All Webinar Recordings are $50 Unless Otherwise Noted.
Institutional Rate for groups: $400 (happy to discuss; please inquire at gettenure@gmail.com)
Managing the Academic Job Market In Times of Turmoil…
In this 90-minute webinar I show you how to best apply for academic jobs. I start with the facts and figures of the current American academic job market, and advice on how to think realistically and effectively about your career in times of contraction. Then we move on to advice on how to best handle academic job applications, including what constitutes a competitive record and how best to present it. We talk about the most common mistakes made by job-seekers, and the ways you can maximize your chances of success while looking for permanent academic conditions. I contextualize everything in light of the current political and economic climate for universities.
How To Write an Academic Job Application, Part I–Cover Letter and CV
Line by line, paragraph by paragraph guidance on how to construct the two most essential elements of the tenure track job application–the cover letter and CV. Shows the most common mistakes (including hyper-emotionalism and pandering), and how to correct them to showcase the facts and evidence of your record. Focus on tailoring for specific jobs and institutions.
How To Write an Academic Job Application, Part II–Teaching Statement, Research Statement and Diversity Statement
Targeted instruction on conceptualizing, constructing and refining your TS, RS and DS, with special attention to the purpose and common misunderstandings surrounding the Teaching Statement. Shows you how to construct concrete and memorable documents without falling into trite, hackneyed, saccharine prose.
Interview Intervention Webinar
Webinar version of the live skype Interview Intervention. I walk you through the most common errors made by candidates in interviews, and how to correct them. Includes scripts for successful interviewing preparation.
The Job Talk Webinar
Delves deeply into the challenges of constructing an effective job talk–starts by explaining the point of the job talk, its role in the campus visit and overall selection process, and what it’s meant to demonstrate in terms of your scholarly project and collegiality. Includes a template of talk organization, and also addresses how to manage the Q and A after the talk.
The Campus Visit Webinar
Walks you through the elements of the Online/In Person Campus Visit/Fly-Out, updated for hybrid realities. Explains all the major elements such as planning and prep, meetings with faculty, the Dean, the Chair, and students, the job talk, the teaching demo, etc. Provides advice and scripts for dealing successfully with all parts.
Negotiating Your Academic Job
Walks you through the elements of a typical academic job negotiation, explaining what can and can’t be expected based on size, type and rank of institution. Addresses the question of the rescinded offer. Shows common misunderstandings and pitfalls, and provides scripts for successful negotiations. Focuses on tenure track offers but includes discussion of NTT, VAP, postdoc and other positions as well.
Managing Your First Year on the Tenure Track…
For those who scored the tenure track job–this tells you what to expect. As a former department head who mentored a number of faculty through successful tenure cases, Dr. Karen explains exactly how to lay the foundation for success in your new job, and avoid common errors. We talk about time management, departmental relations, and work life balance, and focus primarily on relating your first year to your eventual tenure case, and making a plan to carry you through the probationary period. Newly updated to reflect the upheavals in higher education post COVID, MAGA, etc.
How to Apply for a Postdoc in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Explains the core principle of the postdoc application: showing how you serve the postdoc, not how the postdoc serves you. Discusses the major elements of the typical postdoc application: the proposal, cover letter, statement of fit, and proposed course. Includes examples of successful postdoc application writing, and as always, highlights the most common pitfalls and errors besetting the inexperienced postdoc applicant.
How To Write a Winning Grant
Walks you through the famous Dr. Karen’s Foolproof Grant Template–a template for grant-writing based on the Hero-Narrative of Grant-writing (Here is a critical topic. There is an alarming gap in the literature about it, but never fear– I am here to save the day! Here’s how). Astoundingly successful, if used correctly.
How To Publish Your Academic Book
Breaks down the steps of publishing the scholarly monograph, including evaluating presses, pitching projects to editors, writing and submitting proposals, and plotting a timeline for writing in time for third year review and tenure.
Hacking the Academic Presentation
Podium skills are essential for all parts of the academic life–the job talk of course, but also the conference presentation, teaching, and the kind of public speaking to broad audiences that we need to prioritize in this time of assault on higher ed. This webinar walks you through the ins and outs of a good talk, including organization, delivery, technology, body language, and dealing with Q and A. It also addresses the fear, anxiety, and Imposter Syndrome that so often hinder our public speaking, and shows you how to overcome them.
Women and the Academic Career: What Works, What Doesn’t
This workshop examines the obstacles for women in the academic career, with an eye to the tension between structural systems of bias and exclusion, and individual habits of self-sabotage and Imposter Syndrome that result from years of gendered socialization. Special attention paid to the challenges of sexual harassment, managing children and career, avoiding excessive service, effective self-advocacy, and struggles for authority in the classroom and department. We view these through an intersectional lens that considers how race, nationality, sexuality, and class change gendered dynamics in academic settings. The workshop includes role play of self-advocacy scenarios, including refusing excessive service requests and seeking an equity raise. By the end, participants will have information and tools to bring to their careers, job searches, and negotiations.
Going Post-Ac in Turbulent Times: Moving on with a PhD Under Stress [reduced rate: $35]
This workshop will show you how to prepare for a non-academic job, even if you’re still in graduate school, updated for COVID19 conditions. We start with the emerging COVID19 job market conditions, and the feelings of fear, grief and loss that accompany the need to move on. Then, we’ll confront the incorrect belief held by many Ph.D.s (especially in the arts and humanities) that you don’t have any skills for non-academic jobs. I help you see the multitude of skills you have, and how to identify and mobilize them for jobs outside the academy. We’ll cover: Obstacles to imagining a non-academic career; Expanding your career imagination, Identifying your translatable skills, Tips for the non-academic cover letter and resume, Resources for the job seeker; The DIY career.
Targeting Your Skills For a Post-Ac Career (by Margy Horton) – Donation based; Pay whatever you can
Confronts the incorrect belief held by many Ph.D.s (especially in the humanities) that they don’t have any skills for non-academic jobs. In fact, you have loads of skills, you just haven’t learned to identify and name them as such, and learn to mobilize them for jobs outside the academy. Dr. Margy Horton gives you a list of 100 possible skills to consider, and walks you through a set of techniques to rewrite your record to be legible for non-academic jobs.
The Next Chapter: Moving on After Career Shocks and Grief
(Presented by Dr. Tamara Yakaboski)
Whether you’ve been pushed out, laid off, or just see the writing on the wall, navigating career grief is a real and necessary process for anyone in academia. This workshop provides a roadmap to process career shock and grief, redefine your professional identity, and take practical steps toward a new path—without shame, panic, or regret. We address shocks to self-worth, purpose, and identity, managing the grief, and practical strategies to move on effectively.
Tamara Yakaboski, PhD integrates her expertise as a scholar of higher education as a resilience coach and leadership consultant, to help academics and professionals bridge the gap between what was and what’s next.
Launching Your Own Consulting (Or Other) Small Business [EXPANDED AND UPDATED 2 hour webinar; $100]
Dr. Karen explains the mental and logistical hurdles attendant upon
leaving the academy to start your own business. Discusses identifying a
niche, choosing a name, finding an audience, and using basic technology
for blogging, websites, and invoicing. Special attention to social
media marketing. Academics tend to be risk-averse–this webinar helps you
lower the barrier to striking out on your own.
LinkedIn Without Fear: An Intro for Academics
(Presented by Sonia Michaels)
Academics have a love-hate relationship with LinkedIn–we know we need it, but we don’t have to like it! In this webinar, I will help you get past the overwhelm, understand the essentials of setting up and using LinkedIn effectively, and make the most of the opportunities that it can offer. All with an eye to the challenges of presenting achievements from academia to potential non-academic jobs and employers. Sonia Michaels is a Senior Lecturer at DigiPen Institute of Technology.
Reduced rate: $25