Taking Charge of Your Career

Mary Lou SoffaUniversity of Virginia

My career path

Assistant, Associate, Full Professor at Univ. of Pittsburgh –research pl and then se

Graduate Dean, University of Pittsburgh for 5 years

Full Professor Owen R. Cheatham Professor and

Chair, University of Virginia

Did I plan this?

NO I took advantage of opportunities Got bored at some points in my

life Got discouraged at some points Always kept up my research! Always had graduate students

Being an administrator

Dean Why was I recruited

Served on University committees and spoke out but was reasonable

Did my homework on any committee I served on

Respected for research, teaching, and service

What I liked about dean

Make an impact At center of university life Meet a lot of different people

from different disciplines Different responsible

Negatives about being dean

Too many meetings that don’t do anything Reputation – is this an action

committee? Easy to just maintain – but if want to

change, it gets tiring after awhile Starting losing the edge in research Removed from the discipline

Chair

Reputation Not everyone wants to do it

New challenge Have some things to do but

could not do it in my old department

Pros and Negatives

Pros Make impact Like solving problems Enjoy being “the boss”

Con Lots of interruptions Lots of problems – personal, space,

funding

Career Planning

Not passive – think about it Where do you want to be in X

years – Goals should reflect this Short term and long term goals

– research Steps to achieve the goals -

flexible Early career plans and later

career plans

Career planning

Don’t close doors on yourself – try to keep all options open Professor – administrator –

professor

Recognize and take advantage of opportunities that come along

Examples

Long term research project Shorter term results

Early career Develop research program and

teaching proficiency Focused research

Later Different research interests – risk

taking Service – professional organizations,

working for diversity Administration