Planting your feet to take the next step

I help mid-career researchers develop sustainable and impactful research programs that are built for the next phase of your career. Click here to find out more.

Last week I shared my struggle to name the ideal client for my business. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but it’s something that I’ve been afraid to do. In part, I don’t want to alienate anyone. At the same time, I’m afraid because getting specific means taking the next step in my professional evolution. An evolution that means I am no longer just a faculty member and researcher; I am also an entrepreneur. But I believe I have something meaningful to offer faculty.

So here goes nothing…

I started this company because I didn’t have a good answer to the question “What’s next?” after tenure and/or promotion. As an assistant professor you are benefited by the energy of being newly trained and driven by the need to prove yourself. This newness also means you receive a great deal of attention from your new colleagues, mentors, and leaders, all of whom have an interest in seeing you succeed. Higher education institutions also invest a great many resources including training and support to help junior faculty members be successful.

Most of this stops once you get tenure and/or promotion.

Post tenure and/or promotion senior colleagues expect you to take on part of their service and teaching loads. Leaders’ attention shifts to new faculty. Your institution assumes you know what you need to know. You’re on your own.

On the surface this makes sense because getting tenure and/or promotion shows that you have arrived as a fully-fledged academic. Your “training” and “apprenticeship” have concluded and now you get down to doing the day-to-day of the job.

But here’s the thing that only dawned on me as I settled into my mid-career self, your pre-tenure and/or promotion time is roughly 7-10 years. That means that most of us will have another 25-30 years before we are eligible to retire. In fact, there are many faculty who work well into their mid-late 60s because they can. So, what will we do with that time?

Some of us will move into leadership roles, some of us will move between academic and student affairs positions, some of us start or work with research centers, some of us leave the academy, but many of us will continue to be faculty. Post-tenure I was on track with several leadership positions and a multitude of potential pathways. I also realized two things: 1) I needed to settle into a way of working that was sustainable long term and 2) I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue with the work I was doing at the time I received tenure.

As I muddled my way through these questions and realizations, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about what I was thinking through. Sure, I had senior colleagues and mentors, but I felt like they all had a vested interest in me continuing a specific pathway that was unique to how they saw me and my work. Some thought for sure I should consider senior leadership positions, others thought I should make the transition into student affairs, and still others thought I should double down on a specific version of my research programs. None of these would have necessarily been wrong, but none of them was what I really wanted for the next 25 years of my career.

So, I decided to become part of the answer to my questions, and maybe yours too. Getting back to the questions I shared last week. Here are my updated answers:

1. Who needs my product?

a. Mid-career faculty.

2. What problem are my clients solving with my product?

a. What’s next post tenure and/or promotion.

3. What result can they expect from using my product?

a. Sustainable productivity, increased impact in traditional (publications and presentations) and non-traditional metrics (external speaking and community engagement), and a pathway to long-term career satisfaction.

What do you think? Are you in?

(Words: 647)

Not sure what you need? Complete this 3-minute survey to see if I can help.