A commentary on the contemplations of full professors
Photo by Vinicius “amnx” Amano on Unsplash
Over the past 5 weeks, these blog posts have focused on the mindset shifts that accompany each of the career transitions in academia, moving from being an undergraduate student to becoming an associate professor (with tenure). With each promotion, there is increasing freedom and individuation that emerges with respect to choosing one’s goals and activities. As I discussed last week, when you ultimately become an associate professor, the horizon expands, presenting a vast range of approaches to your work. You can stay the course, improving performance and perfecting all of your everyday activities, or you can mindfully and intentionally build better in a specific area, or toward a new goal altogether. Looking beyond this exciting new horizon, the hard truth is that, for one reason or another, not everyone makes it to the full professor level (more on this another time). But, if you do make it to full professor, your range of options continues to expand. At full professor, there is no longer a requirement, or necessarily even an expectation, to continually level up; after all, you’ve already shown a consistent history of productivity and impact to have been promoted to this level. Some full professors, in fact, take this moment in their careers to shift the balance in their lives away from the constant hustle of their career, instead enjoying a slower pace, and spending more time with family and friends, or on other activities that bring them joy. Thus, there’s not a singular mindset shift that should happen at this stage; rather, there are many different shifts that could occur, resulting in very different paths of action. So, in that regard, this blog post doesn’t quite follow the others in the series in the same way.
Instead, this week I would like to highlight the kinds of contemplations that may go through your mind after attaining the title of full professor. At some point in this journey, you may start thinking deeply about yourself, about the direction of the field or your institution, and about the legacy that you are leaving behind. The thoughts you have in these moments may determine when (or even if) you retire, whether you shift the field of research or the types of outputs you produce, or whether you start to take on even bigger risks in the later years of your career.
Thinking about yourself. A few years ago, one of my mentors called me. He was “checking in on all of his people” in anticipation of his upcoming retirement. He wanted to ensure that each of us had what we needed for our careers while he was still in a position to guide or help us accordingly. This was an incredibly thoughtful and classy act. As part of this conversation, we talked about the level of excellence at which new assistant professors are operating these days—the sophistication of their ideas, the new methods at their disposal, the pace at which they are producing work. He then asked, “So, what are you going to do, Jen?” The first thought that went through my head was: man, I don’t know, I’m just trying to make it through a Tuesday. But, as we continued talking, it became clear that he wanted me to think about who I was as a full professor, and what were the things that only I could do, given my career history and my positionality, that would guide, rather than compete with, these young superstars. The struggles of identity that we have throughout our careers don’t stop when we get to be full professor, they just take a different form. All along your professional journey, personal life experiences have (probably, hopefully) changed who you are and what you find interesting and important. By extension, the activities that you find meaningful have (probably, hopefully) changed as well.
Thinking about the direction of the field or your institution. By the time you are well into your full professorship, you’ve probably seen some shit (pardon my language). But that’s the beauty of having been around for a while; you end up with a much larger, and more nuanced, perspective than someone who is just starting out. You’ve seen theoretical and technical advances, and probably more than a few setbacks. You’ve seen research, teaching, and funding trends come and go. You’ve seen institutional initiatives thrive and change the culture for good, and other strategic plans never get put into action. Whether what you’ve seen has been good or bad, or a mix, you will likely have some strong ideas or feelings that feed into your decisions about what problems you want to tackle (and even what problems you absolutely do not want to deal with), and how you want to apply your energy in these final chapters of your career.
Thinking about your legacy. At the full professor stage of your career and beyond, you may start to think about what kind of legacy you are leaving behind, or what you want to leave behind. You’ve moved from building something bigger than yourself (as an assistant professor), to building better (as an associate professor), to considering what will live beyond yourself. This may look like starting or leading a new institution for the purpose of advancing a specific initiative. This may look like taking the biggest research risk of your career that may fail or may change the research game for decades to come and long after you’ve gone. Or, it may look like simply taking pride in how you have supported all of the students who have passed through your office, classroom, or lab on their way to leading full and happy lives, starting careers and families of their own.
These are all big contemplations. Not everyone will consider all, or even any, of them. Those who do consider them may not necessarily do so at the same points in life, or with the same outcomes. But, what a privilege to have a career that allows you to think so deeply, and with such opportunity for impact. So, just as my mentor once asked me, let me ask you: what are you going to do? If you need a sounding board for this next phase in your career, let’s chat.
Next week: Considerations when moving into administration and leadership
