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[diana_prince]

If you have the opportunity to apply for the Preparing Future Faculty fellowship and it's offered at your university, it might be worth your time as a grad student. My R1 also offered a program for non-academic job searches, Preparing Future Professionals. I already had a full time position while I was working on my dissertation and enrolled in the PFF and the PFP program, yet I still found the information valuable and helpful. I especially liked meeting other grad students from outside my field of study, understanding that we shared some of the same concerns about our career choices and the job search, both academic and non-academic.

As many Ph.Ds in the heart of the job search have confided here, R1s push Ph.D. students to search for a TT position at other R1s, ideally creating more colleagues, albeit junior colleagues, in the same field.

However, not all Ph.Ds will find a TT R1 position, and if they do, they may be more interested in non-academic work. That's almost shocking in the R1. If grad students are unable to get a broadened perspective from their advisors, programs like PFF and PFP help in that regard.

I'm not affiliated with this in anyway. I just thought I'd post from my experiences something I found beneficial. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this. Preparing early for your job search isn't a bad idea.

http://www.preparing-faculty.org/

[zharkov]

I'd expect to find that most PhD's work for teaching oriented schools, not R1s.  The teaching school may value research to some degree, but "job one" is to teach undergrads.  Is that addressed in PFF?

Thanks,

Z

[smart_e_pantz]

I'd expect to find that most PhD's work for teaching oriented schools, not R1s.  The teaching school may value research to some degree, but "job one" is to teach undergrads.  Is that addressed in PFF?

Thanks,

Z

I participated in the PFF and yes, those issues are addressed in the program.  It was particularly helpeful for me because I did the PhD and big research school but I really wanted a job at a Liberal Arts college.  I requested a mentoring placement at a Liberal Arts college.  I think that helped make the LACs a little more comfortable in hiring someone from such a research intensive program

[twofish]

One option that isn't considered is to prepare Ph.D.'s for industry with the expectation that they can and will teach community college or online part time (and to encourage industry to let people teach as a public service).  For someone in the math and sciences that makes a lot more sense financially than trying to get them to do full time teaching.

The other thing is that I am positive that academia in ten years is going to be very different than it is today.  I don't know how it will be different, but it will be different, and  I'm a little concerned that the academic environment might change more quickly than these sorts of programs can.

[dale1]

For those graduate students who are preparing to do PFF stints, please make sure that when you sign up you follow through.  Leaving departments in the lurch to find temporary faculty at the last moment truly is a disservice to the department and to your future prospects in it.

[smart_e_pantz]

One option that isn't considered is to prepare Ph.D.'s for industry with the expectation that they can and will teach community college or online part time (and to encourage industry to let people teach as a public service).  For someone in the math and sciences that makes a lot more sense financially than trying to get them to do full time teaching.

The other thing is that I am positive that academia in ten years is going to be very different than it is today.  I don't know how it will be different, but it will be different, and  I'm a little concerned that the academic environment might change more quickly than these sorts of programs can.

At my uni, the PFF program was limited to people who were going to be on the market within a year specifically because they wanted to make sure they were responsive to the current needs of the students.

[elemental]

I participated in PFF in my second and third years of my PhD program. I loved it, both for the socializing into the expectations of academia, and for meeting other grad students across disciplines.

I've always been pretty sure I'm headed for a research track, but I like to keep an open mind, and learned about some great options, such as comprehensive universitites, that I wouldn't have understood much about otherwise. I know PFF usually gets billed as particularly good for those headed for teaching positions at smaller colleges, but I think that does it a disservice (such as scaring off those in the biosciences etc. who don't want to seem like they're not serious enough about their research). I think PFF can be useful to everyone, regardless of where in academia they want to or eventually end up.

I'm also really glad that I was in PFF early in my PhD, because it helped me to work on my vita. The process in some regards takes so long that I needed that extra time to really get a good vita together. I haven't been on the TT market yet, but I easily got a very good postdoc, and I credit some of that to being able to talk the talk I learned at PFF. I know where my focus needs to be, and could use my time in my doctorate and now at my postdoc much more effectively.

I've talked to other postdocs here, and they don't have nearly as much understanding of the academic process, despite having excellent mentors, so I credit my extra knowledge directly to PFF. I definitely recommend it.

[phantom_friend]

For those graduate students who are preparing to do PFF stints, please make sure that when you sign up you follow through.  Leaving departments in the lurch to find temporary faculty at the last moment truly is a disservice to the department and to your future prospects in it.

Good advice, dale, regarding following through when you sign up for something... anything.

However, I think you (dale) might be confused about what PFF is.  PFF is not an employment service for grad students, placing them in faculty positions; it is a workshop/seminar designed to assist grad students with transitioning from being a student to being a faculty member by holding sessions on teaching, professionalization, etc.

Just wanted to clarify that for readers who may be confused about dale's post.

At my grad institution, the PFF program was great!  It was held during the summer, and I got to meet folks from a wide variety of departments.  It was a nice, intense few weeks of bonding and drinking.

Sign up if you can!

[diana_prince]

Also the Preparing Future Faculty program might vary from school to school and it might be different than Preparing Future Professionals. The PFF program helps doc students to find mentors at other types of universities and colleges besides the doctoral-granting R1s. Guest speakers are usually brought in as well as workshops held on CV writing and dissertation writing.

Since I had over five years teaching experience at a community college as an adjunct, I was surprised at how many doc students in the PFF had negative impressions of the community college, since there were so many applicants for job openings there. It was one of the top ten in the country and the largest in the state, with lots of activities and attractions, overall a great place to be full time, with tenure granted in less time than at a four year college. I do think that some doc students view it as a failure if they don't get a position at a research university. The PFF helps prepare them for the possibility that teaching might be emphasized more than research when they look for a position and for them not to consider it a failure.