The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

Pre-Tenure Coaching Group

Now open for Spring 2026!

If you are on the tenure track and worried about all the assistant professor things like relations with colleagues, keeping up with publications, handling students, and maintaining a work-life balance, then join Dr. Karen Kelsky for her ongoing Pre-Tenure Coaching Group!  The group is a small, safe, confidential space for candid, open Q&A on any anxiety, challenge, or decision related to your tenure track position.

“I participated in the Pre-Tenure group during the Spring 2025 semester. I was able to attend each meeting and found them to be VERY helpful. I am not sure words can express it.  Karen provided so much valuable information and advice during each session. Her knowledge and lived experience is vast and expansive. I have worked with Karen before and find her feedback to be very effective. I have recommended to many and will continue to do so. If you are on the tenure track, I would highly recommend joining this group and am hoping to join it again in the future” ~ Assistant Professor, STEM field, R1 institution

 
We have 5 Live dates, along with a private, dedicated email thread for conversation, resources, and links.  Dates will be decided by poll to accommodate schedules as much as possible.
 
You even get my cel number in the event of “tenure-emergencies”!
 
ALL SESSIONS WILL BE RECORDED if you cannot make the live times.
 
100% confidential.
 
Let me be the career mentor you might not have on your campus, OR your one-woman No Committee, keeping you from over-committing to projects harming your tenure case, OR your impartial sounding board for sketchy campus/department politics, OR your cheerleader for getting your work done and published, OR your skeptical interlocutor to help determine if it’s time to move on. [And these are not mutually exclusive!]
 
Coaching this year focuses in particular around the stressors, anxieties, and dilemmas associated with the academic career under Trump’s multi-level assaults, whether that is your program or institution closing, cancelled grants, political threats to your work, or immigration/visa anxieties.

I will answer any and all questions about topics like…

*what to do in the first year

*managing department politics

*managing political attacks on your work

*managing job insecurity/closing programs

*getting your writing done

*strategizing service demands

*understanding how tenure cases are run

*understanding the role of external reviewers

*recognizing unhealthy work environments and taking action

*learning to say no

*fostering a healthy work/life balance

*challenges for white women and BIPOC scholars

*and anything else you want to know

We read from excellent texts like “Candid Advice for New Faculty Members” (Gasman) and “Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger Safer and More Connected” (Boynton)

Working in community is another benefit.  As time goes by members can support and advise one another and I know from experience that sometimes it is fellow group members who can give the best advice.

I am committed to making sure this group is a HUMANE and non-competitive space where everyone can reach their fullest potential as healthy humans first, tenured faculty second.  I am also open to specific requests and new ideas for engagement–the group is here to serve you.

Spaces limited to 10.

The group runs on an ongoing basis; Live meeting dates/times will be decided by consensus once registration deadline is past.

$400

[if finances are an issue please get in touch–I always make efforts to work with your budget. 

Also remember that your department will often cover the cost – suggestions and scripts for that are here] 

 

If you have any questions or difficulty joining, please email me ASAP at gettenure@gmail.com and we’ll get you sorted.