A Contemplation about leaving a tenure track position

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I am a second year assistant professor and I`ve been unhappy in my job for a while now. The main reason is that I have a strong passion for research, whereas the university I work at is a teaching institution. On top of that, there is no support for research, and barely any professor does research at all. In my own program, there are 8 professors, 4 of them are non Ph.D. non-tenure instructors, while none of the other 3 does any research whatsoever. A lot of professors come and leave before they go to tenure and few years ago the university was considering closing the program because number of professors left at once. When I came on board last year, there was one new professor ahead of me who didn't do anything other than teaching, and this one activity she was doing while making it sound as if she is doing a big favor to the school that she shows up in her classroom at all.
The criteria for promotion include teaching, research, and service for ALL Assistant Professors (AP), but because the program doesn't have tenure professors (except one who didn't leave but he is really bad even after 8 years at the school), she is likely to get tenured without any research work not even a local conference presentation- which does not carry the same weight like a publication. Last year I was the only faculty with conference papers, publications and service on a national committee. This year I am doing the same.
I have been doing a lot of research during the Spring and Summer semesters of last year and had several research articles published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. Nevertheless, I am very bored because there is no intellectual stimulus around me, no one to discuss ideas with, and I feel isolated and that I am wasting valuable time in this place. On top of this, the students are really not smart at all and honestly are well known in the south region to be an underachiever.  The school has the reputation of accepting any applicant who applies and/or was rejected by other schools!. Last year, I had an undergraduate student asking me to sign them up to my graduate class, before they even applied to the graduate program because applying means automatic acceptance and students know that. During the ongoing COVID-19, this situation exacerbated further, as the school wanted to guarantee an income from students' tuition. Finally, my colleagues are really boring people and no one has anything interesting to talk about. I`ve talked about this earlier in a post and it is still the same problem only that now I have publications and looking for a professor position in universities that encourage research and not only teaching, and have smart students to teach.
I know that many people want to have a tenure track position and think that I am lucky and in an excellent position but I am not happy. I also know that many professors feel stressed out in their second and third years in particular. Any advice? Is this normal during the second year in a tenure track position?.

[tiva]

This sounds awful, and the standard advice would be to go on the TT job market this fall, while staying in your current position for another year and submitting as many papers and grants as possible. Since few jobs are going to be advertised this fall, can you hold out an additional year? Can you find a research job outside of academia right now? It's easier to find a job while employed.

[doc700]

I also agree your current position is not a good fit but that perhaps it will take a year plus to get a new position.

I am starting my 3rd year right now.  I've found that with COVID I have no chit-chat with members of my department.  We do have Zoom faculty meetings but no informal conversation before that we had in person.  This has been disappointing for me as I do like my department.  That said, I've started a few group chats with academic friends and have really enjoyed it.  The junior faculty in my department have a pretty active Slack chat channel. I also have group texts with different clusters of former grad school classmates who are now faculty etc.  Its been sad to miss the walking down the hall conversations with my own department, but I've managed to build up different ways to connect and in some cases re-connect with colleagues/friends I hadn't had regular contact with pre-COVID.

I know you are frustrated with the lack of research talk at your school.  But how much do you actually have to chat with people in your department for the next year?  Can't you do your teaching, do your research, apply for jobs, and find ways to connect to other people outside your institution?

[polly_mer]

Are you in a field with opportunities for research jobs outside academia?  My employer hires year round and we have many people who left academic jobs. 

I agree with the advice to keep publishing for now and go on the market immediately to find a better fit.  Stay on the market until you get a job to get a better fit.

[spork]

1. How can you create the job you want out of the job you now have? Can you involve students in your research and do internal or external mechanisms exist that would facilitate that?

2. Keep yourself marketable whether you are actively applying for jobs or not.

3. Apply for jobs. It sounds as if your employer is on the downward financial spiral to extinction.

4.  Leaving a tenure-track position for a non-tenure track position often means you will never again get another tenure-track position because of the glut of academic labor in many if not most fields.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thank you all. It seems that your suggestions align with my earlier contemplation to apply to other academic positions while I am still holding this position. I dont wish to burn bridges because I would like to become tenured in a university.
The job market, as it was stated earlier, is pretty bad at the moment and many universities like ours, put in place a hiring freeze. I managed to find two tenure track positions, and I plan to puruse them.
Thanks.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

The group of faculty that I`ve mentioned also have a chat group. They exchange silly things that have no value and have nothing to do with faculty work and/or exchange of ideas. They also say things that could be classified as violation of FERPA and HIPPA and there are a lot of microagression behaviors. I barely participate in these chats.

I also agree your current position is not a good fit but that perhaps it will take a year plus to get a new position.

I am starting my 3rd year right now.  I've found that with COVID I have no chit-chat with members of my department.  We do have Zoom faculty meetings but no informal conversation before that we had in person.  This has been disappointing for me as I do like my department.  That said, I've started a few group chats with academic friends and have really enjoyed it.  The junior faculty in my department have a pretty active Slack chat channel. I also have group texts with different clusters of former grad school classmates who are now faculty etc.  Its been sad to miss the walking down the hall conversations with my own department, but I've managed to build up different ways to connect and in some cases re-connect with colleagues/friends I hadn't had regular contact with pre-COVID.

I know you are frustrated with the lack of research talk at your school.  But how much do you actually have to chat with people in your department for the next year?  Can't you do your teaching, do your research, apply for jobs, and find ways to connect to other people outside your institution?

[doc700]

Okay, so your faculty group chat is different than the one I'm on.  I mentioned I've separately had a good time chatting with my colleagues I went to grad school who don't work at my institution.  Since we are broadly in the same field (same PhD advisor) we do mention papers we've read or talk about our work.  Some is big picture talk about research ideas, some is do you have any suggestions for this cooling water problem (I'm in experimental science).  We are also applying to the same grants and discuss those ahead of time.  Can you connect with other colleagues in the field if not at your school?  I've personally really enjoyed this intellectual community in the time of COVID.

The group of faculty that I`ve mentioned also have a chat group. They exchange silly things that have no value and have nothing to do with faculty work and/or exchange of ideas. They also say things that could be classified as violation of FERPA and HIPPA and there are a lot of microagression behaviors. I barely participate in these chats.

I also agree your current position is not a good fit but that perhaps it will take a year plus to get a new position.

I am starting my 3rd year right now.  I've found that with COVID I have no chit-chat with members of my department.  We do have Zoom faculty meetings but no informal conversation before that we had in person.  This has been disappointing for me as I do like my department.  That said, I've started a few group chats with academic friends and have really enjoyed it.  The junior faculty in my department have a pretty active Slack chat channel. I also have group texts with different clusters of former grad school classmates who are now faculty etc.  Its been sad to miss the walking down the hall conversations with my own department, but I've managed to build up different ways to connect and in some cases re-connect with colleagues/friends I hadn't had regular contact with pre-COVID.

I know you are frustrated with the lack of research talk at your school.  But how much do you actually have to chat with people in your department for the next year?  Can't you do your teaching, do your research, apply for jobs, and find ways to connect to other people outside your institution?

[the-tenure-track-prof]

You found a like-minded group that understandably you can connect with intellectually and enjoy tossing ideas and learning about what research or project your colleagues are doing. I was able to connect last year with one faculty from another department at the same university. He got to know my work and he suggested developing some research projects together. He is up for tenure and has not done any research work on his own but he shows interest in research. I am considering to collaborate with him because he is ahead of me on the tenure ladder and will get tenured before me. He also nominated me to the ONLY research committee on campus that the university have. Obviously my colleagues at this tiny program that I teach at, didnt vote for me. I ddint ask for the nomination but it was a sign that he appreciates my research work. The other reason that I contemplate working with him is that he shows curiosity and interest in research projects. It is not ideal but it is ok for now.
The other collaborative work that I managed to develop is with a well respected professor from a university in Ghana who was in the US last year and was invited as speaker on campus. This professor (in public health) is well experienced in research, and we share a passion for research. She is smart, serious, and committed to work and respect schedules and due dates that we agree upon. She appears to care about her reputation as a scholar. I like working with her.
However, these are the only two collaborations that I currently have, besides my individual publications which is useful to show that I can publish on my own too.

I do like your idea of opening a chat group with people who are like minded in the academia!. I have to think of people like that, and create a chat group. Sounds interesting.

[San Joaquin]

In addition to the above: You can reach out to people whose work you have read and admired, and ask them a question about it.  You can follow up on conversations you've had at previous conferences.  You can connect with publishers and consider editing either a special journal issue or a collected volume in your area of research expertise.  It won't "count" as much as a publication, but it will help build the kind of professional network of which you speak.

[doc700]

Definitely apply to the other jobs you found.  Realistically, however, it will probably take 10+ months to move to a new position.

Just wanted to point out in the meantime, you can develop some of the academic connections and community you haven't found at your university.  I've found that its harder to connect with my department colleagues since COVID but easier to connect with close collaborators and academic friends outside my university.  Since you aren't trying to connect with your department, theres no loss there.  You might be able to find some community and have stimulating conversations, even if its not within your university, in the next 10 months.

You found a like-minded group that understandably you can connect with intellectually and enjoy tossing ideas and learning about what research or project your colleagues are doing. I was able to connect last year with one faculty from another department at the same university. He got to know my work and he suggested developing some research projects together. He is up for tenure and has not done any research work on his own but he shows interest in research. I am considering to collaborate with him because he is ahead of me on the tenure ladder and will get tenured before me. He also nominated me to the ONLY research committee on campus that the university have. Obviously my colleagues at this tiny program that I teach at, didnt vote for me. I ddint ask for the nomination but it was a sign that he appreciates my research work. The other reason that I contemplate working with him is that he shows curiosity and interest in research projects. It is not ideal but it is ok for now.
The other collaborative work that I managed to develop is with a well respected professor from a university in Ghana who was in the US last year and was invited as speaker on campus. This professor (in public health) is well experienced in research, and we share a passion for research. She is smart, serious, and committed to work and respect schedules and due dates that we agree upon. She appears to care about her reputation as a scholar. I like working with her.
However, these are the only two collaborations that I currently have, besides my individual publications which is useful to show that I can publish on my own too.

I do like your idea of opening a chat group with people who are like minded in the academia!. I have to think of people like that, and create a chat group. Sounds interesting.

[polly_mer]

Definitely apply to the other jobs you found.  Realistically, however, it will probably take 10+ months to move to a new position.

Non-academic hiring can be much faster.  Even for a PhD hire, we have been too late at three months after the first posting of the job ad because other employers took less than a month.

[Ruralguy]

It doesn't sound like your dept. is particularly bad, just not research oriented, which of course you knew when you took the job (I just can't believe it if you tell me otherwise). I wouldn't make any assumptions about their viability, they just sound like a typical non-flagship university.

Other than looking for other jobs. Connect with colleagues outside your dept and school for research, but within your dept. perhaps discuss some teaching you have in common?
That is to say, you aren't connecting with your dept. because you are not relating to them on their terms. You could go on doing that, and in the short term, *if* you leave, it won't matter, but if you don't or can't, I assure you, it will matter. Service would also be a way to connect with others, as well as just generic socializing.

I am not saying "ignore research and fill your time with teaching and service", just continue to do your research but also relate well with your *current* colleagues.

[lightning]

Usually, hiring committees at teaching-oriented universities are pretty good at sniffing out people who would really prefer to be at a research-oriented university. You prioritized a tenure-track job over a particular type of job that you would prefer. I get it. Very few can have the perfect job, at least at first. For people that prioritize the gaining of a TT position, sacrifices usually have to be made in the areas of preferred choice of location or type of job/school or even $. In choosing this path, your next step is to launch and maintain a stellar research record (win-grants & publish/present/network your way to a research-oriented type of TT position).

While you are at this teaching-oriented university, you can prove to your next employer that you can teach, too, along with understanding the expectations of and handling the everyday job of being a prof (service & collegiality). So maybe you should reach out to someone at your university and, at the very least, do one of those collaborative research projects that look good on paper to a prospective employer.

Here's something you may not know. Those mediocre colleagues that you complain about thought the same thing you did at a similar career stage. You can be like them eventually or you can publish your way to a research university or you can get out of academia altogether. If leaving a TT job or even leaving academe scares you, because obviously being in a TT job is important to you, there are many therapies, including communities like this fora where you can read similar stories from others, or you can even try to convince dis-satisfied academics to get out, as a way to mitigate the effects of your own inner conflict/regret about leaving and nagging self-inflicted suspicions about possible personal/professional shortcomings.

[Ruralguy]

I wouldn't make too many assumptions about research inactive colleagues. There could be many reasons. Chief among them is that since its not required and perhaps not even rarely awarded, these colleagues just do what is required and most probably do it well.