Applying for tenure: Five things I wish I had known . . .
Ajay K. Kohli Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair Georgia Institute of Technology DOCSIG, AMA Winter Educators’ Conference February 20, 2014
Agenda
• Getting external letters
• Demonstrating intellectual independence
• Research contribution assessments
• Putting together the dossier
• Evaluator information processing
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Thing 1: Getting external letters
• Writing a good letter takes a lot of time
• Letter writers are very busy people, and don’t get paid to write
• Declines can raise questions
• Get name out (conferences, school speaker series . . .)
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Thing 2: Demonstrating intellectual independence
• Number of articles with advisor
• Number of co-authors on a paper
• Lead author? If no, equal contribution notated in article?
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Thing 3: Research contribution assessment
• Whether known in the field for a topic vs. multi-topic?
• Articles in journals of mixed quality – additive or averaging model?
• In marketing vs. non-marketing journals
• Pipeline status – cues of future productivity
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Thing 4: Putting together the dossier
• Your “Statement of Accomplishment” is the “CliffsNotes” for letter writers
• CV and Statement of Accomplishments needs to be easy to process
– Use bullets – Use bolds, italics, underlines – But don’t emphasize everything!
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Thing 4: Putting together the dossier . . . (cont’d)
• Limit the “supplemental materials”
– If something is really important, incorporate it in the CV or Statement itself
• Cover all “line items” if possible – “Talking points”
• Don’t “play games” with information
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Thing 5: Evaluator information processing
• Prior impressions influence evaluations
– And every encounter or lack thereof leaves an impression
• Higher level folks have less time and expertise related to your work
– Make the reasons why you should be promoted very apparent in your materials
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After this . . .
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Thank you!