How do you jibe being a professor and a captain?

Previously, we have written about the environment surrounding higher education and faculty career health. In the current section of Work Strong, the four principles of measuring career fitness are introduced and we need to transition to understanding the measurement of the career itself. The principles are excellent guideposts for guiding your faculty career. In academia, it is important to think of them in both how they apply to working in a role at a college or university and how they apply to being a scholar in the discipline you choose.

Your ability to understand and apply to your advantage the practical realities of working at a college or university is key to the success of your career. The type of institution and the practical realities of the practice of your discipline are going to affect your needs in the jobs you choose in your career. Does your life's work to fight a disease require that you have physical space to run a lab like Dr. Franzblau? Or does your practice of history require that your institution value the liberal arts like Dr. Thelin? Tenure issues aside, how secure is the job that you are in? Is it funded by an endowment, a grant, institutional operating funds, or the state of California? As Peter Weddle writes, you are the captain and the choice is yours. Find the opportunity (job) that most meets the needs of your career.

Many professors started their careers feeling that their discipline was the thing they were born to do. Faculty have a lot invested in their careers by the time they get hired in their first position, and therefore it is imperative the analysis of career fitness begin as early as possible and be measured regularly during your graduate school years. Unfortunately, most people who make the choice will have a difficult time changing course if being a faculty member is not the right one. Therefore, it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunities along the way (teaching assistantships, post-doctorate assignments, etc.) that help you confirm your choice is the right one. Our profession helps in this process as a good adviser/mentor can help, but don't forget the responsibility is ultimately your own. You don't want to land your first job and realize that you spent two terms of a president (or several phases of Madonna's career) in graduate school just because you liked going to class.

The notion of job security versus career security is interesting. Right now, people seem most worried about keeping their jobs. While their concerns are real, the academic community, while changing, does not appear headed towards extinction and your career should still be intact when the economy improves. Where will your career be once you don't have to worry about your job? What do you do at your school to make sure your career security is best suited to your needs?

Don’t Play Pinball With Your Career

Many of us probably began the new year with a resolution or two designed to improve our lives. And for some, that commitment involved getting into better physical shape. Doing so without doing ourselves harm, however, required that we learn at least the rudiments of good exercise philosophy. We had to learn what exercises to perform as well as when, where and how to perform them if we were to realize the gains we sought.

The same is true with our careers. As I describe in the first module of the Career Fitness System (Chapter 4 in Work Strong), building a healthy career requires a knowledge of the principles of career fitness. These principles ensure that the actions you take don't waste your time, don't inadvertently undercut your success, and do actually reinforce the strength, reach and endurance of your career.

The fact that there are principles of effective career self-management also makes two other points absolutely clear. Think of them as the philosophical foundation for a healthy career.

First, career self-management isn't a conglomeration of job search activities. It involves those steps, to be sure, but your career is much larger and more strategic than the search for any one job. So, career self-management incorporates a body of knowledge and set of skills that enable you to perform the actions necessary to achieve a rewarding experience in the one-third or more of your life you will spend in the workplace.

Second, you can be an expert in your profession-you can have an advanced degree in your field-and still be unsuccessful in your career. While academic distinction is obviously necessary for career success in higher education, it is not sufficient. If you have any doubt about that, check out the HigherEdJobs group on LinkedIn where there are over 100 comments discussing the disconnect between holding a Master's degree or even a PhD and holding a job.

In today's world of work-whether it's in teaching or research or administration or any other field-the key to success is to be an expert in BOTH your field and in the management of your career. Unfortunately, only professional athletes and some performing artists can afford to employ agents to do that latter task for them. For the rest of us, that leaves only two choices:

• We can educate ourselves on the principles and practices of successful career self-management

or

• We can turn ourselves into one of those shiny little balls in a pinball machine and watch our career be pushed from pillar to post by outside forces beyond our control.

I recognize that it's more than a little presumptuous to suggest that well educated and heretofore successful professionals now have to go to school all over again. Perhaps one way to view it is as yet another step forward on the pathway of lifelong learning.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

How’s my career health? Good, I think...

How healthy is your career? If you're like me, it's been a while since you asked yourself this question. Nevertheless, it's a question every higher education professional should ask themselves.

In Peter Weddle's book, Work Strong, he makes an interesting analogy between physical health and career health. Just as you can be sick and not know it, your career health may be in jeopardy and you don't even know it.

If you are having serious problems with your career, chances are you are aware of it and know you need to do something about it. But what if the signs are more subtle? Maybe you like your profession but can't get along with your department? Maybe you like the school you work for, but don't feel passionate about your academic or administrative field?

A number of factors influence our job satisfaction. Some factors are good and others not. On a day-to-day basis, it's healthy to focus on the positive and live with the negative. But, for a long-term strategy, this survival tactic can prevent you from tackling issues you really need to address.

Hopefully, you're enthusiastic about every aspect of your career. But regardless, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on where your career is headed, what you want to achieve, whether you enjoy how you spend your day, whether you like who you work with, or feel appreciated by your employer.

That's just scratching the surface. If there's an issue with your career, you likely know the questions you need to ask yourself even if you haven't taken the time to do so. To continue with Weddle's medical analogy, finding a good treatment for your career may be what you're looking for, but the first step is to get a good diagnosis.

Who is Guiding Your Career?

The second chapter of Work Strong brings up how to analyze your career's health. There is an assessment in the book, the Career Fitness Evaluation (p. 55-57), that I hope many of you took this opportunity to fill out. Use this assessment piece to reflect upon your career and the direction it is headed. Are you working smartly and in your own best interests? Are you feeling happy, valued, and connected to your working community? You need to figure out who is guiding your career. Are forces outside yourself directly influencing your career or are you guiding your career?

The value of self-reflection is in taking the time out of your day to invest in yourself. The information you get from having these honest conversations with yourself are most valuable when trying to improve the overall health of your career. The best way to make yourself feel happy in your career is by being honest with yourself about what you are putting into it and what you want to get out. Only once you have established clear, honest, career goals can you know what needs to be done to improve your career health.

Ask the tough questions that get to the root of analyzing a career's health. Where do you need to make improvements in your day-to-day or month-to-month activities? Do you need to make more connections in your chosen field? Do you need to find a job that meets some different needs you now have that you did not have before? Are you well paid but not feeding your creative side? Are you allowed freedom to take risks but are not getting the recognition from your boss or peers that you desire? Any of these could be the source of your unhappiness, but you are able to change them.

Particularly in higher education, one needs to periodically take stock of their situation as institutions change and you enter different stages of your academic career. Ask yourself this: are you reacting to changes in your career, or is your career reacting to changes you make in yourself? Share any thoughts that you had about the Career Fitness Evaluation and how it has helped you take stock of your career's health below.