Gary Olson's recent column about improving meetings has spurred me to reveal a secret I've guarded carefully for 25 years of teaching.

I cannot imagine how many scores of hours I have spent sitting in meetings during those years. From faculty meetings to committee meetings to admissions panels to ad hoc advisory boards, I have spent my adult lifetime in gatherings that have happened in rooms large and small. My retinas are permanently scarred with the outline of the dead tree branches that were visible from a particular room where I sat for dozens of meetings at a former institution.

As an administrator I have a high tolerance for meetings, but there are times when I just cannot stand sitting in a chair for one second longer. When that happens in small rooms, especially in the afternoon, I unleash my secret weapon. I carefully but not too discreetly cover a fake yawn. After a few minutes, ...

A friend of mine (a staff member at another university) asked me to have coffee so she could talk about her career track. She had a difficult epiphany when she received her annual contract.

"I received a nice, modest raise, but I realized that in order to earn a significant raise, I really needed to get a promotion. Suddenly it dawned on me that everyone who was up-line from my position is not only near my age, but all of them are from this area and are unlikely ever to move out of their positions. What can I do?"

I told her the harsh reality, that she needed to either be satisfied with her current position or prepare to look for another job, either in another area of the university or, perhaps more likely, at another institution. What she realized was that she really had no "headroom," no likelihood of being able to advance. This is particularly endemic in academe, where faculty mobility ...

A former student used to ask me for recommendations at six-month intervals. Sometimes it was for a job, sometimes it was for graduate schools. I'm used to writing those letters, of course, and was glad to perform the service (I'd simply redate the letter from my hard drive). This student had taken a single course with me a decade previously. The grade was high, my memories of the student were clear, and I didn't mind the requests, since I view recommendations as a basic part of my duty as a professor.

Now that I've been on the other side of the table in interviews and admissions, however, I also know that these kinds of recommendations are viewed suspiciously. The thought is, "Why a letter from someone that far in the past?" Obviously there are times when a long-ago professor or mentor might be appropriate, particularly when someone is in a confidential process that precludes using...

While in graduate school, I interviewed for a part-time job in retail. The position, in high-end shoes, was very competitive because it carried a 10-percent commission on sales. I really wanted the job. When the store manager asked me to describe myself, a phrase fell out of my mouth that still makes me cringe: "I'm a people person."

Yech!

It's amazing how we revert to clichés and empty phrases when in interviews.

Higher education is filled with the same kinds of verbiage. I shudder every time I hear someone talk about a "paradigm shift." A mentor of mine used to keep two dimes in his pocket and hand them to anyone who used that phrase in his presence with these words: "Here's a pair of dimes. Go ahead and shift them." I wish I'd had the nerve to do that during some of the interviews I've sat through.

I can't tell you how many times prospective administrators have used the phrase "herding...

A friend of mine, who is not in academe, asked me how often I publish my research. He has a vague understanding that I do not merely teach but also engage in some sort of publishing. I told him that I was able to see my name in print fairly regularly, and he asked one of my favorite questions about academic publishing: "How much do they pay you for an article?"

"For scholarly articles, nothing. I get a few free copies of the publication, but generally there is no payment given for that kind of publication."

"Well, what about a book?" he persisted, assuming that my answer would be different.

"Most academic books provide enough royalties to pay for a nice meal every now and then, but they certainly don't buy summer houses," I said. "A successful academic book might generate a few thousand dollars in payments, but they take years to produce."

He looked at me with amazed pity, and I thought of...

At the start of my academic career, my dean instructed us all to come to campus on a Saturday morning for a faculty-development session. As a new faculty member, I dutifully arrived, grabbed one of the pastries that was provided, and took a seat among the large gathering of colleagues.

What came next just completely shocked me: The session was on how to stage an intervention for a friend who was addicted to drugs or some other destructive behavior. We received an overview of the strategy, a walk-through of how one would work, and then we broke up into groups to stage practice interventions. One lucky person was selected to be the addict and one was designated as the confronter. This lasted for two solid hours. It was excruciating. Twenty years later, I still have no idea what the blazes the session had to do with my duties as an instructor.

Mind you, I've attended many other such sessions,...

Everyone knows the importance of networking in the job search, but there is an angle that often goes undiscussed: the link between searches among different institutions or even different candidates. 

I maintain a file of résumés of applicants to my institution to whom we did not offer positions. That may sound counterintuitive, but there are many times that an applicant is very impressive but is just not the right fit for the posted position. Sometimes the specialty or subspecialty is not right, or the position requires a higher rank, or a "dream" candidate drops out of the sky and surpasses candidates who otherwise might be the search committee’s choice (the latter two scenarios are more common these days because of the challenges many institutions are facing). In these cases, I sometimes will ask the candidate for permission to share the résumé with other searches. Most folks have no ...

The story about the professor at Louisiana State University who was "benched" during the semester due to low test scores caught many an eye and has generated a great deal of discussion. Now that the talk has cooled down a bit, I wanted to pose a serious question based on a fictional amalgamation of several true incidents I've heard about from different academic administrators.

Let's say you are the department chair, dean, or academic vice-president and you have an endless stream of students complaining about a new professor's grades. As you generally do, you tell the students to buckle down and try their best, to see how the rest of the semester goes, and to await their final grades for the course.

When the semester concludes, the phone calls and visits intensify, so you pull the final grades for the professor's courses and you find that he has assigned a grade of "F" to each and every...

One of the most frustrating parts of job searches is the "Thanks but no thanks" reply from a candidate. By the time an offer has been made, many hurdles have been overcome. The department has formed a coalition with the administration to make the offer. Credentials have been reviewed and distilled into a proposed rank and salary. A name has been penciled onto the schedule. Sometimes even students are filled with anticipation for the new arrival. When the candidate says "No," more than a few parties are frustrated.

My fellow blogger David Evans recently noted how frequently candidates ask, "Why didn't I get the job?" I thought I would extend that discussion in the other direction. Many times I wish, as a dean, that I could phone a candidate and ask, "Why didn't you take the job?" I know the primary answers (location, spousal opportunities, desire to be at a research institution, etc.),...

The name on a doctor's-office sign recently caught my eye as I passed it. It was something like "Dr. Billy Joe Bob," and it struck me as one I'd have a hard time admitting to seeing as my personal physician.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with someone who was on the job market a number of years ago. His given name on his birth certificate was something like "Jimmy Dick Shirley Smith." He said, "I just feel like 'Jimmy Dick' isn't a very professional name and I prefer to be called 'Jim,' truth be told. 'Shirley' would just be confusing; it's my mother's family name, not the feminine name, but that's too hard to explain. Do you think my name will impact me in the job market?"

I suggested that he go by the first two initials, "J. D.," and put "Jim" in quotations between the initials and his surname. That seemed to satisfy him. Have you ever known someone who altered his or her name...