guest article by Alexis Allen, one recipient of the SERVSIG best service paper award 2015
This past summer I finished the second full year of my academic career. Not the formal career, which began the day I started in my doctoral program. Rather, I’m talking about the part where I made money above the poverty level. This feels like the perfect time to take stock of the experience and review some lessons I’ve learned. The world looks remarkably different from the vantage point of three years past the AMA interview process. Recognizing the anxiety that can come with being part of a doctoral program, I’d like to offer some thoughts here for aspiring services marketing scholars.
The first thing to note is that tenure clock. The ticking can be incessant. The tick-tock will keep you awake at night, thinking about how to address Reviewer 2. You literally dream about your research ideas, which is why the long-term view is the only way to keep sane. I now realize that the work you do in year 3 of your doctoral program is what gets you tenure. Recognize that the 6 year period once you start your job is not enough to make it happen, and you will drive yourself crazy if the first time you consider the tenure deadline is when your department chair in your first job puts it in writing. I was fortunate to begin the work on my SERVSIG award-winning paper while in my doctoral program at Florida State University. In the transition from the doctoral program to my position at the University of Kentucky, the paper was accepted at JAMS. And this gave me a great platform upon which to build the work that will come next.
This brings me to the next topic: the things to look for in your first academic job. Our profession can be a solitary one. We have co-authors, but for the most part, we run our publication enterprises as entrepreneurs. I believe that the number one thing you should prioritize is an environment that promotes your personal research productivity. To get a sense of the research culture in a department, listen to how the faculties talk about their own research, and engage with one another on the topic. Do people have an intellectual curiosity and will they give you an hour to talk about your work? If not, perhaps consider other options. You want to find a place where everyone in your department is pulling for you and wants to see you succeed.
In sum, it’s an entrepreneurial career. You make your own way. I believe that what you want to look for isn’t people who are doing what you are doing. You want to look for people who want you to do what it is you do. I’m fortunate at UK to have a group that celebrates the successes of each individual faculty member. But the most important thing I get from my colleagues is an environment that is positive and collaborative. Collaborative, not in the sense that we all work on projects together. Sure, that is happening, and it may very well pay dividends in the coming years post-tenure. But what I really need now, and what I am thrilled to have, is a group of people pulling for me. People who are happy to talk to me about my research, to offer insights on publication, and provide an avenue to connect with the thought leaders of the marketing discipline. At the end of the day, tenure isn’t granted to a list of co-authors like those with whom I am fortunate to share the SERVSIG award. Tenure isn’t given to your dissertation chair. They already have it. It’s not given to other co-authors on your manuscripts. As I’m learning, you need to make it your own.
Alexis Allen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky
