Scholarlyhires Blog

What do you really know about your prospective employer? After 25 years as a university professor, I’ve done my share of applying for faculty positions and seeing applicants visit my academic departments. We generally follow the advice: apply for any and all academic positions, but do you ever wonder if some jobs simply aren’t worth applying for? Here is “food for thought” as you prepare application packets.

Do some real research on each department you hope to apply to. For example, is your “academic pedigree” compatible with that of your prospective colleagues? Did you all earn your doctorates from similar types of universities and graduate programs? How might that influence your motivation as a teacher and scholar relative to your prospective colleagues? If you’re highly motivated to do research, publish and write grant proposals, are you applying to an academic department where you wouldn’t be the only one engaged in such activity? More importantly, what kind of infrastructure is in place within this academic department and the institution of higher education to positively and genuinely support such activity?

Ask about your prospective colleagues’ areas of expertise. Could you genuinely collaborate with them, or would you be the only faculty member doing your area of work? Do you enjoy intellectual isolation?
Will you have sufficient opportunity to balance teaching and scholarly activity, or must you choose one role over the other? If you really prefer teaching to scholarship, perhaps applying to major research departments isn’t wise. If you really want to be known for scholarly work, perhaps you shouldn’t apply to 2-year and 4-year teaching colleges.

Apply to jobs making most sense for YOUR academic careers, not for the sake of getting a job. If you apply for jobs for the sake of getting one, it probably won’t be THE RIGHT ONE.

A 2011 research report, “The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas” published by Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, stated that some people have covert biases against creativity when there is a level of uncertainty about the imagined result. I thought of academic leaders who do not appreciate creativity. By creativity I am referring to diversity of all types (e.g. race, ethnicity, geographic background, and free thinking).

In recent years I have noticed that higher education sometimes places greater emphasis on personal qualities than on skill set and experience. Are we stifling administrative creativity at our universities by hiring individuals for higher education jobs with whom we feel comfortable (e.g. friends, colleagues, and sometimes family)? We sometimes overlook individuals who may be better qualified for positions based on education, training, and experiences. In higher education, administrators often rotate among universities – establishing leadership teams comprised of longstanding trusted advisers. It is important to also interject individuals already employed at these universities who have studied and trained and dreamed of advancing in university positions. Can a person enter the pipeline by virtue of skills and knowledge and not only the ability to make someone feel comfortable?

I encourage academic administrators to weight the selection criteria for higher education positions in favor of education, training, and experience. These are the qualities that we have espoused as essential to career success. The covert criteria of making the supervisor feel comfortable or knowing someone who knows somebody should be nonexistent. Institutional and personal growth occurs when there is diversity of opinion and method. Have the strength to endure and appreciate differences for the sake of creativity and growth.