First Person

Switching Disciplines

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By Jason Stone

So, you're in search of a tenure-track job, knowing full well how difficult the market can be these days. You've published like mad, worked hard to get good teaching experience and evaluations, and networked like it's going out of style. No doubt you've mailed countless applications, some to places you've never heard of before.

In short, you've done every possible thing to maximize your chances of getting a coveted spot on the tenure track. Or have you?

Besides all of the conventional job-hunting strategies, there's a lesser-known one that worked for me: Applying for positions in disciplines outside of your own. Now I'm not talking about joining the chemistry department if your degree is in English. I am talking about applying for openings in a related discipline.

My job search was like a whirlwind that ended, thankfully, with a tenure-track offer -- not in my discipline of psychology, but in the field of communication. I had taken a postdoc with a health-related research team in a communication department at a public research university. When a tenure-track position opened up in that department, my postdoc adviser encouraged me to apply.

I am now at the end of my first year as an assistant professor of communication in the department. Had I not pursued a position in a related field, I might still be a frustrated postdoc wondering what it takes to get a tenure-track job at a research university. It would be dishonest, however, for me to suggest that the transition has been easy.

As "interdisciplinary" becomes a mantra in more and more fields, it may become increasingly popular, and acceptable, for Ph.D.'s to switch disciplines on the job market. But before you take that plunge, consider some of the positive and negative experiences I have had in my new discipline.

A central question to ask yourself is, Will you be able to do the same, or very similar, research in your new field as you would have in your "home" discipline?

In my case, the answer was yes. My research focus was in health psychology -- and now, in health communication -- and there is much overlap between those subdisciplines.

If the answer for you is no, then you must consider how far afield you would be willing to go and still be satisfied with your position. Remember, getting a tenure-track job is one thing, but being happy in it is quite another. Since we don't get paid like CEO's, and you won't be using the company condo in Aruba over spring break, you really don't want to be in an academic position that doesn't suit you.

An exciting advantage of switching to a new discipline is the unusual perspective that you will bring to that discipline, as well as the new perspective that it will bring to you. Your research may be greatly enhanced by incorporating the perspectives of a new discipline.

On the other hand, although health psychology and health communication are quite similar, some substantial differences do exist. It has been fascinating to learn and examine different theories and methods from my new discipline in relation to my previous training.

Another benefit is that your department may consider you special because you bring expertise that its other faculty members do not offer. You will likely be a valuable asset on thesis and dissertation committees both in your new and home disciplines. Finally, you will bring something to your classes that others in the department will not.

Switching disciplines, however, is not a walk in the park. In the beginning, it felt more like a stumble. One of the major disadvantages for me relates to the issue of professional identity.

Even though I've been in my position for almost a full academic year, I still ask myself: Professionally, who am I? Do I now go to the communication conferences that many of my new colleagues attend? Do I stick with the psychology conferences I have always gone to? Or do I perhaps double up and go to both? I haven't quite figured that out.

And what about future academic positions? If I apply for an opening in a psychology department down the road, will it "take me back" or shun me like some old boyfriend trying to get back together with his ex.

The advice I got on that one was to keep my ties with psychology, so I set up an official affiliation with the psychology department at my university. But honestly, who really knows what would happen if I applied for a psychology position in 10 years after being in a communication department for that long?

Publishing is another major issue. I find myself still thinking, first and foremost, of publishing in psychology journals, and only thinking about communication journals in a secondary way. You will want to discuss this issue with the search committee before you accept a job in a related discipline.

I wanted to be sure that I could still publish some of my work in psychology journals, as they are most appropriate for some of the research that I do. The communication department that hired me was fine with that. Still, it has added an additional layer of decision making whenever I have to consider where to send a manuscript. And I definitely feel some pressure from my new department to publish in communication journals, and I suspect that that pressure will only increase as I get closer to tenure.

Another major issue to consider is teaching. Will you be able to teach courses in your areas of expertise within your new field? And how will you feel if you can't? In my first semester I taught a course that was only tangentially related to my areas of expertise, and thus it was a bit of a struggle. Since statistics and research methods are pretty much the same across communication and psychology, I have been drawn toward teaching courses on those methods. I teach fewer courses packed with traditional communication content.

I have had to make a whole host of adjustments that may seem large or small, depending on how you view those matters.

For instance, in psychology, I was used to teaching undergradutes who wanted to pursue a variety of careers. In my current department, most undergraduates want to go into public-relations positions, including being pharmaceutical-company representatives. To me, that feels pretty foreign in relation to the roots of the discipline of psychology.

And then there's the semantics of a new field. Every discipline has its own language, and getting used to that language takes a while. I used to teach "health psychology," now I teach "health communication." I don't teach "psychological research methods" anymore, I teach "communication research methods." Sometimes learning the lingo feels like no big deal, other times it just plain feels strange.

I am still learning much about my new field, including who the major players are, what some of the subfields are, and what communication majors do with their degrees (so I may appropriately advise students). And while it's been a challenging year, I don't regret my switch.

Let's go back to that original scenario: You're on the job market in search of a tenure-track position. Should you consider applying to disciplines outside your own in order to increase your chances of landing a job?

That, of course, is a question that only you can answer. But it's a question that I urge you to at least consider.