Making Waves: Navigating the Transition from Graduate Student to Faculty Member

Making Waves: Navigating the Transition from Graduate Student to Faculty Member
Cynthia Lester, Raquel Hill, and Melanie Eddins

All three are in their first two years of teaching

Introduction
strides have been made by women in STEM
among SE PhDs 4x as many men than women hold full time faculty positions
cool women
Maria Klawe
Shirley Tilghman
Valerie Taylor

Navigating the application process
as grad students we need to focus on our academic and scholarly work->most important for us right now
publish or perish (we have to adopt mindset prior to application process)
harder to get faculty positions at the moment. Very competitive
Choosing an institution
research institutions
lower load, can sometimes buy out of class with research dollars
higher expectations fro research
teaching institutions
higher teaching loads
lower expectations for research
push for more research lately
size
location
current job market (from CRA)
bs/ms tenure 9 tenured/associate 3 admin 1
bs/ms/phd tenure 12 tenured/associate 1 admin 2
give yourself choices
apply broadly
be open to alternate possibilities
do not pre-judge
application
CV limit to three pages
emphasize research, publications, teaching
list invited talks
community service (program committees, review panels)
teaching statement limit to 2 pages
most important document for teaching schools
explains your teaching philosophy
references
people who will write favorable recs
choose people who will submit materials in a timely manner
research statement
not just abstract, take a step back from your dissertation
most important document for research oriented institutions
state your research problem
why is the problem important?
what is your approach to the problem?
what is novel about this approach?
how can you extend this work? (what are the sub-problems?)
you will be excited about it for a long time...why?
don't start at last minute
get lots of people's opinions on it

Navigating the interview process
the job talk
remember oral communication is different from written communication
think about your audience
think about your rhetorical goals
remember that you want to get the job
want them to want you
practice
if using technology, be familiar with it
go ahead of time so that you can set up
people in area need to get it, people outside area need to get it
teaching demonstration: choosing topic vs. being assigned topic
know your audience
nature of class
size and nature of class
how class was chosen: regular class, randomly selected students, faculty, etc.
negotiation process
do your homework
find out the range of salaries for your area at the institution
benefits
retirement, health insurance, leave/vacation
course load
type, number, preparations
research opportunities
release time, funding
everything is negotiable, especially if you have another offer

Navigating responsibilities as faculty member
teaching and research expectations
what type of courses
creation of syllabi and course materials
selection and adoption of textbooks
development and implementation of new courses
lab management for new and existing courses
administrative duties
research and institutional involvement
research
publications
presentations
seminars and lectures
institutional involvement
meetings
committees
special projects (i.e. convocation)
community service
path to tenure
the process
the path starts the day you arrive
get an understanding of the process
resources
The Faculty Handbook; The Tenure Process Book
the application
evidentiary material (start collecting now)
external funding
evaluations (dept chair, dean, students)
community and university service
publications and research
professional development
the time line
3 years, 5 years, 7 years

things I wish I knew and concluding thoughts
consider offers of joint apts carefully
follow your intuition
how major life changes affect the tenure clock
it's ok to say no
a research budget is possible (even at small private institutions)
publish early and often (what publications)
start networking early
select a mentor
social climate of environment

start early
chronicle
cra
acm
be prepared

ghc2006