~~~”Dr. Karen’s professionalization training has already given me an edge over my colleagues from other, even more ‘prestigious’ universities.” 2009 Ph.D., Social Sciences
Contact me, Karen Kelsky, Ph.D., at gettenure@gmail.com. Or, leave a comment below.
Your confidentiality is guaranteed.
No spam, No sharing, I promise. That’s not what I’m about.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Dear Professor Kelsky,
Thank you for your kind comment on my recent column in _The Chronicle_. It means a lot to me to have encouragement from someone of your stature and accomplishments when my critics say that I am simply rallying the malcontents and failures.
I wish you every success in your current venture. What would academe be like if everyone were this honest and practical?!
All best,
Bill Pannapacker AKA “Thomas H. Benton”
That is high praise indeed, coming from you, Bill Pannapacker/Thomas Benton! You were the first to blow the whistle on the shameful ethics of graduate training in the United States, and directly inspired me –and validated me– to focus my own thoughts and feelings (and ethical decisions) about my role in academia.
I spent 15 years among tenured faculty colleagues who thought it was declasse and tacky to speak of vulgar things like jobs, job skills, and the salaries that their Ph.D. students were actually living on or could anticipate in the future. I have come to understand why: To acknowledge the Ph.D. students as workers would require them to acknowledge themselves as workers—and this they could not do, as it would have popped their bubble of illusion about the “higher calling” and illustrious status of what they called their ‘work.’ The irony was lost on them that what they called “work” (“right now I’m working on the abject in early American literature”) was what they refused to acknowledge as actual work, ie, labor being traded for wages in a labor market.
Thank you for visiting the site and blog. Please visit often and let me know if there are any sacred cows you’d particularly like to see me take on!
Karen
Hi,
Can you write a post about what to do when your (invariably) female advisor is threatened by your success and tries to ruin your career? I can’t believe I’m the only one this happens to.
Thanks,
melissa
This actually happened to me! My advisor tried to stop me from being awarded my Ph.D., AFTER I already had the tenure track job offer! I’m just not sure what to say as a general rule about it.
You are absolutely right!
You are not the only one. I suffered from such disappointments for long years, and still paying for them !
I don’t think it is only women advisors. Or even young untenured advisors. Sometimes male advisors are threatened by their students and in my experience it is worse if you are a woman and don’t fit either the daughter or flirt or submissive categories (horrible to write but women in those categories seem less threatening than others). So what to do when ANY advisor seems threatened by you?
Men and women advisors do it differently though. men, i think, ignore you. women, i think, undermine you. Broadly speaking of course.
Hi,
Thanks for the information, it has been helpful. Do you have an examples of job application materials (e.g., cover letters, teaching statements)? If not, I think that would help make your site even better.
Thanks,
Hugh
I’ve been thinking about that.
Request for special post: I would be very interested in suggestions on how to market yourself the non-academic world. I am a social science PhD student (ABD) who has become increasingly disillusioned with my job prospects in academia, especially since I don’t have a trust fund or a wealthy spouse to support me.
Where do you suggest I start looking? What are options when the only work experience I really have is TA experience? Please tell me I don’t have to keep serving beer and wings on the weekends to pay my rent (and eventually my student loans!)
Request for help. I’m an associate prof in an untenurable position. A contingent position called a full time temporary. I’ve been there seven years and suddenly the hostility from new full professors is unbearable. The provost has taken away travel money and all grants. He is now going to change our titles to lecturers. It’s time to fight back or get out. I want to do the latter but what do readers think is the best way to sell myself. I’ve got an enormous amount of lower level teaching, articles, service, and a new monograph. I would be tenured anywhere else.
Any advice welcome
Question – if a letter of application and CV are the only documents requested in a job posting, do you still insist on the letter being a max of 2 pages?
YES.
I really appreciate this site, and the work you are doing. I do have one request. Can you give any advise on writing ‘personal statements’, the kind of 500 word bio that some PhD funding committees like to see (I am thinking specifically of Gates Scholarships, Cambridge Trusts, that sort of post-graduate sources of funding). I despise writing these kinds of ‘hero narratives’ especially as I am a late-blooming academic who, instead of building hospitals in Borneo or organizing youth camps in high-school I was struggling to get by with an undiagnosed learning disability. I would like to know your take on these kinds of applications.
Midgardarts, Personal Essays are the hardest type of professional document to write because the genre is so poorly defined, and because they have to blend a personal and a scholarly element seamlessly. I will write a post on this later, but for now, to answer your question, you’ll want it to start with a short para on your current endeavors and goal, then go back to the inspirations for these endeavors and goals in your earlier days (this can be childhood, high school, or college), obstacles that you overcame to achieve success, and the different ways that you found expression of these interests as time passed. You will include a specific plan of work for the time being funded—what specifically you hope to accomplish in terms of advanced degree or research project, etc. And then you will also want to include a “make the world better” element, which will talk either about how the work you are doing/plan to do will contribute to the world, or how you personally are dedicated to teaching/mentoring/outreach. You will end with a brief but inspiring conclusion about the impact that your work will make on your field, and on society in general.
Dear Karen,
I have a question about the request by the search committee to “send everything you’ve got” that follows the initial application round. My problem is somewhat specific to my situation. I received my PhD in 2007 and have been on fairly cush post-docs since then. So really, the book should be done, but it is not. I have a proposal package that’s out with external reviewers for a press but the manuscript as I’ve described it in the proposal and letter is going to be *very* different from the dissertation but is kind of a construction site at the moment. So what do I do? Do I send bits and pieces that have been partially revised, or am I better off sending the dissertation with additional materials that have been fixed? I worry that I don’t have enough time to do any major fixing but am also worried about sending anything that is messy and/or not enough materials to indicate that I really am “completing the manuscript.” Maybe you could do a post in general on how best to handle the evil “send us everything” request?
Thank you!
Sarah
Sarah, I haven’t encountered that many “send us everything” requests before! It seems kind of cruel. I would not send the diss, given your ph.d. is 2007. You have to be operating well beyond the diss at this point. I’d send them articles and ed. coll. chapters that you have written, and 1-2 book chapters that are in a reasonable state–taking a long day or so to make sure their intros and conclusions are in shape, and that they hang together.
I am entering the job market as I complete my dissertation work within a large 5-year grant. A sub-group of this grant team (including me) are working on a proposal for another that would fund and begin next Fall. I have been invited to be part of that grant team, conducting research, at whatever level I desire. Presently, I’m written in as a post-doc, the most flexible opportunity for me (back up plan that I’m not completely committed to) and the PI (the position isn’t named and he can fill it with someone else if I go elsewhere). I’m curious, though, whether it would be in my best interest to instead take the “Senior Personnel” route, thereby (should the project be funded), taking with me to a new university a specific research project and collaborative. I know established professors who have buy out time and projects all over the place, but am not sure how this is viewed for someone just entering the market. I don’t want to look like I am incapable of cutting ties with my grad school. Thanks in advance for your insight.
Hi Karen,
Would love to hear your thoughts on the issue of supply and demand for academic speakers. As a mid-career prof and conference organizer, I feel emerging scholars need to put themselves out there more and their supervisors/coaches should be helping them do this. From my perspective, senior “star” scholars are easier to find and promote, but often less available and motivated (not to mention more expensive!). Emerging/junior scholars, even those doing groundbreaking work, tend to be less visible, possibly a “higher risk” option due to their relative inexperience, but can offer a fresh perspective and the event will probably be more significant to their career. Looking forward to your insights and tips!
Colette, interesting….. I’ll make a stab at this based on my former life as an emerging/junior scholar, and then as a speaker series organizer, and conference organizer, department head dealing with tenure cases, etc.
I think that junior people are absolutely delighted to be invited anywhere, and generally go! (actually I spent some serious time as a department head urging my “star” junior faculty to stop accepting so many invitations because they were becoming an obstacle to getting the book done for tenure).
They’re less visible because they’ve published less, may not yet have a book out, and also because first projects are nearly always relatively narrow in scope, deriving as they do from the dissertation. Thus the “suitability range” of junior people is much narrower, or at least perceived to be so. Senior people with several high profile and bold, pathbreaking publications are seen as being perfect fits for a wide range of events and conferences.
And then the junior folks, if they’re getting GOOD advising for tenure, are keeping their heads down and writing. That doesn’t preclude some hobnobbing and invited talk-ing, but it’s always got to take a back seat.
So, in short, I would probably dispute your premise that emerging scholars “need” to put themselves out there more. The main thing they need to do is publish, publish, publish (in top tiered refereed journals and in book fields, the book). Yes, they need to network, and advisors should help, but I see that more at the large national conference level. I always urge ABDs and brand new Ph.D.s to organize high profile panels at their national conference, with a big shot discussant, on the year they are debuting on the market, as, literally, their “debutante party” announcing that they are no longer at the children’s table/nursery, but are now a full fledged member of the academic community.
But other than that kind of national panel, I’ve seen more junior people go astray by spending too much time being seduced by invitations to speak at campuses (and not getting their writing done), then I’ve seen them fail in their careers by virtue of not speaking enough…. if that makes sense.
Hi,
this is a request for a special post. I enjoyed very much your Tips for Getting Funded, and I wonder whether you could also give similar, practical advice on getting published. Even a “Foolproof Journal Article Template”, if this is not asking too much!
I know the rules are different in each discipline but there are mistakes that all of us do when writing academic papers. I’d very much like to hear your thoughts on this issue.
have you read Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks? that book really helped me.
I want to first say THANK YOU! This website and blog have been a tremendous help to me as I prepare to enter the job market. Your straight-forward, no-nonsense advice is both needed and welcomed!
I have a question about letter-writers. I am doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at an R1. I will be looking for a TT position at a smaller regional or SLAC. I have been an adjunct at both my R1 school (teaching mostly 300-level classes) and the local comm college (teaching intro classes) for the last three years since completing my MA. Is it acceptable or beneficial to have my dept head from the comm college where I teach write me a letter of rec? She’s not a PhD but has been at the school for decades and has done several class visits so she knows my teaching skills (more than any of my committee members or grad school faculty do). Would she be a good candidate to ask for a letter, or should I stick to faculty at my R1 institution?
She’d be an excellent FOURTH letter, clearly delineated as a “teaching reference.” Beyond the faculty at your R1, you also want to actively cultivate external letter writers in your field. After the Ph.D. you don’t want to have all your writers be from the phd institution.
Hi Karen, I recently started following your blog and have found it very helpful, thanks! I would love to see a post about writing good tenure letters, the multiple page accounts documenting your life as an academic that introduces the tenure notebook. These seem about as difficult, if not more so, than writing job letters.
Will do. I’ll time that for close to the tenure submission calendar—closer to spring.
Hi,
How long is a “brief” research proposal? I’m Australian, and am applying for a 2-year US postdoc in art history, so trying to make sense of the application procedure. The position calls for a letter of interest, CV, brief description of research project, three letters of recommendation, sample syllabus or course proposal, and a writing sample of no more than 9,000 words. Would you mind giving me some length guidelines for each of these items?
Many thanks, your blog is brilliant and incredibly helpful for outsiders.
Georgina
The brief research proposal will be 2-3 pages, single-spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Read my posts, “The Postdoc Proposal: How It’s Different,” as well as “Dr. Karen’s Foolproof Grant Template” for guidance on composing this. Also, “The Golden Rule of the Research Proposal.”
Dear Karen,
I am a junior academic. I am going to give a paper at a major international conference in my subject; now they have asked me to be discussant in another panel as well. This would be a fair amount of work (I have to comment on 5 papers), and I am wondering if this is worth it, CV-wise. I generally try to be efficient in how I use my time. Is this the sort of thing that I should say yes to?
Thank you so much.
S
While there are many variables to weigh, such as the prestige of the panel you’re being asked to discuss, in general, serving as a discussant is an honor, and carries some weight on a CV, and visibility at the conference itself. It gives you also some bragging rights while at the conference. So I would lean toward acceptance.
What do you think about a personal academic website? I had one in a previous career and I am now redesigning it to fit my new academic profile. What are the pitfalls here? What should be done with this type of communication if one is looking for research position? I think other people would be interested in this.
I am *sure* other people would be interested in this; i am just totally unqualified to write about it. As I’ve written in other contexts, my career just missed the widespread adoption of the academic website. I will actively solicit a guest post though, or several!
Guest post coming next week (first week of Feb. 2012).
Hi Karen,
Love your site – it’s been invaluable. Thanks tremendously for it!
Here’s a question for which I think I know the answer, but which I’d love to hear your take on, if possible: is it ever appropriate to e-mail a search committee that did _not_ choose you to ask if there is any future advice they’d give you personally as a candidate? It was my first year on the job market this year. I’m in literature, ABD (but with a good article in a top journals), and I was lucky enough to get three MLA interviews, one with a top R1 school. To my mind, the interview with them went great. I’d been following your advice judiciously, and was very prepared. I really liked the people interviewing me, and got the feeling that they liked both my project and me as a person. They asked good, hard, questions, and I felt strong about my answers. I left the interview feeling like I’d given them a good sense of who I am and what I do. I wrote short thank-you e-mails the following day, and two interviewers responded to say they had enjoyed meeting me and hearing about my work.
Needless to say, I didn’t get called for a campus visit (nor did I get a campus visit for my other two interviews, but that’s ok – I left both of those interviews feeling like they’d be great places to work, but not for me, at least where my life is right now). I’m mostly over it, and generally accept the fact that the search committee decisions can be frustratingly capricious. My advisors have all given me the same feedback: if you felt like the interview went well, it probably did, and you can’t dwell overlong on decisions like this.
Still, there’s a nagging part of me that wants to know if this was really the case, or if there was some glaring failing on my part that everyone in the interview except for me could see. If there were, in other words, an easily fix-able problem (“you still seemed more like a grad student than a colleague,” “we were all waiting for you to address X problem or X thinker, and you didn’t even mention it/her,” “we liked you, but thought your work was a little too similar to person Y who already works in the department,” etc.) that I could fix by next year. So: to your mind, is there an appropriate way to e-mail the chair (or another member) of the search committee to ask? I know committees are bound by all sorts of legal issues, don’t want to get burned by giving out too much information, and sometimes make decisions that seem bizarre from the outside. But really, any advice from them would be welcome and helpful.
Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the issue, if possible. Either way, thanks much for the site!
It is my opinion that yes, you can ask. It can be awkward, and not all depts will necessarily respond, but I endorse a non-needy, brief email along the lines of, “Thank you again for hosting me in your department. I am writing to inquire if you would be willing to share any insights with me as to things I could improve in my interview, job talk, or overall profile. This information would be helpful to me as I advance further in my job search. Thank you, Sincerely, XXX.”
Dear Karen,
I know this question doesn’t necessarily fall within the purview of your normal responses, but I am interested to know if you have an opinion on this topic:
I submitted my PhD application for X program in the Social Sciences to Y University in December. Since then, I have submitted a paper for review, am on the verge of submitting 2 more for peer review, and submitted 2 abstracts for conferences this year. Do you think it is a good idea to email my potential adviser at Y University to update them with this news? I know I am experiencing pre-decision jitters, but I just want to have the best chance possible to attend Y University.
Thank you in advance for your response,
Prospective PhD Student
Yes, with all that impressive productivity, you should re-do your cv, and call the dept to inquire about submitting an updated one. I would suggest you contact the departmental secretary and/or the Director of Graduate Studies.
Dear Karen,
First, thank you for your website and being so generous with your knowledge.
I am currently finishing my PhD in Early Modern Literature/Book History and am putting together my first cover letter for an Assistant Research Fellow position. I have been using the cover letter outline from your website to help organize my thoughts and info- but I was wondering, since you have stressed that postdocs are different animals than teaching posts because we are in service to the research project, about ways I may want to adjust the template.
It is especially important since they are only requesting a CV and cover letter – so the letter is also my chance to show how I plan to contribute to the larger project with my own research.
Many thanks for this and all your help in the past.
Jennifer
Jennifer, thanks for getting in touch. Did you read the post: The Postdoc App: How It’s Different? That one is very helpful for answering precisely your question. I’ll follow up with an email too. Karen
Dear Karen,
I just found your excellent website today as I began preparing for my very first academic interview! I have a week to get ready. The thing is–it’s a preliminary interview by phone. I would love to see a blog post with advice on how to prepare for a phone interview. In some ways, I think it should be easier since I can surround myself with note cards full of canned answers (in case I lose everything out of my head in the moment), but in other ways I think it is going to be really difficult since I won’t be able to read any body language/facial expressions or show them my warm, smiling face.
Any advice you have would be appreciated (especially if it came before next Wednesday).
Go Ducks,
SMA
Click on the category, “How to Interview” and you’ll be directed to many posts about interviewing. One of them is “Rocking the Phone/Skype Interview.” Other good ones include the #Facepalm Fails of the Academic Interview and my latest IHE column: “The ‘Be Yourself’ Myth.”
Good luck!
Do you have any experience with Canadian SSHRC post-doc applications? Just barely missed the cut this time (recommended but not funded) and am thinking about how to regroup for next year. Thanks!
I do, actually. I have had quite a few Canadian clients seeking SSHRC Postdocs, and we’ve had some success.
Do you have a form that you recommend for personal statements to get into PhD programs in business? Thank you.
I have been reading your posts on job interview attire with interest in preparation for an upcoming campus interview, and here’s my question: the tattoo on my calf – cover it up or let my freak flag fly? I can wear a skirt with dark tights (though you recommend against opaque tights, and it’s quickly getting too warm for those), or dark hose (through which it will still be visible), or should I just wear pants? I am an internal candidate and I’m sure at some point this year my tattoo has been visible under a skirt or some such, though I’m not sure the other profs have noticed it. What say you? To tattoo not tattoo? If it matters, I’m an art historian applying for a t-t job in an art & design department, and it’s a custom Celtic knot, about 3″ in diameter. The committee is made up entirely of studio artists and graphic designers. I’m interviewing at a medium-sized Southern public university where women certainly wear pants on the regular, but I was thinking I should perhaps wear a skirt and heels for the interview so as to look more serious/dressed up than I do on a regular class day. The last time I was on the job market, skirt hems were low enough to cover the tatt. Now an up-to-date skirt will definitely show the tatt. Help?
I think the tattoo, in and of itself, is not a problem, particularly in an art and design dept. I think, though, that you might want to signal “serious” with a nice suit w/pants rather than skirt with heels. I’m concerned less with other peoples’ reactions than your own psychological state. If the tattoo will distract you if visible, cover it up. That should be your litmus test.
Thanks for your reply. I think you’re right: I’ll be more comfortable in pants, all in all.
Any advice on chairing a conference panel for the first time? I want to propose a panel for an upcoming, major conference in my field. Beyond writing the proposal, what will be expected of me as the organizer? How can I use the panel to my best advantage?
You will conceptualize the topic and write the proposal. You’ll send that proposal out to potential participants. This can be done either in a targeted individual way, or in a “call for papers” on a listserve in your field. Once you have a set of participants, you will seek out a discussant. For this panel to really “work” for you, you need the participants to be reasonably well-known people, not graduate students or rank beginners, and the discussant to be an exceedingly well known and influential scholar. This way the panel will ahve “draw” and a larger audience, and your paper and your leadership will get the reflected glory of the other participants, in addition to the exposure you bring yourself. You will alsohave a higher likelihood of getting accepted. You will want to go for any special status that your association provides, such as “invited status”, which usually entails an earlier submission date to a sub-unit level review. This additional status also provides you a greater draw and audience. Prior to the panel, you’ll want to pull the participants together in a joint email discussion of the panel and its themes, exchange papers if possible, and create a little ‘community of interest.’ Get the feedback of the discussant–if possible, and without imposing—early enough to incorporate changes in your paper. At the conf. itself, plan a panel lunch or coffee or breakfast prior to the panel time. All of this makes for a better experience and connections/networking that yields fruit far into the future.
Hi,
In a couple of months I will be graduating with a degree in physics from an elite R1 and my ultimate career goal is to have a TT job at a SLAC. I have not had much luck in this search, but seem to be a strong contender for some of the visiting assistant professorships and postdocs I have applied to. My adviser believes that the best way to get the position I want is to build up my teaching experience with visiting positions, but I am learning that the finalists for the most desirable TT jobs have all had some (2-5 years) postdoctoral experience.
Do you have any thoughts on which path makes for the strongest candidate for the SLAC jobs?
Thanks.
I am a History PhD Candidate and I am currently writing my dissertation with the intention of going on the job market this coming year. Unfortunately, I have zero publications on my CV. Can you please offer some advice on how to turn my chapters into articles as well as how to submit them for publication? Thanks!
Thought you might find this article interesting. It refers to prospective students in the Geosciences, but I think is relevant to many of the natural sciences. http://sites.agu.org/careers/files/2012/03/MS-or-PhD-which-is-right-for-me.pdf
Hi Karen,
I am a Master ´s Candidate in Dairy Science and Technology at Louisiana State University. I just read your article “Graduate School Is a Means to a Job” and I found it really helpful, thanks for sharing your ideas.
Best wishes,
Behannis Mena
Have you written about moving at the associate level, or even — given the nature of the job market — from a tenured associate to an untenured position?
i haven’t written about that exactly, although I have a category of post called: “Your Second or Third Job,” which includes one or two posts that might be relevant to you.
Hi Karen,
Your advice is great! Thanks for your continued assistance.
I’m wondering if at some point you could do a post about graduate school comprehensive exams? I’m prepping for mine now (in an interdisciplinary department) and it seems that there is no clear consensus on what the hell the “product” of these exams is supposed to look like. We do a take-home exam. 32-hours (24 hours for work, 8 for sleep…but, of course, no one sleeps). While I know each department differs on their requirements and what they are looking for, I believe you could provide insight into this process given your extensive experience.
Warmly,
Steve
Steve, I’d love to help, but in this particular thing, the rule is there is no rule. The comp/prelim exam system is probably the belly of the beast in terms of the crazy inconsistencies and variabilities of graduate departments. Basically, the only people who can give you reliable info on this are the (successful) previous takers of the exams *in your department*. And/or the profs, if you can find one who is willing to just explain it in a pragmatic, non-mystifying way.
I would like to add my comments to the other voices in praise of your work. I have far too much to say about academe, and leaving it, to fit in one comment-field, but not *all* of it is bitter or disillusioned, since it led me to the place in what is my lifetime’s work I am now. It’s entirely possible that a collaborative book needs to be written about this subject, because there is far too much material here that is not unique to any one person’s experiences. I’ve read through your blog and other links you’ve provided, and it’s clear that my experiences have not been unique. I also answered a request for research that you’re conducting, and I would be interested in talking further about that research with you. I hope to hear from you, Dr. Karen! Best wishes with your ongoing project!
Dear Karen,
I have been enjoying your blog for several months now and wonder if you might do a post on ageism in academia. I am 49 and should have my PhD finished before I turn 51, but I have always gotten the feeling that people think I am doing it for my own amusement and not as a career change (from book publishing). Since I am involved in book culture studies, I assumed that my 20 years in publishing would be a help but am told instead that these 20 years count for nothing, as they are “non-academic.” I’ve managed an academic journal, run a university press, and helped dozens of academic authors reach as wide an audience as possible, but apparently this was “unacademic” of me.
This ageism problem seems to be rampant in academia. In my own department (English) I have four other friends similarly disadvantaged by age but doing exceptionally interesting work that 20-something-year-olds could not do. I get the feeling though that we are considered permanent sessionals (adjuncts) at best and may have been accepted into the program in order to ensure less competition for our younger colleagues.
Yesterday I explained this problem to our university president, who said he would be happy to read anything I send him about the problem. I am hoping to get him to be the first university president to take a public stand against ageism — a simple manifesto that states that a grad student is a grad student regardless of age, a PhD is a PhD regardless of age, and that age should not be a barrier to grades, funding, TT hiring, or general career prospects.
The fact that we are in Canada, where the Charter of Rights lists ageism as a prohibited form of discrimination should help the cause. The president was a federal MP for many years and a supporter of the Charter.
I’d like to be able to point him in the direction of your website and I’d like to think that one public statement will start the ball rolling throughout North America.
Best Regards,
Ruth
Ruth,
thanks so much for sharing these thoughts. I’ve been trying to solicit some guest posts on aging in academia for about 6 months. I haven’t yet been successful. I have some ideas for a psot of my own as well, so rest assured, it’s coming soon.
Thank you for your wonderful site! I have a question about adjuncting and the job market. I am writing my dissertation far away from my institution because my husband got an academic job in a different state. I was able to find an adjuncting position at a satellite branch of the university and I’ve been teaching part-time as I write. Although I find the teaching itself fulfilling, I find the institutional aspects of adjuncting isolating and frankly, depressing. There is no institutional support and there is no shortage of reminders that we are disposable resources in the university’s eyes. Now with pay-cuts coming up in the fall, I will barely be making enough to cover gas for the commute and daycare for my toddler. I feel like I should quit and just focus on finishing the dissertation and maybe find some time for other projects (such as being on the job market in the fall!). I don’t feel like teaching would necessarily get in the way of finishing, but I am wondering if there are any career-related advantages to staying in this kind of a position.
Dear Karen,
First of all, thanks again for your weblog and your worthwhile advice. I do appreciate what you do as I’m sure you show the key solutions to many problems and concerns of students.
As a graduate I wish to pursue a career in research but to be honest I am currently too confused and frustrated in this path. I would be grateful if you may advise me in regards to my current situation which I’m sure would help me a lot.
I am a Psychology graduate in the UK. In fact, I finished my BSc (in Clinical Psychology) in my country, Iran, and studied my MSc (in Business Psychology) in the UK. Now I wish to get a PhD studentship in the UK ideally and build on my career in research and academia. This is because I’ve always been passionate about studying, learning and doing research. In fact, whenever I picture myself being a researcher in my field it just gives me the most satisfying feeling I’ve ever had!
The fact is I have been sending emails to potential supervisors (for a PhD placement and also some relevant RA roles as a volunteer) for 6 months now but I have not been successful yet really! Apart from a high competition in this aspect, I believe it is also because I want to switch my direction in the psychology field from what I studied in Masters (Business Psychology) to a completely different direction(Neuropsychology) for which I have little knowledge, no experience but a great passion.
So now I thought taking a new relevant MSc and dedicating my energy and time to writing a great dissertation for that might be very helpful in my case. And it would hopefully open up the path to find a PhD studentship offer afterward.
Another alternative that is in mind is actually working hard on writing a good proposal in this area as I don’t have one yet.
By the way, I do not have either any publications or conference activities.
Thanks a lot for your consideration and time in advance.
Sepideh Cheraghi
Hi Karen,
Can you write a post on the value of book reviews? After reading several of your previous posts (especially the Costco one) I understand that they are not really highly valued. Does that mean we should not do them? I am starting my second year as a PhD student and was approached by a journal to write a book review and I agreed, but now I am doubting my decision. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Hi Karen,
Just discovered your blog and it is great! I am a recent Ph.D. in the sciences and am looking for a job. A lot of places, especially community colleges, are requiring diversity statements. I would love to see a post and hear from you and others about writing a diversity statement as 1) a white person and 2) that doesn’t come off as insincere, presumptuous, or like it is stretching too much! So far I am 0 for 3 on these community college jobs which I am attributing to a number of things but the diversity statement is still plaguing me.
Thanks for your efforts. There is a real need for such a forum for frank discussion of all of these issues.
Cheers,
RD
oh the diversity statement. i have been asked this a lot. I’ll put it in the queue.
Could you could address the possibility of making up for lost time, or if it is even really possible? I am an international student who graduated with my PhD from a top UK university in January, but I have done everything wrong. To start with, I fell into the “there’s always grad school” trap when I found myself working in dead-end jobs and hating life several years after finishing my BA. I decided to do first an MA at home, and then a PhD overseas.
My time as a PhD student did not go well — I battled severe depression throughout, temporarily lost interest in my topic, was nearly kicked out of my program due to my poor performance, and had to have several extensions, meaning that I took about twice as long to finish as most UK students do. In short I very nearly failed altogether, and I consider it somewhat miraculous that I passed at all.
Consequently I only have one publication (in an edited volume, based on my MA research, about 6 years old now) and a bunch of conference papers under my belt. To make matters worse, I am a bit older than most recent graduates in the UK — I will be 38 this fall, whereas I think most people here finish before they are 30. My advisor, who was always rather distant, has left the university to take up a post in another country, and I don’t really have a mentor. So, I have been floundering as I try to get myself back on track for the academic career I always wanted. Obviously the first thing to do is to come up with a decent 5-year plan, with an emphasis on publishing and developing new research projects.
In your experience, is it even possible to recover from a background like this? Should I be focusing on something besides publications?
It will be hard, but you can do it with focus. The main thing right now is publications, and then making sure you have 3 solid recommenders writing you good letters. You didn’t mention how old your Ph.D. is, so that will be a factor as well. Your age, 38, is NOT a major factor. 38 is not old in Ph.D. world. If you were in the position at 48, then yes, that would be an issue, but 38, no.
I graduated in January 2012, so it’s been less than a year since I finished.
Dear Karen,
I was wondering what you thought about the following hypothetical scenario regarding the possibility of negotiating the venue for the first round interviews, which are typically held in the big national conventions.
I’m talking about the humanities, where there is a great deal of easy navigation between departments. Consider a dissertation that straddles two disciplines, each of which has their own separate national convention. The dissertation’s research appropriately qualifies the candidate for jobs in both Discipline A and Discipline B, but the number of jobs in Discipline A far exceeds those in Discipline B. There is no question, therefore, that the candidate will attend the Discipline A convention. But if a single job interview were offered from the handful of jobs applied for in Discipline B, the candidate would also be traveling all the way to this second convention (which is on the other side of the country) just for this 20-40 minute interview. It is a very desirable job, but one has to consider the risk involved in spending close to $1,000 on the 1:15 odds given at a single 20-40 minute first-round interview. Of course the candidate should not confess all of this to the hiring committee, and portray him-/her-self as a high maintenance candidate (which will likely suggest to them that this person will be a high maintenance colleague). But is it entirely gauche to at least ask for an alternate venue for this interview, or perhaps a phone/Skype interview, especially since the applicant’s cover letter never said s/he would be attending Discipline B’s convention?
Thanks for the great blog and always very helpful advice.
It’s not gauche at all to ask for a skype or phone option. It’s increasingly provided by departments that ‘get it.’
Hi Karen,
I am exceptionally happy that I found your website so early in my career. I have been poking around for some time, and have learned a lot. One big question, however, I could not find an answer to. After a little context, the question is below.
I am about to embark on a transcontinental move – wife, dog and all – to Oregon (A place I know you are fond of). I got into the grad program of my choice, and am working with some exceptional faculty who have, at least in these very early stages, been absolutely wonderful. I am quite lucky indeed. After my 5-6 years of completing the PhD, however, my wife and I might want to move back to her home city. Of course this is dependent upon what jobs are available, whether we (like you) might want to stay in the pacific northwest, etc.
My question is this. If I choose a dissertation topic that is situated in or around her home city (pop is approximately 300,000), and write a critical dissertation, will that affect my hireability in that city? Will schools not want to hire someone who writes critically about the surrounding area?
Any help you can give, either addressing the issue in your blog or pointing me to the blog post I missed, would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks for your time and all the best.
This is a good and interesting question. I think the fact that the diss is critical is not at issue; in general the focus on the city or region will increase your hireability for that city or region.
Hello,
I received my PhD this past spring and am now going on the job market with PhD in hand, which I hope will bode better for my prospects. I was wondering if you could offer some advise about how to change the job cover letter once having received the PhD, vs. before. When I was ABD on the market, my cover letter referred to my dissertation and described it; do I now use that same paragraph but refer to the “book in progress”? should I give the book project a different name? Any advice on what to change in job materials from ABD to PhD would be so very appreciated. Thank you.
Keep referring to the dissertation until you actually have a book mss. under review at a press. Other than that, the rules don’t change (as described in the
Why Your Job Cover Letter Sucks post)
Hi Karen,
Many graduate students, myself included, have had their progress delayed by health problems. My own two-year battle ended fifteen months ago when my condition was finally properly treated, but my department’s chair is trying to use my failure to have made progress then against me now.
Since my advisor knew about my condition before it became a problem and I kept him fully apprised of my situation while I was seeking treatment, I feel that the “clock” should be reset so that I have a reasonable amount of time to completion. But there is also the problem of my advisor’s attitude. This past academic year my advisor has been negative, disengaged, unreasonable, and, well, just plain crazy, probably due more to his own recent personal problems than to anything having to do with me.
I believe my advisor is scapegoating me and my medical condition and trying to drive me away so that he doesn’t have to accept responsibility for dropping me. The chair says that his behavior is “normal” in light of my two-year period of slow progress. But if I “choose” to change advisors now, I will need to completely retrain, so it will take me another three years to complete, something that the chair doesn’t want to give me because he’s somehow construing my advisor’s passive-aggressive craziness as my fault.
Why isn’t it considered discrimination to treat students with medical disabilities in this fashion? What recourse, other than a lawsuit, does a student have?
Thanks for providing such great advice on your blog.
Hi Karen,
I’ve been on the market for several years now–with three years of Visiting Professorships under my belt and waiting for the sign that it’s time to move on. Your website has been extremely helpful as I continue to discern the way forward. But so far things *are* still moving forward–I’ve been hired twice to teach full-time at two well-respected liberal arts colleges and have just had my book accepted for publication with a university press. This will be my strongest year on the market yet, but my work this year is a bit unorthodox. I’ve elected not to adjunct and write full-time during the fall semester. In the spring I’ll be teaching at a local university in two different departments who hope to begin developing a cross-curricular relationship (religion and gender studies). They’ve asked me to teach two course especially tailored to my areas of expertise in order to foster this relationship.
My question is about applying for jobs this fall. I feel uncomfortable listing my spring teaching obligations since they are still in the future, but if I were to receive a job, that experience would be part of the package they’d be getting. I’m also uncertain about saying that I’m writing full-time since it’s a veiled way of saying I’m unemployed. So how do I indicate that this is a very productive year for me, even though I don’t have steady employment?
Thanks so much!
Sara Moslener
The spring jobs can go in the CV. You can mention the course you’re developing in the cover letter if it is the best choice of course for you to highlight for the letter. You don’t need to specify in the letter when you’ll be teaching it (or where).
I’d leave your current position vague. The main issue is that you won’t have any letterhead for thisfall’s market.
Hi Karen,
I sent you a message on Facebook recently, and you weren’t able to reply. I can identify with
what saymwah wrote above. There is a very real prejudice against the disabled in academe. I’ve had to deal with my own health issues during the past two years, and I had to discontinue my job search search. Although the job market is tight, I’m ready to try again. I was hoping you can contact me to discuss this.
Thanks
Brian Refford
brian, please email me directly at gettenure@gmail.com.
Dear Dr. Karen,
I just wanted to let you know how helpful your blog was when preparing for my first job talk last spring. I was working for the government, and suddenly my dream job in academia appeared. My PhD supervisors were never very helpful in terms of discussing my future, so I turned to your blog to guide my preparation. It was a tremendous help. Your advice is US-focused (which I needed!), grounded in reality, and clear. I learned a ton and I ended up beating out 100 other candidates and landing the position (on my first ever job talk!).
I recently read your post on surviving the first year on the tenure track , which has also helped me tremendously. It’s so good to know that being overwhelmed is normal, and that there are key things I need to be focusing on. I am following your advice, and already, it’s proving to be very beneficial.
Thanks so much for your insight and candor on the rather insular academic world. Your blog is invaluable to us all.
Congratulations, Carly, and thanks so much for writing and letting me know! Best of luck on the tenure track.
Hi all,
I’ve started a website to help PhD students get experience in the real world. The idea is to register and log all your skills and expertise so small, medium and large companies needing very specific skill sets can find you.
It’s a new site, but I want to spread the word, especially to those interested in breaking out of academia and into the “real world”
Many thanks!
Paul
Dr. Karen! I continue to worship your blog. I have a question I was hoping you might address is a future blog post. When is it advisable to send more material than is requested in the job description? I have been advised to always send along a dissertation abstract, even when the job listing does not ask for one as part of the initial application. I have also been told that I should send four or even five recommendation letters, even when the listing asks for three. What’s the right thing to do here?
Never send more than they ask for. You’ll just piss them off. Remember they’re overwhelmed with material. My one exception to this rule is that you can accompany 3 scholarly references with 1 teaching reference as long as it is clearly marked as such. But that’s it.
Thank you! Good to know.
Dear Karen,
Thank you for your wonderful blog and sincere truth-telling.
I was be grateful for your opinion on my issue:
I was just hired for a TT job at a R1 research university which is also my alma mater.
The professor heading my field in my department knows me for years and has supported me with rec letters (which got me into grad school). However I know she has some reservations about me. Some do with her (she just got tenure after a long process), some are professional (methodological issues), and some do with me (I am probably intimidating).
Knowing this, I orchestrated my job talk so to address and ‘disarm’ her concerns, which proved successful: at one point she intervened to defend me (or, the field) during the QA section.
Now starts the long journey of working with her. She is likely to ask me to do too much teaching-related work, be time consuming and under organized (I worked with her before), and try to stall my writing progress. Not fully intentionally of course, but nonetheless so. How would you recommend I go about handling things with as little conflict as possible?
My best-case scenario is to somehow get her to *support* me, as part of her research field, vis-a-vis other fields/professors in the department. Have no clue how to get about doing this!
Thank you so much.
Dear Karen,
First-you rock! Your blog posts have been of tremendous help to me in my search and beyond.
I currently work in a department that is highly toxic and this is making life pretty stressful. The toxicity of the department is apparently known all over campus and the issues have been around for many, many years (although nothing came up on any academic message boards when I searched). When I was hired a less than a year ago, everyone was on their very best behavior. Needless to say I am on the market this year. My question to you is this: Is there a way to find out if a department has such issues prior to accepting a position via subtle questioning during the interview stage? Or otherwise? I can handle a few crazy colleagues, but am terrified I will get stuck with another toxic department.
Help! Please!
Sincerely,
Codename
Dear Dr. Karen:
First, I just stumbled on this site after reading a few pages, I want to thank you so much for the information you share so freely. I know it’s also a business, but I recognize a lot of heartfelt advice you give away for free on this site and it’s very generous. Thank you.
Secondly, I am a Ph.d. candidate (ABD) and I’m wondering about book reviewing for a major journal in my field. I was offered the opportunity to review a book and I assume I should take it but I’m nervous because if I appear to be even a little critical it occurs to me I may be hurting some job prospect somewhere. On the other hand if I’m too admiring, this may also have blowback. (I have not read the book yet as it was just published.)
I realize these reviews are more about placing the book in its proper critical context — and not as much about actually praising or criticizing — but it still makes me a bit nervous. What should I do?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Eliza
Dear Dr. Karen,
I am a fan of your blog and, as a graduate student in -hopefully- her final year, I am starting to get increasingly worried about the ghost of electronic teaching portfolios. Many people I talked to find them extremely useful. My department (Classics) doesn’t and does not see the point in having a e-portfolio at hand for job applications. The most recurrent comment I heard from them is: “Nobody in the humanities departments across America will be interested in reading through a portfolio: it’s boring!”
I know that you touched upon this topic in a few of your blog articles, but I was wondering whether you would consider talking openly about this subject. It would be interesting to know whether an application with link to e-portfolio sounds pretentious or interesting. What’s the status quaestionis?
Thank you very very much,
Emilia
question – I am not an academic – I am a consultant. I have been presenting training classes based on 25 years experience in my field and often am told “write a book.” I spoke to a well resepected professor who is in a related field and he came to sit through my class. I asked him to use that experience to review the materials and give me some feedback / edit suggestions on how well the materials captured the class experience. Before looking at anything (the audio is being transcribed now) he emailed back – he wants co-authorship credit.
While I respect his opinion and expertise, and while he may add some structure and a small amount of content to the materials, I don’t feel there is enough for co-author.
QUESTION – he wants to co-author to help his full time/tenure status. Is there any way to have him author some case studies, addendum materials, etc? Where that would count towards his author requirement without taking 50% of the credit for my material.
Thanks so much in advance for you insight.
Dear Dr. Karen,
Thank you so much for all the advice, both on this blog and in your publications and webinars. Thanks in particular for the advice on grant applications. I wonder whether you could clarify the value, if any, of applying for grants that you have almost no chance of getting.
For example, I have a pretty good dissertation project that will very likely be funded by a departmental grant next year. I am also applying for a major national grant. This grant is for the same amount as the departmental grant, the odds against my getting it are astronomical, I haven’t had massive training in proposal writing (although I’ve received a few minor grants), and the application is hundreds of years long and will take up time I should be spending on all sorts of things, such as my dissertation and job applications. Is there still a value in applying, and if so, what is it?
Thanks very much. I hope this question is of value to other readers as well.
Best,
abd
Thanks so much for your wonderful advice, which has proven extremely helpful! I hope to learn if you have any advice for the non-newly minted phd, who hopes to stay in the academic game. Any thoughts, other than continuing to publish, for how to stay competitive on the tenure-track job market?
Read my post, “Graduate School is a Means to a Job”. It was published in Inside Higher Ed, but I think i have a link to it from this site too.
Hi Karen,
I wondering if you have ever posted about someone applying for a job at the institution that they are currently working in? My spouse and I are both academics, and he is now a tenured associate professor while I have worked a variety of jobs at the same institution (no spousal hiring policy).
More positions in my area are coming up, however, it seems very awkward to go through all the interview paces when I know all the players. Any words of advice?
Read my posts on the spousal hires, and also,What Insider Candidates Persist in Doing Wrong.
Dear Dr. Karen,
I am a butch lesbian applying for jobs for the first time, and am wondering whether to use my legal (feminine) name on applications or the gender-neutral nickname I use in almost every aspect of life. My advisor says to use my legal name. I have published under the nickname, however, and everyone at school and in academic life knows me by the nickname rather than my legal name.
I would be very grateful for your thoughts.
Thank you!
I would use the nickname, but you could perhaps put your legal name in paren after it. I see people do versions of that from time to time, and it would solve the gender confusion problem.
Thank you!
Dear Karen,
Thanks for your wonderful blog and advice. I was wondering if you could do a post on applying to positions in professional schools. That is, for example, a medical anthropology job in a medical school rather than an anthropology department, a legal historian job in a law school rather than a history department, a sociology of religion job in a divinity school rather than a sociology department, etc. It seems to me that these jobs require a slightly different spin since the teaching demands will be on professional/practitioner students, not necessarily undergrads and grad students, and the research audience may differ as well.
Thanks!
Dear Dr. Karen,
One more quick question. What to do when a job posting calls for a writing sample and I have a published article in a different subfield and a polished diss chapter in the relevant field? Okay to send both? Single-space and send as one doc?
Thanks very, very much!
SEND NO MORE THAN THEY ASK FOR! In this case, send the diss chapter.
Thanks!
Dear Dr. Karen,
First of all, thanks so much for everything you do!! Your blog has been a great resource for me for over a year at this point.
Are we allowed to request topics for posts?? There’s an area I would love to get your thoughts/advice/general musings on: The Second Year On The Job Market.
I think almost everyone has to take a few rides on the academic job market before landing a position. I came *thisclose* to an offer last year (on my first try!) and am kind of fascinated at the weird mental and emotional cocktail that is now accompanying Round Two. Fear of changing too much in a proposal that got me two phone interviews and a campus visit last year, anxiety and writer’s block from trying to make every piece of every application extra-perfect, seemingly-brash confidence because I came so close last time (“surely this is the year!”), apathy and fatigue over what a crapshoot it all is and whether all this effort will really be worth anything in the end…some of this is just the standard job-search anxiety but I’m sure at least part of it is specifically related to having just gone through the process (and failing) for the first time.
Like I said, I’d love to get the Dr. Karen take on such a situation, since I strongly suspect I’m not alone!
dear dr. karen,
in your job market seminar, you said to list revise + resubmits on the CV, especially as an ABD candidate. is this still true if you are planning to send the essay to a different journal than the one that sent you the r + r?
thanks!
NO! Only when it’s an official invitation to r + r that you are accepting at the initial journal!
Dr. Karen:
I am currently on the job market and have found your advice and TPII website invaluable so far– you have a cult following among postdocs in my department. I am considering purchasing a recording of one of your webinars but, before I do so, want to find out if the recording includes the visual (i.e., slides) as well as the audio.
Thank you.
Yes it does! (I kind of like the idea of having a “cult following”).
Karen, I need your help. I’m feeling very… stuck… in my current field. I’m a secondary ELA teacher. In Alaska. I’m looking at going back to school, but am struggling with what to study. I don’t know what options would be best for me at this point in time, and I don’t mind moving if it means I’ll be a better teacher in the long run. I know I need to get funded, and if I can’t, then I’m not going back to school. Also, I definitely do not want to pursue Administration, but I feel like I could be a much better teacher if I went back for a while and learned a bit more. I hope this makes sense. It’s the end of the day, and I’m completely drained.
Happy tidings,
Diane
Dear professor
I need your advice. I recently won a scholarship to a university in Europe for 3 months, and as I have a young child, I took her and my partner with me. The scholarship has given me a monthly stipend to cover rent and other expenses, but I am not making ends meet. I have also been invited to give lectures for the departments Masters students, which I am doing. However, I have some serious issues:
The person whom I have replaced for 2 months of lectures has not attended one lecture, as he promised, and is busy with his own research work. I am not making ends meet financially and have asked him to see if he can pay me an extra fee, seeing that I am reducing his workload. After two e mails to him and the department head, where I was extremely polite, I have received no answer. I am now totally embarassed and dont know where I committed a terrible mistake, since the person is question is avoiding me. In fact, he has not been very forthcoming and friednlym and is has been a total nightmare trying to communicate with him and the department head.
I need to know whether they can pay me. Is his snub and lack of interest in my teaching (for all he knows I could be teaching rubbish) real, or have I made a real academic mess by asking for money? Help!!
Teresa
Hi Karen,
I have a Skype interview with a university next week, and I just realized by digging around that they have an internal candidate whom they will most definitely hire at the end of all this. The woman in question is the wife of an associate professor in that same department, she got her PhD last year, has been teaching there for a couple of years as a part-time instructor, and the job ad replicates ad literam the description of her research interests on the department’s website. What would you advise me to do under these circumstances? Cancel the interview or go along with the charade?
Thanks much in advance,
Gabby
Always do every interview you are invited to. First, because you need the practice. Second, because you never know what will happen in the future…. Sure they PLAN to hire her, but then, what if her husband suddenly gets an outside offer and they leave? They’ll go back to the pool. So go and do your best.
Will do–thanks a lot!
Hi!
First, I LOVE your blog and what you do. I share it with all my academic friends.
Second, I wondered if you would ever do a blog about crushing imposter syndrome. Any tips for how to overcome it? I seem to find it getting worse even after tenure, promotion, and departure from toxic department to more collegial and more prestigious department. Is it inevitable? Would leaving the academy help or do I just need more therapy?
Thanks!
Thank you! I will do that post. Although I’m not sure how much wisdom I can bestow. It is indeed a topic for therapy!
Actually, I’d like to propose that you write an anonymous post on how it FEELS to have imposter syndrome even after tenure, success, etc. I think it would be very helpful to clients (so many of whom suffer from this) to hear a personal story–even with all identifiers removed.
hmmm…. I kind of like that idea. I sent you an email to your email above to discuss further.
Dear Dr. Karen,
I just want to add my voice to the many thanking you for your amazing, FREE advice.
I’m ABD in the humanities and just landed a tenure-track job for next fall. Everything you say about the sorry state of academic advising–especially on practical matters like HOW TO KEEP EATING IN THE FUTURE–is true. Left to my own devices, I came here for everything from drafting my cover letter to buying shoes to negotiating with the dean. Had I not read your blog, would I have DARED, after getting an offer, to mention a summer salary, start-up funds, and a reduced teaching load the first year? Never. But I did mention them, and I got them all.
I am the primary breadwinner for a family of four. On behalf of all of us–thank you.
I”m so happy to hear this, Sunny! Congratulations and good luck in the new position.
Dr. Karen,
I really appreciated your topic “How to Write an Email to a Potential Ph.D. Advisor/Professor”, it helped me a lot. I have sent the email (following your tips) to my potencial sandwich Ph.D. advisor (that would receive me for one year), and I receveid no answer. Now I think it is time to send another e-mail asking for an answer (I sent the email one month ago), and so I’d like to ask your help in how to send this email (how to ask for an answer, and you think I should wait some more time?)
I already thank your help.
Glaucy
I love this website. I can’t stop reading it. Thank you.
What is the number one piece of advice you’d give to people struggling with work/life balance? So, if the pressures of publishing are piling up, and a junior faculty member does not want to turn into a soulless, cold person (like the dominant culture you described at UIUC) what is the secret to maintaining a high level of writing productivity and not being unavailable on the home front?
Thanks again!
Brian
Dear Dr. Karen,
Thank you for all your advice! It’s extremely helpful, and I really appreciate your direct, telling-it-like-it-is approach! I was wondering if you have any thoughts on what to write in a cover letter if the job opening comes up because a faculty member is retiring, and your area of expertise matches quite well the areas of expertise of said retiring professor, as well as the job ad? Should one acknowledge the shared interest and emphasize the things that are also different/novel, or just ignore that whole thing? Even if the job ad states states that the areas of research should complement those of other faculty…
Thank you for your input!
Dear Karen,
Would you consider doing a post on managing maternity/ family leave issues while on the tenure track? Specifically on negotiating for course releases and determining what options (course release, leave, making up for released courses later vs. taking on more teaching and research) are likely to hurt one less in relation to the tenure clock?
Thanks very much!
Molly
I’ll put this in the queue.
I’m interested in a related issue: how do people manage reproduction/care issues during job searches? Sadly, for many women, the (few remaining) years to reproduce overlap precisely with the years to get a first TT job. Are there any strategies that would allow a new mother (especially a nursing one) to be on the job market? How does one manage having a newborn and going for a campus visit? If expecting and invited for an interview, how to manage scheduling around the no-fly period of the third trimester? Thanks in advance, and for the excellent blog generally!
Hi Dr. Karen,
I’ve just been exploring your blog and wanted to thank you for being such a fearless and frank voice for people struggling in academia. We need more advocates like you. I wanted you (and maybe your readers?) to know about a collaborative project for people leaving academia that I and a few post-academic bloggers are starting at
http://www.howtoleaveacademia.com
We’re looking for contributors! We hope it will be a total no-nonsense, practical, one-stop-shop guide to quitting academia. We’re also planning a low-cost e-book with essays that share personal experiences of quitting/leaving (whatever you prefer).
Thanks for all you do!
Lauren
Dear Dr. Karen,
I am in the process of Ph.D. applications. I am in contact with some professors that encouraged me to apply to the program and seems to think me as a good fit. One thing I am really struggling with is whether or not to include the potential advisor’s name on my SOP. In some blogs/ forums people suggest me to do so, in some forums they say it is very dangerous as it might narrow my options or I might be a victim of department politics that I am not aware of. What would you suggest?
Thank you very much for your valuable insight,
Dear Karen,
I have a new blogpost up that mentions your excellent site – http://wp.me/p1RT47-aF. Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your advice – I found it very helpful when writing references for the US market.
Best wishes,
John Parkinson
Dr. Karen, your site has been so helpful to me this year. Thank you for the encouragement and the advice!
I have a tiny, piddly, picky little question. Some online applications for jobs do not allow documents to be uploaded but instead require that we copy and paste text into textboxes online. For the “letter of interest” textbox, do you think I should include the department address, date, salutation, and “sign” my name at the end, or should I just include the text that would be the body paragraphs of the letter?
Seems odd to address someone in a copy-and-paste textbox, but it would likewise seem odd to omit a salutation from a letter of interest.
Thanks for your input.
Anne
This is an awkward thing, but I’d prob. paste the whole letter, salutation and all. Without those elements, it’s just not a letter.
Dr. Karen,
I recently read the secion about advisors, as I am in the process of trying to secure an advisor for my thesis this semester. My first question is, what is the best way to go about talking with a professor to be an advisor? I asked a professor today after class, and she said my ideas sound nice and that she could be a SECOND reader. Needless to say, this was not the response I was hoping to hear. Should I have a clearly defined research question? I thought that an advisor would help me prob my ideas to further develop my research question so that I can begging my prospectus. In retrospect, I am thinking that maybe because my ideas for my thesis are raw and this was the first time I had met this particular instructor pretty much sum up the reason my professor did not accept the role as my advisor. I just want to regroup and be better prepared to ask a few other professors if they would consider being my advisor.
Background: I am an English Composition grad student in Sacramento
Good day Dr Karen
I came across your blog today and wondered if you have blogged on doing literate review or could do it in the future.I am postgraduate student and I have recently started work on my literature review. I wonder if there are efficient strategies for doing the review especially with the help of enddnote. Thank you and I look forward to your response.Moga
I suggest Wendy Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks. It has a great section on the lit review.
Dear Dr Karen
Thank you for your suggestion. I will get hold of Wendy Belcher’s book.
no problem. I’m not Dr. Karen, just another reader of this blog. best of luck!
Dear Dr. Karen,
I am a recent Ph.D. who will be going on an on-campus interview soon. I am also married to a Ph.D., same discipline, very different area. We are not specifically looking for a partner hire at this time. Last year at an on-campus, I was asked what my husband does at a dinner by a non-faculty member who may have been a plant. Things just got more illegal from there. Needless to say, I don’t think it helped my prospects, even though I did what I could to make our arrangement non-threatening to the department.
I wear a ring (with ring indent) and I have no idea how to handle being married at my interview. Not mentioning my partner might seem suspicious, and I don’t want to lose a great job because I just happen to be married to another academic. How should I handle this situation?
Thank you,
Kate
Hi,
Can you do a post about what to expect from your committee members and how to get them to pay attention to your work?
Thanks,
~Deb
Ha. that’s a classic. yes I’ll add it to the queue.
Good evening,
As a seasoned ABD, an exciting TT was brought to my attention. I know of numerous hungry colleagues out there who will also apply for this position. I thought, however, it was “time to stop being a grad student,” put on my big girl pants, and submit an application. Your guide “Taming the Academic Job Market” saved me from my paralyzing anxiety – thank you! It is such a breath of fresh air, cuts right to the meat of the matters, and is, frankly, downright hilarious at times.
You are a hero to many of us out in academic job limbo. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Carey
thanks for this, Carey, and I hope you get the job. but you’re already a winner (hokey, but i’m serious) because you have stepped out of the grad student role and started to take control of your own fate. well done!
Hey Dr. Karen,
Thank you for such an awesome website!
Would you consider writing a post on tips for dealing with different degrees of mansplainers in different situations? For example, the friend who mansplains, the collegeague, the conference mansplainer, the mansplainer-in-public. I’m looking for suggestions for gentle-but-teaching style responses to slap-them-down style responses that don’t make me look bad, and everything in between. (And would you include a simple definition and explanation as to why it’s inappropriate for your readers who might be unaware of their own mansplaining tendencies?)
Thank you again for your website!
TB
A great idea for a post.
Hi Dr. Kelsky,
I really love your website. I am an undergrad continuing on to grad school next fall, and this site has been very helpful, so thank you!
My question has to do with the etiquette/appropriateness in students hugging their professors. I know that male professors have to be extremely careful as to how they interact with female students. I’ve become really close with several of my professors, and I really admire and respect them as advisors and scholars. That said, I’ve definitely had the urge to hug them from time to time, but I’ve stopped myself because I don’t want to get them in trouble or make them uncomfortable in any way.
Do you think hugging is off limits or unprofessional? Or is it all right?
Thank you,
Kayleigh
Love your site, and have used free + paid (webinar) features!
I was hoping you could write a post on dealing with the CRUSHING disappointment of not getting the job. It’s my first year on the market, got a few interviews and one on campus. I thought the on campus went *fantastic,* I was certain the job was mine. Well, you know how this ends…it wasn’t! I don’t have other options right now, but will prob be able to adjunct next year. But really, I’m sure I’m not alone here – it is SO hard to move on! I need to teach, finish my diss, keep applying for one year positions…but I just CANNOT stop dwelling on the job I lost. What did I do? Why didn’t they pick me? It’s like getting dumped (especially after being on campus, picturing yourself there, meeting everyone..).
Any advice (maybe a post) on dusting yourself off?
Thanks.
Hi Dr. Kelsky,
It would be great if you could offer us, readers, a post about a good cover letter for researchers who search for a job outside academia. I am a post-doctoral fellow in Sociology in a prestigious European University and dream about working for an international organization. However, I don’t know how to sell my skills to an employer outside this academic world! Do you have some examples of successful cases?
Thank you!
If I knew anything about that, I would. But I don’t. there is need for another one of me who focuses on the non-academic track for Ph.D.s.
Karen –
I’ve done one interview for a job I didn’t get and have another interview set up for April 3. I’d like to do a bootcamp before then – would that be possible?
Juliette
possibly; email me at gettenure@gmail.com asap.
Dear Karen,
How do you list other-language journal articles on your CV? If the title of the journal and article are in a language other than English, is it ok to translate them into English so that hiring committees can understand the topics?
Thanks so much for your practical and funny blog!
Kacey
Yes, translate.
Hello~
I am looking for information about summer internships, but can’t find much on your blog. I am a first year PhD student in education and have recently been offered a unpaid internship at an international human rights education nonprofit, based near my university. I think it could be an excellent opportunity and a way to expand my resume/CV. I don’t want to assume that the job academic market will be any better in four years. Have you written about internships for PhD students previously? Can they be negotiated?
Thanks very much.
Dear Prof. Karen
Many thanks for your recommendations. I want to apply for a PhD program, so I want to send an email for a professor which his researches are as same as my favorites to make an appointment. I would be grateful to help me with a sample letter.
Sincerely yours
Mohsen
Dear Karen,
I just returned from a conference where my paper inspired a leading scholar in my field of history to approach me. After a brief chat, he said that I should feel free to email him if I need any help, and that he had helped another scholar in our field. Indeed, that scholar’s book has a blurb from this leading scholar, although the leading scholar was at a different institution.
So my question to you is how do I manage this relationship. What is an appropriate next step? Ideally, I would like him to be on my dissertation committee, write letters for me for the job market, and help with the publication process. I am going on the market in the Fall (ABD) but expect to be on it for at least three years, things being what they are.
I have a history of messing this sort of opportunity up by asking too much or just not asking anything at all. So do you have any long term strategies for how to cultivate a useful contact in the field, of whom one should rather not ask too much but whose interference could mean a post-doc or some other really helpful position?
Thank you so much for creating this brilliant site, which is why I was presenting at said conference in the first place!
Read the blog post, Why You Need a Recommender from outside Your Committee. it explains how the process of proper cultivation should go. Also read my three part How To Rock the Conference series, which elaborates a bit in different ways.
I discovered your website a few days ago and am systematically reading everything here. Since I haven’t read everything yet, it’s possible I haven’t found the appropriate post but there’s a topic related to securing a TT job that no one has yet addressed: the role of luck.
Last week, I accepted a TT position at a school that in most ways matches my fantasy of an ideal place work. I’ve been marveling over my good fortune for the past few days and have come to realize that fortune, however defined, did indeed play a large role in my getting this job.
I’m in education, which has its own rules regarding TT eligibility. In addition to a record of scholarship, teaching, and service, most ed schools require a minimum number of years teaching in the K-12 system. Some schools, notably the theory-heavy R1s, will waive this requirement if a candidate’s scholarship and funding records are impressive. Most places, though, want a K-12 background in addition to a doctorate.. This, in my opinion, is reasonable. After all, if you’re going to teach teachers, it helps to teach from experience.
So, since earning my PhD in a theoretical branch of education five years ago, I’ve buried myself in the K-12 world. I sent out the occasional application for positions in my field but never got so much as a phone interview. I wasn’t surprised. I had a strong teaching background but my scholarship was modest. Four preps a day, five days a week, coupled with grading, parent conferences, professional development, etc., leave little time for research.
My goal, however, was to land a TT job at a teaching-focused institution, a place where I could finally get down to the business of teaching teachers. I needed to adjunct to put some independent college teaching on my CV and wanted access to a university library to kick-start my research agenda. As it happened, a well-regarded local college needed someone to teach a class in my field. So, with my wife’s blessing, I left a full-time K-12 job with full benefits to adjunct at a local college for roughly 1/20th of the pay and none of the benefits. It was a huge gamble. We were expecting our second child. There was no guarantee that I would land an sort of full-time position at a college, never mind on the TT.
And then it got worse: within weeks of my resignation, my wife’s working hours and salary were cut 20 percent. I now had one shot at getting back into the higher education world full-time. If I didn’t land a TT job this year, it was back to K-12, possibly for good.
As it was, and contrary to the experience of academics in other fields, having the adjuncting on my CV seems to have all the difference. I was offered half a dozen phone interviews and three campus invites before getting a TT job offer. And, instead of using a possible second offer for leverage, I actually declined a campus interview after getting the position because the job I got was the job I wanted.
I like to think that my academic background, my scholarly potential, my excellent teaching, and my winning personality led to my grabbing the brass ring. Looking back, though, it’s clear that many factors beyond my control helped make it all possible. My new department was about to lose several faculty to retirement and wanted someone with my exact and somewhat unusual skill set and background. I happened to be in a position to apply and we, as a family, happen to be in a position to relocate. I apparently outshined the other candidates for the job – I still have no idea who they are, nor do I care to know.
I got along famously well with a well-respected TT faculty member in my field at my current institution, someone who was more than happy to serve as a reference. The department chair, too, has been extremely supportive of my job hunt. So, by the way, has my wife. Any of these individuals could’ve decided not to be supportive and any of them could’ve sunk my chances. And, perhaps most importantly of all, it happened that I picked this year to gamble on getting back into academic teaching and CV building.
The stars, in other words, aligned. Of course, they would’ve aligned anyway. Had I been a less than competent interviewee, or had I in any other way been unready or unqualified, the alignment would’ve been meaningless. Had I still been a K-12 teacher and my principal denied me the time off fly out for multiple interviews, it would’ve been similarly meaningless. Pasteur’s observation of chance favoring the prepared mind came to me more than once during the job hunt. I did everything I could. And it worked out.
This experience, however, reminds me that most TT hopefuls do everything they can. Whether or not it’s enough is often beyond their control. Landing a TT job is such a crapshoot it amazes me that anyone gets hired. Playing the job hunt game can be a crushing, exhausting experience with an ever-shrinking number of winners. And yet, the only way to win is to play.
I wish I had some magic formula I could jot down here, some secret I could share. All I can say is, be ready, be sharp, be nice. And be lucky.
Hello Karen,
I am an advanced assistant professor on the market for my second job. Despite massive preparation for a phone interview for a TT SLAC/teaching position (including using your excellent advice, thank you very much for that!), I am pretty certain that I just flopped it. I mean, I knew ALL about them, had prepped as you suggested, but got a bit stiff, was too nervous especially at first, to relax and really authentically consider their questions as I am able to do now, in hindsight.
For example, when asked about a typical day in my class, I described just that, 1. A review of the class theme, 2. making a connection the the previous class, 3. perhaps asking students to complete a reading quiz or in-class writing, then 4. discussion or small group work. What I did NOT express was that, because I teach at all levels and a number of different courses, there is no “typical day,” and that my teaching is interpersonal, dynamic, and student-centered but one successful exercise in a typical class is…, etc. *KICKING MYSELF* about a few other moments like this. I did consistently ask, “Have I answered your question?”
You get the point. I hope. I now see how I could have performed much better.
I sent a thank you email to the chair and mentioned that I would be happy to answer follow up questions and send documents related to our discussion, but is there ANY OTHER WAY that I could save what I view as a less than stellar phone interview? Would it be unprofessional to email the committee follow up thoughts, for example?
For anyone else in a similar situation, I stopped freaking out and realized that sending another follow up email would be a bad idea. I did, however, send a kind, quick, super soft inquiry after a week had passed, as their timeline for on campus visits is less than one month from today and a girl needs to know. Having served on SCs, I have no problem with tactful, thoughtful inquiries as long as someone does not seem desperate, pushy, or crazy.
MORE importantly, this website is an amazing resource, and if I am invited to campus, you can bet that I will very strongly consider paying Dr. Karen for a bit of campus visit expertise! Thanks for all the free stuff and for the community that you’ve allowed to connect here. Super cool!
Dear Professor Kelsky,
Your advice is like a breath of fresh air in the decaying atmosphere of academic research!
I am from life sciences, and seek to ask your advice on how to ensure publication from the work I contribute. Unfortunately I have found hard work, commitment, good results, ethics, decency does not ensure publication. What can I do to ensure my work gets published and my name is not blindly left out from papers when I have left the lab? I have no publications yet from my MSc or PhD research work in spite of the good results and good relationships at work, all the while I saw far less committed people getting ahead with papers. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi Karen -
I have a wardrobe puzzle for you. I am interviewing for a position in an ecology department (think sandals over socks and hawaiian shirts). In one day I will be expected to give a job talk, visit 2 farms, and then have dinner. I need one outfit that can handle all three. I don’t want to look like a grad student, but I also don’t want to be over-dressed for the farm extension workers I will be meeting. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Kate
I love puzzles like this. I’d wear pants and a dansko type clog, which is not a true clog but encloses the whole foot. it’s a classic academic look and will travel from farm to dinner! I’d wear a blouse and a jacket or cardigan over that.
Hello,
My dissertation advisor recommended your website and I have been enjoying all the information you so freely share.
I have a question and realize it might be too involved for you to answer, but I am trying to get as much advice as possible before I make a decision.
I am a lecturer but am currently ABD. I got offered a fellowship to write my dissertation, but I will not be allowed to teach for the year. I have been a lecturer at this institution for several years and have contributed to the university well beyond the requirements set forth in my position (i.e: service & publications). I have considered asking for a leave of absence from my current position of lecturer and wonder if you have any tips on how to negotiate with my department head regarding the situation. My partner is a tenured professor at the same university (different college), therefore if I do not get the leave of absence, I cannot to take the fellowship and risk being unemployed the year following the fellowship.
Any advice you could give would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time! JKE
Karen,
I recently interviewed at a small college (anthropology position in a behavioral science department). When I had my campus visit, I was told their “institute for applied research” wasn’t really an institute, but it was really a concept they devised to filter their grant money through to avoid the college bureaucracy. Two of the faculty also told me that they paid themselves out of the grants they received to give them additional income for vacations and also served as an incentive to write more grants since they avoided having to pay overhead by going through the university. They wanted to know what grants I was going to apply for and suggested I do the same with the salary aspect. I talked this over with my advisor and he and I found the scenario unethical and I withdrew my application. He said that if grants go toward salary, then it goes through the university because the salary is then paid by the grant, rather than the university; but that grants are not meant to be used as personal income unless it is making up for a semester where you are working on research, etc. and not teaching. I just finished my PhD and I haven’t written a ton of grants, but I wanted to know what your thoughts were about this – did I make the wrong decision?
Dear Karen
I am in the final year of my English Literature PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. I have always been a responsible student and my work has consistently been of a high standard.
I found your website because lately I feel like I am in an academic crisis: I have made headway with my research, have recently publishd a paper and know that I am capable in this field. The problem is that I have other passions and that I never saw myself as an academic: I have written novels since I was a child (although I have never had the confidence to try and publish them) and this has always been my dream. It was the reason that I started literature studies in the first place. Lately I have been feeling more attracted to a career as an author even though I have spent so many years building up my academic career: I don’t know if it this because I am going through the usual PhD “blues” or if I should be seeing this as a sign that I shouldn’t pursue this career.
I am almost 30 years old now and am nervous about suddenly changing plans and direction when I have spent so many years in academia. I have an interview for a job at a local University: the problem is that instead of making me excited this has made me even more uncertain. I have never stopped writing all these years and I am so afraid of my true passion becoming a mere pipe dream because I got caught in the academic mill.
Please help – I would really appreciate any direction and advice!
Sonia
Sonia (and others who write here at the Contact Me page), please email me at gettenure@gmail.com to follow up. Thank you! Karen
Hi Karen,
I have been working at my current community college for a decade. Since then I have earned my doctorate and distinguished myself as an excellent teacher (so say the reviews and evaluations). There are a number of others in my department with similar credentials who would make great FT professors. I was told by the former dept. head that long-term adjuncts who have proven their instructional ninja skills would be given very serious consideration when several TT jobs open next year.
However, one of my fellow adjuncts was told flippantly by the soon-to-be new department head that he would be looking for “new blood” because “proximity breeds contempt” yada, yada. We are not convinced this is the prevailing feeling of the other TT folks, but we are also painfully aware of the department head’s role as a ‘gatekeeper.’ Should we all ‘abandon all hope, ye who enter here,’ or ignore this seeming catastrophe and pretend in our heart-of-hearts that we still have a chance? If so, what can we do…or NOT do? Help us, Obi-Wan!
Hi Karen,
I’ve been following your website and others as I navigate the TT job market. I frequently see advice on negotiating the startup, but how much is considered a suitable startup that asking above that becomes unrealistic? I know that biomedical startups tend to be high, but what is the “normal” range (not including salary) at research-centric universities? Most job posts say they offer a “competitive startup,” but what does that actually mean? I recently tried adding up the cost of all equipment that exists in my current lab that I would actually use when I start my own lab, plus the salaries of a few personnel for ~2-3yrs, and it came out to about $2 million, which I’m assuming is too high to request. Any advice would be much appreciate for my future job negotiations. Thank you!