For three decades, I sat on the far side of the table. As professor, department head and department research chair, I read tenure and promotion files, evaluated PhD and job candidates, reviewed grant proposals and assessed fellowship applications.

I sat in rooms where reputations were debated. Coffee in hand. Checklist at the ready.

It was a comfortable seat. When I retired from my university post this year, I left it behind, but I didn’t leave academia. I changed where I sit.

What I saw from that side of the table

Over and over, I watched talented, hardworking, productive scholars fall short of goals they had every reason to reach. Most of them were doing a great deal, often too much. What was missing was rarely effort.

Committees weigh more than output. They look at coherence, positioning, future promise, and how a case compares with others in the same round. A small gap in how a record is presented can introduce doubt, and doubt is hard to undo once it enters the room.

From the outside, very little of this is visible. Most scholars only ever see the decision, never the discussion that led to it.

Why I changed seats

I launched The Academic Career Strategist to help scholars through the moments that make or break an academic career: PhD admissions, the job market, tenure, promotion, and major grants and fellowships.

The work is about stepping back from daily demands and thinking a few moves ahead, so that when a high-stakes moment arrives, your record already tells the story you want it to tell.

I may have stepped away from my formal university role, but I’m still very much invested in how academic careers are built, and how they succeed.

Coffee in hand. Checklist at the ready. Sitting next to you.

Which make-or-break moment is coming up next in your career, and who is sitting next to you as you prepare for it?

Get in touch if you would like me on your team.