I just gathered up a new Spring 2022 Career Outcomes Digest, with updates from both clients and readers. Lots of great updates on interviews, job offers, negotiations, and grants, plus one successful client tenure case! The negotiators make me especially happy! And I appreciate the person who talked about support in the face of academic gaslighting. And if you’re surprised at the volume of academic job offers… so am I. I didn’t expect this.
Negotiating client: “I am a current tenure-track Assistant Professor looking to move to another institution. I had previously worked with Dr. Kelsky and TPII to assist me in negotiating my first offer at my current position and was excited to work with TPII again to negotiate this second offer. Dr. Kelsky responded very quickly to all of my messages, including the initial inquiry that I sent on the weekend. (I received the verbal offer on a Friday afternoon.) Dr. Kelsky worked with me to clarify some of my asks and to word my email response to the offer. I was able to negotiate an additional $6,000 to my starting salary (which was the most important ask that I had) and a few other concessions around moving and visiting. Even though I had negotiated an offer once before, I was still quite nervous about the process and found Dr. Kelsky’s reassurance that I was asking for enough–but not too much–greatly helpful. I am excited to start this new position with a final offer that I feel is fair and reasonable. Thank you, TPII!”
Negotiating client: “I am letting you know that I accepted the offer yesterday. Thanks so much for all your help!!! — You are amazing!”
Negotiating client: “KAREN!! I SIGNED!!! Thank you SO MUCH for your help through this process. I think everyone came out of this feeling good, and I certainly feel valued and respected by XXX. I can’t wait for this big new challenge, not to mention the opportunity to continue paying my success forward!”
Negotiating client: “Thanks again Karen – they’ve already gotten back to me with an updated offer letter, and agreed to everything I asked for. I really can’t thank you enough!”
Negotiating client: “WOW, thanks Karen. They agreed to nearly everything I asked for. They granted my requested salary of XXK IN FULL, as well as the XXK of start up funding. I think this is a win.”
Negotiating client: “Great! Thanks so much for your assistance and perspective. You helped me to be confident in my requests, and I think your advice on how to phrase especially the salary request paid off.”
TT job offer, client: “Dear Karen and team, I have some wonderful news: I learned just an hour ago that I’ve been offered a TT position at the University of XXX, XXX. The work we did in the summer/fall of 2020 together made a huge difference when it came to being competitive on the job market. I’m so grateful. I have been reading your book “The Professor is in”. It is a wonderful book and I have gained a lot of information and guidance from the book regarding getting a tenure-track academic job.”
TT offer, client, Ph.D.(now)/ABD(when I applied for the position) from public R1, Anthropology, Assistant Prof public R2: I first learned about the Professor Is In a few years ago when my partner and I were thinking about our future in academia. I first found the blog and FB page and promptly bought the book. I never regretted it! When Ph.D. students ask me how I know so much about the hiring process as a freshly minted Ph.D. or how I organized my job documents, I tell them about the TPII book. It’s a great roadmap. I’ve used it to put together job applications and prepare for the interview process. I also took two workshops about the Campus Interview process and Job Talk. The latter was instrumental in organizing a strong job talk. I would not have known where to start without it. I went on the market as an ABD student last year and had one (unsuccessful) interview (out of 4 applications). This year, as a post-doc, I applied for 14 jobs, got one interview, which led to a TT offer! Thank you!”
2 Non-Tenure & 1 TT offer (Assistant Professor), client: interview skills, CV/cover letter, negotiations webinar client. After a long season on the job market during the pandemic – I finally secured a TT position in my area! I want to thank Dr. K and team for services of: interview skills practice, revision of my CV and cover letter, and salary negotiations. While on the job market, I had the confidence and skill to tweak my cover letters for each position, highlight my best skills and knowledge while interviewing, and confidently negotiate a $2000 salary increase from what was originally offered. The Professor is In gave me the foundation I needed to take action, methodically plan my application completions and interview presentations, and ask for what I want without fear!
Client, TT job offer, Legal academia: “I highly recommend TPII to everyone entering the academic job market. I am a legal academic and wasn’t sure whether TPII would be able to prepare me for the legal academic job market. But TPII helped transform my cover letter, research agenda, and CV in a manner that made me more legible to legal academics without compromising the integrity of my politics or scholarly inquiries. Several people I interviewed with told me that I was more polished than most candidates. Ultimately, I interviewed with 25 law schools, including several top 14 schools. I accepted a position that I’m very happy with, and TPII even helped with the negotiation process after I received an offer. Legal academia doesn’t have many of the support systems that are in place for humanities and social science scholars who go on the job market. Through TPII, I was able to get the focused and detail-oriented support I needed to make it through the arduous process with a job at the end. I felt like they had my back the whole way through.”
🙂 Client, Tenure and Promotion docs: “I just wanted to update you and let you know that as of today I am officially tenured. Thank you so much for all of your help with editing and improving my tenure documents. My dossier was much stronger as a result of working with you. I’m so glad you helped me convey a more compelling message to everyone who voted at all stages of the process.”
Interview Intervention client: “Hi Karen, I wanted to let you know that I was selected as a finalist for this position! There will be an on campus interview and teaching demo (and I don’t know what else) probably in February. Thanks for your help!”
VAP job offer, client: “I got a job offer—Yay! I could not have done this without your doc editing and Kel’s interview help! Thank you.”
TT job offer, client: “If you remember me -…I got the job!! Or at least, they’ve offered it to me. Campus Visit wasn’t a step in this process. So the next step is discussing the offer!”
TT job offer, client: “Hello, I have received an R1 Tenure Track offer – XXX University. First, thank you to Karen and your whole team, it would not have been possible without the great work you do.”
Interview Intervention client: “I hope you’re well and having a good holiday. We met earlier this month to do a mock zoom interview, and I’m happy to report that I have a campus visit for the University of XXX!”
Job doc client: “I am an ABD in humanities who has worked with Dr. Kelsky on job documents during this round of job search. So far, I have got 8 interview invitations ( I am waiting for a few other places), which is a huge improvement from my performance last year (0 interview invitation; 0 recommendation letter requested). For each draft of my job document, Dr. Kelsky offers prompt, clear, and manageable instructions at different stages of revision. From our communication, I have learned important lessons that have never been taught in my graduate program, such as communicating the upshots of one’s research to non-specialists and articulating one’s teaching philosophy.”
Reader, grant-writing success, fine art. For years I keep going back to Karen’s foolproof grant diagram when I put together a new proposal. I’ve been recommending it to friends and colleagues as well. True, we’d find the formulation elsewhere – e.g., most abstracts in good journals in most fields would have a similar kind of hero narrative – but Karen’s diagram makes it clearer and much easier to remember. As a visual guideline, it’s been helping me focus while figuring out what my projects were about.
Reader, career transitions and overall support: I want to say thank you for all your advice over the years. You have helped me so much! I was successful at getting my dream job teaching art history at an art college in 2015 right out of grad school. I followed all your advice. But, that school closed. I was then successful getting tenure track at a small private college and then moved my way to a tenure-track position at an R1 university. Of course, before they would give me my contract they changed the jobtitle to visiting because of a COVID hiring freeze and now they are having me reapply in a nation-wide search for the same position. All this to say, I’ve kept on trying and done okay. Yet, it’s been disillusioning. Recently, Turning Point students shut down our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative for curriculum development and the state passed a law saying masks can’t be required in the classrooms. But, I digress. Your advice has always helped at each transition. Your recent post yesterday about changes to your blog was excellent. I really appreciate your honesty because I’m tired of pretending everything is okay and trying to reconcile how hard I’ve been working with the reality of the situation. It helps to hear others voice these concerns and know that we aren’t alone. I can’t wait to read what you write next. You have been a wonderful mentor even though we’ve never met.”
Reader, fellowship: “I’m a long-time follower and acolyte of yours–since 2016 when I was finishing up my PhD in X history at [Ivy]. With your help on my fellowship letters and documents at that time, I won postdocs at [Ivy], [Elite], and then the [Fancy] library, where I am now finishing a short-term fellowship. Your excellent interventions—in person, webinars, blog, etc, have been a beacon of reassurance, humor, and high intelligence in dark times. I regularly read your blog posts to my family. So, first of all, THANK YOU!”
Reader, job docs: “Thanks for all your help. I bought your book two years ago and it helped me with writing the first draft of these documents. Your advice and edits further helped to polish them. Thanks again.”
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