Debate as a Job: Interactions with Speech and Debate After Graduation

Parker Murray studies Sustainability and Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin and is a community debate judge. As a competitor, they participated in LD, CX, Extemp, and briefly Congress across all four years of High School. They have presided over nearly 160 rounds of LD, PF, and CX in 2 years of judging between the national and local Austin and San Antonio circuits and worked at the University of Houston’s 2024 Honors Debate Workshop. 

It’s been four years, you had your fun, but all good things must come to an end. If you’re like me, you love debate. It may seem difficult to let that go after graduation, especially if you spent multiple years building relationships and habits associated with debate. You developed complex technical and strategic vision, you spent countless hours researching and reading for the smallest leg-up over your competition, and while debate does have real world benefits, there aren’t many ways to continue to develop or use many of the skills you spent several years building. Rather than letting that time go to waste, you consider these options:

1. College Debate: an incredible time commitment, but you still get to “play the game” and build your skills. You’ll also likely have to learn a new event and seeking a specific type of debate could narrow your college search.  

2. Coaching: You can help share those skills with others, but you need to navigate a new environment and learn entirely new teaching skills. It can also be a difficult task to market yourself to debaters, especially if you don’t have enormous name recognition on the circuit coming out of your senior year. 

3. Judging: This is probably the easiest to break into, but you must learn new judging skills and learn to communicate with coaches and tournament organizers to find work while never having any real employment consistency.  

In my admittedly short time outside the bubble of competition, I’ve learned a lot about debate from the other side. Since graduating, I’ve also become more aware of the often-unethical practices that make this activity run. I hope this article can serve two purposes; the first is to advise those who are graduating on how to stay active in the community and keep supporting the next generation of debaters. The second is as a warning: despite its progressive culture, forensics is a business and is just as willing to take advantage of your labor as any other job.  

College Debate 

At the top, I should note that I do not compete in college debate. I am therefore not the best resource for information about the activity, and if you have questions about what college debate looks like, you should reach out to the debate programs of the schools you’re considering attending. However, I still think my advice here is worth something, so I’ll give it anyway, if for no other reason than to explain why I’m not involved in it. 

College debate is above all else a massive time commitment. It can open doors to coaching and judging, but you will be engaging with infinitely more complex arguments, better funded and resourced opponents, and be expected to participate, practice, and prepare for more time than you ever would or could in high school. This is not automatically a disqualifier and college debate can be incredibly fulfilling, but you should seek out opportunities that can translate this into a career. My view of college speech/debate is that it is a phenomenal opportunity if you are compensated for your time through scholarships and additional funding. If you’re dead-set on competing in college, reach out to coaches while you’re in high school to learn more about their events (most schools only do one or two events!), funding opportunities, and how much competition you will be able to access. In my opinion, college debate is not a worthwhile investment of time if you don’t get paid for it, and ultimately, most people will not have that opportunity.  

Coaching 

Private, independent coaching is a difficult sphere to break into. However, this can be a good opportunity for people who are especially knowledgeable and want to continue having the opportunity to “play the game” without competing themselves. You can learn new skills in teaching others, that’s great if you want to pursue teaching after college. You also get to keep prepping, keep engaged with the activity, and generally keep doing many of the things you enjoy most about debate. 

Here are a couple of things to consider with coaching: 

1. Good debaters don’t always make good coaches; conversely, those who weren’t strong debaters can be good coaches. Marketing yourself based on your own competitive success is fine, but you shouldn’t overemphasize these factors, nor should you disqualify yourself from coaching opportunities because you never won a national championship. Be honest about what your experience is and what you bring to the table, recognize where you are able to teach others and where a different coach would be a better fit for a student. 

2. Billing is difficult, and you should be careful not to undercharge yourwork. It can be tempting to think “I’m not that good at debate, I need to charge low rates to get students,” but I promise you, this is not worth it. If you’re successful, you’ll be overwhelmed with low pay work that won’t translate well to student retention. Depending on a coach’s qualifications, experience, and history, rates can range from $25 to sometimes upwards of $70 dollars an hour. You should also be upfront about your rates, the practice of hiding your hourly rate in private conversations is both exclusionary to lower income debaters and harmful to your own recruiting ability. While negotiable rates are admirable, you should set clear expectations of your typical rate rather than leaving your prospective students to guess how much they will need to shell out for your work. 

3. Regardless of how much you charge, you will likely be doing upwards of two hours of work preparing for every hour of high-quality coaching. Consider this in your calculations when determining your rate. If you charge hourly (as opposed to a per-semester or per-topic rate), you should especially consider this, as those hours preparing for each coaching session are unpaid. 

4. If you commit to coaching, you owe debaters something. Poor organization and preparation for your coaching sessions is unprofessional and will give you a bad reputation. You should know what you want to work on before each session, spend time with your students to determine what they want to focus on, and listen to round recordings or read their flows to identify areas for improvement before your sessions even start. You should prepare and run drills specific to your students’ needs, help with tournament/round prep, and be careful that your sessions never become routine. If you don’t offer something valuable to a student every session, you are wasting their time and money, and they will find someone else.  

5. Finally, coaching is a professional relationship, and you are a professional. You should treat your relationships with debaters as what they are, a teacher-student relationship between you, an adult, and your student, a minor. Conduct communications openly and if possible, include a parent or guardian in communication between sessions. Be open with your qualifications and what you offer to your students.

If you choose to pursue coaching, good for you! You should reach out to schools in areas where people might know you. You can also reach out on the myriad of debate-centered Facebook pages. Your high school coaches might also have connections which can be useful to find clients, as can other groups, such as friends on your circuit. The important thing is to get your name out there and ensure that you are doing the work people expect of you.  

Judging 

Certainly, the easiest way to stay involved with debate is by judging for tournaments. You should start judging on a circuit similar to what you competed in. Then you can expand your range to judging different circuits and different events as you become a better judge. Consider the following a simple “how to be a judge” guide: 

1. Identify a circuit to judge on. You should probably start on a local circuit where you can get to know people you’ll be judging with often. For me, I primarily judge tournaments in the TFA (Texas Forensic Association) circuit within 30 minutes of me. I try my best to judge with people I know to reduce transportation costs by carpooling. 

2. Put together a calendar of tournaments you can work. Find out how much they are paying, your round obligation, and how much you will have to spend on any costs like transportation. Identify holes in this calendar and find tournaments from other circuits you can work for. You should ask around while at in-person tournaments to see how other frequent judges are spending those weekends. 

3. Reach out to tournament organizers between two and three weeks before their tournament for locals. On Tabroom, contact information for the tournament organizer or the tournament’s host is located on the right sidebar. Email and ask the following: Do they need judges for your events? How much do they pay hired judges? Are there forms and paperwork you need to fill out to get hired? Provide them with your qualifications and explain that you are trying to stay involved in the activity. If you are given paperwork, complete it as quickly as possible. Often, tournaments will have a separate form for hired judges to fill out. If such a form exists, submit it and save a copy for your records. 

4. Alternatively, you can choose to judge for a specific program. This model is especially useful for building connections with programs on the circuit you are judging and is exceptionally common on the national circuit. However, pay is likely to be less consistent and realistically is often lower than judging directly for the tournament.

5. Go to the tournament. Follow all instructions the organizer gives you ahead of time and show up when they ask. When you aren’t assigned rounds, enjoy free food in judge hospitality, talk with other judges, and frequently refresh Tabroom to ensure you show up for your rounds on time. When you are assigned rounds, you are on the clock, go to your room and hit “start round” on your ballot as soon as you see it. 

6. After your final round, go to the physical tab and ask if they need anything else from you. You might be paired into out-rounds in other events, so do not leave until you are released by the person running tab. Additionally, don’t leave without getting information on how and when you will be paid. 

7. After the tournament, watch your email (and mailbox) carefully to ensure you follow all steps necessary to get paid. Most tournaments run their judges’ pay through their school’s finances. That means you are going to get paid at the speed of bureaucracy. You can expect to wait anywhere from two to four weeks to get paid. However, you should start contacting the tournament hosts if you haven’t been paid 3 weeks after a tournament’s conclusion. You should keep an organized spreadsheet of your judging which you have and haven’t been compensated for. Stay on top of this, do not forget about the work you have done or what you are owed. The worst feeling is noticing two months after a tournament when rent is due that you’re missing $200 dollars that you should have been paid a month ago. Take note of tournaments that take an exceptionally long time to pay you and consider a tournament somewhere else the following year. 

Fair Compensation and Burnout 

Debate is fun as a student, so why wouldn’t it be fun as a job? Here are a couple things to consider. 

1. You are doing what is largely thankless work. Especially as a judge, you can expect to work late nights on Thursday and Friday, from 7:30 AM until 11:00 PM on Saturday, and sometimes even into the morning on Sunday. Prepare to be overworked while understanding that you are not the center of this activity anymore. 

2. While judging and coaching isn’t difficult in the same ways as manual labor, it is mentally exhausting and you are working for long hours, sometimes with few breaks. You should not be working as hard as a judge as you were working as a competitor. There is a lot to be said about the unhealthy relationships that debaters have with the activity, but there is even less reason for that same relationship after graduation. Having the same mindset about debate you had in high school will make it easier to be financially exploited, and more generally, debate after graduation is less intrinsically rewarding so it’s important that you don’t overwork yourself and burn out. A judge who doesn’t care about the rounds they’re judging is someone who needs to step back and relearn what they love about the activity. A coach who’s going through the motions isn’t helpful to their students. If you’ve judged every weekend from September until January and don’t look forward to the next weekend, maybe it’s time to take a break. 

3. Compensation varies wildly. Depending on the circuit you judge on, you should be aware of what other judges are being paid for other tournaments and how they are being paid. Judging will generally be paid on a per-round basis or as a flat-rate per tournament. Personally, I’ve had too many bad experiences with per-round judging to view it as worthwhile, as many of these tournaments will over-hire judges and leave you to fight for rounds, or worse, will rely on volunteer judges while leaving you to sit and not get paid. Rates differ based on your circuit, but in 2025, a fair per-round rate is generally around $30-35 per flighted round (or $20-25 per unflighted round), while a standard contract rate is between $200-250 for two days of work. Your labor at national circuit tournaments or state championships is worth more than at the average local, take this into consideration when choosing tournaments and rates. 

There is no union, so we must work together to avoid being exploited. Judging is a privilege, not a paycheck, but you should not accept less than you are worth or less than the average tournament’s rate to judge, as low paid judging at successful tournaments will signal to other tournaments that low rates are workable. It is better to pass on a few opportunities and look elsewhere than to accept sub-minimum wage rates which are the norm in so many places. 

You should also consider that you are an independent contractor, and you will not have taxes taken out of your checks, consider this while setting your rates and planning your budget. If you make more than $400 in a calendar year, you will owe roughly 15.3% of your income from debate to the federal government in what would traditionally be payroll taxes, so Social Security and Medicare. Save checks, receipts, and keep a spreadsheet of how much you are being paid to make taxes easier. You will have complex taxes, unfortunately I’m not qualified to offer better advice than to pay attention.

Finally, a note on the off-season. If you intend to work at a summer camp for debate, you should absolutely be aware of how much your coworkers are being paid and how much work you will be doing. Have clear expectations of hours and pay special attention to the work you will be expected to complete before camp begins, as this is largely unpaid. Do not accept low offers just to get experience, it will rarely pay off. Most states have laws that explicitly allow summer programs for children to underpay their workers, do not work for less than you are worth, you will regret it, and it will heighten burnout. 

First-year-outs are some of the most exploited people in debate because they are still working out how they should participate in the activity, they don’t know the norms of this new section of forensics, and they are disastrously easy to low-ball because they don’t know how much they should be getting paid. Pay attention to how much you are being paid and if it doesn’t make sense, ask for more or seek opportunities elsewhere. Be skeptical of offers from organizations you have never heard of and determine payment details (in writing) before you accept any employment. If you haven’t heard of an organization, look them up or ask around to determine if they’re legitimate and trustworthy. 

Conclusion 

I hope this article is useful in teaching people what they need to do to stay active in forensics after graduation than convincing people not to return. I truly am thankful for this activity, and I am very happy that I can continue to support people’s speech and debate careers. With that being said, it is important that expectations are set appropriately for the next generation of students transitioning to college and I want to do my part to eliminate some of the exploitation which is prevalent within the activity. And while this article itself may be useful, I think that this goal will ultimately succeed only if we have uncomfortable conversations about compensation frequently. I would call all program directors to be more upfront with community members about their compensation practices, and I especially think that coaches should educate their students about the business side of speech and debate as they near graduation. Finally, we should all recognize what qualified judges provide to this activity and consider how our payment schemes prevent many qualified judges from participating.