Making the Move

DrdrA began her career as a non-tenure-track faculty member, then switched over to the tenure track and a reader of hers asks how she did that. At that time, she went on "a full-scale job search, submitting about a billion applications all over the country. I had quite a few interviews, and a number of respectable offers," she writes. Now, however, DrdrA points out that the academic job market is not at its best, to say the least. In this climate she says to "go out on the job market for every job that you might be qualified for" and make a back up plan in case nothing comes through to make yourself "as marketable as humanly possible." "At that point threatening to leave and take your IDCs with you, plane ticket and competing job offer in hand, is the only approach that is very motivational for departments to convert you to TT," she writes.