announcements will draw applications from experienced Ph.D.s, as well as newly minted ones.
Hiring and promotion are entirely market-driven and jobs are nationally advertised, garnering an extremely large pool of candidates. Occasionally, well-resourced institutions will compete for candidates in “hot” fields, using salaries, reduced teaching loads, and special research facilities to attract candidates. No matter how informed you are about hiring trends at the time you go on the market, your academic job search is likely to be challenging, both intellectually and emotionally. Preparing in advance for this challenge, though it may not guarantee your success, will help you to best position your research and teaching for the market and to manage the stressors inherent in the process.
Faculty Paths to College and University Administration
Educational institutions, even small ones, are also complex organizations with managerial structures. They have physical plants, staff, investments, and budgets in tens of millions of dollars. Therefore they need the same sorts of managers as are found in the business world. The management of academic programs, on the other hand, is a responsibility usually held by those who have followed an academic career path. A faculty member interested in academic administration typically begins by taking on a greater than ordinary share of administrative and committee tasks in his or her department and institution. A common path might lead from department chair to dean to provost, usually the title for an institution’s chief academic officer. Some institutions choose their president from those who have followed this route. Others do not, looking for a president with substantial experience in a profession, business, or government, or on the business side of managing a university.
The climb to academic administration generally begins after at least obtaining tenure, and, more likely, after becoming a full professor. Individuals who are strongly drawn to administrative activity can certainly find entry-level positions with good possibilities for promotion. These positions may have a lower ceiling on career advancement than administrative roles available to faculty members.
Movement Between Institutions During a Career
In some fields, particularly science and engineering, several years of postdoctoral fellowships or research appointments are required in order to build a candidate’s record of research to a competitive level so as to obtain a tenure-track slot at a major research institution. People in those fields almost inevitably change institutions early in their careers. In the past this type of research experience previous to obtaining a tenure-track position was necessary only for those pursuing a career in high-level research. Now it is extremely challenging for candidates in certain fields without postdoctoral experience to get tenure-track positions, even at institutions without a national reputation. In addition, social scientists and scholars in the humanities are increasingly serving as postdoctoral fellows and visiting assistant professors both in the absence of tenure-track opportunities and to build a research platform and, by extension, their CVs.
Despite tenure’s presumption of lifetime employment, faculty members in all fields increasingly move between institutions in the course of a career. Typical occasions of moves may include not getting tenure at one institution; being “lured away” at a higher salary or rank by another that is trying to build its department; and responding to a job opportunity for a spouse or partner.
To some extent, there is a national hierarchy of colleges and universities, roughly correlated with the research reputations of their faculty members and their selectivity in admitting students. In addition, there is something of a national hierarchy of departments, based on approximately the same standards. For example, an institution of generally average quality may sometimes house one of the premier departments in a given discipline.
It is generally easier to move from an institution of higher status to one of lower status than to move in the other direction. To some extent, this is a function of “name recognition.” In addition, the most prominent institutions generally provide the best facilities for research on the part of their faculty members, in terms of equipment, libraries, and reduced teaching loads. People at these institutions generally have more opportunities for the kind of research that will lead to additional opportunities. Therefore, candidates usually aim as high as possible in the choice of a first academic position.
Does this mean that a candidate who does not begin an academic career at a major research institution may never have a chance to be on the faculty of one? Of course not, but to do so can be very difficult. Particularly in the tight job market of recent years, candidates have taken the best positions they were offered, continued to do research, and, in some cases, moved to other institutions within a few years. They have been able to make these moves through visibility generated from research, publication, and participation in national scholarly or professional organizations. It is the case, however, that if an individual does not move to an institution or department of national reputation within the first few years of a career, whatever the form of appointment, he or she becomes increasingly less likely to do so. It does also happen that faculty members will decide to leave a tenured or tenure-track position to move to a more desirable location or to change careers entirely and take a non-faculty position, which will be discussed in Chapter 23, “Exploring the Expanded Job Market.”
Some movement is also possible between academic and nonacademic employers. This is particularly likely to be the case in professional schools, in which candidates may join the faculty at a senior level after achieving a distinguished record of accomplishment in the profession. Scientific and technical areas have also seen increasing movement between academic and industrial research settings.
However, transferability of credentials between academic and nonacademic settings varies greatly from field to field. It is a good idea to seek advice from senior individuals on both “sides” so that you do not make a major career move without being aware of its probable implications. You may need, for example, to learn how long scholars in your field can refrain from pursuing active research before they risk being unable to resume it with any credibility.
Academic Lives
The kind of position one gets, and at what institution, will have important ramifications for one’s life. Many, if not most, people seeking an academic appointment will be facing the possibility of a major relocation that will require reestablishing not only your professional life but also your personal life in an entirely new setting. In addition, as short-term contracts have become more common, young scholars may expect more than one major relocation. Research universities may demand research conducted at practically nonstop intensity, and careers in some fields may be tied to continuously obtaining new grants. Faculty at teaching-focused institutions may find that teaching and service consume much of their time, leaving them with few additional hours for their research and other priorities. Students at all types of institutions may expect to have access to you twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week via email and social media. The period between obtaining a tenure-track position and obtaining tenure requires constant juggling of priorities as it presents so many demands. Despite their heavy workloads, academics have more freedom to structure their own time than practically anyone else in the economy. For some people, this is the great advantage of the career path; for others, it is a source of stress.
Academics, like other people, establish long-term relationships, have children, buy houses, care for elderly parents, try to make time for hobbies and community service, and hope to have some retirement income. Since academics are particularly likely to bring work home, boundaries between work and the rest of life are often blurred. When you aspire to and accept an academic position, inevitably you’re planning the rest of your life as well.
Chapter 2
Hiring from the Institution’s Point of View
Just as your CV presents the public face of your qualifications in a simple, organized form, without revealing the full complexity of your individual life, an advertised position is the public presentation of an outcome of complex negotiations within a department and possibly within an institution.
It will generally be impossible for you,