junior faculty jam session #4 – basics of academic strategy

Junior faculty jam session #1, #2, and #3.

The previous three chapters of junior faculty jam session focused on developing a “proper state of mind.” Now, I turn to the core of the academic career strategy. The assumption of this post, and those that follow, is that you intend to work as an academic rather than exiting. I also assume that people can make their own value judgments. For example, I will not assume that research jobs are more preferable than, say, community college jobs. Instead, I will talk about trade offs to each type of job and you can decide for yourself what is best. Finally, this advice is not aimed at prodigies or “favorite sons and daughters of academia” who have achieved nearly every reward in the profession since the start.

The first lesson of academic strategy is that academia, for most people, is a “rare event” sort of career. In other words, rewards do happen, but they are rare. For example, a flagship journal in sociology does accept a few dozen papers a year … out of hundreds. So, unless you are a “favorite son” or “daughter,” you will likely need to send in papers multiple times before a flagship journals takes it. Similarly for jobs. Yes, a department may hire one or two people a year, but hundreds will apply.

The conclusion is that you can win the game, but it will require a “large N,” to use statistical language. What does that mean? Failure is common, but you can increase the odds of success merely through raw numbers. Want that big fellowship? Be prepared to apply many years in a row. Want a big publisher for your book? Be prepared to shop it around. If you hit the jackpot on the first try, good, but be ready for long roads as the normal outcome.

The second lesson of academic strategy is that it is very contextual. What you will need is very dependent on your discipline, your own status, the rank of your department, and the rank of the department you may want to move to. The gist of things is that sometimes you need to focus on status generating actions and at other times, any form of publication will do. Here are some hypothetical examples:

1. Top 5 program assistant professor: The most elite programs hire people like pro-sports team hire athletes. They only want Olympic level caliber people. In that case, you really need to relentlessly focus on a handful of journals or book publishers. You might also want to butter up disciplinary elites who edit top journals. In fact, publishing in lower status places, or any place except the top, may be seen as liability.
2. Associate professor at a master’s program who wants a promotion: Most MA programs expect faculty to continue publishing, but not at the most competitive places. Thus, you can get promoted through sheer volume or by focusing on less selective places.
3. Assistant professor at a teaching institution with a very heavy load (5/5): Here, the college may only require completion of the dissertation, perhaps one or two modest publications, and research contributions via conferences. These institutions may award credit for research on pedagogy, which most research programs would place little weight on.

A corollary of this idea is that time is an important context. Here is an example of how one person’s strategy may depend a lot on time:

1. Assistant professor at top 20 program, year 1: The professor may have about six years to produce one or two top journal hits. Then, the strategy is simple. Just take your dissertation, chop it up, and send it out to many, many places. If you get rejected a lot, that’s ok.
2. Same professor, same place, year 3: Maybe the professor got 1 top hit, but not much else. The issue is that they really need some more publication, but it can take years. Then, the strategy would be to shift to specialty or regional journals. Still selective, but not as bad as flagships.
3. Same professor, sample place, year 5: Tenure is next year and you have just 1 big hit and not much else. However, the senior faculty have indicated that they may promote you on progress as indicated in lower tier journals, even niche journals. Then the strategy is “just get lines on the CV.” Long as it is peer reviewed, it counts.
4. Same professor, same place, year 7, successful tenure case: The pressure is off, but this person has decided they want to move “up” in the academic system. Then, you may return to the strategy of the first year – slow down, but work on “big hits” that generate status and mobility.

The underlying features of academic career are simple. Most people need to generate a lot of material to get a result and that they way you shape an target this material is very dependent on goals, department culture, and time left to tenure.

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