Tips to start a faculty career - Service (Part 2)

Welcome back!

In this video we keep discussing how to start a faculty career. As you may recall from our last video, there are three main components of a faculty job: research, service, and teaching.

In the last video we talked about research (click here), while in this video we continue the conversation and talk about service.

Service can be categorized in two major categories: service for your department/university, and service for your community. Both share a few characteristics: it is extra work, it is not paid, and it is not much fun to do.

Department and University service includes services such as being part of a committee, such as a search committee, reviewing graduate applications, become a senate member, organizing seminars, and taking administrative roles (although the latter is not common for young faculty).

Generally, young faculty have a low service load, so that they can focus on starting their research and getting accustomed to the new job.

However, it is not uncommon that many requests will come your way to perform some sort of department or university service. People will knock at your door asking you to help in many ways.

So the big question here is: “when to say no?”

Learning to say “NO” is one of the most important skills for your career. It will save you from useless work that does not contribute to your profile, and wastes time that you could have invested in something more productive.

However, you can’t say NO to everything. Doing service is important to your department and university. If nobody helps, things would just not work. Additionally, be known as a good citizen, will help your tenure case and will contribute to your reputation in your department, college and university. Also, you will have the opportunity to shape the future of the department, for example hiring new colleagues, recruiting students, creating connections with industries, re-shaping the curriculum, etc.

So where is the right balance? When should you say “yes” and when you should say “no”?

The answer is clearly very specific, depending on your situation, what is being asked, and the other services you are already doing. This is another example where having good mentors helps. Their experience can guide you in understanding the specific situation and what is the right way to proceed.

In general, I think it is safe to say that doing some service is important for every faculty, including young faculty. However, if you feel that service is consistently impeding you from dedicating enough time to important tasks, such as for example writing grants, writing papers, advise your students, etc., something may be wrong.

In those cases, it may be a good idea to meet with your Chair and discuss your issues. The Chair wants your success too. I am sure they will be to make adjustments to make sure you invest your time appropriately, or at least provide useful guidance on how to address the workload.

Let’s now talk about service to your scientific community. This is in my opinion the most valuable type of service. While department and university services tend to stay local at your institution, service to your community gives you visibility, helps you build a network of professional connections, it is the path to become a leader in your research community, and also helps you understand the behind the scene of many aspects of the academic and scientific world that otherwise would remain unknown.

Examples of community service include serving as reviewer for journal and conferences, joining Technical Program Committees (TPC), serving as officer of your society, organizing conferences and workshops in various roles, reviewing proposals, serving as guest editor for a special issue of a journal, and later on in your career as editor, or even editor in chief.

The main advantage of these services, is that they contribute to building your name and professional profile worldwide, well beyond the wall of your institution. What you do for your society will enrich and strengthen your CV, help you with job applications and recognition, visibility, etc.

Generally, I recommend accepting almost everything at the beginning of your career. The major exceptions are predatory conferences and journals. You should stay away from those no matter what they offer you, invited talks, free publications, guest or associate editor positions, etc. In my opinion, publishing and doing service for them is counterproductive, and actually harms your CV and professional profile.

Nevertheless, all other opportunities are good when you are young. For example, if you get invited to be part of a TPC of a minor, but still reputable, conference, I recommend you accept. Similarly, to be guest editor of a minor journal, or to serve in a minor role in the organization of a conference.

As an example, serve as publicity chair of a conference is in my opinion a great opportunity to get your name out. You will get to advertise the event through several channels and thus connect with many who otherwise would not have known of your existence.

Regardless of what service you accept to do, make sure to do a good job. Service can be, in fact, a double-edged sword. You can become known as someone NOT to invite in a TPC, or to organize a conference, or to review a paper, if you have done it poorly in the past. While there is no official “blacklist”, words spread from mouth to mouth, both for positive and negative description of what you have done.

Doing a good job will take some of your time doing email exchanges, meetings, organizations, writing documents, etc., but it will contribute to you being known as someone reliable, responsive, trustworthy.

Eventually, from smaller roles in relatively minor venues, you will be called to participate in more prestigious events and to take more prestigious roles.

Therefore, at some point it will be also time to say “NO” to some opportunities to serve your community. There is a diminishing return effect here: serving in a TPC of a conference is great, but serving in the 20^th TPC would not add much to your experience and profile.

I suggest that overtime you become more selective. As you build up your reputation, you accept more prestigious roles and serve in more prestigious venues.

Also in this case, mentors are the best to provide you insight into the opportunities that arise for the service to your community.

Comment below if this was useful, and good luck starting your faculty career!