Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm so tenurific.

In mid-August I'm supposed to submit a draft of my dossier to my departmental promotion & tenure committee (they'll not only evaluate but also give some feedback to improve it before finalizing).

My CV is in fine shape, since I'm a little obsessive about keeping it up to date, and even using it as a decision support tool when trying to decide whether to do this or that (which use of my time will have a more significant impact in a weak area on my CV?). But the materials I submit also need to contain a hefty document wherein I reflect on my excellence and tenure-worthiness and explain all about what a rising star I am and how I am poised to have such great importance to the profession & community, etc., etc.

I realize this needs to get done. And I would like to get tenure, so I want to do a good job.

But I'm having a hard time getting up the activation energy to start writing such a document. It's because things I do NOT enjoy include the following:
  • Trying to convince people I am awesome.
  • Doing fluffy stuff.
  • Camoflauging weaknesses (I prefer to just call them what they are).

2 comments:

Ms.PhD said...

I know the feeling. In theory I can and/or should start working on job applications, even though it's a bit early for a variety of reasons.

Much as I want a job, I don't want to do the fluffy stuff.

Anonymous said...

Tenure dossiers can be so full of detail that they are mind-numbing to read through. What makes or breaks a tenure decision is the letters written by external reviewers. So think about your reviewers and make it easy on them. What they need to do is summarize your contributions to research, teaching and service - with both some numbers and qualitative descriptions. So even while you put endless lists of publications, abstracts, etc in your dossier, also provide a summary statement in which you give the numbers. So they don't have to add up the numbers themselves. And write a short statement describing the impact your work has had - because the reviewer will likely take the verbiage that you write, tweak it a little, and then incorporate that into the letter he/she writes.

Best wishes!