Category Archives: Advising Advice

Chronic Illness, Disability and Heternormativity on the Tenure Track (A Follow-Up Guest Post)
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Posted on April 19, 2013 by

This post is a follow-up to the guest post earlier this week, “The Real Life of a Tenure Track Faculty Person.”  That post generated an enormous amount of reaction and comment that is still going on.  One of the commenters … Continue reading →

Posted in Adjunct Issues, Advising Advice, Alt-University Critique, Graduate Student Concerns, Mental Illness and Academia, Ph.D. Poverty, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Work/Life Balance in Academia | 2 Comments

Should You Go To Graduate School?
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Posted on April 12, 2013 by

The “don’t go to graduate school” debate has flared up again this past week with the publication of this piece in Slate, “Thesis Hatement: Getting a Literature Ph.D. Will Turn You Into an Emotional Train Wreck, Not a Professor.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Adjunct Issues, Advising Advice, Alt-University Critique, Graduate Student Concerns, Quitting--An Excellent Option, Strategizing Your Success in Academia | 51 Comments

The Imposter Syndrome, or, as my Mother told me: “Just Because Everyone Else is an Asshole, it Doesn’t Make you a Fraud.” (A Guest Post)
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Posted on December 11, 2012 by

Today’s post is a Guest Post submitted by a reader of the blog named Phyllis Rippeyoung.  Phyllis is an Associate Professor with tenure, and wrote in with a comment about “Imposter Syndrome.”  I responded by asking her if she’d be … Continue reading →

Posted in Advising Advice, Graduate Student Concerns, Major Job Market Mistakes, Mental Illness and Academia, Promote Yourself!, Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Surviving Assistant Professorhood, Work/Life Balance in Academia | 37 Comments

Location, Location…what?
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Posted on September 14, 2012 by

This past week the Chronicle of Higher Education posted a column by Alexandra Lord, titled “Location, Location, Location.”  Lord is the person behind the site on nonacademic careers, Beyond Academe, and she also runs an online Web journal, the Ultimate … Continue reading →

Posted in Advising Advice, Alt-University Critique, Quitting--An Excellent Option, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Work/Life Balance in Academia | Tagged | 15 Comments

The Perils of “Nice,” Cont’d: Recommendation Edition
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Posted on August 22, 2012 by

I got to see a letter of rec this week, and was stunned at the way it sabotaged my client, a SUPERB AND TOTALLY HARD-ASS candidate.   It did this apparently from the best of intentions, by burying her achievements … Continue reading →

Posted in Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Tenure--How To Get It | 22 Comments

It’s Not About You
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Posted on May 22, 2012 by

Today The Professor continues her mobilization of low brow pop culture references in the service of the scholarly career by bringing to your attention the sentiment, “It’s Not About You.” This is actually another installment in the “Nice Advisor/Worst Advisor” … Continue reading →

Posted in Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Strategizing Your Success in Academia | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Don’t Be Nice
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Posted on May 15, 2012 by

I can’t believe I’m going to write this, but I was watching Tony Robbins on Oprah a couple weeks ago. I know.  Stay with me here. And although I think that Tony Robbins is really gross, and especially when he … Continue reading →

Posted in Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Strategizing Your Success in Academia | Tagged , , | 20 Comments