I was out conferencing quite a bit this spring and networking with fellow tenure-trackers and the recently tenured. One thing that I noticed, for the good, is that the physical sciences and engineering departments are starting to realize that funding is getting really hard to come by. I spoke with multiple people that made it through the process with only one externally funded grant.
The tide has not turned everywhere yet though. There are some places out there that are considering not tenuring people that have even two funded grants, and I'm not talking about Caltech/MIT type schools. Sure, fit with colleagues and a slew of other factors play into these things, but in general places need to get on the ball, or they will just wither away without young faculty joining their ranks.
The main message is publish, publish, publish. While this is also somewhat out of your control, it is definitely more certain than funding. We'll see how this game turns out. I've heard rumors that journals are starting to look at the person/lab submitting manuscripts as a metric in considering publication to increase their own impact factors. Talk about a system spinning out of control.
Anyway, I'm pretty relatively happy these days. I've had a second external grant funded and publications are trickling out a decent rate. The clock is slowly ticking down toward package submission and right now I'd like time to move a bit faster.
The tide has not turned everywhere yet though. There are some places out there that are considering not tenuring people that have even two funded grants, and I'm not talking about Caltech/MIT type schools. Sure, fit with colleagues and a slew of other factors play into these things, but in general places need to get on the ball, or they will just wither away without young faculty joining their ranks.
The main message is publish, publish, publish. While this is also somewhat out of your control, it is definitely more certain than funding. We'll see how this game turns out. I've heard rumors that journals are starting to look at the person/lab submitting manuscripts as a metric in considering publication to increase their own impact factors. Talk about a system spinning out of control.
Anyway, I'm pretty relatively happy these days. I've had a second external grant funded and publications are trickling out a decent rate. The clock is slowly ticking down toward package submission and right now I'd like time to move a bit faster.
