The Promotion Game: Your Guide to Success in Academic Medicine

By Pascale Hammond Lane

Academic medicine can be the most challenging and rewarding job on the planet if you know how to play the game. Unfortunately, many newly trained faculty members do not know the rules of the game. This short guidebook will help you learn the rules and win big.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781631922909

Book preview

Afterword

Introduction: Why the game matters

You are choosing a career in academic medicine. Congratulations on choosing one of the most diverse, interesting, and fulfilling career paths available today. You devoted yourself to learning a set of specialized skills that took years to master. Now you will be rewarded for practicing your trade and passing on your knowledge.

How will your performance be judged? Unless you come from an unusual educational program, you may know little about academic institutions in general. You may have no idea what to ask. How can you make your supervisors happy if you do not know what they will grade? You may no longer be in training, but your performance will be assessed.

That's why I wrote this book. Promotion, retention and tenure can be understood in a number of ways, but I find it helpful to view the process as The Game, one that you need to win for a number of reasons.

It's required

If you have been hired to the tenure track, The Game is not optional. Many, perhaps most, institutions have a tenure clock; if you do not climb to associate professor over a few years, you fall off the cliff. Your crash may be softened by a change to a non-tenure clinical or research track position, or you may have to find a new job elsewhere.

Even if you are not tied to a promotion clock, there are good reasons not to remain at entry level for your entire career.

It helps others

Climbing the career ladder confers status and power. Junior faculty may be uncomfortable with ambition, but your achievements can help others. If you have influence, you can acquire more resources for your clinic or program, perhaps improving the lot of your students or patients.

It helps you

Most importantly, climbing the academic ladder also helps you. Those extra resources you achieve for your clinic or workgroup give you clout. Being at the table to help make decisions can be fun and exciting. Responsibility and reputation also lead to other opportunities for papers, presentations, and travel.

Finally, let' s not forget the financial rewards. It is not wrong to want monetary gain for your success; it' s capitalism! If you feel guilty about getting a raise for your progress, by all means continue to focus on those altruistic gains we already reviewed.

Convinced to play?

Now is the time to learn The Game. There are 7 steps, most of which will be repeated at intervals throughout your career. These start with knowing your skills so you can learn your position. Then you must learn the rules and keep score. Listen to the referee to learn how you are doing. Finally, you should continue to improve your game skills with the aid of a coach or trainer and perhaps consider changing games. Head up to the starting line and get set, please.

1) Know Your Skill Set

Babe Ruth initially pitched the baseball, and he pitched well. Pitchers do not play every game, though. Once his powerful batting ability became apparent, his position changed.

While it sounds easy, knowing your