By Sanum Jain. The increasing risks of the conventional job market mean there's even more reason for graduates to take their own risks, argues. By this time last year, some of my peers at the University of Manchester had secured jobs at reputable corporations while others had launched their first business or started making travel plans. I was somewhere in the middle, like many students in third year – stuck in a limbo of tedious application forms and not knowing what would become of me after graduation. More...

By Brock Read. By now you might have happened upon a few articles from Vitae, The Chronicle‘s newish academic career hub. If not, a brief introduction: In addition to job-search, dossier-management, and networking tools, we also post daily news and career advice—-much of it tackling matters of teaching, research, career development, and personal productivity. More...

By David D. Perlmutter. The first time I served as an external reviewer for a candidate’s tenure bid at another university, I had just gotten tenure myself. I was flattered to be asked and wanted to do a good job at what I felt, and still feel, is one of the most sacred tasks of the tenured professor: evaluating whether or not to induct someone into our guild.
So I was ready to do my duty. The only problem? The state of the tenure file I received. It could have been a test case in how not to present a tenure packet to an external reviewer. More...

By Robert J. Sternberg. Back in graduate school, I remember thinking that successful academics seemed to lead consistently pleasant if somewhat uneventful lives. Now, by some measures, I’m one of those successful academics. After receiving a Ph.D. from Stanford, I spent 30 years as a professor at Yale and eight years as a dean, provost, and president at three different institutions. I have my share of honorary doctorates and memberships in prestigious national academies. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that over the course of 39 (gulp) years in academe, I have experienced countless career challenges and three serious crises. This essay is about how to cope with such crises, whatever your level of success. But before I dispense my advice, I suppose readers want the inside dirt. More...

By D.G. Myers. Earlier this month I stepped into a classroom to begin the last semester of a 24-year teaching career. Don’t get me wrong. I am not retiring. I am not “burned out.” The truth is rather more banal. Ohio State University will not be renewing my three-year contract when it expires in the spring. Read more...

By Colleen Flaherty and Scott Jaschik. An administrative law judge in Florida last week upheld new rules by the State Department of Education that require significantly more of state college faculty members – particularly in the areas of student success – for them to earn continuing contracts. The ruling also upholds a change to the time it takes professors to earn their first contract. Instead of three years, faculty members will now only be eligible after five years of service. Read more...