One of my former MFA students just emailed me with a burning question that’s on the mind of many MFA graduates:

I was wondering if you could give me a bit of advice about the teaching world, like how you went about getting your first job. Did you start out with college or did you work in high schools or something else beforehand? A lot of the schools I’ve been looking into want teachers with experience, but how do I gain that experience without teaching somewhere. It’s kind of a catch 22. Do you have any sage advice for me?

Since I hear this question so often from students, I thought I’d briefly share my experience and my advice here.

I taught a couple of classes each semester while I was getting my MFA, so that by the time I graduated I had taught a number of college-level courses in composition, literature, and creative writing. If your MFA program offers teaching assistantships, I strongly encourage you to apply for one–it’s much easier to begin your teaching career while you’re still in grad school, where you have both a built-in job and a supportive environment in which to learn how to teach.

After completing my degree, I sent out probably a hundred resumes to community colleges and universities and received one form rejection after another. During that time, however, I started teaching creative writing classes in New York City for Gotham Writer’s Workshop. At that time, I did not have a book out, but I’d published a few stories. When I moved to San Francisco, I began teaching at the Writing Salon and Academy of Art College. My first serious teaching job was at City College of San Francisco, which I got three to four years after finishing my MFA. My first book got me in the door at the university where I now teach graduate writing courses.

My advice, then, would be to try to find work through some of the community-based writing classes, like the UC extension courses or Gotham (they offer courses online), to get good experience and beef up your resume. They’re also really fun to teach and help you to stay involved in the local writing community.

Finally, if there’s a university at which you have a contact in the English dept, use it! I realized too late that all those resumes sent to colleges across the country were really pointless without a contact, especially considering that I didn’t have a book out yet. Also, send a resume to your local community college, and phone the director of the English department in middle and late summer to ask if any positions have opened; this is when they’re trying to find teachers for classes that have just been added to the fall schedule, or when they’re replacing teachers who have pulled out on a class at the last minute. Almost everyone has to take freshman comp, and some poor soul has to teach it.

Most importantly, keep sending your work out! Publication is your number one key to teaching gigs.