Career Paths

Stephanie Weirich

University of Pennsylvania

What I'm going to talk about…

What is like to be an assistant professor? General and specific advice about the job

Research Teaching Service

Comments and advice about juggling the job with everything else

What does an academic career path look like?

Ph.D. Postdoc (optional) Assistant Professor

Reappointment review in 3rd year Tenure review in 6th year <- coming up!

Associate Professor Full Professor

My (short) career path

Finished Ph.D. at Cornell University, July 2002 Internship at Bell Labs, Summer 1999 Teaching, Fall 2001

Started as an Assistant Professor at Penn, September 2002 Husband started at same time, same dept.,

similar research area Currently finishing 5th year

What is an academic job at a research university?

Three main components: Research Teaching Service

Not evenly balanced. Research is queen. Challenge: managing short-term Teaching

and Service goals so you can achieve long term research goals.

Research advice

Actively look for collaborators Too easy to get caught up with just you and your students Can work with anyone: at your university, at another

university, at a research lab. Develop a good research environment

Reading groups, seminars Practice talks

Advising Ph.D. students No one teaches you how to do it Each student is different in how much attention they need Most important to develop a good working relationship They have a strong influence on your work

Research flexibility

Research supported by funding grad students, summer salary, conf. travel, equip.

Funding comes from Start-up (first few years) Govt. agencies (NSF, DoD) Corporate gifts

Few limits on what to research For tenure must be a recognized expert Classified/proprietary research won’t help that

Teaching tricks

Active Lecturing Ask questions - really easy ones at first Get students to work on a problem in pairs Go through code interactively (DrJava)

Exam preparation Think about grading when you make your exam No more than 15% of points for the top students Length: how many minutes to work each problem?

Teaching and time management

Easy to let teaching take all of your time Can be scary to lecture Immediate feedback, lots of short-term tasks Real people asking for your time as opposed to amorphous

"research" My strategy

Allocate research time first Don't begin course prep too early Students won't complain if you finish class early (and you won't)

Use your course staff Set them up as guards for your time Let them answer email/BB ?s

Service and time management

You can say no!

Must do some: prefer service with a technical component

Look for departments that protect junior faculty from too much university-level service

My controversial view: women are over-represented in service awards.

Work/Life balance

You can't work all the time Set aside time for yourself and your family Don't feel guilty when you aren't working Take advantage of your flexibility and

resources Spend money for time Take a vacation!

Can have children pre-tenure (so good so far…) Look for policies -- At Penn:

Women: No teaching that semester Both: 1 year extension on tenure clock, may or may not use Also unofficial arrangements with your department

Steve had lighter teaching load Spring 2005 Next Fall: "Junior Sabbatical"

Flexibility valuable Control over your schedule, leave if you need to Work from home sometimes Dr. appts during the day

Hard parts Travel Monday deadlines for collaborative work

Where to look for more?

Informal and formal mentors In your department, research community People you meet here MentorNet Systers (esp. mailing list for pretenured women)

General resources Tomorrow's Professor, Rick Reis Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women In

Academia, Emily Toth Chronicle of Higher Education Job Search resources on my homepage