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Career Paths

Career Paths. Stephanie Weirich University of Pennsylvania. What I'm going to talk about…. What is like to be an assistant professor? General and specific advice about the job Research Teaching Service Comments and advice about juggling the job with everything else.

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Career Paths

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  1. Career Paths Stephanie Weirich University of Pennsylvania

  2. What I'm going to talk about… • What is like to be an assistant professor? • General and specific advice about the job • Research • Teaching • Service • Comments and advice about juggling the job with everything else

  3. What does an academic career path look like? • Ph.D. • Postdoc (optional) • Assistant Professor • Reappointment review in 3rd year • Tenure review in 6th year <- coming up! • Associate Professor • Full Professor

  4. My (short) career path • Finished Ph.D. at Cornell University, July 2002 • Internship at Bell Labs, Summer 1999 • Teaching, Fall 2001 • Started as an Assistant Professor at Penn, September 2002 • Husband started at same time, same dept., similar research area • Currently finishing 5th year

  5. What is an academic job at a research university? • Three main components: • Research • Teaching • Service • Not evenly balanced. Research is queen. • Challenge: managing short-term Teaching and Service goals so you can achieve long term research goals.

  6. Research advice • Actively look for collaborators • Too easy to get caught up with just you and your students • Can work with anyone: at your university, at another university, at a research lab. • Develop a good research environment • Reading groups, seminars • Practice talks • Advising Ph.D. students • No one teaches you how to do it • Each student is different in how much attention they need • Most important to develop a good working relationship • They have a strong influence on your work

  7. Research flexibility • Research supported by funding • grad students, summer salary, conf. travel, equip. • Funding comes from • Start-up (first few years) • Govt. agencies (NSF, DoD) • Corporate gifts • Few limits on what to research • For tenure must be a recognized expert • Classified/proprietary research won’t help that

  8. Teaching tricks • Active Lecturing • Ask questions - really easy ones at first • Get students to work on a problem in pairs • Go through code interactively (DrJava) • Exam preparation • Think about grading when you make your exam • No more than 15% of points for the top students • Length: how many minutes to work each problem?

  9. Teaching and time management • Easy to let teaching take all of your time • Can be scary to lecture • Immediate feedback, lots of short-term tasks • Real people asking for your time as opposed to amorphous "research" • My strategy • Allocate research time first • Don't begin course prep too early • Students won't complain if you finish class early (and you won't) • Use your course staff • Set them up as guards for your time • Let them answer email/BB ?s

  10. Service and time management • You can say no! • Must do some: prefer service with a technical component • Look for departments that protect junior faculty from too much university-level service • My controversial view: women are over-represented in service awards.

  11. Work/Life balance • You can't work all the time • Set aside time for yourself and your family • Don't feel guilty when you aren't working • Take advantage of your flexibility and resources • Spend money for time • Take a vacation!

  12. Can have children pre-tenure (so good so far…) • Look for policies -- At Penn: • Women: No teaching that semester • Both: 1 year extension on tenure clock, may or may not use • Also unofficial arrangements with your department • Steve had lighter teaching load Spring 2005 • Next Fall: "Junior Sabbatical" • Flexibility valuable • Control over your schedule, leave if you need to • Work from home sometimes • Dr. appts during the day • Hard parts • Travel • Monday deadlines for collaborative work

  13. Where to look for more? • Informal and formal mentors • In your department, research community • People you meet here • MentorNet • Systers (esp. mailing list for pretenured women) • General resources • Tomorrow's Professor, Rick Reis • Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women In Academia, Emily Toth • Chronicle of Higher Education • Job Search resources on my homepage

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