The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.

Second EditionThis book introduces the reader to the principles of assessment of student learning outcomes in the context of program review, and illustrates how to implement a sustainable outcomes-based assessment program review process based on over 30 case studies of exemplary practice across a range of institutional types.Since publication of the first edition just over a decade ago, the landscape of higher education has been transformed. With the emergence of competency-based education, the questioning of the value of a post-secondary degree, the explosion of neuroscientific research, the emphasis on metacognition, as well as demographic changes in who is going to college and why, new questions are being asked and new methods of collecting data have multiplied. This new edition retains the goals of the first--which is to inform institutional self-reflection of how well the organization is achieving its intended purpose--in a manner that is reflective, adaptive, and collaborative, but which recognizes today’s changed environment.Among the new topics Marilee J. Bresciani Ludvik introduces in this edition is how to appropriately connect outcomes-based program review (OBPR) to performance indicators and predictive analytics and develop meaningful new performance metrics to inform our understanding of the student experience. She also addresses the intersection of OBPR with competency-based assessment, introduces the reader to new concepts and terminology, and demonstrates the implications of neuroscientific research for learning and development and how that influences OBPR design. All the cases, a signature feature of the first edition to illustrate best practice, have been replaced for this edition.Bresciani Ludvik postulates the importance of developing institutions as learning organizations where OBPR is designed collaboratively between student services, academic services, business services professionals, and faculty.Each chapter concludes with key learning points as well as questions for organizational leadership to promote ongoing professional development as institutions implement OBPR practices that are appropriate for their specific contexts.

What is heaven on earth? The answer lies in this true story of one young man's journey to find hope and purpose with the help of an unlikely teacher--a compassionate and wise old nun, whom the world had long-forgotten. By the time Harvard-educated John Schlimm turned 31 years old, he had worked with some of the biggest superstars in Nashville and served under the most powerful people in the White House. But something was missing. His life had come to a standstill, lost in a whirl of questions about belonging, faith, rejection, and purpose. He soon decides to return to his small-town roots in search of a new beginning. Returning home, John meets 87-year-old Sister Augustine, the beguiling self-taught artist-in-residence at the ceramic shop on the sprawling grounds of the local 150-year-old convent. John is instantly bowled over by Sister's quiet grace and vision. Before long, his weekly visits to Sister's shop become a master's class in the meaning of life, love, humility, and second chances. As she directed him on the road to self-discovery and salvation, John returned the favor by putting Sister Augustine on the front page of newspapers and showing his friend that her life still had one very important and unexpected final chapter yet to go. In Five Years in Heaven, John shares the wisdom, humor, grace, and inspiration he experienced during his hundreds of visits with Sister Augustine. Five Years in Heaven reminds us that we can find love and joy in the most unlikely of places, and that the building blocks of peace and happiness are always within our reach.