On Hiring icon

December 6, 2011, 09:59 AM ET

I'm Not a Bad Investment (Anymore)

I was a full-time adjunct for three-and-a-half years, which is the same as saying I didn't have disposable income or a savings account for three-and-a-half years. After losing an adjunct job, I was partially unemployed for eight months, with a small adjunct gig and various temporary jobs to help me through. In August, I started my current full-time job at Richard Bland College, but that also was the month when I really got behind financially. In more ways than one, the low pay of my adjunct career caught up with me. In August, I was working so I had to stop drawing unemployment benefits, but I wouldn't receive my first paycheck until September 1. My family was also preparing to sell our house, which meant spending some money on minor renovations. It wasn't a lot of money for those renovations, but it was a lot for a one-income family. I used up what small amount of credit I had left an...

Read More
  • Print
  • Comment

December 5, 2011, 03:51 PM ET

The Power of Professional and Community Service

Organizing a professional conference can be gut-wrenching. Will enough people register? Will the concurrent sessions be compelling? Will the keynote speaker be delayed by thunderstorms in Houston? Three days before one particular conference, I was relieved to receive the keynoter's slides, as the content she included was exactly what I'd hoped to see ... until I got to slide 16. There, toward the bottom of a list of companies that had lost their way in the integrity jungle, was the name of the company that was underwriting the conference, and, hence, her address. I panicked. This experience (which actually ended without anyone crying, bleeding, or suing) provided me with about a dog year of experience in corporate and academic diplomacy, and demonstrated the career-development benefits of professional service and community volunteer work. To be sure, there are some who argue that... Read More

December 2, 2011, 12:23 PM ET

The Virtues of Virtual Interviews

We have just completed preliminary interviews in our search for a new vice-president for student affairs, and this year we decided to do them by Skype, rather than at an off-site location such as an airport hotel. We experimented with this interviewing method for several reasons. First, we have a large committee, and making it possible for eight or so individuals, including a student, with fiendishly complex schedules to be available for an extended, consolidated time off campus is virtually impossible. Secondly, we sometimes do interviews here in Storm Lake, which saves us time but costs candidates several extra hours to make the trip from any of the regional airports. Even if candidates stayed near the airport and we came to them, they would likely spend two days traveling and interviewing, a significant cost for those who may have to take vacation days to interview. Those selected ...

Read More

November 30, 2011, 12:29 PM ET

Your Permanent Record

The following is a slightly tweaked but basically true story: "Bob" had taught as an adjunct for a year at an institution in his hometown, sharing an office with another adjunct, "Rob," who vaguely resembled him physically. Bob moved on to take a full-time job in another area but had hopes of returning one day to be near his extended family. When a position that matched his expertise came open, he applied for it. Not long afterward, he bumped into a friend from that campus at a conference and mentioned his hope of returning. The friend said, "Actually, I was talking about you the other day with the academic dean, and he mentioned to me that he could not recommend hiring you because of some disciplinary problems he found in your permanent file. Do you know what he's talking about?" When Bob began to check into the situation, he found out that some female students had confused him and... Read More

November 29, 2011, 10:14 AM ET

Insubordination and Tenure

Even though my November 2 post "Insubordinate in Academe?" received over three dozen comments, no one actually answered the question I posed: What, exactly, does "insubordination" mean in an academic context? That question is neither rhetorical nor inconsequential. Because if academic "insubordination" has no generally accepted definition, but simply means whatever an administrator says it means, then tenure is effectively dead and we're all at-will employees. And perhaps that's the point. Perhaps all of this talk about insubordination actually represents an internal attack on tenure. We expect such attacks to come from outside sources, such as right-wing pundits and Tea Party candidates. But maybe the most dangerous and damaging attacks originate from within our institutions. (This seems like a good place to insert the following disclaimer: People often assume that, in my blog posts ... Read More

November 27, 2011, 09:29 PM ET

Negotiating Tactics for Women

While doing the reporting for an article about negotiating academic job offers in a tight job market, I had an interesting conversation with Sara Laschever, an expert on how women approach such talks. Ms. Laschever wrote Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide with Linda Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. Although the book was first published eight years ago, it still resonates with women whose eyes it opened to the idea that avoiding negotiation literally doesn’t pay.  For women on the academic job market now—actually, I bet some men on the market could benefit, too—here’s some of what Ms. Laschever shared with me: What are some mistakes that women make in negotiations? They over-identify with the other side. Women have this tendency to protect and take care of people. But you need to allow the other side to negotiate their side of the...

Read More

November 23, 2011, 02:00 PM ET

On Hiatus

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we will take a brief hiatus. There will be no On Hiring newsletter on Thursday. We will be back on November 28. In the meantime, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2011, 11:29 AM ET

In Favor of Candor

The Chronicle's recent story on the University of Texas System planning to shutter a number of programs should remind us afresh about just how much turmoil is swirling in academe. Institutions are cutting back on positions and faculty support, systems are eliminating programs, and I have a hunch that even tenure decisions are being impacted by budgets in various ways. All of these issues create scenarios where people who had not planned to be on the market are finding themselves scrambling for new positions in an already difficult environment for job searches. Speaking as someone who has hired faculty members who were in these very circumstances, I thought I would encourage applicants to be frank in the discussion of circumstances. Here’s why: when an excellent CV or résumé arrives from another institution where a promising person is suddenly on the market, it often raises the... Read More

November 21, 2011, 12:55 PM ET

Dealing With My Own Insecurities

I'm disappointed with myself. At a recent faculty meeting, we were discussing the creation of a new group to discuss faculty concerns on our small, two-year campus. In the draft proposal, adjunct faculty members were to be a part of this new group. At the meeting, from the back of the room, someone said, "I don't think we should include adjuncts in this group. We're the ones who have to bear all the responsibility, not them." With my history as an advocate for adjunct inclusion, I should have spoken up. It pains me to write this now, but I said nothing. One reason I remained silent is because I knew we wouldn't make any final decisions about the proposal, so I had some time to get my thoughts together. Also, this comment from the back was a bit out of sync with the unsettled conversation at hand, so I knew we wouldn't stay on the subject long. If I'm honest with readers here, and with ... Read More

November 17, 2011, 01:22 PM ET

Career Confidential

The other day I had lunch with a newish friend who runs a highly successful and well-respected organization. The primary topic of our lunch conversation was how much she doesn't want to do this anymore. We discussed the impact of stepping down and returning to graduate school to try something completely different. We talked about the loss of salary, the loss of status, and the fact that she worries many of her friends are only friends because of her position. "I know people think I'm really lucky to be where I am," she said, "but I'm so tired of the routine and I'm even more tired of not being able to talk about it." I appreciate that she trusted me with such sensitive information and I let her know that I, too, valued the opportunity to share my own struggles with someone who I knew could be trusted to keep her mouth shut. It is both liberating and energizing to have professional...

Read More