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Job Hunting in Mid-Career

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By Michael Dalton

"Consider this my final offer."

Those words, spoken to me by the dean of a small, private college in the Midwest, were to bring to a close my 18-year career as a tenured associate professor of accounting and business on the campus.

About 45 days earlier we had talked about this year's contract. I informed the dean that I could not provide for my family (now a Brady Bunch distribution of children) without withdrawing money from my retirement account each year. I requested that we work on a joint solution that could benefit the college with my experience and enable me to stay. If we were unable to come to an agreeable solution, I made clear that I would need to start looking for another job. Luckily, the job market in my field -- accounting -- is quite good right now. I reminded the dean that in the last few years the college had hired new faculty members (who have already left) at salaries $10,000 to $20,000 more per year than what I was paid. Tenure is great, yet it is no guarantee of adequate compensation.

In one of my five meetings with the dean -- who was serving in the job on an interim basis and who had been a colleague of mine for all of my 18 years -- I finally asked the question I really wanted answered: "Why can't you just say that I have done a great job for the college and we are going to do everything possible to keep you here?"

His answer: If the college did that for me, it would have to do that for a lot of other faculty members on the payroll. That would require a $300,000 increase in the budget that the college cannot afford. To the dean's credit, he did try to make some adjustments in my salary. Yet in the final analysis, it seemed the college was willing to give me a 10-percent raise in pay in exchange for a 25-percent increase in workload. And even that raise was only about half of what I needed. So, I signed my original contract with the intention of spending any spare time looking for another job.

So, it is time to slim down and update!

I have mixed emotions about seeking another position at another college. All of my college teaching experience has been at this college, and I have developed close relationships with many colleagues and students here. I am not the type of person who puts out "feelers" to periodically test my marketability. There was no reason for me to do so, as I was having a great time teaching here. It is bittersweet to ask colleagues to write letters of reference. In some ways I feel I am abandoning them, yet I have to be content that I did everything I could to seek a solution.

But where do you start after almost 20 years in the same position? The experts say you start networking with colleagues in your professional association. My professional association had its national conference in mid-August. They have a great service that provides Internet postings for college- and university-teaching positions and also for professors (or recent Ph.D. graduates ) to post one-page résumés. I posted my résumé and received four invitations for interviews at the national conference -- positive feedback for someone who hasn't applied for a job in 18 years. (I'll let you know in my next column how that played out.)

One thing I've learned from serving on numerous search committees over the years is that generic cover letters just don't do the job. I plan to customize each cover letter to promote the qualities that will best help me land an interview at that campus. That means I will spend some time searching the Web site of each college and talking with people about the institution.

The next step is for me to contact my favorite committee members from my dissertation defense, particularly those with some name recognition to potential employers. I am fortunate to have a committee member who is nationally known and very willing to help me with reference letters or in any way he can. I am also fortunate that I haven't had to work too hard to prepare my C.V., since one of the requirements of my present position is that I update my vita each year. It has been very easy to make a few additions to ready it for electronic and physical distribution.

Beyond the nuts-and-bolts of job hunting, the real challenge that lies ahead is moving my family. Here the questions get really interesting, not to mention sticky: Where am I willing to move? Where is my spouse willing to move? How will we be able to provide long-distance care for our parents when they need it? How will our children, with all of their myriad needs, adapt to a new environment?

In my case, one complicating factor is that our daughter in two short years would have received annual free tuition, amounting to about $10,000, as a perquisite of my teaching at this college. She still wants to attend this college, so if we move, not only will I have to pay tuition, but room and board. Also, my wife is a licensed lawyer in a state just 10 minutes from where we live. We need to examine the reciprocity of her license to practice in other states as well.

Everything will work out -- at least that is what I keep telling myself. Along with the excitement of a change in employment comes the gradual pulling away from friends as I know I will be here only a few more months. I can no longer make plans to team-teach a business-ethics course with a friend in the philosophy department. Now almost every college event takes on new meaning, since this will be the last time I will participate. And the issues that were important to me institutionally become more of an abstract conviction about a plan that others will carry out. After many agonizing meetings, our departmental curriculum is finally focused on student outcomes. Yet I feel disappointed that I won't see how the changes affect students.

Change creates anxiety as well as opportunity. I'm hopeful that this opportunity will prove a happy adventure.