Academic Career Planning: A Workshop for Early & Mid-Career Faculty

1. Academic Career Planning: A Workshop for Early & Mid-Career Faculty Brian V. Reamy, M.D., Col(RET), USAF, MC Associate Dean for Faculty Professor of Family Medicine

2. Objectives • 1.) Describe challenges and some solutions as you Navigate your academic career • 2) Relate the concept of career anchors to personal career planning. • 3) Create a career development plan through a stepwise process

3. 10 Challenges - shared • Developing your academic CV • Writing and Obtaining grants • Developing skill at teaching • Developing skill at curriculum development & learner assessment • Understanding the academic culture • Understanding the military culture • Managing “administrivia” • Managing University service obligations • Managing clinical work • Feeling “legitimate” as a faculty member

4. Some Solutions • Developing your academic CV • Key academic document used for multiple purposes • Start with an accepted academic format: AAMC • https://www.aamc.org/members/gfa/faculty_vitae/150034/preparing_your_curriculum_vitae.html • Or Use USU CV Builder • http://www.usuhs.mil/medschool/faculty/cvbuilder.html • After you develop it get a senior colleague to review and critique. • Develop a plan for periodic updates:

5. Some Solutions • Writing grants • Grant writing courses (NIH, USU, other university – Penn St) • Obtaining grants • Get or use Pilot data! • Scan for announcements always ( Susan Rasmussen) • Focus & sharpen your grant’s specific aims • Get at least 3 reviewers for 3 “S’s” ( style, science, salesmanship) • Meet deadlines – allow seven days for electronic misadventures and key people being on leave • Work with your mentor

6. Some solutions • Skill at teaching • There is no gene for good teaching • It is a skill like any other • Attend faculty development seminars: www.usuhs.mil/medschool/deans/associatedeans/faculty.html • Demand critique: students AND peers • New peer review I-PAD app launching in 2014! • Practice Reflection on Action • Challenging experiences >>>>>>>>>>observation & reflection >>>>>>Generation of new frames of reference

7. Curriculum & Assessment • Developing skill at curriculum development & learner assessment • Attend faculty development workshops • Attend Medical Education meetings by scientific or clinical societies • Attend USU Program Director workshop • Attend NBME question writing workshops • Participate in department level education meetings • Read, research and reflect on published curricula in the field within which you teach • Correspond with expert educators in your field and ask them to share methodology and curricula

8. Some Solutions • Understanding academic culture • Engage with your community • Faculty senate • Committees • Academic freedom; intellectual freedom • Tenure • Meet with your Chair or supervisor routinely • Work with your mentor to understand academic promotion • Understanding military culture • Understand what rank structure is and what it is not: rank does not necessarily equal a particular expertise • Work with your supervisor to understand military promotion • If you supervise a military member ask for help in “rating” them unless you understand the culture • Teamwork; sacrificing for something bigger than you…

9. Some Solutions • Managing “Administrivia: at USU • Keep smiling, but be persistent • Don’t “scream” virtually or in-person • Get help from long term employees in your department • Complaining is not managing… • Encourage your department to develop an electronic or written “how-to” guide and keep updating it. How to get a USU ID, How to get a CAC card. Parking???, What is a “trouble ticket” and how do I enter one if I can’t use my PC?

10. Some Solutions • University Service Obligations • Make sure they are related to your interests • Always seek to learn something about academic and military culture through every committee or task force that you are a part of • Be Proactive! Tell your Chair about your interests • President/Dean asks the Chairs for Nominees; then assigns members • Always listen when you are asked to “volunteer”…

11. Some Solutions • Clinical Work • Get your credentials taken care of ASAP • Find out who is your specialty credentialing authority • Meet with your clinic/service chief • Be sure they are clear on your USU responsibilities before they make your clinical schedule • Try and get your clinical schedule set two to 3 mths in advance FEELING LEGITIMATE as a FACULTY MEMBER will flow naturally from all of the above.

12. Do you need a Mentor? • YES! • YES! • Remember: You are looking for a mentor, not a best friend. • HOW DO I FIND ONE? • Mentors can be at your prior institution • May be a senior faculty or Chair at USU • May be outside your primary department • Sign up and look at the mentoring e-portal developed by the Faculty Senate at USU • You may find one at research or society meeting

13. Optimum System of Mentorship • Six core interactional foundations • Emotional safety • Responsiveness • Support • Protégé-centeredness • Respect • Informality

14. Career Development Plan • “Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail” • John Wooden • If you don’t have one; your career will likely “just happen”. Chance will play a large role for better or for worse. • NOW is the time to develop one

15. Your Career Stops • Place each job/position since you graduated from medical school or your Ph.D. program.

16. Starting the Career Planning Process • Several options • Lieff, SJ. The Missing Link in Academic Career Planning and Development: Pursuit of Meaningful and Aligned Work. Acad Med. 2009;84(10):1383-88. • Pololi,LH etal. Helping Medical School Faculty Realize their Dreams. Acad Med. 2002;77(5):377-384. • Univ. of California-San Francisco Faculty Development Methodology GETTING STARTED • Write your 80th birthday tribute • Write a 2-pg. autobiography that reviews your career at the time of your retirement • Examine daydreams or day-to-day events that make you feel happy & fulfilled for commonalities

17. Career Planning Guide • Complete current roles & responsibilities and then review with your supervisor • Complete personal strengths and Weaknesses and consider reviewing them with a mentor or someone else who knows you well in your professional life

18. Concept of Academic Career Anchors • Each of us has been uniquely shaped by our: • Family • Culture • Role Models • Schooling • Relationships • Self-perceptions • System of values These all influence how we see and value the key issues that affect an academic career. In fact, some of these make an academic career the wrong career path for us.

19. 10 Career Anchors: How important to you is…? • 1. Security & Stability • 2. Autonomy & Independence • 3. Creativity & Entrepreneurship • 4. Technical Competence • 5. Administrative Competence • 6. Sense of Service before Self • 7. Challenge • 8. Balanced life-style • 9. Status • 10. Sense of Community

20. Career Anchor • Rate yourself on a 1 to 7 Likert scale for the importance to you of each of these things • 1 = unimportant……5 = important ..…..7 = most important • SEE WORKBOOK

21. Career Anchors • TODAY: Discuss your ratings with 2 or 3 people sitting near you • Discuss your ratings with colleagues who see things differently so you can refine your views • Then discuss with a trusted mentor for how they might impact different career choices • When you are settled, use them to develop the first draft of your career plan

22. Career Planning Guide • Handout – Vision of the Future; Forces…; Steps toward your Vision • Work through it at your leisure; but commit to a completion date • Discuss with a trusted mentor • Revise it • Discuss with your Chair • Revise it • If you want, feel free to discuss it with me • Enact it! • Reassess every year

23. Summary • 10 Challenges for New Faculty • Some Potential Solutions • Self-evaluation using the 10 career anchors • Writing a career development plan

24. Questions