ACADEMIC CAREERS: FIRST YEAR AS A PROFESSOR

Transitioning from the student role to the professor role can be exciting yet challenging. Below are strategies for surviving and thriving during your first year as a professor and jumpstarting your tenured career in academia.

Before You Start a Position:

Apply to schools that are a good fit for you:

  • Do you prefer to spend more time on teaching or research requirements?
  • Would you prefer to teach primarily undergraduate or graduate students?
  • What geographic location do you desire? Urban vs rural? Climate? Region of the country?
  • What is known about institutions’ reputations and practices related to promotion, tenure, family, etc?
  • How do departments and faculty support new professors’ efforts to achieve tenure?

Negotiate a package that will maximize your success:

  • Reduced teaching load during first year – for example, fewer courses to teach and/or fewer new courses to prepare each term
  • Money for research assistant
  • Specialized research software, equipment, etc.
    Conference travel money – for regional, national, and international conferences

Understand the context:

  • City/state/regional culture
  • History of the university and its relationship to the community
  • Image the university projects to its students
  • Institutional mission
  • University organizational chart
  • School and departmental hierarchies – What is showcased and rewarded?
  • Rules and regulations – What are they? How easy is it to find out what they are?

Develop realistic expectations:

  • Realize that you will spend most of your first year learning rather than producing
  • Be satisfied with yourself if you accomplish one new thing during your first year
  • Understand that there will be things you like and dislike about any work environment
  • Remember to keep things in perspective – feel confident in your competence because you successfully completed graduate school and obtained a faculty position

After You Start a Position:

Learn & use campus resources:

  • New faculty orientation
  • Family and childcare resources
  • Faculty networks or support groups – sometimes based on gender, ethnicity, public service interests, stage in the tenure process, etc.
  • Teaching and learning centers that can assist you in your teaching
  • Technology centers
  • Grant writing assistance – workshops, information centers, consultants, etc
  • Advising & mentoring workshops

Collect good information:

  • Pretend you’re an anthropologist – listen and watch for cues about expectations, norms, relational dynamics, etc
  • Ask questions about unclear policies, requirements, resources, etc
  • Conduct informational interviews with other relatively new faculty (in a variety of disciplines) and ask them to share their insights about surviving the first year and getting tenure
  • As you learn your new department’s history, operating procedures, and current goals, seek out information and perspectives from multiple colleagues
  • Use your department chair as a source of information and as an advocate
  • Look at the CVs of professors you admire and see what they had accomplished in terms of teaching, research, and service at certain milestones
  • Ask a recently tenured professor if you can see his/her tenure review file

Reach out and take initiative:

  • Join faculty social networks
  • Seek out multiple mentors and advocates
  • Join “new professional” groups in professional organizations
  • Attend campus meetings and events so you can network with communities throughout the campus
  • Volunteer preemptively so you can sit on committees that interest you
  • Be strategic with your teaching – ask to teach classes that relate to your research or that will help you learn more about a topic that you need to learn

Be clear & planful:

  • Understand the written requirements for tenure
  • Ask colleagues about the unwritten requirements for tenure
  • Develop a timeline for meeting requirements
  • Periodically remind yourself why you are there and what you want to accomplish
  • State your needs to others
  • Review your progress quarterly or annually

Say “yes”:

  • Accept invitations to sit on panels
  • Present at conferences
  • Serve as an ad hoc journal reviewer
  • Review conference presentation proposals
  • Agree to sit on a few committees
  • Mentor a few students

Say “no” (or in some cases “not yet”):

  • Some things do not have to happen in your first year – let them wait
  • Try to avoid summer teaching until you reach tenure
  • Limit your committee membership (especially crucial for women & minorities)
  • Limit your number of mentees and advisees

Analyze your work style:

  • What time of day is best for writing & creativity?
  • Do you prefer to work several “average” length days or a few long days?
  • Do you want to do all of your work at school or take it elsewhere?
  • Will you be available by email 24/7 or during “normal business hours”?
  • Set rules for yourself in terms of hours, availability, email response time, etc.
  • Do not feel bad about respecting your time and boundaries
  • Distinguish between tasks that are important and urgent, important but not urgent, and others

Create a workable schedule:

  • Teaching
  • Reading/research
  • Lab work/experiments
  • Writing
  • Official office hours
  • Departmental meetings
  • Email and other

Create a suitable work environment:

  • Make your office &/or lab feel like you
  • Consider closing your door when you want to focus on projects
  • Have a way to block out distractions

Track your contributions:

  • Think broadly about the many ways in which you are making a contribution
  • Start an “Add to CV” list
  • Create a box or folder of “artifacts” demonstrating your teaching, research, advising, committee work, campus involvement, professional association activity, awards, etc
  • Update your CV quarterly
  • Practice telling your story – describing why your work is important and how you are contributing at the student, department, university, and field level

Use self-care strategies:

  • Sleep an adequate number of hours each night
  • Exercise at least a couple of times a week
  • Eat well – regularly and nutritiously
  • Maintain or establish hobbies that provide rest or a change of pace from your work schedule
  • Get out during the day to enjoy fresh air and sunshine
  • Reward yourself for working hard and hitting milestones
  • Realize that transitions are stressful and consume mental, emotional, and physical energy
  • Friends from grad school AND friends outside academia
  • Mentors – within university and elsewhere
  • Therapists

Helpful Resources

  • Barker, K. (2002). At the helm: A laboratory navigator. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
  • Bassett, R. H. (2005). Parenting and professing: Balancing family work with an academic career. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Bataille, G. M., & Brown, B. E. (2006). Faculty career paths: Multiple routes to academic success and satisfaction. American Council on Education.
  • Bianco-Mathis, V. & Chalofsky, N. (1998). The full-time faculty handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund, & Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (2004). Making the right moves: A practical guide to scientific management for postdocs and new faculty. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Download the PDF
  • Darley, J. M, Zanna, M. P., & Roediger, H. L. III. (2004). The compleat academic: A career guide. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Diamond, R. M. (2004). Preparing for promotion, tenure, and annual review: A faculty guide. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
  • Garcia, M. (2000). Succeeding in an academic career: A guide for faculty of color. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
  • Keller, S. L., & Smith, A. L. (2006). Advice for new faculty teaching undergraduate science. Journal of Chemical Education, 83 (3), 401-406.
  • Lang, J. M. (2005). Life on the tenure track: Lessons from the first year. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
  • Lucas, C., & Murry, J. W. Jr. (2002). New faculty: A practical guide for academic beginners. NY: Palgrave.
  • Menges, R. J. (1999). Faculty in new jobs: A guide to settling in, becoming established, and building institutional support. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Sawyer, R. M., Prichard, K. W., Hostetler, K. D. (2001). The art and politics of college teaching: A practical guide for the beginning professor (2nd ed). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
  • Toth, E. (2002). Ms. Mentor’s impeccable advice for women in academia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

Acknowledgements

The UW Career and Internship Center acknowledges the following people for providing materials and/or feedback on this handout:

  • Dr. Joyce Yen, UW ADVANCE Dr.
  • Jennifer Turns, UW Department of Technical Communication
  • Dr. Eve Riskin, UW College of Engineering, on behalf of the late Dr. Denice Denton
  • Dr. Wayne Jacobson, University of Iowa Office of the Provost
  • Dr. Patrick McDonald, Seattle Pacific University Department of Philosophy