Adjunct professor Resume: Free Example (2026)

Start with a clean header that includes your name, academic credentials, phone number, email, and LinkedIn or faculty page.
Follow the header with a short professional summary of two to three lines that states your teaching areas, years of experience, and the type of courses you teach.

After the summary, present your teaching experience in reverse chronological order, then list education, relevant certifications, select publications or grants, and a brief skills section.
Keep the resume to one page when you have under 10 years of adjunct work, and use two pages only when you have extensive publications or administrative roles to show.

Write a professional summary that focuses on the courses you teach, your teaching philosophy in a sentence, and measurable classroom outcomes when possible.
For example, state course names, class sizes, and any curriculum you developed, so committees can quickly see fit with their needs.

Avoid generic phrases such as passionate educator without backing that with examples, and replace them with concrete contributions, like new lab modules you created or a flipped classroom design you implemented.
This gives the hiring committee a clear sense of your approach and impact.

For each teaching role include job title, institution, dates, and a short list of responsibilities and achievements formatted as concise bullets.
Use action verbs and quantify results when you can, for example, enrollment numbers, course evaluations, or improvements in student retention.

When you taught multiple related courses, group them under the same entry and list representative course titles rather than repeating similar bullet points.
This keeps the resume scannable and avoids redundancy while still demonstrating breadth of teaching.

Include a short publications or scholarship section if it supports your teaching or shows disciplinary engagement, and limit the list to the most relevant items.
For grant work, name the funder, role, and a one-sentence outcome such as pilot data collected or a curriculum funded.

If your research is extensive, create a separate CV for grant and tenure-track applications, and keep the adjunct resume focused on teaching, service, and community engagement that matter for part-time roles.

List degrees in reverse chronological order with institution, degree, and year awarded, and include dissertation title only when relevant to the courses you teach.
Add certifications that are directly related to teaching, such as online teaching certificates, subject-specific licensure, or safety training for lab courses.

If you completed formal pedagogy training or a certificate in higher education, highlight it briefly, because hiring committees often value evidence of training in adult learning and assessment.

Include a short skills section that lists teaching-relevant tools and methods, such as LMS platforms, assessment tools, and statistical or lab software you use in class.
Keep the list targeted to tools that matter for the courses you are applying to teach, and avoid long, generic skill lists that do not add value.

If you have hybrid or fully online teaching experience, call it out with the platform names and one-sentence detail about course enrollment or synchronous versus asynchronous delivery.
That helps departments quickly verify your readiness for their mode of instruction.

Choose a simple, readable font and use clear section headings so hiring committees and applicant tracking systems can find your information easily.
Save the file as a PDF unless the job posting asks for a Word document, and avoid complex templates with headers and footers that can confuse parsers.

Use keywords from the course description and department page in your summary and experience sections, but keep the language natural and relevant to your actual skills.
This helps your resume match search terms without sounding forced or repeating the same phrase frequently.

Before applying read the job posting and the department web page, and then pick two to three responsibilities from each posting to mirror in your experience statements.
For example, if the posting emphasizes curriculum development, highlight any syllabus design or assessment work in a dedicated bullet point.

If the role requires in-person lab supervision or evening scheduling, state your availability and relevant safety certifications, because practical fit often determines adjunct hires.
Tailoring shows you read the posting and that you have the specific skills they need.

Sample teaching entry for your resume: Adjunct Instructor, Department of Biology, City College, September 2020 to Present.
Taught Introductory Biology and Ecology, average enrollment 45 students, redesigned lab modules to improve hands-on inquiry and raised lab completion rates by focusing on formative feedback.

Another sample line for curriculum work: Developed an online version of Ecology for a 12-week asynchronous course, integrated weekly quizzes and discussion prompts, and supported student technology orientation sessions.
These examples show how to combine role details with outcomes, making your contributions clear to the reviewer.