One of the programmes I run here at Academic Coach is a 6 month intensive programme called Elevate: it is a writing and career mentoring programme. The first question I ask people on this programme is to define early on what success means to them in very concrete terms. It might mean promotion to Professor or beyond, it might mean impact in the real world with their research, it might mean having more time for their family, their hobbies, their dog: it could mean many different things. We each have our own ideas of success, and they are limited only by our imagination. This got me thinking about all the different things that clients come to me to achieve, and also about a question I got asked in response to my post about why I quit my academic position.
I was asked: 'did you quit because you didn't make Professor?' at which point, I laughed merrily, because of course, how could this person know my career history, my circumstances and what my idea of success was? I don't say it anywhere, and I suppose it never crossed my mind this was a question that might need answering.
So in this post I wanted to both tell a bit more of my story, and get you to think about what success means to you.
I was promoted from brand new baby Lecturer A to Reader* in 6 years: Lecturer A, Lecturer B, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor was the ladder at that time. That's right people - you read it correctly. I blasted my way up the promotional ladder at a time when it took most people ( and I mean single, white men obviously) 8-10 years to reach the level below this - Senior Lecturer - and most women, much, much longer. This in a department that notoriously didn't promote anyone, ever. I got beyond that in a blink of an eye. Within 2 years of this I was approached by another University to become a Professor, and within a further year, I was first asked, then told, to apply for Professorship in my own University. It was getting a little embarrassing that people with less exciting CVs were applying for Professorship, and besides the department had a woman problem (there were none, and then hardly any, women professors) and I was passing up an opportunity to right that wrong. Thanks HR! Lovely. Then I was almost forced into becoming Head of Department, wherein Professorship was part and parcel of the deal (this is a whole other story which deserves a small novella, so I won't get into it here).
So why did I refuse, deflect, dodge and deny these wonderful 'opportunities' to advance? Isn't this what everyone wants? To be called Professor? When someone offers you advancement/promotion, don't you have to want it/take it? Well no, actually. It is cool if you do, and I can help you make that happen. Have I helped other academics become Professors? Yes! But if you don't want that, that is also absolutely fine. You do you.
Why didn't I want it?
I didn't need it, in any sense of that phrase. I didn't need the title, I had never dreamed of becoming a professor: as they say in Westworld, 'it doesn't look like anything to me'. I had gotten to a level of salary where I was comfortable and I was satisfied. Also, many, many other reasons, but here are some basic math ones: Professor would pay me £5000 gross more than I earned already. I would lose 50% of that in tax (2500) and then another hefty amount for my pension deduction. It would in the end mean less than £100 per month in my bank about. But the downside was I would be made (a) head of department or (b) given some truly awful huge admin role (because no women anywhere) that would require me to be on campus each week sitting in endless meetings, talking about things I didn't care about including, crucially, spending time on campus out of teaching term. That didn’t suit me.
You see my life was great, and I liked it the way it was. Here is the important part. I was already incredibly successful. The things that mattered to me, both personal and professional had been achieved. I had travelled, I had written lots, I had a research career that had impact in the real world - it mattered, it changed things, and that gave me great satisfaction. I was recognised as THE expert in my area, nationally and internationally. I had all the esteem markers a person could want. I liked teaching and I did a lot of it. I was 'attractive on the market' and if I wanted to change jobs, I could. I did all that without that title. I was already as successful as I wanted to be. Climbing higher in the administration was not my ambition. I wanted my life to be exactly as it was, personal and professional.
It is your career
All this to say, don't let anyone TELL YOU what success means. It is different for all of us, and it changes over the course of our lives. Early on I had no money, and I needed it, and I needed to get promoted to pay rent and put food on the table - so promotion was my goal. Not for the title, or the recognition (whatever that is), or some idea of advancement up the hierarchy, but cold hard cash. Then, afterwards, it seemed entirely redundant to me. And that's another thing no-one might tell you: once the carrot of promotion is removed from your vista (by yourself) you become impervious to bullshit claims about how taking this next thing on will improve your chances for promotion. None of that exists anymore, and you can do your job in the way you want to do it, not constantly dancing to someone else's tune. You worry less about playing the game, and spend more time doing what you really want to do.
So when you set your goals for 2023, and think about what you want to take on and why you are doing it; really think about whether this is what you WANT to do, or what you are expected to want to do, in some stranger's idea of what success should look like for you? Don't fall into that trap: there is no greater misery than to be in pursuit of something other people dream of. Your definition of success is specific to you, and the most useful thing you can do, is have a very clear idea of what that is before you fill up your list of things to get done in 2023.
*For my US readers, Tenure (permanence) was granted after 3 years probation in the UK if you have a permanent (TT for you) contract, so I had tenure at Lecturer B in UK terms.