It is wonderful to get a tenure-track faculty position in the professional stream (research and teaching). The road to getting tenured, of course, is a grueling five – six years of one’s life. A tenured faculty position is a marvelous thing, and hopefully I will find it to be marvelous enough to justify the arduous journey to it.
One of the milestones in my university’s tenure-track system is the advancement from pre-candidacy to candidacy. Many say it is not very hard and that it is simply about preparing your CV. I did not give that sentiment any serious consideration.
From the moment I received the notice that I would be going up for a review in about nine months, everyday was dedicated to making sure I had enough publications out and manuscripts in the peer-review process. I spent a lot of time organizing my CV based on the tenure guidelines of my faculty and preparing my statement. I worked so, so hard to finish manuscript, manuscript revision.
When I submitted my pre-candidacy file, I felt good. In fact, very good. I was fairly confident that I would progress to candidacy, but of course nothing is guaranteed.
A few months later one day, the letter came from the dean of my faculty with the great news that I passed to candidacy, with the tenure committee’s assessment that my file “exceeds expectations for advancement for candidacy”!
I wanted to thank myself for the success. And I thought of the Snoop Dogg video below. Just like him, I want to thank myself for the hard work and many other things.
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 