Ask the Experts: Seven Strategies for Success on the Tenure Track

Securing a tenure track position in today's job market is a major accomplishment. Once you have one, though, how can you ensure your success and achieve tenure?

Last week, I was on a panel where new faculty could ask the panelists questions about the promotion and tenure process. The invitation to the panel indicated that we should come prepared to answer questions and that they would end the panel by asking us to each give our single most important piece of advice to new faculty.

I decided that my single most important piece of advice would be to tell the new faculty that they could figure out the tenure standards for their department, even if no one wanted to be very specific about it. I detail how to do that in this post.

There were other gems of advice offered by the Chairs, Deans, and tenured professors on that panel, and I will share some of them with you.

1. Write every day

   One of my colleagues told me before the panel that her single most piece of advice would be to write every day. This, of course, is a piece of advice that I fully endorse. Writing every day is one of the most important things you can do to achieve the research productivity needed for tenure.

2. Look at the tenure documentation

   Several panelists mentioned the importance of actually looking at the tenure documentation early in your career. I remember doing that and the paperwork seeming a bit overwhelming. Now that I am on the other side, I think you should not only look at the forms you will have to fill out when you apply for tenure and promotion, but that you should actually fill them out. In fact, I think you should fill out two versions. The first version should be based on your current CV. The second version should be how you plan for your CV to look when you go up for tenure. That will give you a very accurate idea of what you are shooting for.

3. Make a list of your external reviewers

   Now. One of the best pieces of advice I received on the tenure track was to make a list of 12 people who are at the top of my field, and to make it a point to contact them while I was on the tenure track. If you write this list in your first year, you only have to contact two people per year over the next six years. And, you can start with the least intimidating people.

4. Network to establish a national reputation

   One of the panelists suggested a fairly easy way to do this: Organize a panel at your national conference. Organizing a panel will put you in touch with scholars in your field, and will give you increased visibility.

5. Be mindful of service

   Another good piece of advice was to be mindful of how much and what kind of service you do. First, you have to figure out what kind of service you like. Do you like serving on review panels? Do you like curriculum development? Do you like organizing seminars? Do you want to be on the athletics committee in the hopes of scoring free basketball tickets? What do you like to do? Once you figure out what kind of service you like, you may want to be proactive and search out those kinds of opportunities. That way, when other opportunities arise, you can say that you are already occupied with other service tasks. It is, of course, crucial to know that you can say “no” to service requests, especially when your “no” is accompanied by a good explanation.

6. Teach effectively and efficiently

   We also discussed teaching. One of my colleagues suggested mid-course evaluations as a valuable tactic. I fully agree. I often find that asking students their opinions midway through the course is an optimal way to get feedback you can actually implement as well as gives the students an opportunity to get any strong opinions they have off their chest. I also just had to mention Robert Boice’s finding that successful new faculty don’t spend more than two hours preparing for each class. My fellow panelists also suggested that new faculty seek out advice from their more seasoned colleagues as to how to be a more efficient grader and more effective teacher.

7. Know your evaluation criteria and use them as a guide

   The panelists also pointed out that the evaluation criteria at the University of Kansas are: 40% research; 40% teaching; and 20% service, and that you cannot overcompensate in one area and expect for it to spill over into other areas. This is especially the case for service and research. You can’t do tons of service and hope that no one will notice your lack of research productivity. 

It can be overwhelming to be starting a new tenure track position. But, life on the tenure track does not have to be tortuous. Keep that in mind as you come up for strategies to survive and thrive on the tenure track

How to Thrive in a Joint Appointment: Four Strategies You Can Implement

Are you in a joint appointment? Thinking of applying for or accepting a joint appointment? Here are my thoughts on how to make a joint appointment work for you.

When I applied for a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas in 2005 with a joint appointment in Sociology and American Studies, I had no idea what a joint appointment was. I did know, however, that I wanted a job at a Research I institution, so I accepted the joint position with few questions about that aspect of my new job.

My first year on the tenure-track in a joint position was difficult. I found it challenging to discern how much service I should do, how involved I should get with the politics in each department, how much emotional energy I should invest in the various conflicts that emerged, and how to create a publication record that would please both departments. Of course, the first year on the tenure track is difficult for most people. However, I think that the mere fact of having two departments at least means that you are twice as likely as a person with one department to find yourself negotiating messy departmental politics. Finding one sane, well-run department is difficult. Being lucky enough to end up in two is even rarer.

People often ask me my opinion on joint appointments, as I have had one for seven years. I think that there are costs and benefits to joint appointed positions, and that perhaps the costs outweigh the benefits. However, this post is not directed at administrators trying to make decisions about whether or not to create joint appointments. Instead, it is directed at those faculty members who find themselves jointly appointed and want to make it work.

Here are a few lessons I have learned along the way that have helped me to thrive in my joint appointment.

1. Find good mentors. In each department, find a mentor with lots of institutional capital who can help you navigate service requests. I copied one of my departmental mentors on every service-related email exchange I had with my Chair to ensure that she was aware of what was being asked of me, and went to her for advice before accepting any service requests.
2.  Make sure no one forgets you have a joint appointment. Although perhaps it should not be this way, it will often fall on your shoulders to remind your Chair and others in the department that you have a joint appointment. Make sure that you remind people whenever necessary. For example, in both of my departments, we are expected to set aside time to advise students during advising period. In Sociology, we are asked to set aside three hours a week. I set aside 1.5 hours, and remind the person making this request that I have a joint appointment and thus do half the advising hours.  In American Studies, each full-time faculty member is given 12 advisees, and jointly appointed people are given 6. As this is already the norm, I don’t have to say anything.
3.  Pull your weight, but no more. Be sure you are pulling your fair share in the Department – as a jointly appointed faculty member.  If everyone in your Department is on two committees, then, as a jointly appointed faculty, you should only be on one. If everyone is on just one committee, then you should request one of the committee assignments with a lighter load, in light of your joint appointment. Feel free to be creative in what you ask for. One year, for example, I was on the Undergraduate studies committee in Sociology, which does both curriculum development and advising. I asked if I could just do advising, and the Chair agreed. That also worked out well for me because I find advising more rewarding.
4.  Make it work to your advantage. Try to come up with ways that the joint appointment can work to your advantage. Here are three examples of ways I have done that:

• At the University of Kansas, American Studies is considered to be in the Humanities, and Sociology in the Social Sciences. When we have internal grant applications, I can choose which area to submit my application. As the Social Sciences tend to have more resources, I usually submit my internal grant applications to the Social Science Division.
•  I have a 2/2 teaching load, with one course per semester in each department. By teaching courses in both departments, I have a wider selection of courses to choose from and have been able to teach what I want when I want to by taking advantage of the wider range of possibilities than those that a singly-appointed faculty member might have.
• As a jointly appointed faculty member, I can request resources from both departments.  Thus, when one department is not able to provide me with something I need, I can ask the other department.

The last thing I will say about joint appointments is that if your joint appointment really is not working out, keep in mind that you often can switch your line to be fully appointed in one department. Admittedly, you should have a really good reason to do this, but it is often an option if things are not working out in your joint appointment.

What’s the matter with a forty-hour work week for academics?

I am not sure why, but, many times, when I argue that professors should work 40 hours a week, I get push back. Perhaps this is because some people are happy working over 40 hours a week, and understand their flexible work schedules to mean that they are free to work night and day. That’s fine by me.

What is not fine by me is that young scholars are made to feel as if working 50, 60, and 70 hours a week is how things should be, and never even consider the possibility that an academic's job can be done in 40 hours. In my view, a 40 hour week is plenty. And, I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Just ask the folks who fought for the 8-hour work day.



If you feel as if a 40-hour work week cramps your style, that’s fine. This post is not for you. This post is for those academics who want their life back, who don’t want work to be their life, and who want to believe that it is possible to get their work done in 40 hours a week so that they can use the rest of the time to nourish their soul, feed their bodies, spend with their families, dance tango, or play video games.

Of course, I can’t speak for everyone, but I just want to put it out there that I have been an academic since 1999, and have pretty much always taken evenings and weekends off from work. The exception is my first year of grad school. I began graduate study in August of 1999 and spent the first year reading and writing whenever I got the chance, aside from the five trips abroad I took that first year to Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. However, I came back to my second year of graduate school pregnant with twins, and, by force, spent a lot less time hitting the books. My husband spent the day taking care of our twin babies, so there was no way I was getting away with studying on the evenings and weekends.

When I got my first tenure-track job in 2005, my schedule stayed pretty much the same: I worked from 8am to 5pm, with a break for lunch. What has changed while on the tenure track is that I had to become much more efficient with my time to get it all done within the 40-hour work-week. And, I have had to stand my ground a few times when colleagues have suggested we have meetings on Saturdays.

So, how do I do it? On Tuesday, I actually kept track, as I do from time to time. The thing to note here is that I actually worked 8 hours, but did not do it neatly between 9am and 5pm. Instead, I worked from 6:30 to 7am, 8am to 11:30am and then from 1:30 to 2:30 and from 3pm to 5pm. Oops. That’s actually 7 hours. Unless you count the last half hour of social media, then it’s 7.5.

6am: woke up. had coffee. checked email.
6:30am: prepped my files to begin working for the day.
7am: got my three kids ready for school. had breakfast.
8am: Wrote for one pomodoro (25 minutes) on my book on deportees.
8:30am: Twitter, FB, planning.
9am: one pomodoro (25 minutes) responding to revisions on textbook.
9:30: social media stuff.
10am: one pomodoro revising textbook.
10:30am: another pomodoro applying for Human Subjects approval.
11:00am: another pomodoro finishing Human Subjects application. (5 pomodoros of writing!)
11:30: shower, get dressed, take a walk
12:30: have lunch with my husband.
1:30: read book for deportee project
2:30: walk to campus and get a new key for my office
3:00: check email, FB, Twitter.
3:30: more email. office cleaning.
4pm: Met with student to go over revisions to paper.
4:15pm: Reviewed book proposal for colleague.
4:30: Wrote a speaking proposal in response to an invitation to give a lecture.
4:50-5:05: some speed grading.
5:05: Social media
5:30: went for a walk
6:30: dinner, kids, more social media (not work-related).
8:30: kids to bed.
9-11pm: Read “Love and Capital” while kids were in bed reading as well.
11pm: Sleep

So, what did I do in that 7 hour work day?
- read a book
- responded to about 20 emails and processed another 50
- graded 15 short student essays
- met with a student
- wrote a speaking proposal
- responded to a colleague’s book proposal
- revised a chapter of a book-in-progress
- wrote and submitted a human subjects application
- pulled together data for a chapter of another book-in-progress.

For me, at the end of a productive day like that, I felt completely wiped out. There was no way I was going to be able to get in another 30 minutes, much less two to three hours of work. Thus, over the years, I have learned to stop working once I feel tired. That is why I stopped at 11:30am, took a long break, and then stopped again at 5pm. Admittedly, instead of reading Love and Capital at 9pm, I could have read something more directly related to my work. And, I do sometimes read for class at night. But, I at least try to stop working at 5pm.

Perhaps those people who work for 50, 60, or 70 hours a week have more stamina than I do. Perhaps I am more efficient and get done in 40 what others might do in 60. I really don’t know. But, I do want to put it out there that this system of working 8 hours a day (more or less) for five days a week works for this productive academic.

Get Inspired: Change Your Writing Location and Spark Creativity

Although few academics think of it this way, writing is a creative process. When you write, you pull words together to make a point or argument, to describe a scenario or a person, to analyze data, or to introduce a phenomenon. Doing this well requires creativity and ingenuity. Thus, it is important to feed your creative side.

Once you think of writing as a creative process, it becomes evident that it takes creative energy and that it requires stimulation and inspiration. This does not mean, of course, that you must wait to be inspired to write. With packed schedules and long to-do lists, inspiration rarely strikes on its own. The good news is that you can train your mind to be more creative on demand, and that there are a few tricks you can use to spark creativity.

The trick I am going to focus on in this blog post is very simple: change location. Many writers dream of having the perfect writing spot. For me, this would be a large, sparsely decorated room with hardwood floors, high ceilings, a sturdy cherry writing desk, and most importantly, an enormous window with a view of the sea. Unfortunately, I have no such luxury. Instead, I do much of my writing on my couch, in my cluttered office, and at various coffee shops around town. And, even if I did have an amazing office, it still would be important to try writing in other spaces. The reason is that a change in location sparks creativity.

If you have a favorite writing location that works for you, that is fabulous. However, if you ever find yourself stuck with your writing, it can be a good idea to try a new location, even if it is just for a day. For example, I know a very productive writer who works in her lovely home office most days, but once a week she meets with friends at a local coffee shop where they write together for two hours. For her, injecting a bit of variety in her writing routine provides just enough stimulation to keep going and to continue to be creative and productive.

I know another writer who resolved to write in her office on campus every morning. This strategy worked out well for the first few weeks of the semester. However, as the semester wore on, and fatigue began to set in, she found it more and more difficult to get her creative engines running, and easier to be distracted by all the tasks (and people) that called her attention in her office. She decided to change location, and to try writing at the campus library. This simple strategy of changing location worked wonders for her.

My own strategy is to write at home three days a week, and to go to a coffee shop two days a week. Usually, writing at home works for me. However, once my mind begins to wander and the disorganization in my living room shouts for my attention, I pack up my laptop and head out for a coffee shop. That change in location seems to work well. Once I am in a new space, I am able to concentrate again.

There are many possible ways of implementing the idea of changing location. For those of you who have a stable writing location that works, it might be a good idea to meet with friends at a coffee shop once a week to write together. If you do not want to leave your house, you can simply try writing in a different room. For those of you who are not getting the writing done in your office that you would hope to get done, it might work for you to try a new location: the campus library, a coffee shop, the public library, your home office, or even a friend’s house. For some people, it will work better to change locations every day. For others, adding a little variety into your regular routine is the trick.

The reason changing location works is that, as you are writing, you are – consciously or unconsciously – taking in all that surrounds you. This background noise or scenery will have an impact on how your brain works. If your environment is nurturing and inspiring, that is great and will work to your advantage. Nevertheless, if it is the exact same environment every single day, you might be missing out on an opportunity for creative inspiration by putting yourself in another space. On the other end of things, if you are writing in a less than ideal space – such as your cluttered office or your unkempt living room – you might be limiting your creativity by allowing your mind to focus on all of the things that demand your attention. In that case, you might be surprised how a simple change in location – one with fewer distractions - leads you to new places in your writing.

If you do decide to change it up, let me know how it goes! Either way, best of luck with your writing this week.