During my first year, what is advice for service work?
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Service
- An important step in becoming a productive member of the academic community is to get hands-on experience in "service" activities at the university level, state and/or national level.
- Ask the recently-tenured faculty in your department about how important "service" is to the department and/or the other tenure decision-makers. You don't want to spend too much time on service if its not relatively weighted high.
- Also ask the recently-tenured faculty which service opportunities are the best or weighted the most by the department and/or the other tenure decision-makers. Why not spend your time on the activities that give you the best chances of tenure success.
- Not all "service" opportunities are created equal!
- Give preference to the service opportunities that overlap with your research and teaching interests
- Search for service opportunities that help you in other concrete ways, such as making contacts or networking.
- It is possible there are committees at the university, state, and national level that put in you contact with potential research collaborators.
- Consider being one of the organizers of confereces because you certainly become more well-known in your field as you
- If service is relatively underweighted by your department, then try to find the committees that meet the least or require the least effort. But be sure that the department does not consider you as skirting your service obligations.
- Focus first on research and teaching, and then add more "service" to your life if/when you have the time after reaching your researching/teaching goals.
- How much is too much?
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