What They Don’t Tell You
In Graduate School
About Academic Careers
Nicholas G. Hall
The Ohio State University
Presented to UESTC, Chengdu, China
September 29, 2015
A Question
Please indicate which of these statements most closely
applies to you:
 A. “I am most interested in an academic career.”
 B. “I am most interested in a career outside
academia.”
 C. “I am currently undecided between an academic
career and a career outside academia.”
2
Overview (1 of 2)













Background and disclaimers
A general comment about academic careers
Characteristics for academic success
Career choice questions
Choosing a research area / topic
Choosing an advisor
Optimizing your job search
Journal article publishing issues
Funding your research
Research group
Faculty politics
Career salary profile
Taking financial control
3
Overview (2 of 2)













Expected time commitment
Where your time goes
Teaching tips
Teaching evaluations
Book writing
Professional visibility
External professional service
Conferences
Consulting
Cautions
The academic midlife crisis
The main challenge
Final comments
4
Background and Disclaimers
 This is information which the speaker wishes he had known
when he was in graduate school
 The information presented is based on the opinions of the
speaker, but has been validated by discussions with many
colleagues, including at many previous presentations of this talk
 Less than 10% of the information presented is related to the
speaker’s academic institution
 The information relates mainly to academic careers within
universities using the “U.S. academic system”
 Due to ongoing changes in the academic work environment, the
experiences of faculty members in the future will vary from the
historic information presented here
 Students are encouraged to take notes and ask questions, and
faculty are encouraged to share their experiences
5
A General Comment about
Academic Careers
It has been my consistent observation that
the academics who most enjoy their careers
are those whose research, teaching and third
activity (book writing, consulting, …) are
synergistic and mutually reinforcing.
6
Characteristics for Success






Self motivation
Ability to think creatively
Patience
Time management
Ability to synergize activities
Technical ability
7
Career Choice Q1
• “I’m really interested in research. I believe I
can do an acceptable job of meeting teaching
expectations. Should I choose an academic
career?”
• Yes. Most good researchers can learn how to
become at least satisfactory teachers.
• Moreover, most universities now provide
extensive mentoring and other resources to
support teaching development.
8
Career Choice Q2
• “I’m really interested in teaching. I believe I can
do an acceptable job of meeting research
expectations. Should I choose an academic
career?”
• Maybe, maybe not. Being just a good teacher will
classify you as a second class citizen in most
research universities.
• So, be sure you understand the culture of your
university before accepting a job.
9
Career Choice Q3
• “I’m really attracted to an academic career,
because of the chance to read and learn and
understand everything in a broad research
area. Should I choose an academic career?”
• Not for this reason anyway.
• Most academic researchers become very
specialized and don’t read much outside the
topic(s) they are currently working on.
10
Career Choice Q4
• “I really enjoy interacting with people while
I’m working. Should I choose an academic
career?”
• Not for this reason anyway.
• Most academic work is conducted alone.
• See also “Diverging Directions”, K. Pryor
and J. Yen, OR/MS Today, 27, February
2000, 32-35.
11
Choosing a Research Area
 Thesis area = your lifetime research area
 Thesis topic = your research topic for at
least 2 years after graduation
 Make a choice for the long term
 Increasing importance of funding
12
Choosing an Advisor
 Make a choice for the long term
 Factors (most important first)
• How much you can learn
• How well you communicate
• Their age
• Their professional visibility
13
Optimizing Your Job Search (1 of 8)
Relative to Your Current Expectations
• The job market is more competitive – you may be the top student in your
Ph.D. program, but there are many strong programs
• Confidence and communication skills matter more – you cannot win the job at
the dinner on the day you arrive, but you can certainly lose it
• Your reference letters matter much less – they just get you to the conference
interview, and from them on you are mostly on your own
• Most of the faculty you meet know less about the area you are working on –
they are mostly focused on their particular research problem, therefore you
need to sell the importance of your research more
• You are being hired less as a researcher and more as a teacher – the reason is
that if you fail in your research that’s your problem, but if you fail in your
teaching that’s also your colleagues’ problem. [But this does not prevent you
from focusing mainly on research after you have the job.]
14
• The on campus job interview day is more stressful
Optimizing Your Job Search (2 of 8)
General Advice
• To at least some degree, faculty make hiring decisions out of self interest therefore, you need to think (from their side) what you are bringing: helpful
colleague, guaranteed vote, research partner, team teacher, technical problem
solver, consulting partner, friend, …
• If a faculty member “owns” a teaching area, then don’t assume they
necessarily want to share it, so discuss your other teaching interests first
• Express a strong interest in teaching (even if research is your main focus)
• Practice your interviews with at least three faculty advisors, record the
interviews and go over the feedback you receive
• Bring lots of thoughtful questions, and vary them between your interviews
• Don’t speak negatively about third parties, even if the interviewer does – since
you are just starting out in your career, you need to be respectful
• Don’t contradict the interviewer or advise them about how to do things better.
[It may be good advice, but you can always give it to them after you have the
job, or better yet after you have tenure!]
15
Optimizing Your Job Search (3 of 8)
Before Going to the Job Market
• Be confident in your research
– Be excited about your research
– Be able to talk about your research for short and long periods of time
– Get your primary advisor’s support
– Defend your dissertation proposal
• Be confident in your teaching
– Teach and get good ratings
– Polish your English and social skills if you plan to teach MBAs in the
US
• Know some people
– Network at all conferences prior to your job market year
– Meet invited speakers when they visit the department
16
Optimizing Your Job Search (4 of 8)
Contents of Your Job Market Packet
–
–
–
–
–
–
Cover letter
CV
Job market paper (doesn’t need to be the final version) and other sample work
Research statement
Teaching statement and ratings
Letters of recommendation
• Put your name and a date on everything (version control)
• Plan to submit at least three weeks before conferences
– Schools may begin reviewing applications at any time, so get in early
• Keep an organized Excel sheet with deadlines, mailing addresses, and
requirements
– Helps customize cover letter, CV, teaching and research statements, etc.
17
Optimizing Your Job Search (5 of 8)
Research Statement
• 1–2 page document
• Discussion of what you do and why it’s distinctive and important
• Primary methodologies
• Brief description of your various projects, starting with your job
market paper
• Description of the current state of your research pipeline
• Story about how all your work fits together
18
Optimizing Your Job Search (6 of 8)
Teaching Statement
• Don’t underestimate the importance of teaching
– Poor research will hurt you in the long run
– Poor teaching will cause trouble for your colleagues immediately
• Describe your personal philosophy of teaching
• Describe your teaching interests and experience
• It can also be helpful to list the types of courses you’d be interested in
teaching, customized for the school
– Be clear that you do not expect faculty necessarily to share their electives
• Many schools now want teaching evaluations, so make sure you survey
students when you teach if there is no formal feedback mechanism
19
Optimizing Your Job Search (7 of 8)
During Interviews
– Be energetic and enthusiastic
– Provide a 2–5 minute summary of your research area and
why it fits at their school
– Provide a 1–3 minute summary of each of your current
projects
– Provide a 2–3 minute description of your research pipeline
– Have a conversation about your teaching interests and their
needs
– Concisely describe (1–2 sentences) what your biggest
contribution will be when looking back on your career 20
years in the future
– Ask questions that show you really know and are
20
enthusiastic about the school
Optimizing Your Job Search (8 of 8)
The Job Talk
•
Job talks vary from 60–90 minutes, and groups differ in the number and complexity
of the questions they ask
– Assume 40–50 minutes of material in soliloquy mode
– Make sure the key points are covered by ~60% into the talk
– Don’t be too scripted, be willing to digress
– Have lots of supporting material as a backup, and know how to quickly toggle
– It’s useful to have a 10 minute ending about future projects
•
Practice as much as you can
– Practice out loud with friends, faculty, and by yourself (at least 25-30 times)
– Videotape yourself
– Take advantage of empty rooms with projectors
– After enough practice, it becomes theater
– The tone of your delivery will drive the way the audience interacts with you
– Refine the presentation between flyouts
21
Journal Article Publishing
Part of a paper about seabirds
 Technical writing
Ex. “Among the most common seabirds are gulls”
vs. “Gulls are among the most common seabirds”
 Acceptance rates
Part of a paper about gulls
Slightly below 10% to about 40%
 Dealing with referees
The process can be frustrating, but it does work
most of the time
 Revisions
Time consuming and stressful
22
Funding Your Research




Becoming a salesperson
Writing proposals
Evaluation of proposals
Refocusing your research to improve
fundability
23
Research Group (1 of 2)
 The most important factors in the success of your
research career are your continuing focus and motivation
 However, assuming that these are “givens”, the most
important factor is your research group
 Plan your long term research group – identify well
published people with similar (not necessarily identical)
research interests, time to work, and complementary
skills, impress them (at least a little bit), and start
discussions with them about some problems
 Your long term research group usually does not (should
not?) include faculty members from your Ph.D. school
24
Research Group (2 of 2)
 Conferences help considerably in meeting people with
whom you may wish to work
 When working with others, make yourself valuable – for
example, you may not enjoy programming, but by
offering to do it, you may benefit from different
contributions by others
 Over time, some people will leave your research group,
and others will join - not only is this natural, it is also
healthy, since it introduces new ideas and problems
 You can easily decline an unattractive offer to join
another research group by claiming that you are too busy
 It is important to remain on good terms with people who
25
leave your research group
Faculty Politics



•
•


*******!!!
Can really hurt you, especially as junior faculty
Probably worse than in industry
Fixed resource environment
Relatively low turnover, after tenure
Faculty meetings
At least until you have tenure, imitate these
individuals…
26
The Three Buddhist Monkeys
“See no evil”
“Hear no evil”
“Speak no evil”
27
Career Salary Profile





Assistant professor
Promotion and tenure
Associate professor
Promotion
Professor
 Exceptions
•
•
•
•
•
(COLA + 1.5%)/year
12 % once
(COLA + 1.5%)/year
12% once
(COLA + 1.5%)/year
• A new job
• Offer matching
28
Taking Financial Control
 Become financially independent of your
university
 Dangers of not doing so
•
Pressures to compromise
•
Dilution of time
 How to become financially independent
•
Consulting
•
Investment
29
Time Commitment
 Hours per week
•
62 (survey of U.C. Berkeley faculty)
 Weeks per year
•
47 - 49 (anecdotal, but consistent)
 Flexibility
•
“You can work any 62 hours you want!”
30
An Assistant Professor’s Time




Research
Teaching
Refereeing
Service - internal
•
•
•
•
60%
30%
5%
5%
31
An Associate Professor’s Time







Research
Teaching
Service - external
Service - internal
Refereeing
Consulting
Proposal writing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
40%
20%
10%
10%
10%
5%
5%
32
A Professor’s Time







Research
Teaching
Service - external
Service - internal
Executive education
Consulting
Proposal writing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
30%
20%
15%
10%
10%
10%
5%
33
Teaching Tips
• Continuous improvement is essential
• The formal evaluation process provides some useful feedback for
this, although not all comments are useful
• In modern university environments, “new prep” never goes away
• I would like to reduce my share of time spent on teaching to 12%,
but in practice I can never get there, because of new prep
• Modern technology reduces the burden of new prep, however
continuous upgrading of student expectations increases it
• Pressure to turn in high teaching evaluation scores is
unfortunately a strong factor, especially before tenure
• This creates very negative incentives for instructors
• Consider using TAPPS as a teaching device
34
Teaching Evaluations (1 of 3)
• I don’t know many experienced instructors who
respect student evaluations, especially because they
reward negative behavior.
• Some unfortunate and damning data:
- A study of MBA teaching at UNC found that 91%
of teaching score was explained by the
student’s expected grade.
- Ambady and Rosenthal (JPSP, 1993) show that 30
seconds of movie clips gives enough clues for an
outsider to predict teaching score accurately.
35
Teaching Evaluations (2 of 3)
• We all know average teachers who get high scores
and good teachers who get average scores.
• I have performed several peer reviews for celebrated
teachers, and I usually leave wondering what all the
fuss was about.
• I have also performed peer reviews for teachers
using highly innovative methods but who receive
poor scores, because the innovation is lost on the
students who wanted much less involvement.
• So, how to beat this process?
36
Teaching Evaluations (3 of 3)
• Wait until the final exam to obtain a wide
distribution (easy midterm, hard final).
• While in the classroom, make it obvious that this is
the place where you would most like to be.
• Be confident, optimistic and “sunny”.
• Be active, enthusiastic, dominant and likable.
• Frequently nod and smile, even on a bad day.
• Don’t frown, look down, fold your arms, or (worst of
all) fiddle with things.
• Solicit midterm feedback (“Hawthorne effect”).
37
• Wear black the first day.
Book Writing
 Writing a book does not generate substantial royalties,
unless it is a bestselling introductory text
 Writing an introductory textbook provides little academic
prestige
 Writing an introductory textbook means also writing many
supporting materials
 Academic publishers often sign up several competing
books, at most one or two of which will succeed
 Writing a book is not a “good deal” in an expected sense,
since the failure rate is very high
 Before starting, figure out why you are doing it and
whether it is worthwhile
38
Professional Visibility







Citation counts are important
Web of Science (ISI), Google Scholar and profile
h-index
Invitations to speak – always accept them
Sharing your research (eventually)
Volunteering for service activities
Be tasteful and careful in how you make yourself
visible (for example, don’t send a copy of a working
paper with a request to be invited to present it)
39
External Professional Service
 Often receives little or no reward from your
university
 Makes you feel “part of the community”
 Enhances your visibility
 Gives you a chance to interact with the leaders of
your field (before you become one yourself!)
 Gives prestige and balance to your career profile
40
Conferences (1 of 2)
• DO prepare well and practice your presentation,
especially the timing
• DO bring overhead transparencies of your talk as a
backup
• DO boot your computer before the start of the session,
and use “Standby” if you are not the first speaker
• DO have reasonable expectations about the reactions of
people, especially senior people, to meeting you
• DO realize that the conference is not a club, and even
many senior people have never met each other
• DO develop some good ways to start conversations
(compliments are always appreciated!)
41
Conferences (2 of 2)
• DO NOT act like you are a big person, especially when
presenting your work
• DO NOT expect people to seek you out – even if they
would like to, they probably will not have time
• DO NOT sell yourself too hard – for example, by
forcing people you have just met to listen to a lengthy
explanation of your work, or organizing a conference
session where you are an author on all the talks
• DO NOT “work the room” in a way that is obviously
self-promoting (subtly self-promoting may be just
42
barely OK!)
Consulting
 Probably not a good idea before you have tenure
 You will be required to solve specific (possibly
boring) problems that you don’t choose
 Often time pressure and deadlines apply
 Provides some academic prestige
 Rewards are immediate, unlike with research
 Can be extremely lucrative, but only after you
have built a reputation as a consultant
43
Cautions
• In academia, in my experience, more than 90% of
people are completely honest
• However, not everyone is
• For example, a few senior people try to take advantage
of young researchers, by getting them to share their
work
• Your work and your ideas are your main assets, so you
need to protect them
• It is a really bad idea to present your work at a
conference or university before it is submitted for
publication
• It is a really bad idea to send copies of your work to
others (unless you know them well) before it is
44
submitted for publication
The Academic Midlife Crisis
 Causes: rejections, delays, increased
competition from younger scholars, lack of
new problems or new ideas
 Very common, so plan ahead
 Staying interested within research
 Importance of sabbaticals
 Branching out beyond research
45
The Main Challenge




It is not getting tenure
It is not achieving academic respect
It is not publishing x papers in y journals
It is finding something that will entertain
you for 35 + years
 If you can do this, then you will truly have a
rewarding academic career experience
46
Final Comments
 There are many possible reasons for
choosing an academic career
 However, some of these reasons don’t
necessarily last throughout a career
 If you really, really love your subject, then
an academic career is an unbeatable choice
 Under several other conditions, it can still
be a good choice, provided you are aware of
the issues discussed here
47
If you subsequently have any questions
or comments, please send them to the
speaker at [email protected]
48
Are there any questions?