in two separate departments. I walked into the English Department and chatted up with the chair, and Booyah*, I got two additional teaching gigs. Back then, if you wanted to get additional gigs and get noticed by those in power, hustle was the name of the game.

Fast forward to now, where I find myself in a similar position. The only exception is that I am not on campus, like I was at SLAC. Since I teach online for HBCU, I do not venture to campus much. There really isn't much reason to do so. This makes working the hustle a little difficult.

But, it's not impossible.

There are two full-time positions that I've applied for at HBCU, where I am qualified, to do the job. but in true HBCU fashion, I've heard jack-squat. So, in an effort to work the hustle, I've drafted a short introduction email to the respective departments. The emails just state that although my contacting them in this manner may appear unorthodox, I want the decision making people to know that I want to be a part of the wave of change at HBCU.  I see this as going one of two ways...

Either it will be embraced or it will drop like a lead zeppelin.

For whatever reason, I lost, or maybe misplaced, my ability to work a good hustle. I've allowed the situation to dictate what will happen, rather than my dictating what will happen in a given situation. I forgot that one should not accept a No or No Response from someone who does not have the power to say Yes.

It's time to get my game on.


*RIP Stuart Scott (ESPN sportscaster)

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