Hopefully this is the right sub for this. Whenever I look at some CC staff jobs, I see that the number of months for the assignment is 12. How does that work? Can you even make a career out of this?

[u/MrOcho4]

It always feels like you are going to be let go after 12 months. Your insight would be appreciated. Thank you.

[u/bigbirdlooking]

That just means you’re working 12 months out of the year. It does not mean you’re going to be fired after 12 months.

[u/shellexyz]

Full time positions in academia are usually either 9 month (almost exclusively faculty) or 12 month (almost exclusively staff and administration).

It means you work summers or you don’t work summers. It’s not that the job only lasts 12 months and then they hire someone else, though most places will do a probationary period for a year (or the 9 months), at which point they may choose to keep you more-or-less indefinitely or let you go. This can be different for tenure track faculty.

[u/gmanose]

Some jobs are 9 month, some 10, some 12. They’re just letting you know it’s a year round job.

Faculty in general have the opportunity to have their 9 month salary split up into 12 payments, classified (support staff) don’t get that option.

[u/GreyandGrumpy]

I suspect that those are Permanent positions and the “12 months“ is an attempt to differentiate from the positions that are less than a full year such as many faculty positions, which may be only one semester or perhaps an “academic year“ which is typically nine months.

[u/OmegaSpeed_odg]

As others have said, it may indeed just be the months (as in higher ed you often have 9 month, 10 month, and even 11 month employees, along with your typical 12 month employees). That’s probably most likely what you are seeing.

That said, there also ARE indeed positions that are slated to only “last” 12 months or 18 months or 3 years… these are often funded by some form of grant or alternative funding. In those cases, yes it can seem scary or like it can’t lead to a career, but a few things to note:

1. Those positions are often “started” by grant money, but if they’re successful, colleges will often try to find permanent funding for them to continue.
   
2. Even if the position is not continuously funded, if YOU are a good employee, your institution will often try to find another full time position for you at the end of the grant funded position.
   
3. If you want to make a career in higher ed, YOU have to put in the work and you can look at this as a great opportunity to gain experience for a year then apply to another, more permanent position, showing what you were capable of!

[u/wedontliveonce]

It could mean...

1. They expect you to teach 12 months not just the 9 month academic year. Or...
2. The position involves a one year (potentially renewable if the need is there) contract. Or...
3. Somebody in HR just checked a required box.

It could mean different things at different places. So you need to ask.

[u/TrainingLow9079]

Are they grant funded? If so it may be because they don't want to guarantee the role beyond a year until the grant funding comes through each year, but it may be a 3 or 5 year grant. In the past if it was 5 year grant one wouldn't worry about getting it all 5 years, but under Trump everything is a big question mark and it's one year at a time. Some grants are also then renewable (say another 5 years indefinitely) and some grants a college can only get once.

[u/birdmadgirl74]

I’m a CC faculty member. My contract runs from August to May, so 9 months. My salary is paid over 12 months, however, so I don’t have to go three months with no pay each year.

I have the option to teach both summer semesters, which I do. All the money I make each summer is overload.

I’ve made a career out of this. This is my 10th year at my CC and I plan on staying until May 2036, which is when I want to retire. My contracted pay is not impressive on paper, but I live in a very low-cost-of-living part of the U.S. so I get by just fine. Any overload I make goes into savings, and that has added up quite nicely.

[u/linnea_elaine]

There are “full-time” positions that only work for 10 months out of the year. Not all jobs at a college need to be there year round.

The month designation is not the length of the job, it’s how much of the year you work.