Early Career Faculty

I want to say first off, that I feel VERY silly writing this post as I am about to start my faculty position. So to be explicitly clear, this is less about my own personal advice, but instead, an amalgamation of guidance and advice I've amassed in preparation for the role(s) I am about to step into. So with that, here are some of the things I've learned thus far... ​

EXPECTATIONS
Across almost all of the articles I've read and the conversations I've had, everyone has reminded me that knowing the expectations for tenure/promotion is key. And try to learn the specifics, all the while knowing that numbers and expectations can shift.

So for example with research, things like quantity are important but also it's critical to figure out "quality" (which I know is complicated as we think about how articles focused on race or colonialism or methodologies that aren't as "canonical" are less likely to be accepted in "top tier" journals). So when asking questions, it's important to clarify what does impact mean or look like at institutions. Even things like asking how reports or white papers or even book chapters compared to articles being  counted is good to know.

TIME MANAGEMENT
​The biggest advice I've been given was essentially the warning of where the time-vortexes can be: teaching and advising. Folks who enter faculty are student-oriented (or hopefully they are), and as a result, teaching and prepping can easily become a black hole to not do the research or scholarship you are suppose to do. So the advice has been to have a cut-off for prep time and stick to it. Now, this will look significantly different if, for example, you are at a teaching institution. But, in thinking about even my own time as a teaching assistant and how I easily used prep as an excuse to not work on my dissertation, I see how this advice tracks~ 

For advising, people have advised to create a system with appointments versus having an "open door" policy. The rationale is that advising and being present with students means pausing your work flow, so it's better to have a dedicated chunk knowing that. 

Relatedly when it comes to service, the consensus has been: DON'T. Don't be tempted to do service, especially at the school level until your 3rd or 4th year. (Granted, I will admit I have already broken this). And if service does come up, the advice has been to make sure to talk about it with at least a femtor/mentor or two.

RELATIONSHIPS
In thinking about how crucial relationships have been for my doctoral journey, it makes sense that relationships are just as necessary for faculty as well. The advice I've come across (both at panels, conversations, and articles) have been the necessity to build both laterally and vertically. Find femtors and mentors both in and outside of your institution. Find colleagues to journey with. Personally, I've been really grateful for the community of scholars I have been able to build with and share resources (even things like talking about moving companies and timelines). 

I'm sure there's a ton of other advice I'm missing, but here are just a few bare basics I've picked up. And also some articles I've read along the way~

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ARTICLES

• Tips for publishing for early-career scholars |  From Keisha N. Blain who talks about strategies based on her experiences/observations as a writer, reviewer, editor and editorial board member
  
  
• How to Be Strategic on the Tenure Track | From Manya Whitaker with some common misconceptions entering faculty have about how to achieve tenure
  
  
• Advice for Your First Year on the Tenure Track |  From Karen Kelsky (author of The Professor is In) with the great punch line of: be selfish
  
  
• You Are Not Prepared: Some Advice I’ve Received on How to Be a Professor |  From Sauvik Das with advice geared primarily towards R1 tenure-track faculty members
  
  
• The Importance of Year 2 on the Tenure Track | From Christine Tulley who points out that year two might be even more important than year one!
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• Should I Stay or Should I Go? |  From Kerry Ann Rockquemore (director of National Center for Faculty Diversity & Development) who answers a professor who wants to quit after their first year