User blog comment:Anglophilebg/Community Colleges discriminating against PhDs?/@comment-98.212.148.220-20110717162848

I can't speak for all CCs, but I started out at CC and am now about to go on the job market with a PhD. I emailed a former instructor at my CC in the Los Angeles Community College District to ask her advice about applying to CC positions: I loved the experience I had at CC and wanted to make sure hiring committees understood that.

She said that some on the hiring committee are skeptical toward Phds if their materials seem research-oriented over teaching oriented. They can tell this if the PhD isn't modifying their job materials at all to match the different kind of cover letter and resume then their main concern is that the person will take the position and then leave within a couple of years when the market or his/her chances in the market improves. That may seem to some people like they are just playing the game: to hiring committees that person has wasted a lot of resources (perhaps most important the committee's time) in the job search that the institution can never reclaim.

If a Phd has absolutely no connection or history with a CC (either having attended one or previous experience adjuncting at one) - then hiring committees are very skeptical that you genuinely know that this is an institution you want to be at.