In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:
What are some must knows regarding applying for a tenure-track job when one is already in a tenure-track position?
For example, what should one do about letter writers? Should one minimize talk about their dissertation?
Any helpful tips from readers?
Yes, minimize dissertation talk – the more you can make yourself seem like an active, mature researcher, the better. This also goes for letter writers – if you can, branch out beyond your dissertation committee.
The other big thing I would say is that your cover letter needs to do two things well: 1) Address your reasons for wanting to switch jobs and do it plausibly. You don’t want hiring departments to think you are just fishing for a retention offer and wouldn’t actually come. 2) Do (1) without seeming like you might be a jerk. It’s totally fine to say that you want to leave because you want to work with grad students, or your current institution is in a precarious financial situation, or whatever. DO NOT say anything that might look at all like talking shit about your current colleagues. There’s a very real chance that this will come across as you being hard to work with, even if your current colleagues are in fact horrific and you are in fact lovely. They will be getting applications from tons of great candidates, and they’ll be looking for reasons to reject people as much as anything else. Don’t give them one.
Good luck!
How should one find new letter writers? I assume colleagues at the current institution are out in many cases.
Can’t speak for the original commenter, but: through conferencing, visiting, collaborating, and other private communications, on the premise that you have some publication/talk/agenda that captures their interest.
Donno whether this means that some deception must be involved in some scenarios. I haven’t applied for the purpose of retention offers, but I’ve heard places in the UK that would do their best to withhold promotion (e.g. no promotion unless grants; where grants are vanishing), and the only feasible way to get promotion is through retention. It’s a bit like, if we are treated well enough in our home institutions, why would we want to leave in the first place? But if many employers are doing their best to deny promotion, the toxic environment would just push people to apply to seek retention.
I dunno. I kind of think whether you need to explain why you want to switch jobs in a cover letter or not depends on whether the places you are applying to will think it plausible that they are more desirable than your current situation. I both applied to TT jobs with a TT job and have been on hiring committees evaluating people who did this and I did not explain myself (which I note only because it worked, and I got a job I love) and most people whose packages I saw did not explain themselves. I never heard anyone expect they would. I think if the places you are applying to are in desirable locations or have some feature your job doesn’t have (a graduate program, higher ranking, speciality programs, whatever) then they will have the self-confidence that you actually want the job. This is likely especially true the earlier on you are in the position (so the less likely that you are going up for tenure and doing it pro-forma or something. If you are applying to place that you think will view themselves as equivalent to or lesser in some way than your current position then maybe you should explain yourself somehow. (And I agree– don’t shit-talk your current institution too much—but I think you can …… elide towards challenges politely if there are real ones.)
Agree with the first commenter on all points. About minimizing dissertation talk: depending on how long you have been out, the research statement does not even need to mention your diss, not extensively anyway. Mine own (2.5 years out at the point of app) has my diss content as a short appendix that is totally dispensable.
A question that will come out later of course is how you prefer to set your tenure clock. But it’s not a big deal, *unless* you want to reset and they don’t allow that. But this scenario is unlikely, given both parties have invested interest in your getting tenure.
I forgot to mention this: I didn’t get interview anywhere I mentioned my *actual* reasons for moving, and did everywhere I didn’t. Don’t know if it’s causation, but it’s possible. Definitely be tactful, and not *too* genuine/truthful like I did :-(.
can you give an indicaiton of your actual reason? how personal was it?
Political environment
Speaking from having been on many hiring committees, no one cares why you want to leave where you are, since that is never relevant to why *they* should hire *you*. You only need to make a plausible case for the following:
(1) That there are good reasons you want to be at the place to which you are applying (be specific–which is hard to do unless you are applying narrowly). Note that “good reasons” here means reasons the hiring department will think are good–for example, wanting to be near your elderly parents or your spouse’s job are not reasons the hiring department can possibly think are relevant. (Those sorts of things might be true, and might even be your true main motivation for applying, but don’t mention them.) Reasons that the department will think are good are often specific things about them, i.e., showing you understand and are excited for the kind of place they are.
(2) That you are an excellent fit for the position and the department.
(3) That you will easily earn tenure even if they can’t give you any credit towards tenure for whatever you have already published. (The time for asking about credit towards tenure is after you have received an offer.)
(4) That you won’t be a hassle with special requests, a sense of privilege, an unwillingness to adapt to the new environment, or similar. This is partly about tone in the cover letter, partly about how you talk about yourself and your career plans, partly about demonstrating dedication to students like theirs, doing the kinds of teaching and service they need, and similar.
Over the years we have interviewed many people who had t-track jobs (even tenured folks) for assistant professorships, and we have hired some of them. Those people tend to have an advantage compared to the general applicant pool in that they have more teaching experience and have demonstrated progress towards tenure in the kinds of work conditions we have. (I.e., there is demonstrable evidence that they can succeed, rather than just a promise of probably succeeding.) In the end, though, fit (with the position, department, university) is always what matters most.
I think you do need at least one letter from your current institution, but it does not have to be someone from your department. This is kind of a “jerk check”: If no one at your current institution can say nice things about you, that will be taken as a yellow flag if not a red one. That writer should be able to say something about your teaching and your university citizenship. BTW, it is very likely that, if you get close to an offer, the search committee will call people at your current institution even if you don’t list them as references. You can request that they keep your application confidential, but that can only hold for so long.
It’s not unilaterally true that the hiring department will contact your current one. I’ve moved twice and this hasn’t happened.
I have moved once and been on committees that hired people to move from elsewhere and in neither case did anyone contact existing departments. When I moved I did not list anyone from my current department as a reference. That wasn’t because of any deep problem – I got along with them just fine–my colleagues just weren’t really research active so couldn’t evaluate my work and it wasn’t like they had really observed my teaching. There seemed no value in alerting them I was interested in leaving. I can only say that I see no evidence it was harmful to my chances and it never came up in hiring discussions in which I participated. So YMMV.
Just wanting to agree with others that if it has already been a year or two since you have graduated, then you should be showcasing your ongoing and future research, and not really talking about what your dissertation was about.
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