Many readers responded to our call last month for stories about attempting an academic career at 50. Some readers shared their success stories, while others sought an outlet for their frustrations. A few offered advice for others. Here is a sampling of their comments:

Although I know you wanted to be encouraging, you nevertheless might have taken an even more monitory tone for the benefit of those considering such an ill-advised move into academia. Not only are jobs difficult to get, the academic culture can be stifling to one accustomed to broader venues.

Should the leap already have been taken, however, I might only add for those who have made it that in some cases laying stress on one's dedication may militate in one's favor. I left a long career trading gold on Wall Street to turn to a doctorate in theology which I am completing this summer. So far I have been rejected by about 40 schools. I may be rejected by 40 more, but I do think there is an institution out there in the world of my faith tradition that will value my sense of mission. If so, I will find it. Of course, I could be wrong. Sometimes I do get wildly discouraged.

-- Doctoral student in the Midwest

I am over 50, working this year as a visiting assistant professor as I complete my dissertation. Previously I held a low-level administrative job at a large university, which is an option for some. (Let's face it, we'll be ready to retire before we get frustrated with the lack of promotions).

There is understandable reluctance for a university to invest in somebody who may have a career of only a dozen or so years ahead of them -- probably not enough time to reach a level of distinction. Also, many on the hiring committee remember how exhausting it is to be an assistant professor, and they worry that an older person isn't up to the task. So of course an older candidate has strikes against him or her.

Here are some thoughts:

• Stay in the same field. Our job experience, discreetly showcased on the C.V., not only will make us better in the classroom but will help us network our students into desirable jobs. Don't aim to be the theoretical genius of the world.

• Pick an in-demand research specialty that is so new there's little entrenched competition. (I jumped at the emerging Internet.) Don't expect to be competitive in tight fields.

• Be as active as humanly possible in publishing and presenting. Show that you will soon do distinguished work.

-- Visiting professor at a West Coast college

1987 I completed my Ph.D. in information-systems design and management, and in 1992 I landed my first vice presidency and C.I.O. position in a small religious college, only to be kicked out a year later by a president outraged that I was getting a divorce. Well, no problem, I thought. Surely I will be employed in a short while. I had very good recommendations and an impressive résumé along with a two-page bibliography, which included two books, a monograph, and many papers and conference presentations. But I hadn't reckoned on having turned 50 in 1992.

For several years thereafter I noticed that job after job I applied for (or for which I was nominated) seemed always to go to younger, less-experienced candidates. Well, I thought, I am a bit controversial and likely thought too expensive. But after a while I realized that my age and the misperceptions it carried were becoming significant barriers to my career advancement, no matter that it was in an area presumably hard to fill with doctoral-level people.

Finally, I hit upon a career strategy that seems to be working, even though it was not at the time intended to be such. As age 51 gave way to age 52 and that to age 53, it occurred to me that maybe part of the difficulty was "aging, single, divorced man." Independent of that thought I found, courted, fell in love with, and married a woman 14 years younger than I, with one young child, who wanted more children, which I also wanted. At the same time it also occurred to me that maybe backtracking in my career might help jump-start it again.

To make a long story short, in October 1996, when I was 54, our first child was born and in January 1997 I went to work as -- horrors! -- the librarian in a small religious college, much like the one in which I had been a vice president four years before. Not incidentally I think, much of the interview with a very kindly nun centered on our new child and the wonder of an "old" man taking on the responsibilities of fatherhood instead of thinking about early retirement. Later, at her urging, I took my present job as C.I.O. in another small religious college, two months before our second child was born. Now, after the president abolished my job, I am job hunting again, and our third child, a girl, is due in April.

Well, you guessed it. In my interviews much is made of this fact, with search committees openly expressing admiration and almost reverence for the fact I will be 79 at her college graduation. (I don't have the heart to tell them that they really shouldn't be discussing age-related issues at all.) All of a sudden age seems irrelevant, overcome by what seems to be perceived as very youthful activity.

Granted, completing a set of advanced courses in networks, telecommunications, and computer languages probably has helped, again, because it seems to be perceived as something requiring much energy and commitment, a young man's game. But the focus is always on the candidate's procreative energy and activity, suggesting, perhaps, similar skills with computer and library-related organizations. And who am I to disabuse them of such ideas?

-- Joseph McDonald, Benedictine College

I am an older candidate, having been actively in the job market for a change of positions during the past year. I started my career at the age of 40 and "fast-tracked" to administration, incuding two deanships in my field. Generally, I have not experienced age discrimination but I look younger than my approaching age of 60, and I delete all years in which my degrees were earned.

-- Administrator at a college in the South

I worked in academic administration for a number of years, went for an M.B.A., and then found myself teaching full time at a small Canadian university. The position was non-tenure track (no surprise there) and after five years, I found myself out of a job and determined to get a doctorate. The job market changed while I was pursuing the aptly named terminal degree, and I wound up on the academic job market for two years as an A.B.D. (mostly because I was unsure I could get funding for the fifth year in grad school, and thus entered the market "early").

I was 48 when I started looking for a tenure-track job. The first year, anyone who cared to do the math could have figured that out by looking at the date I got my B.A., listed on my C.V. In the second year, I removed telltale dates. In each year, I got one on-campus interview, less than I would have anticipated, given what I thought my qualifications were.

In 1997, I interviewed with a small Canadian university (similar to the one where my non-tenure track job was) and waited for three months before getting an uninformative rejection letter. I later deduced from their Web site that they had merely continued the A.B.D. incumbent in the job that they interviewed me for, leading me to wonder why they bothered in the first place.

The second year, I was a much more plausible candidate (it was clear that I actually would finish the dissertation by year end). However, when I came to the campus where I now work for interviews, I was informed by one member of the department that part of their hiring agenda was to renew an aging faculty. While I had some ethical qualms on the subject, I carefully refrained from pointing out to him that I was not all that much younger than most of his department. I am fortunate enough to look about 10 years younger than I actually am, and at that point I had decided to take full advantage of the fact.

-- Assistant professor at a small liberal-arts college

ALSO SEE:

Career Talk: I'm 50. Can I get a job? Part II

I hadn't reckoned on turning 50: Comments from readers

David W. Johnson: How I became a university instructor at 53

Getting a tenure-track job at 44: A conversation with Jennifer Gunn