Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Academic career advice:

Ignore the students as much as you can. Or, as a pseudonymous writer in the Chronicle puts it, Don't Give It Your Best. Whether students learn anything doesn't matter to your career.
"He had congratulated me when I told him about my new teaching job and then had issued a warning: Don't give it your best," he said. "Don't do more than the bare minimum you can get away with. This system will chew you up and spit you out if you aren't careful. Take care of your own interests, your own work."...

...I can't help noticing a pattern when I look around at other recent Ph.D.'s on the job market with me. The ones who have had job interviews, and offers, aren't the ones who seem most dedicated to their teaching. They're the ones who have most aggressively pursued publication....

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