Academics don’t usually talk about professional development, career planning or career management. Academics understand how faculty development skills can help us excel in the professoriate and survive academia, yet academics are less informed about developing the professional and management skills necessary to take their careers to the next level inside and outside of academia. Beyond the Tenure Track aims to change the discussion.

I recommend an expanded approach to faculty development, the 2.0 version, that includes career visioning, career planning and professional development to help academics prepare for a wide range of career paths or to “quit” academia with a viable career plan.  Graduate programs train students to enter the professoriate — a single profession out of a range of many.  We spend our energy and resources to become faculty members.  Yet in the  landscape of shrinking tenure track job openings and increasing business-centric university governance models faculty positions are less desirable or attainable than most of us have ever seen.  Just take the recent Slate article about a tenure track professors relinquishing his coveted post. Notice the rising trend in “I Quit Academia” headlines in the Chronicle of Higher Education and blogs.  It is no longer sufficient to train graduate students to fill their CVs with conference papers, publications and teaching. Today’s academics require the skills to translate their knowledge to the broader world (i.e, public and private sectors) and to interact and work in the world outside of academia.

Beyond the Tenure Track offers coaching and consulting services for individuals, universities and organizations that are invested in the professional and personal success of academics. 

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