Posts by Allison M. Vaillancourt
May 16, 2012, 01:41 PM ET
Curious Works Better Than Furious
During a recent dinner party, several
of us engaged in a spirited conversation about end of the semester
grade appeals. Because I teach only in the fall, my May is
gloriously free of e-mails, calls, and visits from students bent on
educating me on the grades they truly deserve, but most of my party
colleagues were bracing themselves for the usual onslaught of
complaints. I was particularly happy to be in a non-grading mode
because I am still suffering from PTGD (Post Traumatic Grading
Disorder). I do not have a history of PTGD, so its sudden onset
last December took me by surprise. The first signs of the condition
emerged toward the latter part of a five-hour layover at Chicago's
O'Hare Airport when I was finally able to click the "submit grades"
button a full hour before it was time to move to the gate area. The
semester was finally over. I was done. I was relieved. That sense
of...
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May 9, 2012, 02:11 PM ET
When Did We Stop Believing?
Last week, I attended an event during
which I was seated at a table with an undergraduate student who
loves her classes and is enthusiastically pursuing three majors. I
expressed genuine admiration for her sense of drive and ambition
and asked what she planned to do with degrees from our colleges of
science, humanities, and business. "Well," she explained, "I've
always wanted to be an anesthesiologist and a wedding planner, but
in the last few years, I've grown more interested in real estate."
"So which of those are you going to pursue?" I asked. "Which?" she
asked looking confused. "All of them," she responded. She then
described in great detail her plans to build a master community
(the real-estate part of her life) that has a variety of essential
services, among them, a hospital (where she will be the
anesthesiologist) and an event-planning firm (where she will be a
co-owner)....
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May 2, 2012, 12:01 PM ET
Would You Trade Your Career for a Pickup Truck?
While having lunch with one of our
university's rising stars recently, my dining companion recalled
how hard it was for her to leave home to start her doctoral
program. Because her father was determined to keep her close by, he
offered to buy her a decked-out pickup truck if she would agree to
attend a very mediocre graduate program in their hometown. "I was
close to my family and I really wanted that truck, so it was hard,"
she explained. Despite the attractive offer, she eventually
declined her father's retention package. While I'm sure the now
assistant professor's father loves her very much, one might argue
that his offer was selfish. Had the deal been accepted, he would
have kept his daughter close by, but she would have been denied an
opportunity to be a superstar. Good for him. Bad for her. In some
weird cosmic convergence, the truck story was shared during the
same week in...
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April 25, 2012, 01:02 PM ET
'An Iced Tea Would Be Terrific'
"First he ordered a pre-meal vodka
tonic. Then an appetizer. Then a salad. Then the $36 osso bucco.
Then crème brûlée. Then, I kid you not, a glass of port." So went
the download of a dinner with a senior finalist who killed his
chances at dinner. The problem? He thought he was on vacation
instead of on display. Navigating the eating part of any interview
process can be more complex than the job talk. What if I splash
tomato sauce on my shirt? Wine or no wine? How can I chew and
answer questions at the same time? These are just some of the
issues that can challenge even the most experienced employment
candidates. A few guidelines can be helpful. Take control of your
food practices, but don't be annoying or superior about them. Are
you a vegan? Kindly let your host know before she takes you to the
city's best barbeque place. Believe that eating veal is morally
wrong? Good for you,...
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April 17, 2012, 12:47 PM ET
You Will Not Reject Me. I Will Reject Me.
The other day I got a frantic call. "I need your help. It's been
too long. I know they aren't going to give me the job; they must
have someone else in mind. I'm going to pull out first, but don't
know whether it's better to call or to send an e-mail. What's
proper etiquette? You know these things; what should I do?" There
are no good answers to bad questions, and this was a bad question,
indeed. "Phone versus e-mail?" was not the right question. The real
question was, "What do you hope to accomplish by withdrawing from a
search for a job you really want?" So, I asked it. My caller
rambled on about the composition of the search committee, their
obvious lack of vision, their series of misguided questions, and
the impact on his self-esteem and reputation if the position were
to be offered to someone less qualified. "Okay; I get it," I
responded. "Always reject yourself first. It's...
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February 22, 2012, 09:42 AM ET
'I Seem to Have Forgotten My Pants'
I know several people who travel so much for work that they have
“home clothes” and “travel clothes” in addition to always
ready-to-go bags with toothpaste and conditioner. I travel enough
that I don’t find packing stressful, but not frequently enough to
have an established routine. Given that, I almost always forget
something. Last week I traveled to Phoenix to attend a board of
regents meeting and forgot my running shoes and toothbrush. When I
met my early morning walking group wearing cowboy boots instead of
my hot pink Asics, it prompted a conversation about how common and
embarrassing it can be to leave vital items at home. One person
shared that she went for an interview and discovered she had
forgotten to pack the skirt that went with the top part of her
ensemble. Another recounted wearing shorts on the plane and
realizing at 11:00 p.m., when all the stores were closed...
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January 3, 2012, 09:17 AM ET
Ready or Not?
You hear about an exciting job opening. Intrigued, you review the
job posting line by line. "I can do that. I've got experience on
that front. Yep, I’ve got that one nailed. I’ve done that before.
I’ve got great examples to share to demonstrate experience in that
area. Oops, I don’t have this qualification ... or that one. I’d
better not waste anyone's time by pursuing this.” Is that you? Or,
are you the more likely to say to yourself, "An 80-percent hit
rate? I own this job!" Certain people, and to my great
frustration they are more likely to be women than men, wait to be
perfectly qualified for a role before pursuing it. There are
others, however, who tend to think about their potential capacity
for success and assume they can conquer the demands of a role with
a little time on the job. So, who’s right? While I would never
encourage anyone to be reckless in applying...
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September 12, 2011, 02:00 PM ET
When It’s Time to Say 'Goodbye'
While this section of The Chronicle tends to focus on how
to get the next job, a handful of recent resignations from people
at my university and around the country have prompted me to
consider how best to leave the ones we’ve got. Some of the
resignation letters these folks wrote were remarkably gracious,
while others were bitter, including the one that was seven pages
long. While I’d venture to say the bitter letters were more
factually accurate than the gracious ones, honesty is overrated
when it comes to saying “farewell.” Whenever we are leaving under
duress or just because we’ve had quite enough, it is tempting to
use our resignation letter as an opportunity to index the many
injustices we have endured and to point out the problematic people
who have impeded our progress. In our minds we may think, “I’m not
doing this for myself, I’m doing this for those who come a...
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August 10, 2011, 02:18 PM ET
When Someone Else Gets the Job You Deserve
You established an impressive track record to prepare for the next
step within your existing organization, let others know that you
were ready for something bigger, and eventually took a risk and
expressed your interest in an expanded role. Today you learned that
the new job that had your name all over it is going to someone you
consider far less qualified. What now? When someone else gets
"your" job it is only normal to be disappointed, crushed, or even
outraged. You might question the motivations of the hiring
authority, suspect the successful candidate of using unethical
tactics to secure the new position, or blame the decision on
organizational politics. If you truly believe the wrong decision
has been made, what are your options? Here are a few smart and
perhaps not-so-smart approaches to consider: Option One: Publicly
express outrage and challenge the integrity of the hiring...
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April 11, 2011, 12:16 PM ET
Don't Let Them Get on That Plane
At my institution, like many others, we have long conversations
about what is often called the "loyalty tax," a real or imagined
salary penalty one endures when staying at an institution for a
long period of time or failing to solicit job offers for leverage.
A belief that an outside offer is the only way to achieve a
promotion, salary increase, or more resources often drives people
to go on the market whether they really want to or not. Remarkably,
some institutions actually promote institutional abandonment by
requiring that individuals produce a signed letter of offer in
order to entertain conversations about new terms and conditions of
employment. Incredibly, institutions justify this practice by
arguing the need for proof that someone is truly a flight risk. In
my experience, once a person gets on a plane or train or in the car
to visit a new institution, we've lost them, at least ...
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On Hiring is The Chronicle's blog about the ins and outs of college hiring, with articles and advice from around the Web.