Applying for Administrative Positions, continued

Three Business Men by Kosta Kostov

Prof Hacker, a blogger over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, offers useful tips for those seeking alternative, non-faculty positions on campus. In a guest post, "The #alt-ac Track: Negotiating Your 'Alternative Academic' Appointment," Dr. Bethany Nowviskie, Director of Digital Research & Scholarship at the University of Virginia Library, argues that for graduates of doctoral programs, the "failed academic" stigma, though deeply flawed, is incredibly difficult for job seekers to overcome.

As Nowviskie explains, while YOU may be more than ready for a permanent switch, and poised to make a major contribution to the non-faculty side of things, there is a strong chance your potential administrative colleagues will view your career transition with skepticism. And skepticism = no job. It's an unfair but harsh reality.

Nowviskie, however, makes an excellent case for change. "If they are to serve us well," she observes, "academic IT, libraries, publishing, humanities labs and centers, funders and foundations, focused research projects, cultural heritage institutions, and higher ed administration require a healthy influx of people who understand scholarship and teaching from the inside. That our culture for many years has labeled these people 'failed academics' is a failure of imagination."

Read the full post here:
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-alt-ac-Track-Negotiating/26539/