Building Your Career in Academia

1. Building Your Career in Academia John Holcomb Cleveland State University MATHFEST 2010

2. For those of you motivated in positive ways …

3. For those motivated in negative ways … DO NOT BE A VICTIM!

4. Just one more slogan … Ignorance of the law is no excuse

5. Scholarship • PUBLISH YOUR DISSERTATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! • Find out how many papers you need • Publishing • Keep a research diary/log • Revise/Resubmit as soon as possible • The journal review clock is not in your favor

6. Scholarship • Attend themed conferences (with your own money if necessary) • Beg anyone and everyone for ideas on “doable” problems • Collaborate wisely • Spend a summer with a collaborator • Retrain (cautiously) if necessary

7. Making time • Find a system that works for you • Block large chunks of time with caution • Use smaller chunks of time • Realize you will have to be flexible • Try to stay engaged

8. Teaching • Criteria at CSU “fully-competent teacher” • Student evaluations matter • If scores are low find out why and address early • Master Teacher Swap • Get data on department norms • Seek Assistance

9. Teaching • If peer review is required – make sure it happens • Do not be defensive • Ask for constructive help, especially if there are issues • Document effectiveness • Get in writing from colleagues that exams/syllabus are exemplary/reasonable and then document success rates • May be easier to do in upper level courses

10. Teaching • Revise/Revamp courses cautiously • Do not assign too much homework • Consider on-line homework (MyMathLab, WebWorks, etc.) for lower level courses • Use answer keys shamelessly • Educate students about how to use the textbook

11. Undergraduate Research • Can be used as a measure of teaching effectiveness • Lots of pros and cons

12. Service • You have to do some … • Try to have a major impact on one or more committees • Be aware of the “single body” problem • It can be the issue that tips a scale (positively or negatively) • Get letters from colleagues as projects wrap up

13. General Advice • Remember they want to tenure you • Develop and use mentors • Ask a bunch of people (from around the institution) the same questions • Realize there is selection bias among the tenured faculty • Evaluate where you are every 6 months • Do not let the “perfect” be the enemy of the “good”

14. Consider Moving • You are probably at your most marketable at 3-4 years post dissertation • Let go of the idea of the perfect job in the perfect location

15. Tenure is not the goal, a long and rewarding career is the goal!

16. My Experience • 1995-2000 Youngstown State University • Masters granting comprehensive state university • Almost open enrollment • High Teaching load (12-15 hours per quarter) • Expectation of 2 peer reviewed papers for tenure

17. My Experience • 2000-present Cleveland State University • Comprehensive Masters-granting institution • Open enrollment • Low Teaching load (8 hours per semester) • Higher research expectations

18. Specific Experiences • Quality of Journals • Both institutions require peer-reviewed journals • Knowledge within mathematics that impact factors and citation indexes are not necessarily helpful • Acceptance rates are desired

19. Specific Experiences • Get the AMS Notices Article • January 2005 issues of the Notices "Patterns of Research in Mathematics" by Jerrold Grossman.  • 43% of mathematicians have only published a single paper • 15% for 2 papers, 8% for 3, 5% for 4, and 4% for 5 papers, and 10% for 6-10 papers and 7% for 11-20 and 6% for 21-50 and 2 % for 51-100

20. Publishing

21. My Experiences • Grants • Funded grants have always counted as a paper or more • Credit for trying as well • Expository writing fine as long as peer-reviewed • Textbooks “count,” but that is not a path I recommend for the untenured

22. My Experiences • Software development • Could “count” if usage or impact is documented • Writing a paper about it earns a “double”