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[scigeek]

I am currently coming up for tenure.  I have serious doubts about staying at my current institution as things continue to get worse in terms of resources, departmental culture - i.e. the relationship between the chair and the faculty, and the mission of the university.  There are even rumors that my current department may be broken up - sad because the faculty actually all get along well - and people may be sent packing.  Also the new admin wants to shift from primarily teaching to more emphasis on research but without having established the necessary course load reductions and institutional infrastructure. 

My difficulty is that I have the two body problem. 

In looking for positions this fall, we have a number of questions.  The critical ones are:

1.  From another posting, I understand that we should emphasize a forward looking attitude and emphasize the positive things we like about the school and even the area.

If we apply for assistant positions, will we look overqualified?  If so, should we include some statement to the effect that we are willing to start over?  Or do we negotiate that later? 

2.  Should we address the fact that we are serious about moving - especially since we are tenure bound - so that people are not thinking that we are applying out of fear of not making tenure?

3.  Any other big faux pas or red flags that we should avoid?

4.  If we find a really appealing situation that we might feel comfortable sharing, will it look really weird given that we are already in separate positions?

Thanks!

[dr_strangelove]

(1) I don't think you will appear over qualified, assuming you are applying for a position at a similar (or "better") institution. I wouldn't advise addressing the "starting over" question in your materials; it'll be assumed that you will be offered some credit toward tenure, and that this is negotiable. You don't need to raise this until an offer is on the table or imminent.

(2) I do think you should indicate that you are serious about moving, and I think that the best way to do this is by constructing a serious application, one that matches your experience/expertise as best you can with the expectations/requirements for faculties at the new institution.

(3) Probably!

(4) I take it that you and your spouse/significant other are in the same field? I don't have any direct experience with position-sharing, but my sense is that it would just add one additional complicating factor to your situation.

[seniorscholar]

I would imagine my R-1 is fairly typical: we can not hire someone as an associate professor with tenure unless the person is already tenured at a comparable institution. We do hire advanced assistant professors and bring them up for tenure in their second year (first year is a mistake, since there needs to be some record on this campus and also some name recognition across campus); in rare instances we can hire as untenured associate and (again) have a tenure process in year #2. I would therefore advise you to apply for positions at both assistant and associate (or open) rank, but not to raise the "starting over" or "how much credit can I get towards tenure" questions until you're at the campus visit stage -- though if there is a preliminary interview (conference or phone) and someone asks, you should of course be quite open about what you would need in order to accept the job if it were offered. ("What would it take to get you here?" is a question sometimes asked of experienced faculty at a relatively early stage, since if someone wants to head an institute that will be created for his/her work, there's no point in our going further.)

I'd emphasize the importance of indicating in your cover letter that you are looking for a position that will provide better research facilities, or more doctoral students, or the opportunity to secure grant funding, or the other academic and professional relationships that can be forged in a bigger city, or whatever it is that makes the school you're applying to appropriate for you at your career stage, and assume that the weaknesses of your current school will be recognized by people on the search committee. (We've certainly been known to look at websites, google for gossip, and otherwise try to figure out, without asking anyone who is there, why someone wants to leave a particular department -- particularly if we are worried that the person is doing a search-for-matching-offer and isn't serious about moving.)

[scigeek]

Thanks for the advice.

scigeek