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By Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong

Question: I am finishing a Ph.D. in engineering and applying for academic positions at four-year colleges and universities. I am also a veteran teacher with three years of experience at the two-year-college level and 11 years at the high-school level. Would it be possible for me to be hired at a rank higher than that of assistant professor?

Answer: As a rule, you can't be hired at the rank of associate or full professor -- that is, as a tenured professor -- unless you have been granted tenure already by some other institution. Even for people who have successfully earned tenure elsewhere, the job for which they are applying must be advertised as an associate or full professorship, or as an "open-rank" position, for them to be hired to tenure.

Occasionally, a very experienced candidate might be hired as an associate professor without tenure, with the understanding that the tenure-review process would begin the following year. Such hiring practices vary from institution to institution.

Your teaching experience at a community college is not enough to help you land a tenured post at a four-year institution, although it may be enough to get you in at the associate-professor rank at a two-year college. Chances are, though, you will have to accept an assistant professorship at either type of institution.

Many graduate students work in a variety of capacities before, during, and after graduate school. Although those experiences often serve them well in their academic careers, it is important to remember that such experience is not of crucial importance to a search committee at a four-year institution. What counts is the quality of your research, your teaching experience at the university level, and your commitment to university service.

Question: I have a master's degree from a fine university and a fine job at a community college. I get questions from mentors and colleagues about when I plan to get my Ph.D. I have no real interest in a Ph.D. at this point, but I also don't see my present post as permanent. Job prospects aren't looking all that great for Ph.D.'s but if I want to move into the four-year system, it appears I need the doctorate. So, how do I decide?

Question: I am currently a secondary-school teacher. I have a master's degree and plan to pursue a Ph.D. With my educational background, I can enter a Ph.D program in Spanish, psychology, or education. I would love to teach any of those fields. If finding full-time employment as a professor is my goal, which of those fields should I enter?

Answer: It's flattering to know that so many readers trust us enough to ask the big question: "Should I get a Ph.D.?" Deciding whether to pursue a doctorate is a highly personal decision and hinges on a variety of factors, both private and professional.

It goes without saying that the job market is bad for Ph.D.'s in some fields. Certainly, many Ph.D.'s who hoped to land on the tenure track eventually look for employment outside of academe. It is also true, however, that the job market varies by field -- the market in a field like education, for example, could be said to be much better than that in English. And many graduate students and postdocs have gone on to find fulfilling jobs in their fields, despite the supposed odds.

So, should you get a Ph.D.? Generally, if you are planning to teach at the university level, you will need a doctorate (or the highest degree offered in your field).

There are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, community colleges often employ professors with master's degrees. An efficient way to find out the educational levels of professors at various institutions is to do a Internet search.

Our first correspondent might want to think seriously about the direction in which she would like her career to head. If her goal is to teach in the university setting, she will most likely need to complete a Ph.D. But research is an essential part of a faculty career at most four-year colleges and universities. If you are uninterested in research, then pursuing a doctorate and planning a career at a four-year institution might not be the appropriate choice.

To our second correspondent, we advise that you take a serious inventory of your own interests before choosing a field. Teaching is only one component of the academic world, and the research that you will have to do both as a student and as a professor will be radically different depending on your chosen field. Think carefully, talk with professors and students in the fields that interest you, and choose the one about which you are most passionate.

Question: I am heartbroken. I finished my master's in English (creative writing) and, by a stroke of luck, managed to get a part-time position teaching composition at a community college when they needed someone at the last minute. As an "emergency hire" I was allowed to bypass the adjunct-pool process for the fall semester, but was required to go through it if I wanted to continue for the spring semester. However, my degree and the fact that I am just out of graduate school worked against me in the hiring process for the adjunct pool. The situation is completely objective, not subjective -- points are assigned to those with a certain level of experience and education, and those with the higher points qualify for the pool. I simply do not. What can I do?

Question: I am advertising-sales director at a metropolitan newspaper who taught as an adjunct for a semester at the university where I got my M.B.A. I enjoyed it and want to find a full-time position at a two-year college. I am 55 years old with 30 years of experience in sales and marketing and am reluctant to leave my job and go for a doctoral degree. Are the chances very remote, especially in this tight job market, that I would even be considered for a full-time teaching position?

Answer: We get a lot of letters like those from discouraged job applicants. The details change but the story is essentially the same.

Unfortunately, departments and institutions require job candidates to have specific credentials and it is very unusual that they will budge on them. If you read faculty job announcements you can see that they usually seek applicants with the terminal degree in the field -- usually that's a Ph.D.; another example is the M.F.A. for disciplines in fine arts. Only when departments or divisions are quite interdisciplinary are candidates considered who have nontraditional academic preparation.

Because there are so many Ph.D.'s on the market now, many community colleges that once largely hired people with master's degrees are bringing more Ph.D.'s onto their faculties. Still, a spot check of job openings at several community colleges reveals that a multitude of announcements continue to specify that applicants need only have master's degrees.

To the many discouraged job candidates, we suggest that you look closely at the profiles of academics in your chosen field and make informed decisions about whether or not you are a competitive candidate. Certainly, for those who love teaching, working as an adjunct is often an option, but it is important to keep in mind that it is not a full-time position, and won't necessarily lead to one.

Many people write to us to ask about the possibility of moving into full-time teaching after a career doing something else. In fact, a few years ago we wrote two columns on that very topic. Our advice in those columns still stands. We recommend that you take a look at Part 1 and Part 2 of "I'm 50. Can I Get a Teaching Position?"

Question: What should you put on your CV when you've worked at an institution (or received a degree from one) that has undergone a name change in the meantime? Should you leave the name as it was when you were there, list the current name, or somehow list both?

Answer: That's a very good question, particularly now when so many institutions are changing their names to reflect a new identity. Some state institutions are removing the word "state" from their names and others are morphing from a college into a university. Many others change their names to honor a major donor. Sometimes a small institution on the brink of bankruptcy is purchased by an older institution and no longer grants degrees. Still others decide that the old name is affecting the institution in an adverse way and adopt a new moniker.

Whatever the reason, if you're listing a degree from an institution that has since changed its name, you should list the degree with the old name, and then include the new name. For example, you would write "Zebra State Teachers College (now Zebra State University), location, Ph.D. in education, 1988."