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Anticipate whom you would want to write letters and get to know those individuals

Factors considered

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Service

These factors combine to reach a decision, BUT the specific combination varies widely across institutions

Research

    Publications

  • Used to assess your productivity
    • Numbers vary widely among disciplines
    • Type of publications expected also vary widely
    • Different expectations at different promotion points
  • Used to assess the quality of work produced
    • Citations, H-factor, Impact on the field
  • Demonstrate your contributions
  • Provide evidence of your unique contributions, particularly in collaborative/cross-disciplinary activities
    • How many? How much of your time?
    • Why did this matter? What did you and your discipline contribute?

    Grants

  • Important national review of work
  • Demonstrate ability to secure funding for research

    Presentations

  • Invitations reflect status in the field

    Visibility/engagement/focus

  • Present at multiple conferences
  • Engage the leaders at those conferences
  • Invite leaders to your institution via department events
  • Reflect on level of focus in work and, if broad, engage multiple communities

Teaching

  • Effectiveness
    • Often evaluated by students
    • Ask assigned or selected mentor to provide review
  • Innovation
    • Think about ways to do it better/more effectively
    • Engage students
  • Range/breadth
    • Assignments may be focused or broad
    • Be prepared to teach beyond your comfort zone
  • Enthusiasm
    • Convey why you love what you do
    • Occasionally volunteer for something extra
  • Develop a portfolio of your teaching
    • Syllabi
    • Handouts, other notes on courses developed
    • Problem sets
    • Other written materials
    • Computer-based materials, notes on courseware
    • Copies of software developed for courses
    • Examinations
    • Copies of graded papers where there is a significant writing component
    • Evaluation by a colleague
    • Student evaluations

Service

  • Department
    • Help your department accomplish the faculty’s goals University
  • University
    • Engage in the broad community, but wisely — most P/T committees are broad
  • National Organizations
    • Choose wisely for visibility with minimum time
  • Civic/K12/Outreach Opportunities
    • Choose wisely, but make a difference

Keep your cv up to date

  • Include students mentored at all levels (primary and secondary mentoring)
    • Undergraduates
    • Graduate Students
    • Post-doctoral Associates
  • Include advising responsibilities at all levels
  • Refereed publications
    • Some institutions request an evaluation of % effort on each
    • Citations — check your “h-factor”
  • Abstracts / Conference Proceedings / Presentations
    • Seminars/Workshops/Panels/etc.
    • Posters
    • Invited talks at meetings
  • Service within university, in community, at (inter)national level

P/t versus performance reviews

Ask your institution about frequency and nature of performance reviews

  • Can be very helpful in guiding activities
  • Opportunity for mid-term feedback
  • Provide an internal view of accomplishments
    • Some may have external letters
    • Dossier can be similar to promotion dossier

Are there answers to my questions?

  • How many publications do I need?
  • How much grant funding?
  • How many graduate students? Postdocs?
  • How many committees? Which ones?
  • How good must my teaching be? Does it matter?
  • How do I know if I’m doing enough?

There are no “right” answers to these questions, because the process is a composite of all of these and varies from place to place:

FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR INSTITUTION - ASK QUESTIONS!!!

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Source:  OpenStax, 2008 nsf advance workshop: negotiating the ideal faculty position. OpenStax CNX. Feb 24, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10628/1.3
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