Hi Fellow SD’ers: I’m an assoc prof and just interviewed for a director’s position in admin at my Campus. The interview went well and there’s a good chance I’ll be offered the job. It’s a job with a spectrum of duties and opportunities for change and program-building – stuff I love doing.
I’ve always wanted go into admin (I’ve been teaching for 12 years) and my ultimate goal is to become a department dean, academic or admin, within the next ten years (I’m 43). There will be a wave of retirements in the near future and the position I’m thinking about would put me in the perfect spot to move up.
There are warts that come with the job, including the dept’s reputation for being rough on employees. Specifically, the person to whom I would be reporting has a reputation for being difficult. I’ve been working with this person side-by-side for several years on partner projects and we’ve always got along very well – even famously.
I’m also concerned about returning to a regular 40-hour a week office job, though I’m def. getting ready to leave the classroom within the next few years (I teach a LOT and regularly put in 60 hour weeks with teaching, prep, grading). Still, there are certain freedoms in teaching and I’m worried about leaving my friends. Though my new office would be only 150 yards away, we all know that things change radically when people move – especially to the admin “dark side.”
I would be able to return to my academic dept at rank if I found that I disliked the job.
I think my inner self wants to try this new challenge, but for the first time in my life I am truly afraid of making change. It may be my age, but these decisions hold a lot more import for me than they did in my 20s and 30s.
OMG* are you me? I’m an assoc prof, 43 years old and have an opportunity to take on an admin position that I really think I want in hopes of being an Academic Dean someday. I worry about losing the flex in my schedule, worry about going over the “great divide” but am eager for a new challenge, especially one that involves program development (which I also love) and am tempted to get away from the classroom a bit and try something new. I am absolutely torn.
When you figure it out, let me know!
*One might argue that anyone using OMG has no business being in a position of authority…
I’m at a community college that doesn’t have research requirements (service and teaching excellence are the measuring standards). This was purposeful, as I have grown to really dislike academic publishing.
MY LONG LOST TWIN!!! OMFG!!! Please tell me you’re a lit prof like me?
I can feel the very early onset of teaching burnout, I’m no longer interested in academic research and writing (maybe temporarily?) and just the thought of this possibility makes my brain light up . . .
But I’m scared, scared, scared! As Pseudo writes above, it really can be a win-win situation, but I also have a Ph.D. in worrying everything to death.
Tell me, if you will, more about your reasons for considering the “dark side.”
You beat me to it! Even though I’m not a community college administrator, I find his “Confessions of a Community College Dean” blog to be often very interesting, wise, and well worth reading.