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Chapter 20 Changing Jobs At some point you may decide or need to change jobs. There can be many reasons for changing jobs besides not being granted tenure, and each will require slightly different job seeking strategies. Perhaps you originally wanted to work at a different type of institution but were unable to find such a position during your original job hunt. Or, for one reason or another, you planned to stay for only a few years. Maybe you feel that the institution hasn’t lived up to its original commitment to you in terms of lab space, research assistance, library funding, or something else that was negotiated during the offer. Perhaps you have been approached by another institution. Possibly your partner or another family member is unhappy with the location or institution and the situation cannot be improved for him or her. If you have been conducting a longdistance marriage or relationship for several years, you may have decided that being together is more important than your job. Be Ready for Opportunities Continue to stay in touch with people at other institutions, even if you are very happy where you are. These contacts are a vital means of engaging in your profession. In addition, knowing faculty at other institutions gives you greater access to information about positions that may be opening up and a group of people who can comment favorably on your work. If you got your degree from an institution that has a credentials file service , continue to build it even if you don’t expect to change institutions. It’s a form of insurance you can draw on if you decide you must or want to change positions and it will be difficult to get letters from past references. Keep your vita current. For a few years you will probably continue to keep your education as one of the first sections. If previously you gave a lot of detail about your graduate work, you may now begin to omit it. For at least several years after obtaining your doctorate, however, retain your dissertation topic and advisor’s name. Add recent experiences and condense ear- 230 After You Take the Job lier ones. For example, if you earlier included detail about what you did as a teaching assistant, you may now merely retain the notation that you held the position. In general, it is a good idea to condense items, even if drastically , rather than drop them altogether. Do not drop early publications and presentations. If You Want to Make a Move Keep in mind that academia is a small world, and that if you put out feelers, chances are your department will hear about it. Mention in cover letters that you don’t want your institution contacted unless you are considered a very serious contender. You will need someone to recommend you. While it is true that you can send out letters in a credentials file without the knowledge of the letters’ authors, there is no guarantee that at least one of these people will not get a phone call about you. Therefore it is a better idea to speak with your recommenders, let them know what you are interested in, and ask them to keep your search confidential. Your advisor, of course, is an ideal person to play this role. It would be helpful to have a recommendation from someone in your current department. You will have to use your best judgment about the advisability of letting someone there know your plans. While your current chair may be sorry to learn that you wish to leave, you may be surprised to find that that person is willing to provide you with a good recommendation. If you begin interviewing extensively, it is almost inevitable that your department will learn that you are looking elsewhere. It will depend very much upon the individuals involved whether they view this as a perfectly reasonable activity or a lack of commitment. In any case, it is preferable that the chair hear from you, rather than from someone else, that you are looking. You may want to defer this communication until you are almost certain that the person is about to have the information anyway. Never use the threat that you will look elsewhere as a negotiating point. If you do not find another position quickly after making such a threat, your bluff will have been called forever. To make such a move responsibly, minimize new commitments, such as...

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