As many of us Loungers have remarked before, the lateral market is a strange beast with less clearly defined rules/norms than the entry level market. So to add to the mix, here's a bunch of issues to ponder about lateral moves both from the potential candidate's point of view and the recruiting school's point of view. I don't have clear answers for these issues, and there may not be clear answers, but I'd be interested in what others think.
Lateral hiring issues beneath the fold...
1/ If and when you get the call from a school interested in recruiting you - and there may well be less of those calls in this economy - what factors determine whether you should accept an interview day? One colleague advised me once that if you think there is at least a 10-15% chance that you may be interested in the school, you should seriously consider accepting the invitation. But of course, even if this is a good rule of thumb, what factors should you consider to get to 10-15%? Location of the school? Ranking of the school? People on the faculty you may like to work with? Gossip about the school on the blogs? (And one of my personal favorites - I always like to consider whether the school is imminently about to go into dean search mode for any reason because I generally like to have a few years working with the person who recruited me as dean, and to have a chance to avoid the stress and anxiety of a dean search so soon after a move.)
2/ For the recruiting school, is it reasonable to consider that everyone is effectively on the market all the time and you just have to find the right offer to coax the person you want to come over to your school? Or are there rules of thumb that you need to take into account particularly in terms of matching prospective candidates with your geographical location? Is it true that most young and carefree single folks won't want to end up in small college towns, for example?
3/ Should recruiting schools take the "long view" and be prepared to spend several years working on particular lateral possibilities eg initial contact and perhaps a faculty workshop invitation one year, work up to a semester-long visit the next year, and then make an offer? If so, doesn't this become difficult if the appointments committee membership changes every year and people lose track of where they were in multi-year discussions with potential lateral candidates? Has anyone got good strategies for avoiding these kinds of problems?
4/ What are the best strategies for a recruiting school to use to target candidates it may want? For example, if you're trying to fill a curricular need with a lateral, and you don't already have faculty in that area, what is the best way to find people who you might want and who might be interested in you in that area? For example, if I want to hire an IP person, I know who to talk to in the field to make recommendations about good candidates, but if I wanted to hire a critical race theorist, I'd probably be completely lost even in finding leaders in the field who could recommend good potential prospects.
If I can be so presumptuous, may I add a thought/question. These questions essentially ask what to do when in the market - after contact, for the school, for the negotiation, etc - but how to "get in the market' is a consideration. I know -good publishing is essential, but what is the level of direct solicitation that is appropriate?
Posted by: anon | July 07, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Jacqui, I'll offer some thoughts on #1 above -- the factors which a potential lateral candidate might consider. Some may be better described as "front-end factors" (factors that might dictate whether to pursue the initial inquiry), and others perhaps are more likely to arise during the courtship. These are in no particular order (and should not discourage Harvard, Yale, or other law schools from calling me!):
1) Will I receive a salary bump?
2) What will my cost of living be? (Not sure a $20,000 annual salary bump sells well, if I have to borrow an additional $150,000-$250,000 to afford the same house I currently own.)
3) What is the quality of the student body? Will the classroom dynamic remain the same? Or might I find the students more intellectually curious, possibly creating a more rewarding/fulfilling teaching experience?
4) Will I be the sole [UCC/tax/IP/etc.] person on the faculty? Or will I have some help in the area?
5) Is the faculty a collegial group? Or are there numerous factions, each with a different agenda (and long memories)?
6) What retirement benefits will I receive? (The difference between a 5% contribution and a 10% contribution over several years can be significant.)
7) Does the school have a part-time program? If so, will I be teaching two or more nights each week?
8) Am I moving closer to, or farther from, relatives?
9) If I do much traveling (e.g., conferences, visiting relatives, etc.), is the school close to a major airport served by several airlines?
10) Is the school located in a metropolitan area with outstanding medical care, great restaurants, major league sports teams and cultural attractions (e.g., opera, theater, symphony)?
11) Is the law school part of a university that offers opportunities for interdisciplinary activities?
12) Does the law school cultivate and reward scholarly endeavors?
13) Are class sizes capped at reasonable numbers (e.g., no more than 40-50)? Or will I be teaching 90+ students in my bread-and-butter courses?
14) Will I get to teach what I want? Or I will I be asked to "take one for the team" on frequent occasions?
15) Am I running FROM my current situation, or TO a new situation?
16) What will my teaching load be (e.g., two and two, or two and one)?
17) Might my articles place better if I change letterhead? Am I moving to a place with a better "reputation" (however defined or perceived)?
18) Will this be a short-term move? Or can I see myself spending the rest of my career at my new home?
19) Do I have kids in high school, and will they hate me forever if I move our family?
20) What's the dynamic between the faculty and the law school administration?
21) Will the new school consider leaving open an offer until after I've been a visitor for a semester or two?
22) If I don't have tenure, what will my tenure track look like at the new school?
23) What is the sabbatical policy?
24) How frequently does the law school host internal or external speakers who present works in progress?
25) What kind of technology and administrative support can I expect to receive?
No doubt others will add to the list. And I'm guessing that most of us don't have identical "top ten" lists. I look forward to reading what others have to say.
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | July 07, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Tim - terrific list. Thank you. I think we should all print it out and use it in case we get any of those calls this year. And your point about salary and benefits reminds me of something I probably should have included in the original post. I always thought it was strange that discussions about salary never take place until an offer is made ie if salary is a big consideration (as it is for a lot of us, particularly those with families, college funds to maintain etc), it seems strange that many schools don't give ANY indication of salary at all until after you go through the whole rigmarole of the job talk, interviews, references, faculty vote etc.
Also, another item one might add to the list is whether a chair is likely to come with the offer (or to follow in due course). I've never put all that much stock in chairs personally - and some colleagues have said that being chaired too early at a lower ranked school can actually impair your chances of even being contacted by a higher ranked school - particularly if the higher ranked school can't, or doesn't want to, offer a chair at that point. So thoughts on that would be welcome too.
Re anon's query, I'm afraid that in the lateral market, it's generally who you know rather than what you know. So not only do you have to be a great scholar and teacher, but you have to be "out there" networking ie presenting at conferences, doing faculty workshops at your own school so people are talking to their friends about your work (but hopefully not about wanting to get rid of you!), blogging etc. In fact, I've seen a number of situations where people who are not as well-published as others take lateral positions that others were perhaps better qualified for because of contacts on the faculty. Particularly if you're looking to do a lateral move with tenure, folks at the recruiting school are going to be very concerned about making a tenured offer to someone that no one has vouched for, or has championed, so I don't think that the "networking effect" can be overlooked.
Posted by: Jacqueline Lipton | July 07, 2009 at 12:03 PM