Building Your Career in Academia
John Holcomb
Cleveland 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
50
45
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 Paper 2 Papers 3 Papers 4 Papers 5 Papers
6-10
Papers
11-20
Papers
21-50
Papers
My Experiences
• Grants
– Funded grants have always counted as a paper or
more
– Credit for trying as well
• Expository writing fine as long as peerreviewed
• 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”