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

2. Career Paths
Teaching
Administration

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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?

8. 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.

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

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

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

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. 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.

15. 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?

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

17. 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?

18. 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.

19. 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.