University Affairs

Great news – the Non-Academic Careers panel from Congress 2009 has been posted! This session features four grad students who were hired into the federal government through the Recruitment of Policy Leaders program.

One of the aspects of this particular session I appreciated the most was the discussion about the cultural aspects of working in the public service. The speakers describe the reality of working in an environment where no one but a publicly elected official has final decision making ability. Likewise, an ‘original’ idea is unlikely in a context where people have been thinking about how to solve the same problems for many years.

These two aspects alone would disqualify a career in public service from the lists of many PhDs I have known. It also raises an important, but rarely discussed aspect of selecting a career – choosing one where the cultural and ideological premises are in alignment with your core values.

This is also one of the aspects that can be most difficult to ascertain without spending at least some time in a work environment – or talking with people who have spent a lot of time there. After all, how many of you were dismayed to discover what academe was really like once you shifted from being ‘just a student’ to being an employee as well?

Having some idea about what you value in a work environment is critical to finding a position that you find satisfying. But this will take a little digging and a lot of ‘critical thinking’ – it’s not just rhetoric – it really does matter. Issues around who gets to make recommendations, what sort of ideas can be entertained, and what gets rejected, what is considered to be important and who makes that decision, whose ideas are more privileged and why – these are the just some of the issues that can make a position unbearable or a ‘dream job’.  Surprisingly, what you spend your day doing, can pale in significance compared with these less tangible issues.

The learning: when scoping out a job – either inside or outside academe, do your best to unearth not just what gets done in that role, but how, with whom and under what conditions. And if you don’t like what you discover, dig deeper – why are things done that way? There could be very legitimate reasons that may not be apparent on the surface.  For instance, the system of checks and balances in the government prevents a single civil servant with a personal agenda from having undue influence on public policy, which is a good thing – but may leave some feeling disempowered, or even voiceless. In other words, know yourself, and shape your career decisions around this knowledge rather than trying to squeeze yourself into a role that is less than a great fit.

Happy New Years folks!

I hope you all had a relaxing break. I, unfortunately, spent a good chunk of my holidays writing a paper – sound familiar?

I’ve been reading all sorts of synopses of 2009, and they all seem focused on the gloom and doom of the economic downturn (or ‘crisis’ if you are in the States). Of course, those of you in the job market, or about to be, know all about that.

It seems unproductive to start this New Year with the emotional baggage of its less than stellar predecessor. Instead, I’ve been trying to think up ways to re-frame things to focus more on what opportunities may now be more realistic, even preferable to attempting to find a tenure track position this year. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Taking another year to finish your dissertation at a more leisurely pace. Many Ivy League universities are actually facilitating this option with innovative funding options like internship and bursaries. Talk to your dean and/or supervisor about this – imagine, not panicking at bedtime!
2. Conference with abandon rather than worrying about finishing the dissertation in a few months! Go to fun places, but concentrate your energies on papers that have publishing potential so when the academic job market eases up, you’ll be more competitive than ever.
3. Take a ‘gap year’. I know these are something younger students are encouraged to do, but if you think about, many grad students would benefit from having a year away from academe to reconsider their options, while exploring new ones. Of course there is the financial aspect, but if you don’t have a family to feed, it might be one of the last times you be able to hit the high road just because!
4. If getting away from academe for a year is unrealistic in your situation, at least take some time to seriously investigate your non-academic options – preferably with the support of a career counselor or advisor experienced with grad students. That way if things don’t improve quickly enough for you, you will have an idea of what your next steps might be.
5. Learning a potentially useful, or at least fun, skill. This diversionary tactic could open your eyes to a whole aspect of yourself you had forgotten about, or never knew existed. You will be surprised how much you enjoy doing something, anything, that does not involve research, or academic writing. It can be downright invigorating if not enlightening!

There will be so many incredibly well prepared candidates who will be struggling during this time period, that your ‘unconventional’ academic timeline will hardly be the anomaly that it might have been in the past.

At the very least, having a little time to reflect on where you’ve been, and where you’re going may well make your next steps more clear. Now doesn’t that sound like a good way to start a new year!

The Chronicle ran an advice column this week on the etiquette of academe – or rather the lack thereof. Academics, it seems, are not immune to social gaffs, inconsiderateness and sometime unadulterated rudeness.

No doubt, we all have stories of major faux pas in the academic workplace. But make no mistake, what is tolerated as eccentric or annoying in a tenured professor will be much less tolerated by faculty who are further down the food chain. It is perhaps unnecessary to say job seekers should be on their best behaviour at all stages of the job search. It is wise to remember that if you only start minding your manners with your first interview, you may have already burned your bridges to programs and departments where your reputation as a boor or cad is well established. In an incestuous sector like higher-ed, such a reputation can be difficult, if not impossible to shake, once established.

This call to civility is no less imperative for tenure track and adjunct faculty. With competition for any academic position at an all-time high, you simply cannot forgo basic etiquette with students, staff or fellow academics. A word of warning – never underestimate the influence of a disgruntled student or departmental secretary on your T&P file!

Reading over the list provided by ‘Female Science Professor’, the anonymous author of the Chronicle column, you will notice a broad range of scenarios and issues, from the absent-mindedly forgetful, to the downright unethical. Some of these may sound like they happened in your own program. There may even be one or two you are guilty of yourself.

The point to take away from this is not to memorize a chapter of Miss Manners, but to simply follow the golden rule, ‘Do unto others …’ and clean up your messes if you do slip up. Saying a heartfelt ‘sorry’ once you realize someone may have taken offence at something you said or did still counts in today’s world.

I’m going to switch gears a bit this week, based on a conversation I overheard recently between a TA and an undergrad, who was one of her students. The TA had been talking about Congress and the value of academic associations in learning more about a field of study, and the student mentioned that she belonged to the student chapter of the professional association for human resources managers.

The TA expressed surprise that there was that sort of resource outside the traditional professions: doctors, lawyers, and teachers. That’s when I realized that many PhDs, although otherwise more knowledgeable than most people about many topics, generally have little knowledge of the world of work outside of academe. So I thought this week I’d introduce the wonderful world of professional associations to those of you interested in exploring non-academic career paths.

Professional associations exist for almost any occupation you can imagine. The 2009 edition of Associations Canada, a directory of national, provincial and regional associations, registered charities, nonprofits, has over 20,000 entries. Just like in academe, what associations do, and how they do it varies quite widely. But for the most part, all professional associations have the same core mandate: to provide a common source information exchange, professional development and networking opportunities for its members. Some associations also have a regulatory function as well and oversee the standards, designations and education of people publicly representing that association.

As mentioned, some associations have student chapters to provide opportunities for people not yet practicing in a field. Some also host panel discussions and guest speakers which are occasionally open to the public. Many associations also provide targeted job postings to their members, which employers in the field appreciate because it minimizes the amount of inappropriate applications they receive compared with more publicly available sites.

I remember considering a career in technical writing at one point so I attended a presentation hosted by the Society for Technical Communication just to listen to what was considered innovative and interesting in that field. I learned a lot that evening about the types of people in the field, common issues and trends, and got a good sense of whether this was a direction I would be interested in pursuing further. Clearly I was not, and that evening was pivotal in me making that decision by providing a level of insight that I never would have had access to otherwise.

If you are interested in doing a little shopping around for possible career alternatives, or have a career goal, but have no contacts in that field, going through lists of professional associations can be a good place to start. Your can check out your university career centre for the Associations Canada directory – it’s a standard resource. You can also browse through the list of national professional organizations listed on the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials site. 

By using all those data collecting skills you’ve acquired over the years, you’ll be able to gather a remarkable amount of information and resources in very little time and get a point of reference even in fields where you have no history or contacts.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has been taking another look at the life of adjuncts. In one of the most balanced approaches to the subject I’ve ever seen, they have released a series of first person videos of adjunct faculty describing their experiences as adjuncts. If you have ever though about following this path, or fear you may not have any choice in the matter, you owe it to yourself to take a look at these. They are unabashedly frank stories. They are also beautifully filmed and edited – kudos to the production team! Here’s a summary clip – individual segments are on the site (text continues below).

Some of the speakers seem to be pretty happy with their positions. These folks generally have other sources of income which ‘adjuncting’ supplements, or several positions at different colleges. The rest would prefer tenure track positions, but for one reason or another aren’t able to land one – not surprising these days – so are trying to keep the doors to academe open. These folks form two sub-groups: the resigned and the bitter, and I do mean bitter.

All the speakers seem share several important characteristics. They all love to teach and put a great deal of (unpaid) time and effort in to ensuring their students’ learning experiences are positive. They all express a deep passion for their fields of research and they have all felt marginalized or ostracized by tenured or tenure track faculty for not being ‘real’ academics.

In Canada, some universities have experimented with multi-year contracts for full-time teaching associates, a trend covered in University Affairs last year. This strategy was intended to help university administrators meet the teaching demands of burgeoning enrollments without sacrificing the quality of their institutions’ research. Since one academic simply can’t keep up with both demands, they divided the expectations between two – one whose sole function was to teach, the other who taught but had increased time to research.

Not surprisingly, faculty associations, and indeed most people concerned about the universities growing reliance on cheap, undervalued contract faculty were considerably less enthusiastic. Undeniably, it provided a welcome respite from the annual uncertainty of most contract faculty, but I suspect wholesale adoption of such practices would bring the labour disputes felt so strongly in Ontario this past year across the country.

Where do I stand on this? Well, for the most part, I am in the camp of academics who are appalled by the working conditions of most contract faculty in Canada and believe that the percentage of faculty forced to work their entire careers in such circumstances is eroding the quality of university education in Canada.

Having said that, I do recognize there are probably hundreds of contract faculty, especially those truly working part-time in one institution by choice rather than trying to stitch a living together across multiple institutions, who are absolutely satisfied with their positions. In fact, I may end up joining those ranks myself. I believe strongly that there is an important role for contract faculty in academe, especially where they can bring the perspectives and experiences of non-academic contexts into the classroom. But contract faculty should never be used to replace tenure track faculty or as a an administrative solution to a budget crisis.

For those of you on the tenure track, or intending to go that route, please listen to the videos on the link above, and remember, should you actually realize your dreams, that contract faculty are your peers, your colleagues – perhaps even more skilled than you in some areas. Treat them with the respect that any highly trained professional deserves, that you hope to be treated with if that’s where your path ultimately leads you.

In the meantime, where do you stand on this?

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Ah, the lazy days of summer. While the rest of the world is slowing down a notch, socializing more and planning vacations, PhDs nearing the end of their degrees are deep in, what is for many, the most stressful summer of their lives.

Whether you are about to defend your thesis or have just experienced that happy event, it’s hard to forget that looming ahead of you are months of rigorous job searching. It’s a good time to sit down with the people closest to you and really clarify the parameters of what you are and are not willing to do to stay in academe. Pick up a sessional contract or two – but for how long? Would you leave the country for a temporary contract? What about a tenure track position? How about leaving the continent – would you have to end a relationship to do that?

These are life-altering decisions, and can involve relatively unpleasant conversations at a time when there is already a lot of stress and uncertainty in your life. But it is useful to have your non-negotiables sorted out before you start sending off application packages – especially in this economy.

So no matter how much is on your plate right now, pick an evening – or a couple – and get together with people who support you and have a vested interest in your happiness to have dinner and talk through the issues that are weighing most heavily on you. Get their objective feedback, but don’t shy away from the non-objective opinions – they are sometimes the ones that make the most difference in the long run.  Repeat this process as necessary to get to that place where you know what you are really willing to consider once you are on the market.

Then, and only then, will you be able to realistically assess the suitability of the postings you see so you aren’t desperately applying for anything regardless of how it flies in the face of your values and priorities. Many very unhappy academics have done just that, feeling like there was no other choice. They were wrong – there are literally thousands of non-academic possibilities that would provide a standard of living and quality of professional satisfaction that far exceeds any so-so academic position.

If you are committed to an academic career, now is the time to start getting ready for the fall hiring season. Read over the links below, get advice from your committee and university career centre, update your CV, and go shopping for “interview” clothes. Some of you will land up with a job offer, and a few of you will be lucky enough to find a terrific position in a terrific university. By all means, give it your best shot, but be honest with yourself all the while as to how far you are ready to pursue this path before you go on to seek greener pastures.  Bonne chance!

Getting Ready for an Academic Job Search – University of Michigan
Getting Ready for an Academic Job Search – University of Windsor
Building a Network – University of Pennsylvania
The Hiring Process form the Other Side – UC Berkeley

If you have been following Margin Notes blogger, Leo Charbonneau, then you have heard of Mark Taylor’s recent OpEd piece in the New York Times. Taylor likens the structure of graduate education to the auto industry in that it produces products (PhDs) for which there is no demand (i.e. tenure track positions).

To say this piece has generated some feedback, is putting it mildly. The Times’ editors closed responses at 437, and the conversation continues on blogs across the continent.

One particularly virulent response came from Marc Bousquet writing in the Chronicle who lambastes Taylor, and by extension, The Times, for “pimping junk analysis” of the situation (did I mention people get frothy around this issue?). As far as Bousquet is concerned, we don’t need more academic positions to sop up the overflow of PhDs leaking out of universities in increasing numbers each year. Rather, we need to address the real problem, which he claims is “a restructuring of ‘demand’ so that work that used to be done by people with doctorates is being done by persons with a masters or a BA, or even by undergraduates.” His comments generated another 77 comments.

Just to throw a little gasoline on the fire, Broquet provides a link to his own blog where he has archived enough video (like the one below) guaranteed to send you crawling to the local liquor store for relief.

OK, so where does all the gnashing of teeth and flame throwing leave the thousands of us, yours truly included, who are frantically paddling upstream towards some mythic “land of tenure?” Is there any hope? Do we just give up, pack our bags and check out of grad school and get a “real” job?

I, for one waited a long time to do this degree. I’m ABD in one field (due to a series of unfortunate events, the like of which seem to flourish in academe), and I am going to get it this time if it kills me – which feels like it just might sometimes. Finishing this degree is, for me, about many things more important than getting a job, so I’m in it for the long haul. But of course, I have a job, so I can afford that luxury.

What about you? For many grad students getting through the PhD, is and of itself like the ultimate litmus test. They know someday they will need to sort out career issues, but given the current state of affairs in academe, they are ambivalent about an academic career and are happy to focus on their studies. The uncertainty of the future doesn’t bother them as much as it does their families. A recent StatsCan report doesn’t help matters. It reports that while annual income levels of Masters students were $15,000 higher than for BAs, PhDs were on average only likely to earn $5,000 more than MAs. Hardly a compelling economic argument to justify the pursuit a doctoral degree.

For others, especially those near completion or recently on the job market, the doom and gloom can be overwhelming. If that describes you, the best thing I think you can do for yourself is educate yourself on what else is out there. Browse through previous postings on this blog and the Career Resources section of University Affairs for more specific information about how to do this. Check out your university’s Career Centre. But whatever you do, do it with the same vigor as it took you to get this far, or else you will be inadvertently stacking the deck – trying to convince yourself you have to stay in academe because there are no viable options – which just isn’t true. Without having any understanding of the alternatives, deciding to focus only on an academic career or not is like choosing between a long shot and a dead end – not much of a choice.

If, at the end of the day you,  like me,  would always regret not finishing after having come so far – just so you know you did it, especially when everyone around you thought you were crazy – well, don’t be afraid to keep going. Not everything that matters in life can be distilled down to dollars and cents, and sometimes, what is gained in the journey that ends with a PhD, is, in the end, more significant than what is given up to follow that path. That’s my story anyway,  and I’m sticking to it.

I wanted to draw your attention to a recent post on the Inside Higher Ed website that explores, quite  accurately I think, many of the issues PhDs face when they are forced to leave academe rather then when they choose to leave.

The author, Christine Kelly, identities six fears that hold people back from taking the initiative to move ahead and seek out career alternatives with an open mind and positive attitude. This posting should be required reading for anyone in this situation, which in today’s economy applies to just about every grad student in North America.

I want to emphasize one of Kelly’s points:

If you feel like you are being pushed out of the ivory tower, rather than choosing to leave, this process may be very difficult for you. You probably feel anger, betrayal, and rejection by the system you believed in. You need to address these issues and examine any false beliefs that might be preventing you from being fully present in your non-academic job search.

Don’t skip this part under the mistaken assumption that feelings don’t count, or that your top priority is just to “get a job.” You do need to address what you are feeling before you will be able to shift gears successfully.

One of the most difficult situations I face as a graduate student adviser is helping doctoral candidates through this process because the flood of negative emotions you can experience by being forced out of your chosen vocation will make everything seem worthless and hopeless. These emotions will abate in time, but until they do, your ability to assess your options and priorities will be severely hampered.

This is why you need people around you who can help offer alternative perspectives to those you can come up with on your own at this time. Like just about everything else in academe, the career exploration process will be much less traumatic, and ultimately more successful if you build a community of support around yourself. Your mentors and advisers, people who have encouraged you along the way, friends and family are all good places to start. But at some point, you will probably need to find people with knowledge of fields and positions you want to explore.

It may come as a surprise, but the job search process is actually something you will find you are quite skilled at because it utilizes essentially the same skills used when conducting primary research.

In fact, PhDs across the disciplines are probably more adept in the abilities required to integrate well in today’s’ workforce than any other graduate from a program not geared to a specific career path. It is my belief based on observation and personal experience, that there is actually not much that a motivated, focused PhD can’t do.  The biggest thing holding them back is not an unwelcoming job market, nor a lack of transferable skills, but rather, as Christine Kelly explains so well, their own fear.

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So you want to work in a university? After all, what could be better than spending your career surrounded by people who actually value research? What more noble and satisfying vocation could there possibly be?

However, if you are like many young faculty, you may find universities can make much better places of learning than places of employment. This realization is leading more PhDs to question the desirability of an academic career.

For instance, as a doctoral candidate in the early nineties, I discovered academic culture was pretty unfriendly to families. In fact, it was the poorly masked disappoval I received from many of my professors that contributed to me changing my career path. I believed I would never get the references I needed to be competitive in the horrendous job market of the nineties as a direct result of having started my family in grad school – serious academics didn’t do that.

From what I see in universities now, the situation has not improved a lot over time. Yes, there are definitely more female professors now than then, and good equity initiatives are now well-established in most universities, but the work load of the average professor effectively precludes starting a family for all but the most determined.

The “family-unfriendly” culture of academe is finally getting noticed as a systemic problem in academe. According to a recent study of 8,000 doctoral students profiled in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week, rather than giving up hope on the dream of having a family, graduate students are beginning to explore other career alternatives.

“In this profession, everything is very front-ended, and that’s a pressure-cooker situation,” says Mary Ann Mason [one of the writers of the study], referring to the dizzying schedules of PhD students and pretenure faculty members … This generation of graduate students is completely different. They no longer see how that will work for them,” she says.

What about you? – If you had to choose between the possibility of a tenured job, or having a family, what would you choose? Do you think universities are behind the rest of the work force in the quality of life they offer their employees? Leave a comment in the forum below.

I’m in procrastination mode. I’m supposed to be studying for comps, but with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season distracting me, I find myself reading books decidedly not from my committee-approved reading list. The latest culprit, is Richard Florida’s new book, Who’s Your City? Dr. Florida is the author of Rise of the Creative Class and is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and professor of Business and Creativity at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

He conducted a large-scale Place and Happiness survey of 28,000 people with Gallup and found that location was as significant, if not more, to our well-being as our jobs, finances and interpersonal relationships, because where we live has an enormous impact on who we meet, what opportunities are available to us and our overall quality of life.

That got me thinking about the realities facing academics in today’s job market. For most of us, a tenured position is not a likely outcome of our education – the stats have shown this consistently for the 20+ years I’ve been in the field. Of course there are temporal, disciplinary and geographic variations to this, but for the most part, the path to a PhD no longer can be realistically considered to result in a professorship. Yet many of us feel compelled to apply for academic positions in places that we would never consider living under any other circumstance on the off-chance we might land one of these elusive positions. This, according to Florida, is a recipe for misery and disillusionment.

What if instead of frantically following every academic possibility wherever it may lead, we did what Florida suggests: research where we want to live, and build out lives around that primary decision? If you think about it, of the four factors influencing happiness – jobs, finances, relations and location – location is the one factor that you can control from the get go. That way, if you can land an academic job in a place you want to live, you hit the jackpot. But if not, at least you would be in an environment where you would be more likely to establish yourself in a satisfying lifestyle, reflecting your priorities and talents, around people that stimulate you. Is this just pie-in-the-sky dreaming? You can poke around Florida’s interactive website to start exploring where someone like you would be happiest.

I think this approach could revolutionize the traditional academic career path. What if universities had a hard time attracting the best talent because we were more interested in living happy, well-balanced lifestyles in stimulating and supportive environments than in landing tenure? Maybe then universities would finally be forced to re-examine their cultural norms and consider how best to compete with non-academic employers of this country’s brightest, most creative thinkers. Wouldn’t that be something to see?