Monday, October 3, 2011

The Compleat Academic

No, that's not a typo.

Compleat, adj: highly skilled and accomplished in all aspects; complete; total.

Highly recommended by one of our postdoc panelists, and also endorsed by esteemed psychologist Roddy Roediger (Wash. U., St. Louis), The Compleat Academic: A Career Guide (Amazon, Geisel Library) boasts the following sections and chapters:

I. STARTING A CAREER
-- Guide to PhD graduate school: how they keep score in the big leagues / Charles G. Lord
-- After graduate school: a faculty position or a postdoctoral fellowship / Kathleen B. McDermott, Todd S. Braver
-- Hiring process in academia / John M. Darley, Mark P. Zanna
-- Broadening the job search: jobs outside of academia / Patrick C. Kyllonen

II. TEACHING AND MENTORING
-- Tips for effective teaching / Douglas A. Bernstein, Sandra Goss Lucas
-- Mentoring: managing the faculty-graduate student relationship / Mark P. Zanna, John M. Darley

III. RESEARCH AND WRITING
-- Setting up your lab and beginning a program of research / Jeffrey M. Zacks, Henry L. Roediger III
-- Obtaining a research grant: the granting agency's view / Jane Steinberg
-- Obtaining a research grant: the applicant's view / Robert J. Sternberg
-- Writing the empirical journal article / Daryl J. Bem
-- Intellectual property / James L. Hilton, Jonathan R. Alger

IV. ORIENTATION TO THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT
-- Power, politics, and survival in academia / Elizabeth D. Capaldi
-- Managing the department chair and navigating the department power structure / Louis A. Penner, John F. Dovidio, David A. Schroeder
-- Wiring the ivory tower: the interface of technology and the academy / Kevin M. Carlsmith

V. DIVERSITY IN ACADEMIA
-- Dialectics of race: academic perils and promises / James M. Jones, Eun Rhee
-- Women in academia / Denise C. Park, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
-- Clinical psychologists in academia / Richard R. Bootzin
-- Varieties of college and university experiences / Deborah L. Best

VI. KEEPING YOUR EDGE: MANAGING YOUR CAREER OVER TIME
-- Academic marathon: controlling one's career / Shelley E. Taylor, Joanne Martin
-- Managing your career: the long view / Henry L. Roediger III, David A. Balota


Have you read it? Let us know what you think!
Posted by Matt at 2:55 PM 0 comments
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Best places to search for jobs

American Psychological Association has their own job search engine that is specifically geared to those of us with a Psychology background. You can search by location or keyword and narrow results via a number of variables. This is probably a good starting place for many of us. They also have some nice articles on career development that may prove useful.

Science Magazine Careers is yet another resource that may be a good starting place for some of us, especially those in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences. In addition to the many postings, they have additional tools and tips that may be helpful to anybody.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a well-known place for learning about the academic market, and they also have their own search engine. Most of the Chronicle is accessible online to non-subscribers. They even have a job alert service that you can sign up for!

Academic 360 links you directly to job postings at ~3000 participating universities. Academic 360 can aid in finding both academic and nonacademic job postings.

Higher Ed Jobs is one of the largest databases of open positions in higher education. For those who would like to focus more on teaching, this is a good place to start looking.

(Southern California) Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) is great if you're looking to stay in Southern California. HERC has a search engine that includes faculty and staff job listings specifically for member institutions in the region. This site is also particularly geared toward helping dual career couples.

SignOn San Diego's Career Section This site provides a lot of more general (but region-specific) information, including columns by local journalists relating to current employment issues, a listing of upcoming job fairs in the area, and tools for helping to make you a more appealing job applicant.

Braintrack and Academic Keys for Education If, on the other hand, you really want to get out of this place...these are two good resources for finding positions abroad!

Mentoring

A New Approach to Mentoring (Kram, 2008) This article by Kathy Kram discusses new trends in mentorship. She has written extensively on how mentoring can be beneficial to protege, sponsor and organization itself. It's never too early to start building an arsenal of mentors!

Life Balance

Articles About Work-Life Balance As we increasingly struggle with the notion of personal/professional balance, Mark Albion and others offer a great deal of practical advice on making your own best life decisions by providing insights on how to define success for yourself.

Be Inspired

Women in Science

AAAS Survey Not to get the ladies here down, but a recent AAAS survey finds there are still many barriers standing in the way of women being able to succeed and move ahead in science. Results are reported here, and possible solutions to the problems are discussed. Know what you're up against and consider your own ways of changing things.