What do you think?
Rate this book
Moving Fast on the Slow Track: Strategies for Career Success
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 7, 2022
I read this book when it first came outin 1986 because the title was very consistent with my educational background and professional research as an organizational psychologist. I had been out of school 6 years. I left my first position on the Southwestern Medical School faculty at the University of Texas in Dallas to accept re-activation by the US Navy to oversea a huge 3-year study - in careers. After my project ended, I had to make a choice to stay in uniform or return to higher ed. Enid convinced me to stay put. That led to an amazing career.
Dr. Goldberg reminds readers that if upward mobility is your ambition, in academia there are only 3 paygrades (if you ignore adjunct and lecturer gig work). After promotion to full professor, your career is plateaued. However, if you are an exceptional scholar, you might move up in income and prestige by changing institutions. They pay better at Yale than they do at Podunck College. Enid helped me realize that most PhDs seek academic careers because the only adult role models they have had since kindergarten have been teachers. Most professors groom their students to be educators. Alas, some are better at it than others. The majority of grads go on to slow-track teaching jobs or finally wise up and leave academics.
There is also the talent problem. Universities accept more doctoral students than the education profession can absorb. That means the less-talented PhDs are competing with the over-achievers for positions and wind up stuck in the academic periphery of gig jobs teaching introductory courses while a professor is on sabbatical or recovering from illness, or as research associates whose jobs end with the grant runs out of money.
My decision to pursue a research career outside of Academia allowed my to not only outpublish many academics, it also paid better, and enabled me to work at the highest levels of government - even the White House. Had it not been for Goldberg's little book, that might even have happened.
Dr. Goldberg reminds readers that if upward mobility is your ambition, in academia there are only 3 paygrades (if you ignore adjunct and lecturer gig work). After promotion to full professor, your career is plateaued. However, if you are an exceptional scholar, you might move up in income and prestige by changing institutions. They pay better at Yale than they do at Podunck College. Enid helped me realize that most PhDs seek academic careers because the only adult role models they have had since kindergarten have been teachers. Most professors groom their students to be educators. Alas, some are better at it than others. The majority of grads go on to slow-track teaching jobs or finally wise up and leave academics.
There is also the talent problem. Universities accept more doctoral students than the education profession can absorb. That means the less-talented PhDs are competing with the over-achievers for positions and wind up stuck in the academic periphery of gig jobs teaching introductory courses while a professor is on sabbatical or recovering from illness, or as research associates whose jobs end with the grant runs out of money.
My decision to pursue a research career outside of Academia allowed my to not only outpublish many academics, it also paid better, and enabled me to work at the highest levels of government - even the White House. Had it not been for Goldberg's little book, that might even have happened.
Displaying 1 of 1 review