Friday, May 14, 1999

You Got the Job -- Now What?

Question: I have just signed the contract for an assistant professor position. I'm very excited about it, but I know I have a few things to finish up before I put my energy into thinking about the new job. What should I be sure to do before I leave, and what should I do to prepare for the new job?

Mary: Congratulations! I think the very first thing you should do is to plan a celebration. After so much hard work, take a bit of time to savor the reward.

Julie: If you have not finished your dissertation, do it now. It is very important that you complete it so that you will be able to focus all of your attention on your new position. Draw up a realistic schedule that will allow you to finish it up and still have time to pack and move.

Mary: If you haven't finished and, realistically, there's no way you can over the summer, it might even be worth going back to your new employer to see whether you can defer your start date by one semester in order to finish first. If you do this, however, make sure to find how your start date will impact the tenure clock. If you assured the search committee you'd be finished by now as you were interviewing for the job, then, of course you can't ask for more time.

Julie: Determine what other loose ends need to be tied up. If you have been teaching, obviously you need to finish the course, exams and grading. If you have been working on someone else's research grant, let that person know when you will be leaving.

Mary: Take time to thank everyone who helped you with your search in any way. The key people are probably your adviser and others who wrote letters of recommendation for you. Even if you see them every day, a letter of thanks to each would be a nice touch.

Also write notes of appreciation to any others who helped you. If you weren't a lot of fun to live with during the search, take your spouse, partner, or roommate out to dinner.

Julie: You will need to spend some time planning your move. Many colleges and universities have someone who helps new faculty and staff members find apartments or houses to rent or can suggest real-estate agents to those in the position of buying. See what the institution has to offer and think what will meet your needs.

If you have a partner/spouse or children, you will have additional considerations such as finding schools or daycare. You may need to take a trip to find housing now, before all the good properties are taken. Also allow plenty of time to reserve a mover so that you can arrive in your new location at a time that is good for you, not just when it is convenient for the moving company.

Mary: As you begin to think about your new position, assess the resources of your doctoral institution that have been helpful to you as a teacher and revisit them or bookmark their Web sites so that you will be able to bring that knowledge to your new job. I'm thinking of teaching resource centers, language-resource centers, Web-based teaching centers, and so on.

If there are connections to your degree-granting institution that you want to maintain in terms of joint research projects, work out schedules with the people on campus now, while you still have the advantage of face-to-face contact.

Julie: And soon you will have face-to-face talks with your new colleagues. They can be helpful people to talk to before you move; some of the more junior ones, particularly, may be able to give helpful suggestions about relocation and life in the new locale. Once you get there, you'll want to spend time setting up your office or lab and learning the ropes.

If you are moving during the summer and some of your new colleagues and the departmental staff (secretary or office assistants) are around, this unhurried time is a great time to get to know them. Good relationships with these people will help you through everything you will do in your new job. Don't neglect a visit to the institution's benefit office. The hiring department may not be familiar with all the administrative details connected with benefits or fully aware of the range of options.

Mary: Look beyond your department for people who can make your new job easier. Depending on your field, it may be helpful to meet a reference librarian, someone at the computer support center, staff members at the teaching resource center, and staff members in the office of grants administration.

No one, however, is likely to make your daily life easier, or more difficult, than your departmental administrative staff. It's part of their job to handle certain basic tasks for you. It's not part of their job to get you up to speed on local gossip and vital information about how things really work. They will do the latter only if they decide they like and trust you. Be likable and trustworthy and they probably will.

Julie: What are some of the nitty-gritty things you need to do? There are many. Find out how to order books and how to put reading materials on reserve. Get your computer hooked up. Learn the physical layout of the institution including where you will be teaching, where you will be doing research and where the support services for those functions are located. Become very familiar with the institution's and department's Web sites. Get the schedule for department meetings and departmental colloquia. Get accounts for e-mail and Web sites.

Mary: You also must order lab equipment, and, perhaps, hire lab personnel, if lab startup was part of your job package. Find out all the possibilities for hiring research and teaching assistants, if these aren't automatically given to you as part of the job. For example, will your department hire students through the federal work-study program?

Julie: Remain confident in yourself, your abilities, and your plans. You are no longer a student but a professional, a faculty member. Learn all you can about how the department works, observe your colleagues, and see where you fit in.

Consciously think about how you want to be perceived by others and make sure your behavior supports that view. For instance, if you learned the hard way as a graduate student that your self-deprecating humor can be mistaken for a lack of self-confidence, you now have a chance to present yourself differently.

Mary: We should probably also say a bit about what not to do. Every organization has issues and alliances. Don't take sides on anything until you've had a chance to learn what is going on and to form your own judgments. As you start to meet people, listen carefully and take the opportunity to learn from everyone.

However, keep in mind that there are at least two sides to every issue. Don't form judgments at this stage. Take everything you think you learn as a working hypothesis and continue to look for more data.

Julie: Now, while your mind is still relatively fresh, try to decide your priorities in terms of preparation for teaching, research, getting to know the department and institution, advising and committee work, and job-hunting, if you've accepted a non-tenure track position. Try to set minimum, and maybe even maximum, numbers of hours you plan to devote to those activities each week. Write those numbers down (so you can't pretend later that you really didn't mean it). Once you're settled, you may have to revise them, but be particularly careful of sacrificing research or job-hunting time to other demands.

Mary: You'll probably revisit priorities again and again as you deal with the large amount of work presented by the first year on the job. Staying flexible, basically enjoying one's work, staying in touch with colleagues, and being alert to new opportunities as they arise beats grim determination nearly every time.

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