Taking Charge Of Your Career Joan Francioni, Winona State University Dee Parks, Appalachian State University

Career Paths Teaching Administration

Teaching Use all your experience, but push the boundaries. Find ways to change your approach (service learning, tablet PCs, polling systems) Work on larger curricular changes at your school (new general education programs, interdisciplinary programs, honors programs)

Administration Chair, Assistant Dean, Dean, … Try out in form of committee chair (University or outside committee) Takes at least a year to catch on to the job Exposes you to other thinking and approaches, and to the broader picture at your University May hurt your chances for promotion to Full

Types of Opportunities Changing schools or changing focus: teaching-to-research or research-to-teaching Large projects or grant proposals Invitations to participate in workshops, grant proposal reviews

Types of Opportunities Industry job offers Invitations to serve on outside committees Sabbaticals or off-campus scholarly assignments

Analyze Your Opportunities How do you recognize a forward-moving opportunity? Can you take a leadership role in it? Does it address an important problem for your discipline, department, or university? Does it have some inherent visibility?

Be Ready for Opportunities Pursue your particular interests so that you are perceived as an expert in that area. Keep a hot vita AND an up-to-date web page. Get to know people in other departments, in industry, and at other schools.

Be Ready for Opportunities Serve on University or College committees. Volunteer. Meet with or set up industrial advisory boards.

Be Ready for Opportunities Keep in touch with alumni. Attend workshops and national meetings. Publish your work. Promote your successes and accomplishments.

Be Realistic You can’t do everything. Focus on a subset.

Planning An Opportunity Target a specific opportunity, e.g., chairing a program committee or conference. Create a time-line of what needs to be done to get there.

You’ve Been Here Before? You’ve been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor. Is getting ready for the next promotion the same as the last?

Similar, BUT The planning process is similar, but you don’t have to do it, you can do what you think is important while you’re preparing, and you can wait until all your ducks are in a row.

Spontaneous Opportunities Is the opportunity something you will be able to do well, given your other responsibilities? What can you or should you drop to fit this in?

Life Is Short Does the opportunity excite you? Will it make you happy?

Other Considerations Will the opportunity cause problems for your family? Will it limit your future opportunities? Is it necessary to do it now, or could you postpone it?

Other Barriers The opportunity may put you out of your comfort zone. There may be extra work at first; you don’t know how to do the “new” job. You want a safety net. You lack support.

Be Careful Some opportunities may hurt your chance of promotion. There may not be enough time to do the new job and keep up with everything else that promotion requires.