Moving Up

Unusual Administrative-Career Moves

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By Jean Dowdall

At this time of year, many administrators are exploring new job opportunities and making plans for the next steps along their career paths. For some, the next step is obvious -- associate deans want to become deans, provosts may feel ready to be presidents, and so on. But there are other paths to consider, so let's discuss some of the reasons why you might want to take the road less traveled.

Some people make career moves that are organizationally lateral or involve no increase in compensation. Some even move "downward" -- to a position lower on the organizational chart, to a lower-status institution, or to a job with lower pay. And some move into jobs outside of higher education. Candidates often grapple in their own minds with whether to make these moves. And sometimes they struggle to explain the rationale behind their unusual career moves to others, including members of search committees.

I'll begin with moves that appear to be lateral. If you are already the dean of arts and sciences at one college, for example, why would you want to move to the same position elsewhere? There could be many reasons. Something about the new institution may be more consistent with your personal goals or preferences: It might offer a more lively or civil culture, or a set of issues that you are eager to confront. Its institutional mission may be more attractive (e.g., a commitment to access or to distance learning or service learning, or a church-related mission). A similar title may hide the reality of a broader, or more interesting, portfolio. You may simply thrive on the essential elements of being a dean of arts and sciences and not want to become as distant from the faculty as provosts sometimes are. As a search consultant, I notice an increasing interest in moving because of deep cuts in state budgets that are dismantling much of what administrators have built. You may be one of those in search of a better economic climate. Any of these could be a compelling reason to make a lateral move.

Some administrators make a lateral move in terms of position, but an upward one in terms of institution. For example, if you want to be the provost of an elite private university and are currently a dean at a nonselective public institution, you may need to hold a deanship at a selective university before you can move up in the hierarchy there.

Are there any reasons you should or shouldn't make a lateral move?

Before commenting on this question from a career-ladder perspective, let me say that you don't always have full control over your career path; you may have to move to be near a spouse or an aging parent, or to provide particular opportunities for your children. Apart from these limits, you should have the career that you want to have, and not one that seems prescribed by others. But if you are hoping ultimately to move up the traditional career ladder that a search committee might expect to see reflected in your résumé, you should be aware that a lateral move may raise questions about whether perhaps you sought to move up but were unsuccessful.

A presidential candidate recently spoke with pride of having been a dean five times -- but unfortunately that didn't add up, in my view, to readiness for a presidency or even a provostship; it just made me wonder why, during all those dean searches, he hadn't sought to do something different. Some might wonder whether you were forced out of your position and chose the easier path of a lateral move. If you respond to these kinds of questions by saying that you made the first move for personal reasons, the second move because you discovered you didn't like the location, the third move because you had a difference of opinion with the person you reported to, and so on, you can imagine the skeptical reaction you're likely to get. So a series of lateral moves should be made with care and with thought to the long-term consequences.

Lateral moves are somewhat unusual, but downward moves are even more rare. Perhaps the most common one is moving to an institution of lower status or taking a cut in pay in order to attain a higher position. Sometimes, for example, presidential candidates who have nontraditional credentials or experiences, and who do not come from the faculty ranks, must move to an institution of lesser prominence in order to land a presidency.

Or you may have been a president who ran into difficulty. A bad experience might lead you not to want to be a president again, and reveal to you in hindsight that you are more comfortable and effective in a different role. It might also lead you to become a dean or vice president in order to rehabilitate your reputation and later, after several successful years, return to the path you were on.

Why would anyone take a cut in pay? In some cases, a difficult job market may give you little choice. But there are some people for whom compensation is not the most important element in their decision making. Location or rank or family issues may take precedence, and lower pay may be simply an unfortunate part of the package. Others may have been so highly compensated, or have such exceptional benefits (perhaps as part of golden handcuffs, designed specifically to keep them out of the job market), that few institutions will be able to match their current package. Some private colleges offer, for example, very generous tuition benefits for you or your family members, and unless you are in a strong negotiating position, you may have to give these up if you're going to move on.

Finally, I'll offer a few comments about moves outside higher education. There are some fields in which this kind of move makes great sense, and in which you will normally be welcomed back if you later decide to return to academe. In professional schools, it may be useful to spend some time in the parallel noneducation world of nursing, business, engineering, etc.

However, a move to a nonacademic sector is not always so easily explained. Search committees for presidential and vice presidential positions, in my experience, often ask hard questions about why you moved out of education, what that means about your preferences and commitments, and why you would want to return now. These "loyalty" issues can often be answered -- and you may want to discuss them in your cover letter if you apply for a position in higher education again -- but you should be aware that the questions will probably be asked.

Putting all this advice into one general observation, I'd urge you, as you contemplate making an unusual job change, to try to think beyond this move itself and reflect on where you ultimately want to be, trying to strike the best balance between immediate and longer-term considerations.