As a working woman, you wear several hats. Maybe you are a professor during the day, but at home you are a wife, girlfriend, mother, caregiver, etc.. Juggling everything in your life is hard enough without the stress of navigating the promotional process alone, being turned down for a promotion or turned down for tenure. Understandably, you may want to get ahead, but something is holding you back. Career advancement in higher education doesn’t seem to be happening for you, and you can’t figure out why.
It helps to have a fresh set of eyes look at your experience, your resume or your curriculum vitae, and your typical class syllabus to see where things could improve. If you have written copies of your evaluations and student evaluations, that helps too. Understanding what your promotion committee wants in terms of your institution’s standards and where you might fall short can help you construct new goals, so that next time, you get that promotion or tenure. Below are some ideas for ensuring success in your quest for promotion.
Hire a Consultant or Consulting Group That Focuses on Women in Your Field
Men often dominate in careers in higher education. They generally see career advancement in higher education in greater numbers because they submit for it earlier and more frequently than women. They also have more access to mentors and senior faculty because there are more of them in academia. They have people showing and telling them exactly what to do to promote and that helps a lot!
There are a few things you can do to prepare for your promotion. Take feedback to heart and review anything that is written by your supervisor. It is important to carefully review your written evaluations and save them. If you are already striving to meet expectations in the areas outlined by your institution, then you could hire a career consultant or consulting group to re-evaluate what you need to do next. They will look at everything you have and what your competition had that may have given him/her the edge towards a promotion or tenure.
The challenge with hiring a consultant or group is that it can be costly and time consuming.
Writing Goals to Move Ahead
If you write a goal down, you are more likely to complete it. Rather than the goal being a random thought in your head, you make the goal more tangible by putting it to paper. Most successful teachers, instructors and professors find that they accomplish more and are rewarded more often in their academic roles when they make an effort to write down goals and strive for them.
If you are not currently writing and revising your career goals on a regular basis, it’s a habit you definitely want to develop.
Career Coaching
Not every client seeking an outside evaluation of personal and professional skills will be able to continue moving forward professionally effortlessly. Careers in higher education are less likely to advance without some career coaching to help along the way. Career coaching can make all of your struggles easier to manage while working toward what you want most to do and to achieve. Consider hiring a career coach to help you get on track and stay on track professionally.
Looking to advance into a position as an Adjunct Professor? Wondering if your CV hits the mark and will get you the job? Stuck or wondering how to advance your career in academia? Let’s Talk! I can help you get there!