Tomorrow’s Professor?

Introduction and Brief Overview

• Why Tomorrow’s Professor?

• The academic enterprise

• The Three-Way Stretch preparation strategy

• Finding, and getting, the best possible academic position

• Work-life balance

• Tomorrow’s Professor mailing list

Why Tomorrow’s Professor?

• Lack of understanding of the academic enterprise.

• Decisions for and against academic careers made for the wrong (as well as the right) reasons.

• More to preparing for an academic career than getting a Ph.D.

• More to succeeding in an academic career than teaching and research.

The Academic Enterprise What You Don't Know Can Surprise (and Bite) You

• A Consequential decision

• Unlike any other institution

• Differences among institutions

• Comparisons across the disciplines

The Academic Enterprise A Consequential Decision

• Long-term commitment

• Limited options within a given geographic region

• Dual-career considerations

The Academic Enterprise Unlike an Other Institution

• Individual autonomy
• Accountability
• Rewards and recognition
• Tenure

The Academic Enterprise Differences Across Institutions

• Baccalaureate ~630
• Master’s Granting ~530
• Doctorate ~110
• Research ~125

The Academic Enterprise Comparisons Across the Disciplines

• Funding sources

• Faculty offsets

• Research costs

• Size of research programs

• Collaboration

• Teaching commitments

The Three-Way Stretch Preparation Strategy

• Why you need a strategy

• Elements of a successful strategy

• Applying the strategy

The Three-Way Stretch Preparation Strategy Elements of a Successful Strategy

• Breadth-on-top-of depth
• Next-stage
• Multiple option

The Three-Way Stretch Preparation Strategy Breadth-on-Top-of-Depth

• Places your developing expertise in a broad

• context, allows you to see connections between

• your work and that of others, to develop related

• areas of depth, and to make a more compelling

• case for your own contribution.

The Three-Way Stretch Preparation Strategy Next -Stage

• Enables you to think ahead, look ahead, and act

• ahead of the stage you (and your future

• competition) currently occupy and thus not only

• demonstrate your willingness, but also your

• readiness, to assume the position you are seeking.

The Three-Way Stretch Preparation Strategy Multiple Options

• Allows you to prepare concurrently for careers in

• academia, government, and industry.

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position

• Identifying the possibilities

• Applying for positions

• What departments look for in new faculty

• Getting the results you want

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Identifying the Possibilities

• Explore Now, Search Later
• Deciding What You Want
• Researching What’s Out There
• Preparing for the Search

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Applying for Positions

• Preparing Your Application Materials
• The Application Process

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position What Departments Look for in New Faculty

• Overall promise
• General teaching ability,ability to teach courses in need of staffing
• Ability to do research, scholarship in specific areas, a specific research orientation
• Compatibility with department and institution
• Potential for securing external research funding

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Getting the Results You Want

• Your Negotiating Approach
• Negotiating Principles
• Dual-Career Couples
• What if You Don’t Get the Job You Want?

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Your Negotiating Approach

• The shift from seeking an offer to having received an offer
• The department chair’s legacy
• The department’s investment in your success

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Negotiating Principles

• Make sure you have an offer.

• Know what you want - and what you don’t want.

• Clearly communicate what you want - but only to the right people.

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Negotiating Principles

• 4. Always try to use your work quality or productivity as the rationale in your negotiations - align your goals with those of your employer.

• 5. Make requests in an informational manner rather than in a controlling manner.

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Negotiating Principles

• 6. Negotiate hard on things that are "out of bounds," negotiate more gently on things that are "in bounds.”
• 7. Learn about the tenure process,
• but don't get hung up on it.
• 8. Start as high as you can in institutional prestige.

Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic Position Negotiating Principles

• 9. Get as high a starting salary as you can, but be realistic.
• 10. Create options and keep as many open for as long as you can
• 11. In making a decision, combine logic and emotion.

Work-Life Balance

• Seven – Not so Obvious - Keys to Surviving and Thriving in Academia

Work-Life Balance

• The Academics Dilemma

• “As a graduate student my prevailing thought was

• 'If I can just find a good problem,' or 'If I can just

• find a way to prove this conjecture.' As an assistant

• professor, my prevailing thought was, 'If I can just

• find the time!’” Terri Lindquester, associate

• professor of mathematics, Rhodes College.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #1

• Learn how to say

• YES

• as well as

• NO

• It’s easier to say no to unwanted tasks if you’ve already committed to something you do want to do.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #2

• Establish your
• ABSENCE
• as well as your
• PRESENCE
• Set a schedule for being physically elsewhere and unavailable, and stick to it.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #3

• Do a
• LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING
• as well as
• ALL OF ONE THING

• Master the art of multitasking.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #4

• Determine your
• TASKS
• as well as your
• PRIORITIES
• Many activities, small and large, are the steps that lead to your goal.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #5

• Work until your
• TIME IS UP
• as well as until your

• TASK IS DONE

• Approach every task with the goal of making progress during a specific amount of time, then move on to the next task to maintain forward momentum.

Work-Life Balance

• Key #6

• Bring some of your
• HOME TO WORK
• well as some of your
• WORK TO HOME
• You live in both worlds; look for ways to bring them together

Work-Life Balance

• Key #7

• Seek to
• INTEGRATE YOUR PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL ACTIVITIES
• as well as to
• SEPARATE WORK AND PLAY
• Doing so can maximize your effectiveness and satisfaction in both spheres.

Tomorrow’s Professor’s Mailing List

• Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List is sent bi- weekly to over 25,000 subscribers, mostly graduate students, postdocs and beginning faculty at over 650 colleges and universities in over 100 countries around the world.

• Academia

• * New Faculty Reward Structures
• * Faculty Learning and Institutional Change

Tomorrow’s Professor’s Mailing List

• Preparing for Academic Careers

• * The Academic Job Talk.
• * General Principles For Responding to Academic Job Offers

• Managing Your Academic Career

• * Tenure Tips

• * Twelve Suggestions for Optimizing Academic

• Career Success

Tomorrow’s Professor’s Mailing List

• Teaching and Learning

• * Improving Student Learning While Saving Faculty Time

• * How Students Learn, How Teachers Teach, and What Goes Wrong With the Process

• Research

• * Elements Found in Most Successful Proposals

• * How Graduate Students and Faculty Miss Communicate

Tomorrow’s Professor’s Mailing List

• NOTE: Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to the Tomorrows-Professor Mailing List by going to:

• https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/tomorrows-professor

• Or send e-mail to:

• [e-mail]