FIRST PERSON

Moving a Step (or 3) Up the Ladder

Why would a newly tenured associate professor in the sciences decide to go on the job market?

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By PHIL DECKER

I had been waiting for five years for the letter. In fact, I had probably been waiting 15 years for it. After all of the classes I had taken and taught, all of the work in the lab, all of the committee meetings and administrative duties, I finally had the letter in my hand from the president of my university. I had earned promotion and tenure.

As I leaned back in my office chair, a smile spread across my face. I had made it. I was a tenured faculty member in the natural sciences. And as all of the implications of that new status sank in, I leaned forward, opened a Web browser, and started to search the job postings for a new position.

The question on your mind, and my own, right about now is "Why?" Such a simple question. Three little letters. Why?

Of the 75,000 possible answers to that question, let's start with what may be the least likely response of all. As I pondered my newly earned tenure, I couldn't help but think, "Is that it?" Tenure is supposed to bring with it a sense of accomplishment, a feeling that you have achieved something. I'm not sure I have that sense of accomplishment.

The faculty on my campus is represented by a union, which means we all play by The Contract. The Contract lays out a checklist of things you have to do to earn tenure, and if you check off all the items on the list, you get tenure. Promotion is a separate process, but chances are that if a faculty member has checked all the boxes to earn tenure and put in the time, promotion from assistant to associate professor is almost automatic. There's no real mystery, no real tension.

On the one hand, that's great. No unpleasant surprises, everything is orderly, and we all get along. On the other hand, a little tension sometimes can be nice. Fear is a great motivator. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

Do I need to offer another cliché? I always tell my students that I do not "give" them grades but, rather, that they "earn" their grades. Likewise, I would like to think that I was not "granted" tenure, but that I "earned" it. And I'm not sure I feel like I had to work all that hard to earn it.

Some of that may be a perverse sense of Midwestern modesty. But maybe I really am that good. My natural inclination seems to be "if I can do it, anyone can do it." Perhaps it's time to start giving myself more credit for my abilities and accomplishments.

I teach at a respected regional state university in a relatively urban area of the Midwest. My roots are here, so I am in familiar territory. We have a solid science division with a capable faculty, and we attract our fair share of quality students. In most ways, I would seem to have a dream job. But is that all there is?

I'm reminded of an episode of The Simpsons in which Marge gives the sage advice, "Aim low. Aim so low no one will even care if you succeed." Marge was having a bad day. So the question I really have to ask myself is: Did I aim too low? And more important, now that I have earned tenure and am "set for life": Is this the rut I want to find myself in for the next 30 years?

I like a good rut. It's comfortable. But if the rut gets too deep, too established, it becomes a ditch. The next 30 years in a ditch? Not if I can help it. I may not be a superstar, but I think I just might be better than I've given myself credit for.

As I prepare for my job search, it is necessary to evaluate my position and my potential. I attended a highly ranked graduate school and worked with a well known and respected name in my field. I was able to generate a number of high-quality publications based upon my thesis research and gained relatively broad experience in my field. Following graduate school, I took a postdoc in a different subfield to broaden my experience and exposure. It seemed as if I was setting myself up quite well to be a competitive job candidate.

Then came the rejections. And more rejections. My postdoc financing was nearing an end, and I had one job offer on the table. Naturally, I accepted it and considered myself fortunate to be on the tenure track, in my chosen field, in the Midwest. I had very little teaching experience, and although I was a capable researcher, I hadn't taken the world by storm at that point. I felt that I had achieved as much as possible in my job search.

I settled in to my new position content to teach my three to six courses every semester. I bought a house that only cost twice my annual salary. I even bought a washer and dryer. I was settled, but that very thought was unsettling.

I am grateful for the opportunities I have had over the last five years. At this point I have probably taught more individual classes than my graduate adviser has taught in his career, even though he has had a 15-to-20-year head start. I have grown exponentially as an educator and a scientist. I have served on a variety of committees and have chaired a few. I have been able to attract research students, and we are producing very interesting results.

Again, it sounds like a dream job. But is being a big fish in the smallest possible pond really that much of a dream? The questions just keep piling up.

For all of those reasons (and the 74,997 I didn't mention), I have decided that I have to take one final and fully committed plunge into the academic job market. I will have an advantage over many candidates because if my search is unsuccessful I can always "fall back" on my current job. But at the same time, I have to conduct a covert job search so that I don't offend any of my colleagues.

Applying for positions at universities that are a step (or three) up the ladder means that I may have to start over on the tenure track — perhaps not from square one, but I will have a lot to prove. Maybe that's the tension and risk that I'm looking for. Fear is a motivator, and I'm more than a little terrified at the prospect of abandoning the comfort of the known for the potentially inspiring unknown.