How can we help you? (January 2023)

Now that it's a new year (happy new year!) and it's been over a month since our last "how can we help you?" thread, it's time for a new thread.

For those of you unfamiliar with this series, this is a chance for you to post openly or anonymously in the comments section below on anything you could use help with related to the profession. After you post your query in the comments section, I will then post new threads for readers to discuss your query.

As usual, feel free to ask questions on anything (within the Cocoon's mission) that you could use help with, including but not limited to:

• The job-market (applying for jobs, etc.)
• Issues in the profession (including issues of social justice)
• Graduate school
• Publishing
• Teaching
• Work-life balance
• Mental health & well-being
• Personal struggles
• Etc.

Ask away - we're here to help! 

Important reminder: if you submit a comment in this thread responding to someone's query, I won't post it, as this makes it difficult for me to keep track of everything in the comments section, particularly which queries I've started new threads on and which ones I have not. However, if you do post a follow-up comment, chances are good that I will post it in the new thread I start on the relevant query. So, do feel free to submit responses. Just know that they won't appear in this particular thread and might instead appear later in a new post.

Comments

[Fell]

How common is it for a lateral move at the Assistant level to have to 'start again' with respect to publishing for tenure? In other words, if you make a lateral move at the Assistant level is it common to negotiate that some of your current publications will count for tenure (perhaps with an advanced tenure clock)? Or is this really uncommon? I realize experiences will vary widely across different jobs and institutions but I'm particularly curious to know if folks are ever able to successfully negotiate previous publications counting for tenure at their new job.

[opp research]

One piece of advice I often see for job seekers is to "get to know the department to which you are applying." This is great advice! I'd love to know how other people go about researching a department, its needs, its interests, and its preferences. It would be great if at least some of this advice did not involve tapping one's personal network, as many grad students/job seekers may not have networks that are similarly robust or knowledgeable about the ins and outs of other departments.

[Perennial Candidate]

Since this year's job market is shifting into the next phase (fly-outs, offers), I wonder if it's time to revisit stories from people who have left academia — how they knew it was time, what they're doing now, their feelings on the transition, whether they're thriving. I think it might be helpful to those of us who are pondering how to prioritize our career development in the new year.

[getmeouttahere]

Now that I have completed my coursework, I would love to finish my graduate program remotely. What are the norms for doing this sort of thing? It seems like most graduate students that do this have some kind of visiting student affiliation with another department. But is this sort of affiliation necessary? What else should I consider here?

[assistant to the vap]

I wanted to bump something to here that 'visiting treadmill' posted in the job market discussion thread, as I think it would be good to hear from folks on what they were saying, but no one responded there. I hope they don't mind!

visiting treadmill: Unsurprisingly, I feel a bit perplexed by the market. This is my fifth year on the market but I’ve held a visiting position every year. On the VAP market last year I had four interviews and two offers. I thought that maybe the VAP market buzz I experienced might be some evidence that I would have better luck on the TT market this year. But so far on the permanent market this year I’ve only had one first round zoom interview, which did not advance. It looks like that’s all I’m going to get, which needless to say is really disappointing. Anyone else have a similar experience? Is there such a thing as a VAP treadmill? Why would multiple departments (and I’m not talking R1 here) see a candidate as good enough for a visiting position but not a permanent position? Also, what’s the number to that truck-driving school again?

[grad student]

Question about fly-outs. Who pays for them?

[NOT (On the job)]

Marcus
You have mentioned a body of research on the ineffectiveness of interviews. That is, the research suggests that those hiring mistakenly let interview performance outweigh more objective data, including in a c.v. and application package. Can you post something on this, with a few links to the articles. I would like to examine them with care.

[soul]

Grad Student
The department that is interviewing pays for your travel, hotel, and meals. The job market is inhumane but not so inhumane as to make you pay for interviews as well.

[Marcus Arvan]

@NOT (On the job): I've posted a variety of things on this over the years. Here are some links if you'd like to do a deeper dive:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/202008/poor-predictors-job-interviews-are-useless-and-unfair

https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2015/02/more-news-on-the-interviews-are-worse-than-useless-front.html

https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2016/01/on-academic-hiring-practices-and-the-science-of-selection.html

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-02834-005

[copyright]

I'm thinking of sending a paper to a journal and have only now started thinking about copyright. Do I need to request permission from all the publishers from where I've cited work to include it in my paper?

[PhD Student]

In the post about the VAP treadmill, a commenter said the following:

"In my experience in our searches, probably the top 20-50% of the applicant pool would be successful in the job and be an adequate fit for the specific role. The differences between the person who gets the job and the person who is 15th on the list are often small and hard to characterize."

I would love to hear from people who have been on search committees (or ppl who were told by someone on the search committee why they were hired) some examples of the tiny little things that ended up making one candidate get the job over the other equally-qualified candidates.

If these reasons are silly or arbitrary (e.g., this person just "seemed cooler" or had one more publication than someone else), all the better, since it helps us to remember just how much randomness there is. If some of the things are tiny things that others (like myself) can somehow imitate, then that is great too!

[ABD]

Any advice for coping with the interminable periods of waiting to hear back about job applications? How do you stay focused while navigating the emotional ups and downs? Do you have any strategies for maintaining focus, or for resetting when you find yourself distracted? It's my first year and I am struggling. Some days are fine...and other days I feel like a wreck with no self-control, opening zillow and refreshing my inbox, wondering and worrying, and not writing.

[author]

What are the norms on sending multiple papers to the same journal? Some journal explicitly prohibit having more than one paper under review at the same time, but if a journal doesn't say anything about this, is it safe to assume it's permissible there?

[Thinking long term]

What research expectations are there after one gets tenured at a R1/R2 university? Do we have to constantly still publish papers (E.g. Avg of 1 paper a year) in prestigious venues?

[Meeting with a dean?]

Oh gosh this one is a bit time sensitive so I am not even sure it's worth posting but just in case: how should you prepare to meet with a dean at a flyout? What is going on in these meetings? What is the dean's role re: your prospects of getting an offer? Any advice at all about this would be so very appreciated.

[lonely]

How do people working in small departments brainstorm research ideas?

I work in a teaching-oriented small department, and people work in quite different areas. I often encounter small ideas and thoughts in my research such as "x is interesting. I wonder if anyone talks about it" and "can we think about y in a different way?"... Some of these ideas were developed into papers, but many of them were based on misunderstandings or the lack of basic background knowledge on certain topics. In graduate school, I could just have a quick conversation with either my peers or professors. But there are no such people around me now. I saw people doing this kind of brainstorming on Facebook and Twitter, but I do not have many friends or followers on social media. So, I was still emailing my peers and professors from graduate school, but I am not sure if this is sustainable. I wonder if there are other effective ways to brainstorm small research ideas.

[Boiling Frustration]

In response to the VAP Treadmill thread, Patrick said the following:

In addition, based on anecdotal evidence as well as comments I've read elsewhere on this issue: being a VAP and having a decent publication record doesn't always trump a freshly minted PhD with a proportionate publication record. Ex. a VAP with 4 years post-PhD and 4-5 articles, in many cases, isn't going to be appear exceptional compared to a new PhD from a ranked program who has just one publication. To be sure, some institutions value a seasoned junior person with bona fide teaching experience but this is definitely not the case everywhere.

I am glad Patrick said this, because it speaks to an impression I have had, which is that for whatever reason a VAP one, two, three years removed from the PhD, who has been able to publish while teaching what is likely a heavy-load, nevertheless does not look as shiny ('exceptional', promising) as the graduate student with fewer publications (maybe none) and less teaching experience (again, maybe none). What is making them shiny then, other than that they haven't yet come out of the wrapper? It's almost like the fact that one is not yet in a job counts in favor of people, whereas it counts against some (e.g. VAPs, lecturers, etc.).

The help I am requesting is for a good explanation of this phenomenon, which appears to me to be utterly biased and irrational (like so much of this process), and what a VAP is supposed to do keep their shine on, if, as Patrick says, apparently publishing isn't going to do the trick.

[Cream]

I am curious about the mechanics and strategy of asking for a retention raise. I am a TT assistant professor. I might receive a job offer soon for another TT position. I would be willing to take the new job, but I would prefer my current position if my salary increased. How would I go about asking for a retention raise? Whom should I ask--my chair or the dean? Any other advice?

[new to the scene]

Two questions about job market etiquette:

1) Is it considered "rude," "in poor taste," or in violation of relevant norms to leave a job after only one year? One the one hand, I believe in employee freedom in a labor market; on the other, I get that people might be offended by this.

2) Is is a valid worry that your current employer might find out that you're on the market? I would hope that application materials are confidential, but I also imagine that philosophers, like the rest of humankind, like to gossip. Does anyone have experience of their employers retaliating in any sort of way after finding out they were applying out?

Thanks!

[Aspiring Mentor]

I have heard that many search committees consider it a notable plus (and some perhaps even an unspoken requirement) that one has experience mentoring/working with people from underrepresented groups in philosophy (or perhaps it is enough to have mentoring experience more broadly-please advise!).

There are very few formal opportunities for PhD students at my (very large, very diverse, relatively prestigious) institution to do any type of robust formal mentoring (we teach to diverse groups, of course, but it seems like search committees find it good to have more one-on-one type mentoring experiences). I want to help design a systematic, mutually-beneficial program that can actually benefit undergrads and create meaningful connections while also helping PhD students get formal mentoring experience that can help them on the job market.

I know my department will support this endeavor, perhaps even with funding (they are super supportive of things like this, both job related and DEI related), but I am curious if anyone has advice, models, links, books, articles, podcasts, warnings, etc. about current programs of this type and what has worked/not worked well for others? I first and foremost want to make sure we go about designing the program in a way that it will not cause any further harm, exploit vulnerable undergrads, or waste people's time.

Any suggestions or stories would be greatly appreciated! I think there is potential to create something truly beneficial for all parties, if such a program is crafted with care.

[hitting the books]

Do any readers have an inside scoop on how open access monograph publishing works? Every once in a while, a book from a university press like OUP is published Open Access. Nick Shea's (2018) Representation in Cognitive Science is one example. I assume that in such cases, the author gets a grant from somewhere to pay the press a fee to make the book open access. How much are such fees? And are there particular places to go looking for that kind of funding? I know there are also recent efforts to create all-OA monograph publishing venues (in philosophy of science, there's the new BSPS Open). What other such ventures are out there?

[junior guest speaker]

I have a colleague who teaches a yearly undergraduate course in a somewhat niche subfield of philosophy (think something like philosophy of film). We share interest and experience in this subfield, and every time he teaches the course, he has me come in for a guest lecture. It’s ironically one of my favorite talks I've ever given, but I don’t see any realistic opportunity to give it elsewhere (e.g. a conference). Is there any way to list this experience on my CV without it looking like padding?

[Guest lecture]

@junior guest speaker
Just call it a guest lecture. That's what it is. It's not padding.

[graduategreg]

hi i have a weird inquiry:

i am an abd grad student. I thought I had my AOS/AOCs figured out, but my department threw me a curveball and is having me teach a class that is outside of those areas. i'm not really worried about teaching the class and i am interested in the material, but i don't research this stuff at all. i fear that adding it as an AOC will look a little strange, both because there are now too many and because it doesn't really 'fit' with the rest, but i also don't want to undersell my capabilities when the ability to teach a wide range of classes is valued. if anyone has faced this situation, or evaluated someone like this from a committee perspective, i would be interested to know what you think

[anon obviously]

Hey, asking for a friend: has anyone used/consulted 'the professor is out' for help making the transition to a non-academic career path? I know a while ago there were some threads on another site about their academic services, but wondering specifically about whether they would be helpful in thinking about non-academic options. Thanks in advance!

[reading]

How much time do editors/referees spend on average reading submissions before making a decision? Do they read them more than once?

[SPEP?]

Most of my department and its graduate students identify very heavily with "the continental tradition," of the sort that is most represented by the "SPEP" (the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy). I work in core analytic M&E, so it is a tradition which is *extremely* foreign to me.

My question is this: which PhD programs are considered the "prestige" programs in this tradition? For us folks working in the analytic tradition, it's the "Leiterrific" places. But due to unfamiliarity with the SPEP-affiliated side of the profession, I have no idea what the equivalents might be. This might not be the best question to ask here, since I know that rankings of all sorts are typically looked upon here with an eye of suspicion (often rightly so!).

I recognize that any list of the "prestige" programs in the SPEP arena are going to be subjective and highly anecdotal. But that's okay -- ultimately the PGR is, too. I just need to get some sense of which programs are considered the exceptionally strong ones, and which programs are considered maybe also strong but less exceptionally so. (My tentative sense is: maybe Penn State, Northwestern, Stony Brook, and Emory? Maybe DePaul, too?)

I would like to note that I actually have legitimate professional reasons to be asking about this, but I would like to keep them private for reasons of anonymity.

[slides templates]

I'm pretty bad at designing slides for talks and teaching, so I tried searching things like "free" "keynote" "templates" "minimalist," but every search resulted in some website where I needed to register or pay. Any idea where one can find free and downloadable templates for slides, preferably for Mac Keynote (and of course also asking for powerpoint).