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

Building Your Career in Academia

John HolcombCleveland State University

MATHFEST 2010

For those of you motivated in positive ways …

For those motivated in negative ways …

DO NOT BE A VICTIM!

Just one more slogan …

Ignorance of the law is no excuse

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

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

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

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

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

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

Undergraduate Research

• Can be used as a measure of teaching effectiveness

• Lots of pros and cons

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

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”

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

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

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

My Experience

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

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

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

Publishing

1 Paper 2 Papers 3 Papers 4 Papers 5 Papers 6-10 Papers

11-20 Papers

21-50 Papers

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Percent

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

My Experiences

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