Feedback on early career faculty

[Vid]

Folks,

I see many senior colleagues make great feedback here and are active on this platform. so I wanted to ask a quick question. Since there is no written policy for starting as TT faculty, could you share with me the biggest mistake you made in your early years and the lessons that you learned from it?

Thank you.

[arcturus]

My biggest mistake: I listened to the advice of some and ignored the advice of others. Sometimes that should have been switched.

[Ruralguy]

If more than 2 people both inside and outside of your department say "X is important for tenure" then believe them or at least be sure to keep asking others, even if it seems to be out of proportion or a little nutty. It might be your brain that needs to re-calibrate, not theirs.

[little bongo]

My biggest mistakes always involved assuming. Assuming colleagues knew exactly what I meant, as well as assuming I knew exactly what colleagues meant. It's an old saw, but it's true: when you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME.

[Sun_Worshiper]

(1) I'd prioritize networking to a greater extent. I always knew that outside letters were going to be important, but I kept kicking the can down the road in terms of building a strong network of seniors outside the department. By the time I went up for tenure, I had to do a lot of guess work to identify the right folks to suggest as external reviewers. It all worked out in the end, but I should have been more purposeful earlier on to reduce risk.

(2) I would have pulled the plug on a few projects that, deep down, I knew weren't going to work out. One, in particular, was clearly a lost cause, but I didn't want to disappoint my coauthor so I let it continue to suck up a ton of my time. Ultimately it just died on the vine and I think we both have just implicitly agreed to let this sleeping dog lie. Fortunately, we worked on another paper later that had better prospects and was recently conditionally accepted at a good journal.

(3) Related to point 2, I would have been more cautious about agreeing to author papers with people. I didn't have a big network, so whenever anyone would show any interest in working with me I'd agree. This would sometimes lead me to sinking time into projects that didn't have any clear direction and, consequently, didn't work out. Other times it would lead me to publish things that I would not have otherwise, so overall it wasn't such a bad thing, but now, post-tenure, I'm much more selective.

[Sun_Worshiper]

One more thing, which isn't from my experience, but rather something I've observed from other junior people: Know what kind of university and department you're in and be sure to satisfy t&p committees at both levels. For example, if you are at a high-volume R1, then you need quantity as well as quality - publishing a few great pieces is likely not going to cut it, even if your department-level colleagues are giving you kudos. Likewise, if you are in a department full of excellent teachers, then you had better be a great teacher too, even if you are at a university that prioritizes research.

I've seen positive, even overwhelmingly positive, department votes get overturned at a higher level because they aren't perceived to be matching the expectations of the university, and I've seen people who look good on paper get dinged at the department-level because they aren't satisfying local norms. Do both.

[Morden]

I wish I had picked a professional organization and prioritized getting involved with it (annual conferences but also service) earlier than I did. Instead, I spent too much time flitting from conference to conference based on topic, but that didn't really give me the chance to know and work with people outside of my institution.

[Vid]

GREAT feedback guys. Thank you.

I think staying hirable is more important than getting tenure. In this case, you have the option of getting a position elsewhere if you want to.

Let's keep the conversation going!

[Hibush]

A lot of the excellent advice above underscores the importance of talking with people regularly. That activity is unfortunately becoming rarer in most parts of society, so I'm going to comment on just that.

I was afraid to bother people. It turns out that it is valuable to know people well enough to have a spontaneous conversation of mutual interest, and to do that relatively frequently. The relevant people are faculty in your department, your department chair, various administrators and staff, as well as people elsewhere who are in your academic area. Once you have started, it gets easier and is a virtuous cycle.

[eigen]

I'm not sure I can say my advice is from someone "senior" as I'm up for tenure soon and can't tell how well my strategies worked out, but:

• Figure out what your priorities are, and how those match with your institution. One thing I found super important was figuring out department level vs. division level vs. university level priorities in tenure and promotion, as they may not align.
• Decide how much you're willing to change for a "better" shot at tenure. One senior colleague gave me the advice of "Do what you feel is important. If you don't get tenure, that may just mean the institution isn't a good fit for you".
• Make a broad network at your institution outside your department. Include both other pre-tenure folks, recently tenured folks, and senior folks. Ask about institutional culture broadly, so you aren't just getting things from one source. See what is consistent and what varies.
• Have multiple research projects and priorities. Having something to switch to when you run into roadblocks, either temporary or long-term, can help both your sanity and your productivity.
• As you design classes, keep in mind both efficacy and efficiency: Figure out the places where your time can be best spent for the most impact for your students, and cut out practices that might be "high impact" but come at the cost of disproportionate amounts of your time.
• Learn what questions are asked on course evals. Give mid-term evaluations with the same or similar questions. Learn to talk about your practices in class in such a way that gives students language that they can talk about in evals / scaffolds them into answering those questions. Along with this, learn how evals are used in tenure and promotion.

[Sun_Worshiper]

GREAT feedback guys. Thank you.

I think staying hirable is more important than getting tenure. In this case, you have the option of getting a position elsewhere if you want to.


Let's keep the conversation going!

The bolded is true as long as you are mobile, but what if your spouse has a great job and your kids are in a stable situation?

Don't get me wrong, it is important to stay hirable just in case (this is true after tenure as well), but getting denied tenure or nudged out the door after a few years is something you want to avoid.

I'm not sure I can say my advice is from someone "senior" as I'm up for tenure soon and can't tell how well my strategies worked out, but:

• Figure out what your priorities are, and how those match with your institution. One thing I found super important was figuring out department level vs. division level vs. university level priorities in tenure and promotion, as they may not align.
• Decide how much you're willing to change for a "better" shot at tenure. One senior colleague gave me the advice of "Do what you feel is important. If you don't get tenure, that may just mean the institution isn't a good fit for you".
• Make a broad network at your institution outside your department. Include both other pre-tenure folks, recently tenured folks, and senior folks. Ask about institutional culture broadly, so you aren't just getting things from one source. See what is consistent and what varies.
• Have multiple research projects and priorities. Having something to switch to when you run into roadblocks, either temporary or long-term, can help both your sanity and your productivity.
• As you design classes, keep in mind both efficacy and efficiency: Figure out the places where your time can be best spent for the most impact for your students, and cut out practices that might be "high impact" but come at the cost of disproportionate amounts of your time.
• Learn what questions are asked on course evals. Give mid-term evaluations with the same or similar questions. Learn to talk about your practices in class in such a way that gives students language that they can talk about in evals / scaffolds them into answering those questions. Along with this, learn how evals are used in tenure and promotion.

The bolded are very important imo.

On the first point, I always had several projects in motion at once and I would strive to always have two or three manuscripts off to journals at all times. This way if one project failed it wouldn't make or break me.

On the second point, everyone knows that teaching evals are not an ideal way to assess teaching and that they are plagued by all sorts of biases, but at many places they are the primary way in which teaching is evaluated for t&p. So make sure you get high response rates and, to the extent that you can, make sure you get high marks.

[Diogenes]

Learn how to say No. There are layers to this- first, focus your research/teaching/service so you aren't pulled every which way diluting your time and attention, and mental wellbeing. Second, learn how to do it with political savvy.

Find an informal mentor with some seniority outside of your department.

[Puget]

Learn how to say No. There are layers to this- first, focus your research/teaching/service so you aren't pulled every which way diluting your time and attention, and mental wellbeing. Second, learn how to do it with political savvy.

Find an informal mentor with some seniority outside of your department.

Amen! I'm not always great at saying no, but working on it (just said no to yet another "opportunity" to do uncompensated extra service). A good piece of advice I got was that when tempted to say yes, instead say "thank you for considering me for this role– I need a few days to look at my other commitments and see whether this is something I have the time and bandwidth to take on at this time", and then actually do that.

The corollary of course, is knowing when to say yes. Ask yourself
(1) will this be good for my career (or will not doing it be bad for my career)? (e.g., look good for P&T, provide important networking opportunities, stay on the good side of people you need to stay on the good side of, etc.)
(2) do I have time to do it without other priorities suffering (no really, are you sure you do?)
(3) am I obviously the right person for this job?
(4) do I want to do it? 

My bar for saying yes is at least 2 of the 4, arguably it really should be at least 3 of the 4.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Good advice on saying no. I said yes to lots of small and even a few fairly large things that I felt were unfair, but I had to draw the line on a couple of big things, including once to the dean (and he was laying the pressure on pretty thick). I always tell our junior people to save the Nos for big and unfair asks, but to stand your ground when those asks come. But the way Puget is explaining it is even better.

One more suggestion is to keep a low profile. Don't get involved in department politics or take sides when factions are beefing with one another. Just be known as someone who quietly, and effectively, produces research, does a good job in the classroom, does service when asked (keeping in mind that it is good to say no sometimes), and gets along with everyone.

[Vid]

Thank you, folks. GREAT advice. I am writing them down to review them once in a while. again I appreciate your feedback.