Tenured but not promoted?

Tenure and promotion are two separate situations. I didn't realize this when I was at LargeU, mostly because there were not two separate committees to handle T&P.

Promotion is given based on what you've already done.

Tenure is (mostly) granted (if you ignore all the political BS) for what you will get done.


You can get tenure without being promoted. I am told that it happens, since the two situations are supposed to be considered independent of one other (in space but not necessarily in time).

....but does it actually happen?


If I got tenured but not promoted, I don't think I would stay around.


Still. I haven't heard of a case where someone gets tenured but doesn't becoming an associate prof. Have you?

Activate stealth mode

Each day that I leave work before 6 pm, there are a few things I have to do to ensure a smooth exit.

I lock my computer. I gather my papers. I put on my sunglasses.

And, most important of all, I make a phone call on my cell.


This is the only way to escape.



In order to get from my office out to the parking lot, I have to walk by a number of offices. If I'm not obviously engaged in a phone conversation (real or imaginary), I will get flagged down for any number of Really Important Reasons.

You know. Really Important Reasons such as the urgent need to inform me about their child's recent snot color (seriously), a request to for gossip about my department (they keep askin' but I'm not tellin'), or the retelling of the Worst Thing That Happened Today (usually minor... usually the third time I've heard about it).

As long as I have my cell phone as my shield, I can get home in a timely fashion.

Who knows what will happen if my battery dies or-gasp!- I leave my phone at home! I might never get to leave work.

Visiting Vixens

Last year, as many of you know, I was a visiting ass. at a small college. Now I'm well into my first year on the tenure track at a similar small college. I know that this year has been much, much easier as a direct result as my year as a V. ass. (Although it still sucks. Boy, does it suck.) While I wouldn't recommend a visiting position for someone who wants to go the R1 route, it could be a really good fit for someone wanting to go the small undergraduate college path.

Being a visiting prof (see * below) has all the advantages of being on the tenure track without most of the crap.

Crap that comes with the tenure track that you avoid as a Visiting Vixen:

- Committees. It is very rare to be assigned to a committee as a visitor. Do I really need to elaborate?

- Advisees. Yes, we all love advising students on how to find a path other than pre-med (insert eye roll here). They are also a huge time suck. It is very, very rare for Visiting Vixens to be given formal advisees.

- Faculty meetings! While some schools might think it's a good idea to attend, the presence of Visiting Ass.es is not usually required. Again, I don't think I need to explain why not having to attend faculty meetings is AWE-SOME.

- Research pressure! Research is rarely an expectation for a visiting prof. I got very little done beyond thinking and sketching out of a few research plans. If you want to go to a top tier small liberal arts college, you are going to want to get significant research done while a visitor. If you are aiming a little lower, and research done as a VV will be viewed as a bonus.

-Teaching pressure! A Visiting Ass. is just that. Visiting. Unless your position somehow can convert into a tenure-track situation, your teaching evaluations will never really be used for anything. I'm not saying that you should go in there and completely suck. BUT. Since you aren't going to be evaluated on what your students write, it can really give you freedom in the classroom. Try something new without worrying about what will show up on your teaching evaluations.



Again, if you want to have graduate students and do NIH R01-worthy research, visiting positions aren't for you. Do a post-doc. with someone awesome and get lots of publications. If you are wrapping up your PhD and want to work with undergraduates at a mid tier PUI, a Visiting Ass. position can be a great fit. If you are like me, having a year to work on your teaching and really sort out your research goals will greatly benefit you once the tenure clock starts.



*IF you have supportive, enjoyable colleagues who are willing to give you mentoring. And understand that you will be on the job market, like, the SECOND that you arrive at your temporary home. And will hopefully be traveling for interviews during November, December, January, and maybe even October and February, too.

Googling candidates

The hiring process is not fun on either side. On hiring committees, opinions often clash. Feelings get hurt when there is talk of degree superiority. Gloom descends on the department when offers are turned down.

We all know the long list of forbidden interview topics. You don't want to gain information that might lead to discrimination.

But what about google?


Is it kosher to google a candidate to check the CV? What about if you stumble on their blog? Or a twitter feed?

If you look them up on Facebook and see that their profile picture is from their wedding, is it now common knowledge that they are married?


In this age of too much information, where is the line in the hiring process?

Is a degree just a degree?

Does it matter where you get your PhD?

Some of my colleagues only want to interview candidates from top-10 PhD programs. Others (I guess the ones who didn't go to top-10 PhD programs...) don't think that the ranking of the PhD program matters.

I'm not really sure what to think.


Is the degree snobbery valid?

Faculty Meeting Bingo?

My favorite phdcomic of all time is, of course, Seminar Bingo.

I actually played it several times while a grad student at Large U. With squares on the card like "there's a grad student wearing same clothes as yesterday," it's impossible to lose.

Clearly, the next step is faculty meeting bingo. I know that one square would be "someone pulls out grading." Another sure thing would be "someone walks in late."

What are other must-haves for a faculty meeting bingo card? What about the free square? (For grad seminar bingo, it is "speaker runs out of time.")

Boosting the Ego

I know that I'm an amazing professor. I prep awesome lectures, I'm insanely available for my students, my tests are hard but fair, and I even get some research done.

Still, whenever you start a new job, you always wonder: do my students know I'm an amazing prof?

This week several different students (from different classes, too) decided to tell me how much they liked my teaching style, lectures, sunny disposition (where did that come from??), etc. etc.


While I like to claim to be a very confident person, and that I don't care if my students like me or my class, I gotta admit it...... I was really freakin' pleased to get the praise.



I'm sure there are many (several?) of you out there that don't give a bleepity bleep about what your students think of you. If that's the case, I'm guessing that you are tenured. (Just a guess--- if that's not the case, please correct me.) But I'm not tenured. As a new prof, it's great to hear well ahead of midterms that I'm meshing with the department. Now I just have to keep this up for the rest of the semester....

Fill in the blank

Orientation is ________________.


(Feel free to specify what type of orientation you are referring to-- new faculty, grad school, job, etc. etc.)


I suspect that many of you are in some type of orientation this week. Sorry. Oh, and if you are one of those senior (or junior?) faculty inflicting, I mean, informing new faculty/grad students/post-docs of various departmental policies... well.... enjoy the free food.

A question for the masses: how much vacation is too much?

Semi-recently (man, am I behind!) FemaleScienceProfessor gave her interpretation of a anonymous commenter's assertion that "if the average scientist took three months off nobody would know."

Some commenters agreed, and some disagreed.

With only one brief exception, if I (back in my grad school days) had disappeared for three months (hell, even three hours!!), no one would have known because The Boss would have tracked me down, yelled at me, made me write a grant or four, kicked me out of the group, and erased all traces of me from LargeU.

Of course, I never, ever thought about taking off without telling The Boss. The longest vacation I ever took was nine days...and that was only because the flight was 10 hours. I couldn't even take a weekend off without letting the group know.


If I disappear for three hours, weeks, or even months now, no one would care. Or perhaps notice. But we can come back to that in another post.


So how about it, grad students? Does your advisor care or notice if you aren't around? PIs, what is an appropriate amount of vacation time for your students? How about yourself?

A question for the masses: time to prep?

Well, folks, less than a month to go. No, not until Rachel Zoe starts up again. Until classes start.


I feel like I should be further along; after all, I am technically unemployed right now. What the hell else am I doing? Shouldn't I have at least a few weeks worth of lectures written for at least one of my classes? (Okay, so I'm actually done with my syllabi, just so you don't think I'm totally worthless.)


Meh. Have you started prep for the fall yet? What does that entail? Nothing, since you are done with classes? Buying chocolate, in order to fend off the sense of thesis doom? Beer, since you are a student/lab rat/professor/human? Reading the textbook, since... nah, none of us actually do that.

More work = more success?

ScienceWoman (over at ScienceWomen) has a very interesting post regarding work and the relationship between work hours and success. There are a few polls in the post directed at those in faculty positions, and the results will surely lead to some lively discussion. (so faculty, get over there and vote! And everyone else: get over there and comment...once scienceblogs comments are back up)

Here's a sample: "How do you feel about people who work fewer hours than you but acheive equal or greater levels of success?"

So far, answers are split between:

"Altrusitically congratulatory with no implications for your own performance,"

"Inspired by their example,"

and

"Jealous of their time management skills"


What would you answer?

(And for the record, I did not answer "defeated." I was one of the "Jealous of their brains/talent" votes.

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part III)

You can also check out Part I (teaching advantages) and Part II (research advantages), if you would like.


I'm going to continue my discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of doing a Visiting Ass. position before securing a tenure-track position. As a reminder, my goal was to ultimately end up in a tenure-track position at a small, primarily undergraduate, liberal arts institution.

Here are the advantages to a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the Service category:

Service

What's a committee? At least at primarily undergraduate institutions, first-year faculty rarely have to serve on committees. In fact, at TempCollege, no first-years-- TT or Visiting Ass.-- were put on committees. No monthly (or weekly...shudder) two-hour meetings sitting around a conference table contemplating how little my opinion matters? Score!

You can pick your contribution. Since you aren't required to do any service (since, you know, you aren't on the tenure track), you can control what you do or do not give time towards. I filled in as a faculty advisor for one of the pre-professional organizations. Some of my Visiting Ass. friends got involved in their field's national association.


Hmm... yeah. I can't really think of any more service advantages. Not having to do it is a pretty big one. Service stuff can be really rewarding, but it, as I am sure many of you can attest to, is a huge time suck. Huge!



Okay, now for the advantages to doing a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the LIfe category (so, yeah; pretty much all the left over crap)

Life

It's just a year. While this is perhaps beyond obvious due to the title of the position, I'm not sure it can be overemphasized. Living very far away from your significant other? (Check.) It's just a year. Living in a state or even time zone that you previously had not explored? (Check. Check.)

Along those lines...

You can be adventurous in location. Why not live somewhere completely impractical? (I'll leave that one up to interpretation.). Remember: it's just a year!

You can figure it all out. When I went on the job market, I had no idea what I was capable of. I applied to low tier PUIs and instructor positions; after only a few months at my Visiting Ass. I knew that I wouldn't be happy just as an instructor or at a school with zero research. My underestimation of myself was pretty surprising, in retrospect, because throughout my Ph.D. I was always very aware that I was good at research and teaching, so I wonder why I undershot job opportunities? If I had accepted one of my other offers rather than the VIsiting Ass., would I be as happy as I am now?

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part II)

(Part I, Teaching Advantages)

As a reminder, I went straight from grad school at LargeU to a Visiting Ass. position at TempCollege (a small, liberal arts school) to PermaU (a small, liberal arts school). They are all many miles and time zones apart.

Today I will address the research advantages (for me, for my chosen career path) to doing a Visiting Ass position.


Research

Keep in mind that most (do any?) Visiting Ass. positions do not require any research to be done. In fact, some places will downright discourage it.

You can take a break. There's no tick-tock of the tenure clock. No one expects you to do any research. You can take the nine months to regroup and recharge. I had no idea how burned out I was on 15 hour lab days until I got away from LargeU. I let two weeks pass before I even so much as clicked on an ASAP article feed. Then something unexpected happened. I started reading articles on subjects far removed from my thesis work. And most unexpectedly of all, I was actually interested in them. Not interested in a "oh, neat experiment" way but interested in a "oh, I think that could be followed up with X" or "wow, I should really try that" way.

I don't know if my situation was unusual or not, but in grad school perhaps because of lack of time or perhaps because of research snobbery (or maybe a combo of both), I just didn't typically find research outside of my project all that inspiring. Sure, I would attend (nearly) every departmental seminar, and I even frequently attended those outside of my college. I found other people's work interesting. I just didn't picture myself venturing outside of my research comfort zone. With my head clear, I was able as a Visiting Ass. to broaden my literature horizons and really think about research topics that I found interesting. My career goals did not include working at an R1 or even very tippy top PUI (and if they had, certainly I would have done a post doc!), so I knew I had the freedom to start pursuing areas in which I wasn't necessarily an expert.


You probably don't have time anyway. The reality of the first year at a primarily undergraduate institution is that you are, with only a few rare instances, doing completely new preps for classes in which there is an extremely high expectation level. (Maybe the high expectation level will only come from yourself!) Having research thrown into the mix could push you over the edge. At both TempCollege and here at PermaU, undergrads put in only a handful (as in four) hours of work a week during the academic year. Anything more is likely not going to happen; summers are for research. Would I have gotten research done at TempCollege if I absolutely had to? Probably, but certainly my teaching would have suffered.


Or maybe you DO have time! If you are so inclined, by all means do research during your Visiting Ass. time. It looks very appealing to hiring committees. It is very important to find out if your Visiting Ass. institution is open to the idea of you doing research and if they will give you any financial support. Most places will be supportive if you don't require any major purchases. Can you do projects with what they already have? Perhaps you can wrap up some data analysis from grad school? Can you run calculations while you are in the classroom?


(Stay tuned for more posts on the advantages and disadvantages of a Visiting Ass. job.)

Moving on

Although I was very upfront with my students about my Visiting status, many of them still weren't aware that I would only be here at TempCollege for the year. Now that the semester is underway, it seems like all the students (especially the freshmen, surprisingly) are already planning out their future academic schedules. I've had to turn down quite a few requests to serve as a long-term advisor. I also put about half the class into a mini-panic when they learned I wouldn't be teaching them in the upper-level class that I'm currently teaching. I had to assure them that it wasn't anything personal against them or TempCollege; I simply had to continue onward towards my goal of getting into a tenure-track position at a liberal arts college.

I suppose that I should take it as a compliment that they were looking forward to taking a class from me again, but 9 am is just too early to face 15 frantic freshman.*





*say that five times fast!

First real vacation

I've been talking to a lot of other first-year professors this week. All of us are sporting the same dumb grin.

You know, the kind of grin a little kid has when he's gotten away with something.

Why the silly grins? For the last many (manymanymany) years, we've had a month "off" at Christmas. For those of us who had to fly home for the holidays, this "month" meant we got to watch as the campus emptied while we ran our gels / crunched numbers / wrote more paragraphs. We flew home as close to the 25th as we dared. If we were feeling especially rebellious that particular year, we might take a whole six days off. Of course, each of those days you were (at the very least) still checking your work email multiple times a day and catching up on literature. And for at least 90% of the time, we were plagued by one of the worst kinds of guilt: lab abandonment guilt.

So this year, I've had two straight weeks of vacation. Sleep-filled, guilt-free vacation. Likewise, my fellow first-year profs have had similar REAL vacations. It's a very odd feeling. I feel completely rejuvenated (who knew that's what vacations were for!!), yet I have this (tiny) nagging feeling that I've gotten away with something.


This past week, I've been doing some low-key semester prep (one class done, one to go!) in meeting interview activities. I still have another week before classes start.

I love my job.

Should I stay or should I go?

Historically, my big life decisions have not required me to select from just one of two choices; I have not met many proverbial forks in the road... more like sporks. For example, when I decided to go to graduate school, I knew I had the option of many disciplines. I also knew that I could easily change my mind at any point and leave. If LargeU ended up not being a good fit, I could (with minimal pain), pull up roots and switch to another program or school.

Likewise, when I decided to accept the Visiting Ass faculty position at TempColleg, I knew that I wasn't risking much: visiting positions are becoming more and more common (woohoo! Teaching postdoc, anyone?), so I wasn't worried about the job becoming a black mark on my CV. If I hated it, it was only nine months. If I liked it, bonus points.

So in recent months, I've been exploring new territory. I had to decide whether to go back on the active job market or continue on for another year at TempCollege. I chose to not put out any applications. The Boss was terribly disappointed that I was closing the door on all potential opportunities. The argument was made that I could leverage any tenure-track offers to try to gain a position at N.A.'s institution.

Now, a door has opened at N.A.'s institution. Would I still have this option if I had put out applications in September? No. In November? Maybe, but it would have been very interesting when it came time to do interviews.

So I guess in my case, it appear that by closing the door to other tenure-track possibilities, I have opened a (teeny, tiny) door to a potential position that would put me in the same city as N.A. Stay tuned for updates on my two-body situation!

scientiae-carnival

Life after grad school...

...is good. Really, really good. Like, much better than I ever would have thought. When I last left LargeU, it was nearly 11 pm, and I was exhausted from hours of packing up my apartment followed by a frantic 2 hours of packing up the office. I cried the whole way to the hotel, had a restless sleep, and then got the hell out of LargeUtown with the sunrise.

Although much of my life is still in boxes, I've gotten settled in to TempCollege Village. I've figured out where to buy most of the essentials. The rest I've added to my amazon.com shopping cart. I've gotten most of my books in my office.

Oh, yeah. My office? Huge. Well lit. Biggest. Desk. Ever. I've drafted my syllabus, finished my prep for the first day of classes, and written up a pre-semester survey for my students. I've been going home at 5 pm each day. I haven't been working at night. At all.

I've watched countless hours of Olympics. My ironing is done. My laundry is caught up, and my apartment is clean. I've been blowdrying my hair and wearing mascara.

Life could not be more different than grad school.

I know that things will get crazy once the students arrive. My fellow faculty give me this knowing look when the subject of free time comes up. "Just you wait," they say. "You won't have any time once the semester starts."

While I'm sure they're right, I can't help but think: I'm used to cramming classes and teaching AND research into my week. Here, I'm just teaching. N.A. is many states away. I have no family here. No distractions (although N.A. would be a WELCOME distraction).

It's going to be a good semester.

Age = just a number?

During my move across half the country and then my first few days here in TempCollege Village, I've had the following conversation no less than fifty times (and yes, I fully acknowledge that I'm prone to exaggeration, but that is an underestimation, promise):


Random person: So are you here for school?

Me: Um, no. I moved here for work. A job at TempCollege.

Random person: Oh yeah? What are you doing?

Me: Teaching. I'm a one-year faculty hire.

Random person: But-- but you're too young to teach!


A few comments about the above broken record.

First, I'm extremely uncomfortable with identifying my overeducation to nonacademics. I'm the product of an academic family from a very academic town, so I was brought up surrounded by white collar types. So I'm very hesitant to outright tell people I am faculty (and therefore Dr. Unreaction). If I would just tell them from the start, maybe I could nip such conversation in the bud?

Second, I've recently been actively TRYING to dress older (I haven't worn one t-shirt outside of my house, promise!) yet even today I was given the student tour of the gym facilities (including a semi-sketchy run-through of some underground tunnels for 20 minutes until I finally interrupted the poor kid and said "yeah, I think you should show me the location of the faculty locker room instead since that's what I'll be using." ...yes, I don't know why there are separate student/faculty locker rooms either, but I like it!)

Yes, I realize that my youthful appearance will serve me well in 20 years or so, but for now, I'm just ready for some 18 year olds to get back on campus so I can at least (by comparison) appear older!

Visiting Assistant Prof, explained

Today I got another rejection letter. This surprised me somewhat, seeing as I applied for it back in October, but I was not bothered by it because

1. The search was cancelled so State School wasn't rejecting ME they were rejecting everyone (at least that's what I told myself).

2. I already have a job.


In case you didn't get the news release, I'll be taking a visiting assistant professor position at a small, liberal arts college.

I realize that probably about half of you just collectively nodded your heads knowingly, thinking "oh no, there she goes down the sabbatical rabbithole."


If you had told me in October 2007 (when I started my applications) that I would ultimately end up in a temporary teaching position, I would have laughed in your face. So why my change of heart?

I applied to a dozen or places, a mix of tenure-track, visiting, and instructor positions. Half contacted me for an interview, three sent rejections, and three cancelled their searches. This visiting position is at a really good school (that I had never heard of naturally), in the middle of nowhere, in a location of the country that I have never lived before. I don't know anyone in a 300 mile radius. I will be 2 hours from a Target.

Why the hell would I subject myself to such a remote location for just a one-year position?

It was the perfect fit. The faculty are amazing. Half are female and six out of eight are under 35. I will be mentored within the department, my teaching assignments rock, and my colleagues are committed to helping me move on to my next (tenure-track) position. The students are amazing. The facilities are insane.

In terms of my personal life, N.A. had accepted his faculty position (a tenure-track position at a top-notch school more than 900 miles away) just before we started dating (a mere four months ago, although it feels much longer...is that a good thing?). This year will give me a chance to sort out what exactly I want to do, as well as hopefully get closer (geographically) to N.A.


Am I damning myself to a string of visiting positions? Will I survive a long-distance relationship and overcome a two-body problem without compromising my career? We'll just have to see how things work out!

Exhausted.

Preparing for my upcoming job interviews (four in the next two weeks) has been surprisingly draining. Luckily, I'm surrounded by incredibly supportive people, including The Boss, Coworker, Coworker Friend...and even some new friends.

The sheer amount of time it has taken me to prepare my various teaching presentations, re-research the schools, and finalize my travel arrangements has shocked me. I happen to be at a relatively quiet time in my research (for the first time in, like, oh...five years), so everything has worked out without any major catastrophes or ulcers.

But it got me thinking. If I'm this stressed out applying as a graduate student to SLACs* then how the heck would I have dealt with applications to R1 schools as a postdoc, with less downtime and more responsibilities? No wonder postdoc positions seem to be running longer and longer!





*SLAC=small liberal arts college