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The odds of winning the Powerball lottery in Massachusetts are 1 in 195,249,054. There’s a one percent chance your child will play baseball at the professional level (which includes the minor leagues). The odds—at the beginning of the season—of the Chicago Cubs winning the 2011 World Series was 750 to 1.
Graduate students interested in becoming tenure-track faculty members are facing some long odds as well. Still, we know of several Graduate School of Arts and Sciencesalumni who have beaten the odds and are working as tenure-stream or tenured faculty members. We reached out to these graduates to find out how they made it happen and how you can too.
Make Sure (Really Sure) An Academic Life is the One for You
Late nights, lack of sleep, demanding young people, way too much work to do. Sounds like the life of a parent with young children, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. But this also describes what it’s like to be a tenure-stream faculty member. And while the first year of parenting—arguably the most difficult until the teenage years arrive—does mercifully come to an end, tenure-track faculty members endure a lifestyle of sleep deprivation and multiple responsibilities for a number of years (usually seven before the typical faculty member comes up for tenure). Therefore, it’s important for graduates to know what they are getting into and accept, if not wholeheartedly embrace, what an academic life involves.
Photo Credit: Jeroen van Oostrom
“Make the extra effort to ensure that the path is right for you,” said Adam Carberry, G04, G10, who holds a master of science in chemistry and a Ph.D. in education from GSAS, and recently began working as an assistant professor at Arizona State University. “When an institution hires you into a tenure-track position, they are investing in you and want you to succeed. Accepting a position with the mindset of ‘let’s see how it goes’ is the wrong approach. I suggest doing a postdoc with someone experienced in your field of interest, and pursuing opportunities relevant to the roles you will play as a faculty member: research (for example, grant proposal writing); teaching; and service.”
Sarah Cavanagh, who earned a master of science and Ph.D. in psychology from GSAS in 2004 and 2007, respectively, agreed, adding that exposure to different elements of academia is crucial.
“Be sure that you enjoy all aspects of academia, and expose yourself to these aspects as much as possible while still a graduate student,” said Cavanagh, an assistant professor of psychology at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. “If your aim is traditional tenure-track academia, don’t attempt to start a position without having engaged in the practice of teaching and service. Even at research-intensive institutions, you will be spending years of your life teaching classes and serving on committees. Ask your teaching mentors if you can lead a few lectures, or spend a summer doing the Graduate Institute for Teaching (GIFT). Also, sign up for some departmental committee work. If you find some of these aspects of academia detestable, you can then shift gears early and hone your skills toward research positions. Or you may find, as I did, that these features of academia are intensely rewarding and decide to focus on positions with a heavy classroom focus.”
(Blog note: There are many options for doctoral students who do not want to pursue an academic career. We plan to tackle this topic in a future blog)
Think Beyond the Dissertation
There’s more to the life of a graduate student than the dissertation. This is, of course, a fruitless argument to make to a student in the grips of writing one. But for students considering a career in academia, it helps to step away nonetheless.
“Barring the lucky few who will end up at R1 universities, the dissertation may be the moment of greatest specialization in one’s career,” said graduate alumnus Ed Wiltse, G98, a professor of English at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. “Spending five years buried in the library or the lab may ill-prepare candidates for teaching and scholarly work that bridges multiple fields and even disciplines. At least in the humanities, your ability to present yourself as an inspiring teacher able to talk engagingly to multiple audiences about your specialty, as well as the broader discipline, may be more important to landing a job than anything on your vita. However, you’re not likely to get a chance to talk with a hiring committee without something impressive on your vita.”
Adam Carberry added that, “Graduate students are often consumed by their dissertations, which often only address research. While interviewing for possible positions, I was told that my graduate teaching experience, service to the community, and my society affiliations showed the ability to balance the three key areas in academia: teaching, research, and service.”
“Start planning from day one,” shared a graduate alumna with a tenure-track position on the west coast. “Get involved in conferences, take on leadership positions in university, regional, and/or national organizations. Volunteer for committees and work hard at them. Having a service credit on your CV is one thing. Having a reputation for being responsible and committed to a school or organization is much better. We work in a small world.”
Get Those ZZZZ’s
Photo Credit: Boaz Yiftach
When talking about graduate student life, it always comes back to sleep (or lack thereof), doesn’t it? Provided a graduate student has done all he or she can and lands a tenure-track faculty position, it’s important not to forget to get the proper rest…we know, we know, we sound like your mother, but listen to the American Psychological Association and Sarah Cavanagh. They can’t both be wrong, can they?
“Protect your sleep time,” said Cavanagh. “You’ll think better, react better, and finish work more quickly and more accurately. You’ll be a better teacher, researcher, and loved one.”
By Robert Bochnak, G07, senior writer/communications manager, Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences
Are you tenured or on a tenure track? Are there any best practices we missed? Want to share your thoughts on this blog entry? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below.
An additional comment about dissertations–you’ll want to publish something right away and while it is incredibly beneficial to have a record of publication, be careful about not publishing too much from your dissertation as articles as it will limit your project’s future viability as a book. Also, start preparing your teaching portfolio early–crafting a teaching statement, collecting student evaluations, putting together past syllabi/sample syllabi, and (if possible) have one of your recommenders observe and write about one of your classes.
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks for checking out the blog and for sharing this important information. Next month, the blog will share best practices for getting a dissertation or thesis published. Hope you enjoy that post as well.
-GradMatters Blog Team
What a useful article! Thanks for putting the time and effort into this!
Hi Nicholas,
Thanks for checking out the blog and I’m happy to hear that it was useful. And thanks for sharing the link for the Tufts Historical Review (http://tuftshistoricalreview.weebly.com/index.html); it looks very interesting!
-GradMatters Blog Team
Great advice! One of the best things a prospective PhD student can do is to pick an advisor with a track record of getting her students tenure-track jobs! That means the kind of advisor who is well-known enough in your area of interest so that a letter of recommendation will count for something, but it also means the kind of advisor who really knows how to mentor students. Good luck
Professor Hollander,
Thanks for sharing the great advice. We often hear of graduate students picking an adviser based on his or her research area, but it’s good to keep in mind the track record of the faculty member when it comes to student success in landing tenure-track positions after graduating.
-GradMatters Blog Team
This is all great advice. I would add–networking is important in graduate school, because you never know who might be a great mentor for you, and good advice can come from many places. Also, it’s good to become accustomed to talking about your research, learning how to communicate with professional peers, and practicing how to come across well. If you can convince a stranger at a conference that you and your research are interesting (from behind a podium, in an elevator, at an impromptu dinner gathering), you’ll be more likely to be able to pull off the same feat when it counts, at a job interview.
The other thing I would say is, whether you achieve an academic job or not, don’t tie your ego too closely to the results. The job market is often about specific fit, the right balance of skills, and dumb luck. Just because you’ve beaten out other candidates doesn’t make you better than them, and if you don’t get the job of your dreams, that doesn’t make you a failure. The job market’s overall structure is terrible, and if you let your ego get sucked into that vortex, the psychological consequences can be devastating. So remember that an individual search isn’t about you, and be sure to have some sort of backup plan in case it doesn’t go the way you hope.
Professor Carp,
Thanks for sharing this great advice!
And, as an aside, if you’re looking for a great book to read check out Professor Carp’s latest, “Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America.” We included an excerpt from the book in the latest GSAS magazine. You can read the excerpt at
http://gradstudy.tufts.edu/alumni/almamatters/2011Spring/steepedInTradition.htm.
-GradMatters Blog Team
I’d just add that you always want to be thinking about balance as well. I recall a faculty member from my department as a grad student using the analogy of “fishing for food vs. finishing for fun,” and emphasizing that we needed to do both. He’s right. In an empirically oriented field like psychology, you want a balance of high-ownership, high-risk, potentially-big-payoff research projects as well as lower-risk projects in which you pick up the reins of an established research program that your advisor (or someone else in the lab) has already started. It’s too risky to put all your eggs in one research basket with a high-maintenance multi-year project, only to see the data not work out well in the end. You need to be be fishing for food too, as they say, making sure to have surer-bets in the pipeline as well (even if you won’t be the first author on those projects, that work is more incremental/programmatic than earthshatteringly original, etc.). It’s good to have a balance between collaborators too if you can; I’ve often thought the ideal situation for a graduate student is to work simultaneously with a senior and junior faculty member, since both types of mentors often different strengths to offer in terms of name recognition, accessibility, motivation to publish, and so on…
Hi Professor,
Thanks for these great comments and for highlighting the importance of having balance when it comes to research pursuits.
-GradMatters Blog Team
I can’t think of a more rewarding career than academia. One piece of advice to tenure track faculty is keep careful records of your accomplishments and update your log on a regular basis. Also, reach out to your colleagues to problem solve around teaching, research and University service. Avoid isolation and uni-disciplinary thinking. Your best contacts may be outside your own field. Being a member of an academic community is worth every bit of hard work because if you truly love the work it is life-long play and fun.
Sharan L. Schwartzberg
Hi Professor,
Thanks for checking out the blog and for pointing out the importance of keeping good records. During our research for this post, many former grad students told us that they regretted not having a good system in place for tracking their accomplishments when they were students and how things would have been much easier if they had.
-GradMatters Blog Team
I know some will disagree, but, when on the market, apply only for jobs that match very closely your qualifications, skills, and specializations. This strategy will cut down on expenses, as well as on the psychological pressure that Benjamin Carp describes aptly above. Ultimately, it will lead to more interviews, as well.
Hi Professor,
Thanks for checking out the blog and for sharing the importance of taking a strategic approach when seeking a tenure-track position.
-GradMatters Blog Team
The only thing I would add to the comments thus far concerns the process of choosing a dissertation topic. You need to be strategic about this. Remember the dissertation you are writing a dissertation is going to serve as the basis for your job talks. You want the prospective colleagues who will be meeting you to see you as someone who is addressing important contemporary questions or controversies in your field. Although you may want to sink your teeth into some enduring larger debate in the literature of your field, put that off till later. The place to start preparing your job talk for that sought after tenure track position is in the choice of your dissertation topic. This is advice I give all my doctoral students.
Hi Professor,
Thanks for sharing these great comments which are very topical since part of our next blog–which focuses on publishing one disseration or thesis–deals with the importance of choosing the right disseration topic.
-GradMatters Blog Team
Finding the right match–the academic environoment where you will be productive and happy is important. It’s kind of like Goldilock’s problem-some too hot, some too cold. You can learn a lot about an institution and department by its website, and when I interview candidates today I am always taken aback by how much research the candidate has done on the department and what faculty are working on, the mission of the school etc. If you do that pre-interview work you can make the case why you are the perfect match!
Hi Dean Pepall,
Thanks for reading the post and for sharing the importance of finding the right “fit.” It seems like preperation, both as a graduate student and as a recent grad, is key to finding a good match!
-GradMatters Blog Team
I was unaware how different the various “flavors” of tenure-track jobs really are. They range from primarily teaching to balanced teaching/research with undergrads to some-teaching-but-mostly-research what-have-you-published-lately jobs. These vary by discipline and by school type, so make sure you profile targeted departments (number of grad students, grants awarded to faculty, papers published, courses taught compared to department size, etc.) to understand their priorities. It is very much a “Goldilocks” problem!
More specifically, make sure you are getting advice tailored to your flavor of job. Someone might tell you to publish big or go home, or you won’t get a position; another might tell you to focus on scholarly quality and don’t worry where it gets published or by whom. These are contradictory, but they both valid pieces of advice, just for *different job searches*. You don’t want to be getting advice from someone that is unwittingly tailored to a different type of job! Seek out and identify those who have been successful in a similar search, preferably recently, and ask them what they think made them stand out.
Hello Professor,
Thanks for checking out the blog and for sharing this useful advice. I know the grad students reading this post appreciate your input!
-GradMatters Blog Team
Start to prepare early for an academic career and work to keep your options open. I have produced more than 30 Ph.D. graduates over the years and have trained them be programmatic, productive, networked, and flexible. My advice is to try to get at least two entries on your vita every year in graduate school (chapters, presentations/posters, and of course refereed articles); to begin to focus as early as possible and to publish in the area of research represented by your dissertation, both prior to and after you have undertaken and completed your dissertation (giving a job talk that in effect says “here is what I did for my dissertation,” without also showing what you have done before and what is coming after, will not win you a job as a colleague in an academic department). Go to meetings and conventions and be certain to bring business cards and, even more important, to send a follow-up email to EVERY person you meet — no matter their academic rank (you never know how your paths will continue to cross in the years ahead). Finally, just in case the economy is bad as you are entering the job market, explore possible post-doc opportunities and/or community-based or industrial positions — just as long as they will afford opportunities to publish and to remained networked.
Hi Professor,
Thanks for reading the post and for commenting. We especially like what you have to say about sending a follow-up email “to EVERY person you meet — no matter their academic rank (you never know how your paths will continue to cross in the years ahead).” It seems like it’s never too early to make connections with future colleagues!
-GradMatters Blog Team
While productivity is important, many academic positions focused on research are about fit between what you bring to the table and the needs of the department – both current and projected in the future. Other than your C.V. which describes your past, your cover letter and research statement are crucial to convey how you think about your work and the directions it may take in the future. Spend time on each of documents, considering different versions (or one primary version with interchangeable sections) tailored to each position to which you apply. Consider how your work (past and future directions) complements that of other faculty, which is particularly important for smaller departments where fit might be critical. But don’t stretch too far – it may look like a transparent attempt to garner favor. Or, worse, land you with a job somewhere you wouldn’t ultimately be happy and productive.
Hi Professor,
Thanks for checking out the blog and for sharing this useful advice. I’m sure our grad students will take a lot away from it, especially the parts about not “stretching to far” when it comes to finding the right match.
-GradMatters Blog Team
I will comment about graduate student-to-faculty transition in the physical sciences. The years spent as a graduate student or postdoctoral research associate should be cherished. During this time, you have the most freedom to explore your research area, and your responsibilities are centered on managing your own daily life in the lab. Once you become a faculty member, your life will completely change. Now you will be concerned with: raising research funds through the writing of grants, financially supporting and professionally mentoring your graduate students, writing publications to establish your reputation, attending conferences, teaching and developing new course material, and committee and service work to your profession. These duties convert you from a “lab rat” (and I use this term in a positive sense), to a lab manager (ditto for this one), that is, someone who sees the bigger picture and can direct others to do the day to day hands-on research in the lab. You should really be sure that your personality and temperament will allow you to flourish under the changed circumstances of a faculty position. If they do, you will find a job that is the best in the world, and one in which someone actually pays you to have fun doing research!
Hi Professor,
Thanks for reading the blog and for leaving these great comments, especially what you included about “cherishing” the postdoc experience since it’s a time of immense academic freedom before the transition from “lab rat” to “lab manager.”
-GradMatters Blog Team