Your eagle did not land — it crashed. You applied for promotion to full professor, and your institution halted your ascent.
The rationale for an adverse decision can encompass a multitude of sins, as we discussed last month in this series. You may not clearly understand why things didn’t go your way. Nevertheless, you need to come up with a new plan for how to cope with this career setback and what to do next.
The first step in recovery is allowing yourself sufficient time to grieve. Psychologists sometimes refer to disappointments of this type as “elusive loss.” You haven’t lost your job — just the opportunity to experience life at the pinnacle of your profession. You are bound to be angry at what you perceive to be the shortsightedness of the decision makers. You will be embarrassed at having to share your disappointment with friends and colleagues. Chances are good you will replay the process in your head and engage in hours of “woulda, shoulda, coulda” thinking. And you can expect to be sad, perhaps even a little depressed, in the aftermath.
The pain of disappointment creates scar tissue that may feel permanent. Don’t be surprised if this phase takes a while. Something that you worked so hard to accomplish, but failed to achieve, will require appropriate mourning and reflection — but you will rebound.
Here are some strategies to mitigate the despair and speed your recovery:
Be a detective. You may never get a full explanation, but you need to find out (legitimately) whatever details you can about why your application was rejected. Ask your department head for as much candid feedback as institutional norms allow. Survey trusted colleagues for their perspective on what may have gone wrong.
What you should never do is grill colleagues who served on the promotion committee and may have voted on your case. Committee deliberations are often governed by confidentiality, and you don’t want to be perceived as pressuring people to talk. Being aggressive in your information seeking could add to the precariousness of your future promotion bid.
Reassess your institutional commitment. Will this disappointment be fatal — either to your career or to your feelings for your institution? Neither is a fait accompli. You may still have many sources of robust satisfaction if you remain an associate professor for the rest of your academic life. You may even experience a bit of relief in looking toward a future that does not involve trying to establish rock-star academic status. Even without the higher salary and other perks of full professorship, you can still find your campus affiliation to be fulfilling. If so, reaffirm the elements of your job that you love, and focus on them. (If you can’t stomach the thought of staying at a place that denied your promotion, you do have options, which we’ll get to shortly.)
Expand your spheres of influence. Maybe one reason your application failed was that you weren’t perceived as well known in your field. Perhaps it’s time to become more active in your discipline’s professional organizations. You might run for an elected office in a regional or national group, or consider joining the program committee of one of your field’s annual conferences. Networking is fast, furious, and often fruitful in such venues, so one venture can lead to another, as well as a whole new set of colleagues who appreciate your perspectives. With energy, effort, and a bit of luck, you will be climbing a new but potentially more rewarding ladder.
Start planning another run. Many institutions allow a second bite at the proverbial apple (a third attempt is unlikely, as few academics would prevail after being turned down twice). Do a little digging into the fate of other faculty members whose first promotion bids failed. Did they apply again? How many succeeded? You are likely to have the advantage of new eyes in a second review process, so if your rejection was driven by political factors or a cranky committee member, you may prevail in Round 2. That said, institutions may require you to report your first unsuccessful attempt in your application materials, so you will need to make sure that your second full-professor dossier acknowledges any perceived shortfalls in the first one.
You may want to wait a few years before reapplying — to build professional momentum and add more lines to your vitae. Waiting several years can also pay off since the review-committee membership is likely to turn over in the interim, and that may lead to a favorable outcome in your second bid.
Adopt a new direction. Academe is rife with leadership opportunities that might strengthen your cause. At some institutions, distinguished service can provide a legitimate pathway to promotion. Serving as a program manager, faculty-senate officer, honors-program director, or other high-profile leader can provide new sources of achievement and new fans who can write glowing letters of support about your collegiality, influence, and productivity. Perhaps you can become the director of some center (e.g., a teaching or writing center) or move into your institution’s student-success or academic-advising offices? Just make certain that you raise your campus profile by appropriately sharing your new efforts.
Relocate and reinvest. If this rejection has soured you on your institution for good, consider going on the job market and moving to another college or university. But we won’t sugarcoat your odds: Job openings are slim for associate professors. Most institutions prefer to hire a new junior colleague, for both the financial savings and the potential to build unswerving institutional loyalty in a shiny, new assistant professor. However, some departments do have a generational imbalance — too many junior scholars, too many senior professors, or both — and you may be in luck if they are specifically looking for an experienced, midcareer candidate like yourself.
A fresh start at a new institution will allow you to learn from past mistakes. You have no obligation to tell your new employer about your failed full-professor bid at your old campus. But you should be aware that the ever-active academic social network may reveal that detail informally to your prospective suitors. So we suggest you craft a realistic narrative emphasizing the advantages of moving to greener pastures rather than the details of your failed promotion attempt.
Unfortunately, some associate professors who go back on the tenure-track market learn that they have to start over again at the assistant-professor rank. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but you may be able to negotiate years toward tenure or a quick promotion to associate professor within a reasonable time. Depending on how deep your resentment is, a fresh start may be worth the financial loss and professional risk.
Relocate, as a department chair. Plenty of departments find that no one is willing to assume the chair’s job, forcing them to go outside for new leadership. A seasoned associate professor like you may be just the ticket. The department gets the benefit of someone else’s experience in a comparable institution, and you arrive with no personal baggage or professional history with your new colleagues — a win-win for both. Some institutions may even hire a new department chair at the full-professor rank. Such arrangements need to be negotiated with tenure as part of the deal.
Review your options for an appeal. Maybe you like your home campus or want to stay put for personal reasons. Most institutions carefully plan a multilayered review process to guard against unfair promotion practices. However, if you believe that the committee or its members discriminated against you or either violated or ignored accepted protocols, it may be worthwhile to seek a review of the review process. This step might involve working with the campus ombuds office, the faculty senate or union, or the offices involved in discrimination complaints. Ultimately this tactic means dealing with lawyers. Be prepared for a time-consuming, ego-bruising, and potentially expensive battle that can generate more mutual ill feeling between you, your colleagues, and the administration.
Transcend the trouble. No matter how wounded or insulted you may feel — and whether you stay or go — it is extremely unwise to bad-mouth the institution that disappointed you. On the local front, churlish behavior may be viewed as undignified and unprofessional sour grapes. Worse still, it won’t be forgotten. Should you move, your criticism of your original institution’s qualities and quirks can prompt concerns that you might show similar gossipy, disloyal tendencies to the new institution. Complain quietly to people you trust, but do not make your resentment a centerpiece of relationships with longtime or new colleagues.
Being turned down for promotion will be a true test of your resilience and your commitment to academic life. But this loss can be reframed or reconfigured into a gain. Just remember that the autonomy provided by academic life means you can reinvent yourself and reinvigorate your career in any number of ways.
The hard part is making the right next choice: Should you persist in your quest for promotion or pursue a new but promising professional path?
It is to everyone’s advantage for faculty members to become full professors. In our next installment, we will explore what departments can do to shape and support successful applications for this important recognition.
