Beyond The Tenure Track

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.

Tenure is a pivotal decision for the academy. If it is earned, it provides security and permanence, creating further academic freedom to pursue research and interests important to the institution and to society. If it is not earned, then the peer review process provides clarification for why it has not been earned. This book brings together lived experiences of academics around the time of the tenure decision. While the book is stand-alone, it has the same collection of authors who wrote about their tenure-track experiences in The Academic Gateway, making the pair of books a remarkable longitudinal collection. The authors explore the complex relationship between academics, the academy as an ideal, and universities as an enactment of that ideal. Personal growth is evident and shows diversity of experience, as the maturing relationships with the role and workplace unfurl. Where tenure track is a very personal journey, the period around tenure is necessarily a form of engagement with peers. Yet it has challenges, particularly in a milieu where academic freedom is being nurtured. Individual authors negotiate their choices between their personal objectives and institutional mandates and policies. Simultaneously, after years in the tenure-track, they continue to be evolving as academics, whether through personal growth or by seeking changes in the academy itself. Published in English.

A guide for grad students and academics who want to find fulfilling careers outside higher education. With the academic job market in crisis, 'Leaving Academia' helps grad students and academics in any scholarly field find satisfying careers beyond higher education. The book offers invaluable advice to visiting and adjunct instructors ready to seek new opportunities, to scholars caught in "tenure-trap" jobs, to grad students interested in nonacademic work, and to committed academics who want to support their students and contingent colleagues more effectively. Providing clear, concrete ways to move forward at each stage of your career change, even when the going gets tough, 'Leaving Academia' is both realistic and hopeful.

This book brings together reflections from seventy academics – everyone from doctoral students to a retired provost – who share their lived experiences in graduate school and beyond. Career seekers, adjunct professors, those in or considering graduate school, and tenure-track professors alike will find truths revealed through these shared experiences of struggle, triumph, loss and hope.

Tenure is a pivotal decision for the academy. If it is earned, it provides security and permanence, creating further academic freedom to pursue research and interests important to the institution and to society. If it is not earned, then the peer review process provides clarification for why it has not been earned. This book brings together lived experiences of academics around the time of the tenure decision. While the book is stand-alone, it has the same collection of authors who wrote about their tenure-track experiences in The Academic Gateway, making the pair of books a remarkable longitudinal collection. The authors explore the complex relationship between academics, the academy as an ideal, and universities as an enactment of that ideal. Personal growth is evident and shows diversity of experience, as the maturing relationships with the role and workplace unfurl. Where tenure track is a very personal journey, the period around tenure is necessarily a form of engagement with peers. Yet it has challenges, particularly in a milieu where academic freedom is being nurtured. Individual authors negotiate their choices between their personal objectives and institutional mandates and policies. Simultaneously, after years in the tenure-track, they continue to be evolving as academics, whether through personal growth or by seeking changes in the academy itself. Published in English.

The Academic Gateway: Understanding the Journey to Tenure investigates the experiences of professors employed in tenure-track positions who are starting their career within a university environment, but have not yet attained the affirmation and permanence that tenure offers. The role that they have taken on entails the preparation of students within a professional school. Some of them have very limited professional experience, while others bring multiple years of experience with them in their transition to a faculty of education. The contributors speak to the three key components of their faculty role: teaching, service, and research. Addressing organizational structures and differences relative to prior roles, they examine how these changes have assisted, confused or altered the way they conduct their day-to-day work. They speak about relevant prior experiences, the preparation they received through graduate school, and the details of the learning curve as they entered into their tenure track role. Have they been successful? The reader will experience the same uncertainty and anticipation every professor goes through during their journey to tenure. This approach amplifies the realism of not knowing whether issues that are spoken about will ultimately be overcome and enhances the validity of their experiences by not biasing the contributions towards those who expect success.

Not every PhD becomes a professor. Some never want to, but others discover—too late and ill-prepared to look elsewhere—that there’s precious little room in today’s ivory tower, and what’s there might not be a good fit. For those leaving academia, or wanting out, or finding themselves adrift, this book offers hope, advice, and a bracing look at how others facing the same quandary have made careers outside of the academy work. All of the authors in this volume, as well as the editors, have built successful careers beyond the groves of academia—as freelance editors and writers, consultants and lecturers, librarians, realtors, and entrepreneurs—and each has a compelling story to tell. Their accounts afford readers a firsthand view of what it takes to transition from professor to professional. They also give plenty of practical advice, along with hard-won insights into what making a move beyond the academy might entail—emotionally, intellectually, and, not least, financially. Imparting what they wish they’d known during their PhDs, these writers aim to spare those who follow in their uncertain footsteps. Together their essays point the way out of the “tenure track or bust” mindset and toward a world of different but no less rewarding possibilities.

Beyond the Tenure Track offers a complex, intimate portrait of a tenured English professor in the midst of his academic career. In this journal that he kept over a fifteen-month period, Ohio State University professor James Phelan conveys the texture of life in the academy--its ups, downs, and level places; its satisfactions, frustrations, and routines; its successes, disappointments, and stand-offs.