First Person

On the Market

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines Moving Up Mind the Gap How your cover letter can keep your presidential candidacy alive, or kill it. P&T Confidential Facebooking Your Way Out of Tenure How can you minimize the possibility that your blog or Facebook page might hurt your career? On Course Nudging Higher Education A professor looks for small changes he can make to move students toward making smarter choices. Career News No Jacket Required A scholar's study of her own students suggests that while a professor's clothing might affect initial impressions, it doesn't make a difference in the long run. Resource Salaries: Faculty | Administrative Presidential pay: Private | Public Financial resources: Salary and cost-of-living calculators Career resources: Academic | Nonacademic Library: Previous articles by topic | by date | by column Career Talk, Ms. Mentor, and more... Landing your first job On the tenure track Mid-career and on Administrative careers Nonacademic careers for Ph.D.'s Talk about your career Blogs

By Nathaniel Worther

Have I made a huge mistake?

I've recently accepted an offer to be a Congressional Science Fellow. Sponsored by various science and engineering organizations, the fellows serve as scientific advisers to senators and representatives in Congress. I'll be serving for a year, starting in January.

I know it will be an incredible experience. I will learn the intricacies of how Congress works. I will discover who sets science policy for the nation and how they do it. I will have to become an expert on many science and technology topics so that I can properly advise my new boss. The question is, Will the fellowship enhance or hinder my prospects of landing an academic job?

Let me back up a bit. I'm a 26-year-old graduate student at a major research institution, and I plan (with fingers crossed) to finish my dissertation in December. I'm majoring in a field of engineering that, at any given moment, can be exciting enough to stimulate bodily seizures or boring enough to induce a coma. At this point in my career, my work is leaning toward the latter.

I've spent the past two semesters and a summer working as a graduate teaching fellow, where I've had the pleasure of teaching an undergraduate engineering course. I enjoyed it so much it didn't even feel like work.

I still smile when I think about the day when a student came to class and said, "Mr. Worther, I saw this program on the Discovery Channel last night. They talked about the stuff we learned in class yesterday and that gave me an idea...." If that experience is any indication of what life would be like as a professor, then sign me up.

By "sign me up," what I really mean is: Read my CV, contact my references, put me on hold, lose my application, find my application, put me through a hellish two-day interview, put me on hold, make me an offer, receive my counteroffer, put me on hold, and finally make me an offer I can't refuse.

So, did I make a mistake taking the fellowship?

Well, it's not as if I had loads of other options. I could have tried to get a postdoctoral research position. That is what most people in my situation would do. In a postdoc, I would get more publications under my belt, make some industrial contacts, and have a chance to earn some much-needed recognition in my field. For a future engineering faculty member, nothing would boost my CV more than a year at a prestigious national lab or research center.

But frankly, I'm a little burnt out when it comes to research. I've been in the lab every day for more than five years. I need a break. Besides, I'm looking for a university that emphasizes teaching over research. After all, teaching is my passion, research is my ... (thinking, thinking).... I'll have to get back to you on that.

My second option was to get a job in industry working for a company like GE or Lockheed Martin. But I'm just not that kind of engineer. I need to be out among the people, spreading my knowledge, sharing experiences, developing new educational strategies.

My last option was to apply for faculty positions directly. However, it wouldn't have been easy considering my timetable. Since I'm graduating in December, I would need to be offered a position where I could start in January. If I didn't start until August, what would I do for the eight months in between? Not a good scenario, financially or otherwise.

I could have applied for faculty positions a year ago, but my dissertation outlook at that time was iffy, at best.

So I decided to take the Congressional fellowship. Now I find myself facing the same problem -- timing. What course of action should I take to make the transition from the one-year fellowship to a faculty position?

What if I love working in science policy and decide to continue with it as my career? What if I don't? If I wait until next fall to apply for faculty positions, then I'll probably face the same eight-month layover between jobs. My fellowship isn't renewable and I doubt that anyone in D.C. would hire me for eight months of science-policy work.

A lot of this whining may be in vain. I can only apply to institutions that have openings. If the right colleges aren't looking -- i.e., places that emphasize teaching over research -- then I won't be applying.

Geographically, my wife and I decided to stay on the East Coast between New Hampshire and North Carolina. I should have a decent shot, right?

Doubtful. Here is what needs to happen in order for me to get a job at Dream University. First, the engineering department must have an opening. That means that a current faculty member must retire or die, or the department must be looking to expand its program (unlikely given today's economic woes). Next, I must beat out 200 applicants who are applying for the same position. The department will probably be looking for a faculty member within a specific research area. If my research doesn't match its needs, forget it.

Last, the department must be willing to put its teaching needs on hold so that I can start a year from now, in January 2006. Most teaching universities have small departments with only a handful of faculty members. Those professors would have to be willing to teach extra classes for a semester while awaiting my arrival. If the department hired someone to start in August, the faculty would not have the extra teaching load. You do the math.

The only thing I can do now is to watch the job ads this fall and pray that Dream University has an opening. In the meantime, I need to concentrate on finishing my dissertation and finding an apartment in Washington. Maybe I did make a mistake taking the Congressional fellowship. I'll know for sure in a year or two, or five.