I haven't blogged about academic career issues in a while, mostly because all my effort at work has been directed toward just getting shit done, leaving no bandwidth for dealing with career management issues. But I now find myself with a decision to make, and so I humbly come before you, O Great Science Blogosphere, to ask for the benefit of your wisdom.
I've blogged about my position before, but here's a brief summary: I am non-tenure track junior faculty at a biomedical research center. I love my job, but it became obvious very early on that in order to be successful as non-tt faculty, I'd have to pay serious attention to actively managing my career.
It's not that career management isn't important for tt faculty, but it seems career development for non-tt faculty is particularly prone to going off-course unless said faculty keep both hands on the wheel and steer firmly. After all, mentoring and promoting non-tt faculty isn't high on any department chair's list of things to think about, if it's on the list at all. And since non-tt faculty don't have regular evaluations or promotion clocks, chances are pretty good that the only person keeping track of my progress and the number of years I've been here...is me.
Before I accepted my position, I had a chat with my chair about expectations and criteria for my promotion. Basically, in order for me to be promoted to the next "level," I had to publish papers and be the PI on a grant. How many papers I had to publish was not specified. And the grant requirement was that I submit one as the PI--getting it funded was not required.
Fast forward 2.5 years, and I have been the PI on one submitted grant, which did not get funded, and I have secured funding as co-Investigator on another grant which pays for lab supplies and part of my salary. In the publication department, I have one published middle-author paper, one first-author paper under review, a second middle-author paper in preparation, and two other first-author papers in preparation. Now, I'm well aware that manuscripts in preparation are to actual papers as stock options are to actual money, but I'm confident I can have all but one of these in press in the next six months or so.
So by my reckoning, I'm pretty close to meeting the requirements for my promotion. And since my chair probably isn't going to just show up at my desk with a gift-wrapped promotion in his hand, I'm thinking I should go have a friendly chat with him about this. I should mention that I have a very good relationship with him and have no intention of charging into his office making loud demands, so I'm not really worried about this conversation going badly.
So what's the problem? Well, for one thing, asking for a promotion and the attendant salary increase when many labs are cutting costs and personnel seems...I dunno...a little self-absorbed. Second, I imagine the funding crunch isn't going to be conducive to my trying to negotiate for the salary increase I would like. Third, it is not uncommon for tt faculty to interview at other places ahead of going up for promotion. It's not clear to me if I'm also expected to play this little game of leverage, but suffice it to say that now is not a particularly good time to try to secure other job offers for negotiation purposes.
On the other hand, who the hell knows when funding is going to be good again, whatever "good" is? So maybe it'd be stupid to hold off if I've actually earned the promotion, especially since I suspect that no promotion will be forthcoming at all unless I speak up at some point.
So what do y'all think? Should I approach my chair about this and if so, when's the best time?
What's left
38 minutes ago
22 comments:
You know what ... the department should have budgeted for this. Your chair had to know you were getting close, even if he's not letting on, and as such there should have been money for it. You can bet that if a faculty member is due to go up for promotion and/or tenure, they'd expect their raise.
Of course, you will have to consider your options if he flat out tells you no. By the sounds of it, you have about 6 months to get all your ducks in a row, so best of luck!
Only approach that works: Send applications out and get yourself an offer somewhere else. Then go to your chair and tell him that you love being where you are, that you hate the idea of moving, but you have gotten an offer that you simply cannot afford to refuse. If he matches it, you are fine. If he refuses to match it, then, well, it's up to you what to do, but at that point you know that you were never going to get promoted anyway.
Any other approach wastes your time and causes aggravation. This is all from personal experience.
Tom--One of the quirks of being non-tenure track is that my salary is paid from the grants of the PI in whose lab I work (and, of course, from any grants I get), not from departmental funds. But the issue is the same: money is tight everywhere, and I really wouldn't be surprised if no one has given this much thought but me.
I don't think it's callousness or indifference specifically toward me...it's just that my department has over 70 faculty members, not including non-tenure track faculty like me. So I think non-tt faculty promotions are pretty low-priority overall.
Massimo--I understand what you're saying, and I've heard this from a couple of other people. But man, I really hate the idea of "negotiation by ultimatum." Maybe it's because I've been lucky so far in that I've mostly managed to get what I want just by asking for it nicely. The other issue, of course, is that the job market in my field is absolutely brutal at the moment, with many academic departments instituting hiring freezes and many companies having mass layoffs.
Given the state of the economy, I'd wait 4-8 months. That way, there might be evidence that the stimulus is starting to work, which might make the department feel more secure giving you a good raise. Plus, all the stuff you have in the hopper will have come to fruition. And what's the deal with the Challenge grants (I obviously don't know anything about them)? Are odds good that someone in your department will get one? Will that contribute a lot of overhead?
I'm curious to find out what you do. Keep us posted!
Massimo is absolutely correct. No one gives a single flying fuck about you and your concerns, they care about their own. The only way to induce your chair to promote you is to make her think that it will be to *her* advantage to do so. And the only way to do this is to make her think that if she doesn't promote you, you will leave. And the only way to do this is to get a credible offer elsewhere.
And BTW, if you present your chair with another offer, and the chair declines to match it, and then you don't take that other offer, you will have thrown away all negotiating power you might ever have for the rest of your career in that department.
But man, I really hate the idea of "negotiation by ultimatum."
Oh, no, no, this is called "playing by the rules". In a market economy the value of your performance is given by the best offer that someone is willing to make (of course, in the case of an academic it is not salary only, other aspects such as the prestige of the institution should be factored in).
If someone out there is willing to put together a superior package for you, why should you settle for less than you are worth ?
As much as we may hate it (and boy do I hate it), this is how the system works, and the chance that you or I may see it change in our lifetime are slim. So, if these are the rules, I say let's play by them.
the job market in my field is absolutely brutal at the moment
Then you want to be really careful before you even think of approaching your chair with a request for a promotion, if you feel that your bargaining power is not as strong as it could be at some other time. The small increment you may have to pass on right now will dwarf compared to what you can get when he economy picks up and you can get yourself good offers elsewhere.
If your salary is paid from the grants of the PI in the lab you work, then a salary increase (cost of living at least) should have been budgeted in, no? At the very least you can discuss it with the PI.
As for looking for a job, getting an offer, and then presenting it to the chair with a "It's there, or here." you better be prepared to call his bluff. If he tells you no, like CPP said ... if you don't go ... they'll know they have you.
I don't know what you do for a career, but honestly ... you might think of a federal position. Then salary is never a question/issue and with the exception of cost of living increases, you'll know when your raises will come and exactly how much they'll be.
I don't see anything wrong with saying something like
"I'm now on a this timeline to these accomplishments which merit a promotion. I know times are tight, but I'm wondering if it might be possible to move things around budget-wise in about a six months period."
I think it's better to give lead-time then not; if you're right and nobody is really keeping track, your department head will appreciate the heads up. Plus, you can always play the salary offer game later- if you've established yourself as being motivated by the promotion/raise, it won't come as a shock and may be taken more seriously by the department head if you do go that route.
If I were a department head and I had no idea somebody was 'ready' for a promotion and they came to me with a salary offer in hand demanding money NOW when there was no money NOW, I might let them go just for spite. Which is probably why I'll never be a department head.
;-)
EGF--I think you make a very good point. I would definitely be in a much stronger position once my papers are published to get job offers elsewhere, and to make a convincing argument that I should be promoted here. Will definitely be blogging about this more as things develop.
As for challenge grants, I don't really know what the odds are of getting one, but since there aren't going to be very many awarded, I'd say the odds are probably low. Faculty in my department have generally been very successful at getting NIH funding, but challenge grants might be a whole different beast. I hadn't even heard of them before until the stimulus package was announced, although I think the NIH has had challenge grant competitions before. No clue about the overhead contribution.
There are other ways for investigators to tap into the stimulus funding, such as supplements to existing grants, etc., so I do think we may all be feeling just a little bit richer in a few months!
Crap! Didn't mean to hit submit yet.
CPP--Dude, way to kill my faith in the apprenticeship/mentorship system! Okay, I know you're right. Better get back to work pushing my papers through and polishing up the CV.
Massimo--Fair enough. Although wouldn't it be nice if employers would just pay us what they think we're worth based on our contributions without these shenanigans? Because the amount of time I spend applying and interviewing for other jobs could be spent generating more data and writing more papers and grants. Sigh.
Tom--You're right, cost-of-living increases are budgeted...it's the promotion-to-the-next-level increases that may be the problem. I've thought about federal positions before but haven't investigated that option in any detail. If you're interested, I'd be happy to discuss what I do in more detail by email (too.much.mercury@gmail.com). Regardless, I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about your experiences at your agency.
Becca--Haha...good thing you're not my chair, then! But what you're proposing was what I had been thinking I'd do--test the waters to see if just asking will get me the promotion, and then bringing out the big stick of other job offers if necessary. I'm also planning on talking to some of the other faculty in my department who are familiar with my situation to see what they think. The saga continues....
I think it's better to give lead-time then not; if you're right and nobody is really keeping track, your department head will appreciate the heads up. Plus, you can always play the salary offer game later- if you've established yourself as being motivated by the promotion/raise, it won't come as a shock and may be taken more seriously by the department head if you do go that route.
If I were a department head and I had no idea somebody was 'ready' for a promotion and they came to me with a salary offer in hand demanding money NOW when there was no money NOW, I might let them go just for spite.
This is completely wrong in every respect. In a non-tenure-track position, there *is* no "ready for a promotion" other than "if we don't promote this person they will leave and we don't want them to leave".
test the waters to see if just asking will get me the promotion
This weakens your negotiating position in the future, because it marks you as someone who isn't really prepared to play hardball.
CPP--I appreciate the advice and I get the "not a fucking care bears party" thing. I really do. But it seems that all negotiations shouldn't have to start at hardball, because what can you escalate to if that fails? Isn't it worth trying to negotiate "in good faith" before going nuclear?
Isn't it worth trying to negotiate "in good faith" before going nuclear?
MH -- you are in good faith when you tell your employer that you cannot afford to turn down extra money, or to make an important career advancement.
By showing them that you have a competitive offer, you prove to them that it is the truth and not some random whining. This is the only honest way of negotiating in a free market economy, driven by supply and demand, in which we all try to pay the least we can get away with when buying, and get the most when selling.
Honestly, I cannot blame the employer either, because next thing you know every day they would have to raise someone's salary (we all think that we deserve more than we get, and we all can come up with good reasons).
"you are in good faith when you tell your employer that you cannot afford to turn down extra money, or to make an important career advancement."
Not if that isn't true, right? Okay, if my department won't promote me, then my position essentially becomes a dead-end job and I will definitely leave. But if my department promotes me but cannot match the salary from an offer in industry, for example, then it's not as clear-cut.
In my field, industry salaries are significantly higher across the board than academic salaries for someone with equivalent qualifications. But some industry positions sound mind-numbingly boring and I honestly wouldn't take them even if they paid more. Then, there are personal considerations such as March Hare's career, geographical preferences, etc.
My point is that whether I would walk away from an awesome job for more money is going to depend on a lot of things.
Mad Hatter-
You know I love you, I do, but you must listen to Massimo and C PP on this one. There is only one way that works to accomplish what you want here. I myself was non-tt faculty for a time, and I can tell you for 100% certain that I would not have gotten promoted without offers elsewhere.
I know the system sucks. I know it, I hate it, but it is just a fact of the way things work in academia.
My point is that whether I would walk away from an awesome job for more money is going to depend on a lot of things.
MH, please re-read what I wrote -- I never said "more money". I have talked about a "superior package", and I did say that in academia other factors have to be taken into account.
Obviously whether the offer is superior or not is for you to determine. Ideally, it should be something that will make your chair think "Wow... if she got that reputable place to make her such an offer, then we should think twice before letting her go", not "Oh-Kay... if she is willing to go a place like that for a few more bucks a month, maybe we can let her go -- we'll find someone else"...
I have never encountered this kind of situation personally, but the advice Massimo and CPP gave sounds solid. One thing I heard over and over again many of the "women in science" seminars is that women have a really hard time asking for promotions and advocating for their own self-worth. So if you've started to think its time for a promotion, then you have a very strong sense of what you're worth. Advocating for yourself could mean as Massimo suggests getting other offers.
I realize there are hiring freezes and much economic hardship across the board, I would worry this could become a "catch-all" phrase to keep you in a marginalized situation.
I think a job is an awful lot like a relationship. If you're not willing to walk away because you deserve better then the other person will know that. Especially if they think you feel "lucky" to be at the current job. It means you are willing to continue to stick around at your current level.
Good luck. This is a tough one in the current economic climate.
DrDrA and Massimo--Okay, okay...I get it. I may not like it, but if that's what I have to do , then I'll do it. We'll see what happens!
GirlPostdoc--I think your analogy is an interesting one, but one has to temper the instinct to walk away with a realistic assessment of one's situation, right? Every job (and relationship, for that matter) has its problems, and walking away isn't always the best or only solution. And there's a difference between what we think we deserve, at least in terms of salary, and what we can actually get. I know enough people who have made the "Give me what I want or I'll quit" threat when they probably shouldn't have, and lived to regret overplaying their hand.
Sorry- late to the party, but I'm in a similar position so I have thought about this a fair bit. You don't specify whether the next 'level' is non-TT or TT. First, some institutions have guidelines on non-TT promotions (Asst Res Prof to Assoc Res Prof), so asking for the promotion when you've met the requirements, even without an outside offer, doesn't seem like a stretch to me. Especially because 1) you've already discussed it previously and 2) if it is soft money, it doesn't really cost the department anything. The only cost is a salary increase which comes out of the PI (yours or your 'boss's') grant. I would wait till you had pubs in hand, then go ahead & ask! It doesn't really have to be antagonistic. If you were asking for a TT-position, that would be a different kettle of fish because that is a big investment, another line, etc.
Neurowoman--The next level would still be non-tt. For various reasons, I don't think converting to a tt position at my current institution would be possible even if I wanted to do it. My institution does have official guidelines on non-tt promotions, but they are very vague. Basically, one has to be a productive researcher, publish papers, and become a respected scientist in one's field. My understanding is that how those guidelines translate into specific requirements is left up to individual department chairs. Thanks for your advice, Neurowoman, and it's always nice to "meet" someone else in the same kind of position.
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