| Surviving and Thriving in Academia |
Finding an advisor/mentor early in the process can be a valuable move for you to make as a job seeker. The advisor/mentor might be a graduate school advisor, an internship supervisor, or anyone knowledgeable about academia. This person can help by ensuring that you are aware of the kinds of questions to ask, the things to look for throughout the process, and ways to strengthen your application to make it attractive to potential employers. One of the most important areas in which a mentor can help is in the development of the curriculum vita (c.v.). Often, applicants leave out information that is important or include information that is not relevant. A mentor/advisor can review both the c.v. and the cover letter and make suggestions about how to strengthen them. The c.v. is the first evidence a hiring institution will see about you, so making the best possible impression is essential. A mentor may also be able to advise you as to whether or not you are adequately prepared for an academic career. This could especially apply to those people who are changing careers or those who have decided on academia late in their training. For example, if you need more publication or teaching experience, you may acquire it by teaching as an adjunct, getting help in writing and submitting articles for publication, or teaming up with someone to write jointly. This type of experience can often make you more competitive. A good mentor/advisor can be invaluable in this process.
Sometimes, people decide to seek a position in an academic setting after working in some other setting for several years. For instance, you may have worked in a clinic, hospital, or organization where you functioned as a clinician, administrator, or director of training, doing some writing and research activity or occasional teaching. Although entering a career in academia involves addressing the particular requirements of this career path (research, publications, teaching experience), previous experiences can also be an asset to the academic department. It is important to frame the descriptions of previous experiences so that the department will recognize your potential contributions. A mentor/advisor can be very helpful in this process.
Each college or university has its own set of written rules governing many aspects of academic life. There are also unwritten rules that, together with the written ones, constitute the culture of the institution. Criteria for tenure and promotion are often not explicit or clear, and there may be unwritten rules which are not uniformly applied across all units (Ross, 1987). As a new member of the community, one of the most important tasks you face is determining not only what the rules are, but also how they are applied. The application of rules is as important as the rules themselves. Also, understanding political aspects of decision making in your department, which are not openly discussed is valuable to your success.
The decisions regarding faculty life in your department will have both intellectual and political components. If you think about the decisions surrounding your own dissertation and the composition of your dissertation committee, you get a sense of the kinds of issues that will operate in your hiring and subsequent promotion and tenure processes.
Some of the discussion to follow describes the most demanding criteria for promotion and tenure-those commonly found at research universities. As suggested in Part I, you should identify the criteria you will be facing. Although almost all academic institutions consider teaching, research, and service as criteria for promotion and tenure, institutions vary widely in the importance they place on each category. Teaching is not considered by most research universities to be the most important work, and often tuition produces less income than research dollars. In such institutions, faculty who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, but have published little may be denied tenure, promotion, and merit pay. Thus, you will have to concern yourself with doing all three of these things proficiently and allocating time and effort in proportion to the priorities of the department within your institution.
In addition to your performance in these three areas, all departments are concerned with the issue of fit. Fit is the degree to which your contributions in the areas of research, teaching, and service are central to the needs of the department. While fit has always been a criterion for hiring, some institutions have recently started to place it overtly in the list of criteria for promotion and tenure. A component of fit which is often unstated but which plays a part in decisions is collegiality. While Webster defines collegial as "marked by power or authority vested equally in each of a number of colleagues," collegial has taken on another meaning that has more to do with the judgment of colleagues that both you and your work are in harmony with the department's needs. Definitions of collegial behavior are idiosyncratic, however, so the same behavior may have different implications for different individuals within a department. In addition, colleagues may replicate the behavior of managers in nonacademic settings. According to Landau (1995), both race and gender are related to managers' ratings of promotion potential, even when controlling for age, education, tenure, salary grade, functional area, and satisfaction with career support. Females are rated lower than males, and African Americans and Asian Americans are rated lower than Whites. Landau found no interaction effects, indicating that the effects for race and gender had additive effects for ethnic minority women.
The expectations for collegiality are defined by the general climate of the department. For example, departments with an active social life may demand more contacts beyond the work setting than those in which such relations do not occur. Collegiality is one aspect of your performance in which the informal rules that set the climate of your department are very important.
Once you have accepted a position at an institution, you will find the following strategies for promotion and tenure helpful. The strategies will be broken into six parts: Information and Resources, Teaching, Research and Publishing, Service Commitments, Relationships, and Evaluations.