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So You Want to Be a Professor?: A Handbook for Graduate Students
Maybe you d like to combine the two loves of your life, teaching and scholarship, and perhaps build a satisfying and profitable academic career, but you re not sure if this is really what you want or how to go about it. Or maybe you ve made up your mind but need some good advice on how to succeed. If so, this book is written for you. So You Want To Be a Professor begins with a discussion of jobs in academia and how to find them. Chapters cover a wide range of political skills for future academic success, including lecturing, organizing a course, meeting your first class, testing, maintaining a research program, and writing for publication. No other book provides such a practical overview of essential career-building skills. Even junior faculty will benefit from the advice in this engaging, comprehensive book.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1999
16 people want to read
About the author
P. Aarne Vesilind
43 books2 followersSee also works published under Peep Aarne Vesilind
Aarne was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1939 to Paul Eduard Vesilind and Aino Rebane Vesilind. In 1944 his family fled Estonia to escape the invading Soviet Red Army. As refugees, they lived four years in a displaced persons camp in Geislingen, Germany, before immigrating to the United States in 1949. Settling in Beaver, Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Aarne enrolled in fourth grade without knowing a word of English. His transition was eased by supportive classmates who became lifelong friends. He learned to play the trumpet and joined the Boy Scouts, rising to the rank of Eagle Scout.
After graduating from Beaver High School in 1958, Aarne chose Lehigh University for its civil engineering program, but admitted to actually studying “adolescent behavior and fraternity” with Chi Phi brothers who also remained close friends for life. After Lehigh graduation Aarne married Gail Wood, with whom he had three children. In 1968, he earned a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a graduate student, Aarne serendipitously discovered an affinity for teaching.
In his professional career and his everyday living Aarne was profoundly influenced by Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962) and by Carson’s persistence in advancing awareness of environmental problems. Aarne spent a post-doctoral year with the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Oslo and another year as a research engineer at Bird Machine Company. In 1970 Aarne joined the Civil Engineering faculty at Duke University, where he developed a new Environmental Engineering program. While on sabbatical with his family in 1976-77 as a Fulbright Fellow, he helped establish an Environmental Center at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Aarne served as Trustee of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina. He received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Collingwood Prize and the Award for Achievement in Environmental Education from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also received the Founders Award and Distinguished Service award (twice!) from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. In 2007, he traveled to Turkey to accept the Specialist Medal in Residuals Research from the International Water Association.
Aarne was most proud of his teaching awards, which include the E. I. Brown Award for teaching excellence (four times!) from students in Duke’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Tau Beta Pi teaching award from students of the Duke School of Engineering. An enthusiastic and dedicated mentor, he taught and advised many graduate and undergraduate students—and he was always pleased when a former student called for advice or merely to chat.
In 1987 Aarne married his former high school girlfriend, Libby McTaggart. They settled in Chapel Hill, NC and acquired a summer camp on a small lake in Bath, NH. “The Birdbath” became a sanctuary for reflection, bird watching, and skinny-dipping. Surrounded by birch trees that reminded him of his early childhood home on the Pirita River in Tallinn, Estonia, Aarne started a small publishing house, Lakeshore Press, as a forum for academic texts, musical arrangements, and memoirs about Estonians before, during, and after Soviet occupation.
After a 30-year tenure at Duke, Aarne and Libby moved to Lewisburg, PA. At Bucknell University, Aarne assumed the charter R. L. Rooke Chair of the Historical and Societal Context of Engineering. He thrived among the enthusiastic faculty and bright students, several of whom he roped into forming a tuba quartet with him.
A prolific scholar, A
Aarne was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1939 to Paul Eduard Vesilind and Aino Rebane Vesilind. In 1944 his family fled Estonia to escape the invading Soviet Red Army. As refugees, they lived four years in a displaced persons camp in Geislingen, Germany, before immigrating to the United States in 1949. Settling in Beaver, Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Aarne enrolled in fourth grade without knowing a word of English. His transition was eased by supportive classmates who became lifelong friends. He learned to play the trumpet and joined the Boy Scouts, rising to the rank of Eagle Scout.
After graduating from Beaver High School in 1958, Aarne chose Lehigh University for its civil engineering program, but admitted to actually studying “adolescent behavior and fraternity” with Chi Phi brothers who also remained close friends for life. After Lehigh graduation Aarne married Gail Wood, with whom he had three children. In 1968, he earned a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a graduate student, Aarne serendipitously discovered an affinity for teaching.
In his professional career and his everyday living Aarne was profoundly influenced by Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962) and by Carson’s persistence in advancing awareness of environmental problems. Aarne spent a post-doctoral year with the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Oslo and another year as a research engineer at Bird Machine Company. In 1970 Aarne joined the Civil Engineering faculty at Duke University, where he developed a new Environmental Engineering program. While on sabbatical with his family in 1976-77 as a Fulbright Fellow, he helped establish an Environmental Center at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Aarne served as Trustee of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina. He received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Collingwood Prize and the Award for Achievement in Environmental Education from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also received the Founders Award and Distinguished Service award (twice!) from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. In 2007, he traveled to Turkey to accept the Specialist Medal in Residuals Research from the International Water Association.
Aarne was most proud of his teaching awards, which include the E. I. Brown Award for teaching excellence (four times!) from students in Duke’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Tau Beta Pi teaching award from students of the Duke School of Engineering. An enthusiastic and dedicated mentor, he taught and advised many graduate and undergraduate students—and he was always pleased when a former student called for advice or merely to chat.
In 1987 Aarne married his former high school girlfriend, Libby McTaggart. They settled in Chapel Hill, NC and acquired a summer camp on a small lake in Bath, NH. “The Birdbath” became a sanctuary for reflection, bird watching, and skinny-dipping. Surrounded by birch trees that reminded him of his early childhood home on the Pirita River in Tallinn, Estonia, Aarne started a small publishing house, Lakeshore Press, as a forum for academic texts, musical arrangements, and memoirs about Estonians before, during, and after Soviet occupation.
After a 30-year tenure at Duke, Aarne and Libby moved to Lewisburg, PA. At Bucknell University, Aarne assumed the charter R. L. Rooke Chair of the Historical and Societal Context of Engineering. He thrived among the enthusiastic faculty and bright students, several of whom he roped into forming a tuba quartet with him.
A prolific scholar, A
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April 20, 2018
When I was apply to faculty positions in my last year of PhD studies, I read the first few chapters (what kind of jobs are out there? how to be a competitive applicant?) and skimmed the others (how to do well once you land the job---teaching, mentoring, publishing, etc.) Even though some of the advice is a little outdated (paper resumes???), and some of the advice I disagree with, there are a lot of great little nuggets to think about as you're applying and interviewing.
Probably worth re-reading once I'm about to start the new job!
Some highlights I found useful:
The first few chapters describe distinctions between different kind of colleges and universities, and list both the pros *and* cons of academic careers. On p.20-21 there's a helpful partial list of things you should consider when choosing where to apply (or which offer to take, if you're lucky enough to get several). For instance: Is success measured by publishing, teaching, or both? Does the school have both undergrad and grad programs? Do you have a strong chance of getting tenure, considering your background? Will you get the lab space you need? Is the department environment collegial and supportive? and so on. It's worth thinking explicitly about how you will weight each of these, since each person will weight them differently.
When applying to any position with a research component, don't forget to make a compelling case that you'll be able to bring in grant money. If you work in a hot, well-funded field and you have a track record of successful applications already in grad school, you'll be a competitive candidate.
Once you make it to the interview stages, be sure to ask them: What is the mission of the institution, and how is it changing? If you thought you're applying to a teaching-focused college, but it's trying to emulate a research university, that's important to know to help you judge whether you'll be (a) happy and (b) tenure-able there. Also ask your interviewers about their research and how you could collaborate, about the student body and how you can mentor them, about the kind of courses you'd be teaching and what gaps in the curriculum you could help to fill... Ask questions that show sincere interest in the job. At the same time, be prepared to describe your own academic experience with research, teaching, and service as well as how you think you can contribute to the new place. When you give a seminar as part of the interview process, emphasize what you believe is exciting in the field, and make sure your presentation itself is polished and you respond to questions well (don't belittle the small questions or faint at the tough ones).
If you do get an offer, you're in a position of power---they'd rather not reopen the time-consuming expensive process, so you really have a chance to bargain for what you need: startup funding, space, TAs, salary and benefits and moving expenses, etc. Is your spouse also an academic who would need a job at the university? Meanwhile, also ask about the details of tenure and promotion. What are the standards and how is the decision made? How many assistant profs have been hired in the past decade, and what happened to them---if they tried for tenure and failed, why was that?
The next few chapters (advice on teaching and research) I just skimmed, but the end chapter on the history of tenure was new to me. As we know it now, tenure was established at a few places in the early 1900s and formalized/widespread only in the 1940s---much later than I had realized. Some places are starting to remove tenure entirely, so who knows how long this system will last. Meanwhile, in order to *get* tenure it's very important to have strong support from your department head, who is often the one presenting your case to the provost and the tenure committee. Whatever your tenure recommendation letters say, if the department chair admits that they could hire someone even stronger than you for this position, your case is usually lost. Scary but good to know!
Finally, there's some good advice on time management. You'll have to juggle a lot of balls, but accept that you just can't keep them all in the air at once, and it's OK to drop some, and it's certainly OK to say no to other people throwing more balls at you ("I'd be happy to help you with that... after tenure"), and it helps to have a mentor's guidance on which balls to drop.
Other favorite tips:
* Prioritize goals & activities. Set aside big blocks of time for your top priorities; at least one day a week to shut the door and get deep work done. (Don't *find* time---actually *schedule* time and don't let anything else take over that time.)
* Don't let mail pile up. Keep email replies short but friendly.
* Meet in the other person's office, not yours, so you can leave when appropriate. But when needed, learn to throw people out of your own office.
* Don't do consulting before tenure (unless you're certain a publication will come out of it). The experience itself won't count towards tenure, and the extra pay is probably not worth the loss of time you could have spent on tenurable activities.
* Volunteer for those committees you want to be on, so you can say no to those you want to avoid.
* Avoid perfectionism.
* Stopping to smell the roses *is* a top priority!
Probably worth re-reading once I'm about to start the new job!
Some highlights I found useful:
The first few chapters describe distinctions between different kind of colleges and universities, and list both the pros *and* cons of academic careers. On p.20-21 there's a helpful partial list of things you should consider when choosing where to apply (or which offer to take, if you're lucky enough to get several). For instance: Is success measured by publishing, teaching, or both? Does the school have both undergrad and grad programs? Do you have a strong chance of getting tenure, considering your background? Will you get the lab space you need? Is the department environment collegial and supportive? and so on. It's worth thinking explicitly about how you will weight each of these, since each person will weight them differently.
When applying to any position with a research component, don't forget to make a compelling case that you'll be able to bring in grant money. If you work in a hot, well-funded field and you have a track record of successful applications already in grad school, you'll be a competitive candidate.
Once you make it to the interview stages, be sure to ask them: What is the mission of the institution, and how is it changing? If you thought you're applying to a teaching-focused college, but it's trying to emulate a research university, that's important to know to help you judge whether you'll be (a) happy and (b) tenure-able there. Also ask your interviewers about their research and how you could collaborate, about the student body and how you can mentor them, about the kind of courses you'd be teaching and what gaps in the curriculum you could help to fill... Ask questions that show sincere interest in the job. At the same time, be prepared to describe your own academic experience with research, teaching, and service as well as how you think you can contribute to the new place. When you give a seminar as part of the interview process, emphasize what you believe is exciting in the field, and make sure your presentation itself is polished and you respond to questions well (don't belittle the small questions or faint at the tough ones).
If you do get an offer, you're in a position of power---they'd rather not reopen the time-consuming expensive process, so you really have a chance to bargain for what you need: startup funding, space, TAs, salary and benefits and moving expenses, etc. Is your spouse also an academic who would need a job at the university? Meanwhile, also ask about the details of tenure and promotion. What are the standards and how is the decision made? How many assistant profs have been hired in the past decade, and what happened to them---if they tried for tenure and failed, why was that?
The next few chapters (advice on teaching and research) I just skimmed, but the end chapter on the history of tenure was new to me. As we know it now, tenure was established at a few places in the early 1900s and formalized/widespread only in the 1940s---much later than I had realized. Some places are starting to remove tenure entirely, so who knows how long this system will last. Meanwhile, in order to *get* tenure it's very important to have strong support from your department head, who is often the one presenting your case to the provost and the tenure committee. Whatever your tenure recommendation letters say, if the department chair admits that they could hire someone even stronger than you for this position, your case is usually lost. Scary but good to know!
Finally, there's some good advice on time management. You'll have to juggle a lot of balls, but accept that you just can't keep them all in the air at once, and it's OK to drop some, and it's certainly OK to say no to other people throwing more balls at you ("I'd be happy to help you with that... after tenure"), and it helps to have a mentor's guidance on which balls to drop.
Other favorite tips:
* Prioritize goals & activities. Set aside big blocks of time for your top priorities; at least one day a week to shut the door and get deep work done. (Don't *find* time---actually *schedule* time and don't let anything else take over that time.)
* Don't let mail pile up. Keep email replies short but friendly.
* Meet in the other person's office, not yours, so you can leave when appropriate. But when needed, learn to throw people out of your own office.
* Don't do consulting before tenure (unless you're certain a publication will come out of it). The experience itself won't count towards tenure, and the extra pay is probably not worth the loss of time you could have spent on tenurable activities.
* Volunteer for those committees you want to be on, so you can say no to those you want to avoid.
* Avoid perfectionism.
* Stopping to smell the roses *is* a top priority!
January 20, 2013
I really liked it, personally. Got a lot out of it. But of course, it's a pretty targeted book, with a particularly narrow focus, so it's not for everybody. Good pragmatic advice, but even still it could be a little dense and practical and boring for someone not thrilled by the topic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews