First Person

Engineering a Business-School Search

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By I.R. Eng

I am an engineer. I have a bachelor's in engineering physics from Big California Public, a master's in electrical engineering from a Public Ivy, and a Ph.D. in systems engineering from Big Midwest Public. I have worked in the U.S. Navy as an engineering division officer or department head on several ships. And I have worked as a project manager on two major military weapon systems during the research-and-design stage.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I am applying for academic positions at business schools.

Yes, I said business schools. Perhaps I forgot to mention that I originally started in the business Ph.D. program at Big Midwest Public. I had decided to go back to graduate school for my Ph.D. after leaving the Navy. Because I had so much managerial experience, I thought I would fit best in the business discipline.

However, a year after I joined the program, my adviser took a job at another university leaving me to try to find another faculty sponsor. After floating around for my second year, the business school told me it could not find another match for my research interests and I would have to leave the program.

The business school gave me a grace year (I guess I was still valuable as a T.A.), so I began looking at other departments on the campus. My final resting place was back in engineering, but I did leave the B school with an M.S.B.A. I tell people who ask that I was not smart enough for business and had to go into engineering.

At the E school, I earned my Ph.D. in an engineering management program and am doing postdoctoral research there now. While doing some charity work recently, I got to talking with a professor of finance. His telling remark about my program: "They are building a mini-business school over there in engineering."

So my work experience, the two years I spent in doctoral studies at the business school, and my current program's "mini-business school" reputation has propelled me toward applying to positions at business schools.

It is not that I am opposed to taking a professorship in engineering. In fact this is my second year on the academic market; during my first year I applied mostly to engineering schools. I was even offered a job in an engineering-management department but had to decline. (I did not feel that I fit the university.) This year I've been applying mostly for tenure-track positions in business schools.

I am also trying to explain my scholarship in ways that may be better understood by members of search committees. In my head, I see them pick up my CV, read the cover, flip to the job announcement for the position, and then flip back to my CV. I imagine that occurs several times as they try to fit my eclectic background into their concept of a management professor. I then see them set aside my application, pick up another candidate's, and sigh with relief when the CV states "Ph.D. in strategic management."

Last year I did not have a focused message about where my scholarship fit and that bled through in my CV, my teaching philosophy, and my statement of research. This time around, I am honing my message and using the eclectic nature of my history as a unique feature. I am embracing the fact that my scholarship encompasses organizational behavior, strategy, decision analysis, and systems engineering and applying to schools that want a scholar with cross-disciplinary ability.

I have also been attending conferences in management and leaving the engineering ones behind. As a candidate, you need to make an effort to put a face behind the label on your application folder, buried in a drawer with 100 others.

Having spent a semi-successful year on the market last year, I think I have learned a lot about how the process works and about how I fit, or not, into position announcements. But I am also nervous, seeing as I am applying in an area in which my adviser has few, if any, contacts. However, my professor's contacts weren't really a factor last year in my search in engineering so maybe it won't make a difference this year, either.

I have already added a business professor from my original program to my list of references. That should give my CV a little name recognition with search committees in business and signal my old program's confidence in my abilities.

I know crossing over will not be easy and may require compromises along the way, but I think the fit for me will be better in a business department. And that seems important enough to go into the process practically alone. With big rewards come big risks, I only hope that is a characteristic that is valued by search committees in a new colleague.