Newly updated for current conditions.

The rescinded offer is unfortunately more common than ever, and the scope for negotiations has altered a lot with the pandemic.

It is imperative that candidates understand when and how to appropriately negotiate an academic job offer. Negotiating IS still standard and expected for the vast majority of all tenure track offers, but it takes skill to do it correctly, asking for all you can while retaining good relations with the department.

This webinar breaks down the stages of the academic job offer negotiation process, explains the things that can and can’t be negotiated at different types of jobs (including postdocs and full time non-tenure track positions), and different ranks and types of institutions.  It provides examples of successful negotiating language as well as common negotiating errors and pitfalls.

Negotiating points we’ll examine include salary, teaching release, moving expenses, start-up funds, conference and travel funding, research leave/junior sabbatical, summer salary, and the spousal hire.

We’ll discuss how to evaluate the culture and expectations of the institution and calibrate requests to the institutional context. We will dispassionately examine the phenomenon of the rescinded offer.  I’ll give examples from successful and unsuccessful recent negotiations that I’ve worked on through my Negotiating Assistance service.

And we’ll consider special challenges for women and people from communities historically marginalized in the academy. For some background reading, check out my blog post, Negotiating as Therapy. Updated for COVID-related challenges and shifts.

Includes 30 minutes of Q and A.

Participants also get $100 off the cost of individual Negotiating Assistance (normally $600 [$700 for advanced/senior positions])

You WILL have access to a free download of the event for one week after the date, whether or not you can attend the live event, as long as you register for it.

Thursday November 21  6 PM EST

$50

PAST WEBINARS [Not Currently Available But Recurring Cyclically or On Demand]

In this 90-minute Webinar I walk you through Dr. Karen’s Foolproof Grant Template–a template for grant-writing based on what I call the “Hero-Narrative of Grant-writing” [“Here is a critical topic. Here is what’s been written about it; Here is an unfortunate gap our understanding of it, and why it matters. But never fear – I am here to save the day; here’s how, specifically.”] This template has helped thousands of academic grant-writers  in all fields over the years, and is astoundingly successful when used correctly. Which is harder than it looks, because applicants have trouble grasping what their critical topic is, and what a compelling rationale would be for studying it, in the minds of OTHER PEOPLE.

Thus I explain how to put yourself into the shoes of those other people — the people on the grant review committees, and how to avoid the most common misunderstandings and mistakes of applicants that revolve around self-absorption, obsession with minutiae, and self-juvenilization (grant applications are not your comprehensive exams).

As always, the webinar will include abundant examples of effective writing, and will include plenty of Q and A time for targeted advice for your situation.

We’ll cover:

The big picture of grant-writing
How and why to construct a hero narrative of your research
The three things your proposal must do
The four biggest mistakes of grant-writers
How to use Dr. Karen’s Foolproof Grant Template
How to tailor a proposal

All who register get access to the recording of the webinar for one week, even if you can’t attend the live event.

Thursday Sept 14, 6 PM EST

Cost:   $50

Newly updated for current post-pandemic conditions, in this 90-minute webinar we examine the other  primary documents in an academic job application–the teaching statement research statement, and diversity statement.  I explain the role of each of these in presenting your profile, and the relative importance of each in the deliberations of the search committee.  I then give recommendations for the most effective content, organization, and tone of each of these documents, with examples.

The Teaching Statement is perhaps the most difficult of all job documents to write, and I spend particular time on its purpose and execution, and the many pitfalls common to this document, especially weepiness and hyper-emotionalism. I also introduce organizational tips for the Research Statement with attention to effective sentence and paragraph structure. Finally I map out the spoken and unspoken agendas of the Diversity Statement, how to approach it effectively whether or not you embody “diversity” in your own identity, and considerations in the context of current political climate.

There will be 30 minutes of Q and A at the end.  All participants get access to the recording; this comes 24 hours after the live event. Check your spam and Promotions folder if you don’t see it.

Thursday August 31 6 PM EST

Cost:   $50

Talking Mental Health in the Academy (in a Pandemic) [PAST]

Depression, anxiety, stress, overwhelm, trauma, burnout…. these are so common in academia as to be virtually the norm. A 2018 study found that 39% of grad students scored in the moderate-to-severe depression range, as compared to 6% of the general population. And that was before the pandemic and the imminent demise of US democracy. And yet the academy silences talk of mental health struggles in an all-consuming fixation on productivity.

In this brand new webinar, I invite you to join me in talking mental health, with particular attention to the specific stressors of grad school, the job search, adjuncting, and the tenure track, and contextualized by the fears and uncertainties of the COVID19 pandemic and political upheaval. This webinar aims to provide tools to openly discuss mental health challenges, identify symptoms and causes, and provide ideas for support. Please note: I am not a mental health professional! This content is for general informational purposes, not diagnosis or treatment. My goal is to provide a safe space to share struggles, find resources and, I hope, prompt ever more transparent discussion of this pervasive yet disavowed reality of the academy.

We’ll cover:

• Facts and figures
• Stigma around mental illness in the academy
• Identifying symptoms of mental health struggles
• Causes of mental health struggles:
  • Isolation
  • Competition
  • Low pay
  • Overwork and exploitation
  • The job market collapse and precarity
  • Cultures of abuse
  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • COVID19 anxieties
• Suggestions for support:
  • Leaving
  • Reporting abuse
  • Setting boundaries
  • Therapy
  • Self-care
  • Community
  • Sharing
  • Organizing

Mental health and well-being may be the single most urgent task for any academic in the time of COVID. I created this webinar to provide a way to start talking about it.

Includes 30 minutes of Q and A. All who register get access to the recording for one week, even if you can’t attend the live event.

THIS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO MONDAY AUGUST 21 DUE TO HAZARDOUS AIR QUALITY IN EUGENE ON TUES (Karen has asthma).

In this 90-minute webinar I walk you through the issues around applying for academic jobs in the current conditions of turmoil. I start with the crisis conditions of the current American job market, and advice on how to think realistically and effectively about your career in a collapsing industry. 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 a tenure-track job. I contextualize everything within the turmoil caused by COVID as well as threats to tenure, political attacks on higher ed, imploding academic budgets, and escalating institutional instability.

We’ll cover:

• The big-picture state of the U.S. academic job market
• The impact of COVID and the current conditions
• How to think like a search committee
• The four core qualities of a successful tenure track job candidate
• The all-important 5-Year Plan
• The ethos of job market documents
• The most common mistakes made by job seekers
• The three keys to academic interviewing
• Operating on Zoom when necessary
• What can and cannot be negotiated now
• The IMPERATIVE of having a non-academic option right now
• Managing the stress and remembering who you are

We also examine the common errors of tone and approach made by anxious job seekers: narcissism, excessive humility, and hyper-emotionalism.  You’ll leave with a broad understanding of the real (as opposed to fantasy) criteria of tenure track hiring, and how to tailor your record and application materials to maximize your chances of success.

While nobody can predict exactly what this era of turmoil means for the academic job market or higher ed more broadly, I’ll share everything I know based on the best information available.

Includes time for Q and A with Dr. Karen.  All participants get access to a free recording of the event for one week, even if you cannot attend the live event. 

Tuesday August 15 6 PM EST

THIS HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO MONDAY AUGUST 21 DUE TO HAZARDOUS AIR QUALITY IN EUGENE ON TUES (Karen has asthma).

Monday, August 21, 6 PM EST

Cost:   $50

Knowing Your Own Value in Academia: Self-Advocacy, Time Management, and Saying No [PAST]

ALERT: Postponed to Friday Oct. 2 at same time (6 PM EST). Karen is not feeling well and is valuing herself by resting! Remember if you can’t make live event, you still get recording.

Overwork without appropriate compensation is the normative expectation of the academy, and becomes ever more so as standards escalate while budgets collapse. Overwork and exploitation are woven into the systems of graduate school, adjuncting, and the tenure track, and then are rarely unlearned after tenure.

In this brand new webinar, I talk about how to identify overwork and exploitation (since so few academics actually recognize it!), how to evaluate the stakes of given tasks and manage the time you allot to each, and how to say no to excessive demands.

We also discuss how to accurately value your own time, contributions and labor, to set the stage for effective self-advocacy throughout your career. This includes describing your work without self-deprecation, dealing assertively with advisors, PI’s and department heads, asking for raises and support, managing division of labor in collaborative projects, negotiating offers, etc.

Includes scripts for practice at home! Also includes 30 min of Q and A. All who register get access to the recording for one week, even if you can’t make the live event.

NOW FRIDAY OCT 2 –  6 PM EST

$45 [Special Reduced Rate]* 

Hacking the Academic Presentation (past)

Get ready for your academic conferences, job talks, and public speaking with this webinar on presentation best-practices.  As academics we must master public speaking skills to challenge the GOP assault on higher ed  – the stakes have never been higher for us to know how to present our work to the public effectively!

In this 90-minute webinar I break down the best practices of presenting your work to academic and public audiences in conference talks, job talks, public speaking, and so on.

We’ll address:

• the role of public speaking in the academic career
• how and when to gain experience
• handling the basic logistics
• managing nerves
• conference presentations–things to consider
• effective speaking techniques
• using visuals and Powerpoint
• body language and non-verbal cues
• reading an audience
• tracking the clock
• handling Q and A
• responding to challenges and critiques
• managing equipment

We’ll also discuss the most common errors made by inexperienced academic speakers related to talk organization, speaking style, and Q and A challenges.

Participants will have access to a recording of the event good for one week, even if you can’t attend the live event.

$50

Thursday, January 24 6 PM EST

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Women and the Academic Career: What Works, What Doesn’t (past)

In this 90 minute interactive webinar, I walk you through the main challenges for women in the academic career, and offer specific strategies for confronting and overcoming them.

We’ll discuss:

• The male-centric model of the academic career track
• The tenure track and the biological clock
• Issues for WOC
• The perils of “nice”
• Sexual and gender harassment
• Unconscious self-sabotaging habits
• Techniques of self-promotion
• Assertiveness in language and body language
• Pitfalls for women on the job market
• Interviewing strategies
• Negotiating effectively
• Children: the good and the bad
• Achieving work-life balance

30 minutes of Q and A at the end. All who register will get access to a recording of the live event for one week, even if you can’t attend the live event.

Thursday 4/26, 6 PM EST/23:00 GMT.

$50

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#MeTooPhd: Sexual Harassment in the Academy (past)

In this one-hour webinar inspired by the Sexual Harassment in the Academy Crowdsource Survey (now at over 2300 entries), I will share what I learned from the experience of conducting the survey, including thoughts on the range and scope of sexual harassment in academic settings (including departments, labs, research centers, campuses, academic conferences, etc.), patterns of predation, options for victims, and recommendations to institutions wishing to combat this scourge in the #MeTooPhD moment. I will discuss the profiles of predators, common patterns of protection/enabling/silencing of victims by colleagues and administrators, and particular vulnerabilities of women of color and queer/trans women in these contexts.

**This webinar does NOT include any specific stories, incidents, or information shared by any of the contributors to the survey.  The content is based on larger-scale patterns that emerged in the aggregate, and thoughts about ways to move forward that emerged from these larger-scale patterns.***

I will talk about why academia is so conducive to this form of harassment, and I will focus in particular on suggestions to help vulnerable populations recognize and confront harassment, in order to empower victims and potential victims to protect themselves, find both formal and informal support and make educated decisions about going public.

I’ll discuss some thoughts on the pros and cons of filing formal complaints, the current resources and limitations of Title IX policies, and immediate steps that departments and disciplinary associations can take to lessen the occurrence of harassment on campus and at conferences.

Includes 30 minutes of Q and A

All who register have access to a recording, even if they can’t attend the live event.

This event is free to all, but you do have to register at the link below:

2/22 at 6 PM EST

Free

Register Here

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CV to Resume: Translating Your Skills for the Non-Academic Job Market (past)

This 90-minute webinar with TPII post-ac career coach Maggie Gover shows you how to help potential employers understand the skills you bring as a PhD. Learn how to rethink your background and translate your experience in ways that will speak to a non-academic employer.

Real samples of successful resumes will be shared.

Maggie Gover, PhD, is Director, Graduate Student Academic and Professional Development at the UC Riverside Graduate Division

30 minutes of Q and A included. All participants have access to a recording afterward.

$50

Thursday 3/30 1 PM EST

 

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Productivity and Self-Care In a Time of Turmoil (past)

Special Reduced Rate:  $35

This 90-minute webinar – co-led by career coach Karen Kelsky and productivity coach Kellee Weinhold – will focus on the challenges facing academic writers in a time of national and international crisis. We begin with an honest accounting of the threats facing the academy, and the difficulties of maintaining forward progress while managing ongoing turmoil at both political and personal levels. We’ll suggest some basic practices of self-care that can help academics resist panic (and the fire-hose of social media frenzy) and keep your eye on your most important goals (while also acknowledging that those goals may be in flux).

We will focus particularly on four common pitfalls of productivity: 1) unclear expectations; 2) maintaining balance in crisis; 3) negative self-talk; and 4) external comparisons.

We then outline strategies you can use to learn how to respond to these challenges, design a writing plan and monitor progress. The goal is to tell the truth about your struggles, and recognize (without judgment) and shift the negative behaviors that get in the way of your writing.

There will be time for 30 minutes of Q and A at the end.

All those who register are invited to share their concerns and questions in a common Google Doc ahead of time, and we will incorporate as many as we can.

All participants will get access to a recording for a limited time.

We are offering this webinar at a reduced rate to make it more widely accessible.

Thursday, March 16  6 PM EST

Special reduced rate: $35

 

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Hacking the Grad School Application (past)

In this 90-minute webinar, we will cover “the big picture” of graduate education — the pros and cons of different kinds of graduate programs, and how to gain admission to them.

We will cover:

Different types of graduate programs
How to choose where to apply
How to write an initial query letter to a prospective advisor
The typical graduate school application documents, and how to write them
How to prepare for a graduate school interview
How to choose between multiple acceptances
How to prepare for re-applying in case of rejection

We will go over good and bad reasons for pursuing a graduate education, how to assess objective and subjective features of graduate programs to rank them in order of preference, the important questions to ask *before* applying, how to maximize your chances of acceptance, the different “genres” of application essays, how to structure the dreaded Statement of Purpose (with a template and a sample example), and how to avoid vague and emotional language in application documents.  You will also understand the larger context of how admission decisions are made, the role admissions interviews play in those decisions, and how to prepare for them.  By the end of the webinar, you will have a clear roadmap to take you through the deliberation of which programs to choose, the application process itself, and the discernment strategies to help you make the best decision for your future.

Includes time for Q&A.  All participants will receive a free download of the Webinar.

Cost: $50

Sat June 10, 3 pm EST

 

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Winter Productivity Kickstart and Strategy Session (past)

Worried about how to be productive this Winter? Have an article (or two, or three!) languishing on your desktop? Know from past experience that the summer siren song of wide open writing time once again ended with you hunkered down in a shame- filled Netflix binge–and now the new semester  is upon you?

Join academic productivity coach Kellee Weinhold for a crash course in kickstarting  your writing AND meeting your goals.

In this 90-minute session you will learn:

• How to identify your real and imagined roadblocks to productivity;
• Strategies for overcoming those barriers, using organizational strategies and accountability tools  for daily productivity;
• Effective boundary setting (just say no!);
• How to create a personalized goal achievement plan, breaking down project components and timelines with daily and weekly goals.

Includes time for Q and A with Kellee Weinhold.  All participants get access to a recording of the event.

Date:  Monday, January 2, 3:00 PM EST

Cost:   $50

After completing payment by clicking below, you will be redirected to the dedicated Go-To-Meeting Webinar Registration page, where you will fill out a registration form and be given instructions and an access code to sign in on the day. 

 

 

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For Grad Students Only–Turn Your Ph.D. Into a Job [Past]

This webinar is for current graduate students, on strategizing for the academic and non-academic job markets while in graduate school. It is open to students at any stage in their program, including those just starting this fall. (I love to talk to newbies!)

We will cover:

• Understanding the financial risks of a Ph.D.
• Evaluating the status and job placement rate of your graduate program
• Evaluating the effectiveness of your advisor for job placement
• Changing advisors when necessary
• Assembling a committee
• Reading trends in your field with an eye to the job market
• Setting a 5-year timeline to completion
• Understanding the role of grants
• TA-ing vs. teaching
• Participating in departmental life
• Avoiding excess service
• Attending national conferences
• Strategizing your recommenders
• Building your CV

We will also discuss strategies to keep your options open for non-academic jobs, including

• Finding mentors
• Networking
• Informational interviews
• Identifying and developing your skills

Throughout we’ll address ways that you can “stop acting like a grad student” and take charge of your program and your career.

As always, time for Q and A at the end.

Let no grad student proceed uninformed!

Thursday 5/7 6 PM EST

Cost:  $30

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Targeting Your Skills for a #Postac Career (led by Margy Horton) {past}

In order to grow your post-ac network, craft a solid business plan, or write a credible resume, you need to know your skills–and you need a language in which to articulate those skills.

In this webinar, I (Margy Horton) help you to identify your strongest skills, discover new ways of framing them, construct them into a compelling story, and decide which skills to sharpen in order to enhance your marketability. My experiences in both launching my business, ScholarShape, and organizing a group of Academic Entrepreneurs, have taught me that academics can indeed mine, re-frame, and “sell” previously unknown skills. This presentation is filled with real-life examples from my experiences at the intersections of academia and entrepreneurship.

In the Q and A, you can ask me to speak directly to your situation, and after the webinar, you’ll receive a downloadable recording. When you register for this webinar, you’ll receive a PDF of my list of over 100 skills that are common among academics–a more comprehensive list than any you’ll find elsewhere.

What we’ll cover:

1. How skills are different from knowledge, expertise, and credentials

2. How to identify your marketable skills (Hint: you may have over 100)

3. Four techniques for re-framing and re-labeling your existing skills

4. Why you need to frame your skills as a story (And five templates for writing your skill-story)

5. The “alchemical skills” that you can acquire to elevate your other skills

6. A dozen free or inexpensive ways to develop new marketable skills

7. Q and A

All participants will receive a free downloadable recording of the event.

See a short promo with audio here:   TPII Skills Webinar PROMO – Horton

Wednesday May 28, 6 PM EST/3 PM Pacific.

Cost: $50

Some readers wonder if the webinars are redundant with the blog posts. I work hard to make sure that isn’t the case, and offer fresh new content that goes beyond the posts. I’ve learned that many participants find it is helpful to have the spoken and interactive presentation on the Webinar reinforce the written information on the blog.  One key point of the Webinars, aside from the Q and A, is the abundant use of examples of BAD job market writing or interviewing, with explanations of what exactly is wrong, and how to fix it.

Here are some reactions to previous webinars, and a testimonial from a Campus Visit Webinar client who used it to land a tenure track job:

“The webinar, which took a little less than two hours, was more useful to me than the entire semester of the ‘Preparing Future Faculty’ course I took through my university’s graduate school.”

“I found it very helpful. Why? Because I needed clarity re: the importance of ‘peer reviewed’ journal articles (of which I have none). You helped me see that while the dissertation is made out to be a ‘BIG ISSUE’ in the life of a Ph.D. student, what should now be one’s major concern, as a result of this lame market, is developing an active publishing record so that one can present themselves as a ‘colleague’ in the job market rather than a ‘grad student.’ Many advisors don’t realize this market change.”

“I appreciated the way that Karen focused not only on what we should do, but also on what we should avoid doing. Many of the job books I have neglect this important contrast.”

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me, Karen, at gettenure@gmail.com.