Besides demonstrating your ability to teach, the keys to obtaining a TT positions are the four ps... Publish scholarly work Present scholarly work at conferences Propose research to funding sources/agencies Participate in the community, your discipline's organizations, and the university.
Now, having said that, if you are applying to some schools they will care about nothing but your teaching prowess, and if you apply at others they will only care about your grant total. Few people do all of those above things and often departments have a few folks who publish a lot, others who do a lot of community and university service and others who do a mish mosh of all. My time in academia has been the mish mosh, doing a little of all of these things. 60% of the time you cannot tell what a school values most until after you interview. 40% of the time you can tell just by looking at faculty webpages. Then, you have the economic situation of the place you apply too that can play a big role. I have a friend who does kinetics of proteins and other complex molecules. The background needed to do this is very unique, the intelligence/skills are extraordinary, and the money required to set up the research astounding. Despite his incredible background and performance he seems unable to get a job, why? Because setting him up would cost so much $$. In today's economy, you can price yourself out of the market. You need to know what you do, how much it will cost, and what flexibility you have in your research. IF you do interdisciplinary research, you will find that many people interpret your background as lacking focus. This is a hard thing to counter when interviewing or presenting materials to a committee of researchers who generally lack any training in multidiscplinary studies. These are things to consider both in your application packet and in interviews. I've found defining the money needed difficult to define as I've gone through interview processes, maybe someone else can give you better guidelines there for your application packet. But certainly with your teaching background you can provide confidence to a hiring commmittee that you can do research, teach students, and be a valuable co-worker. I think this is what most of us want to be, try to be, but frankly struggle with accomplishing! :) Malcolm Malcolm On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 1:03 PM, Brian Bodah <[email protected]> wrote: > ECOLOGers, > I am a graduating Ph.D candidate who had the misfortune of earning my > degree through a research assistantship. I say this because my career goals > involve a teaching appointment. I've been applying for teaching positions > and post docs for several months now, but there's not a single one who will > consider someone without actual college level teaching experience. > Before attending graduate school I taught science in both the Massachusetts > and Minnesota state school systems, I have quite a bit of experience teaching > students from kindergarten - adult/continuing education level, but I have > never taught a college level course as I simply didn't have a teaching > assistantship. > If even post doc teaching positions will only consider former TAs, how is > someone supposed to overcome their lack thereof? I hold a master's level > certificate in environmental education and have taught in 2 different states, > yet this means nothing - that was simply wasted, irrelevant time/experience? > I don't think my case is extremely rare, there are many students who earn > their PhDs through RAs. I'm a very good teacher, but my PhD was paid for > through research. I've become quite disheartened in the search for a remedy > to this quandry. > Any help, suggestions, or guidance from the greater ECOLOG community > regarding a way to overcome this would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Brian Bodah, Ph.D. Candidate > Department of Biosystems Engineering > Washington State University -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri at Kansas City Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
