»Transferable Skills & Professional Development

Higher education institutions are placed into a variety of categories based on the types of degrees they offer, and research activity and output, which is also known as the Carnegie Classification system. Understanding the Carnegie Classification system will help you better understand what is required of each faculty role.

Down below are additional resources that can help prepare you for the academic job market:


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Understanding Higher Education & Faculty Roles

Preparing for the Academic Job Market

  • CareerShift & GoinGlobal - Access job boards, employer contacts, and international job search tools via Handshake. 
  • Academic Keys - Job listings and professional resources for higher ed careers.

Professional Development for Future Faculty

  • ImaginePhD - A career exploration tool tailored for humanities and social sciences PhDs.

Classifications of Faculty

When applying for a new job, it is important to know what type of position you are applying for.

Adjuncts, Lecturers, Instructors, and Instructional Assistants: As higher education seeks to reduce instructional costs, many colleges and universities have outsourced their full-time faculty with part-time adjuncts, lecturers, and instructors. These roles usually work part-time or on a semester-basis.

Assistant professors are those who usually have just earned their Ph.D. and on a tenure track. Assistant professors work for about five to seven years while they focus on teaching, research, service, and grant funding.  

Associate professors are above assistant professors and have secured or been approved for tenure. According to the Educator Writers Association (n.d.) most professors spend their careers at the associate rank.  

Professors are above both associate and assistant professor and indicates when an associate professor applies for a promotion. Varying professors based on teaching, research, or service have “distinguished” status, or if they retire in excellent status are granted an emeritus status.  

Building a Faculty Identity and Creating a Professional Academic Presence  

According to Dennis Amoah (2024) having an academic personal website can help you showcase a curated portfolio, reflect your personal brand, facilitate engagement, and increase your visibility online. Your academic website can allow you to highlight projects or publications while also reflecting your area of expertise. In addition, a website offers a direct channel of communication for guest speaking, collaborations, academic questions, and student engagement opportunities that may otherwise be missed. Claremont Graduate University also mentions how creating an academic website makes you aware of your assets and gaps in your professional profile such as in your teaching, research, and service. One last added benefit is that it signals web literacy for when academic institutions or search committees are googling your name to learn more about you.

Examples:

References:

Reasons Why You Should Have a Google Scholar Profile

Like creating your own academic website, creating a Google Scholar profile offers several benefits to researchers and helps increase your visibility online to other researchers in your field. Google Scholar provides automatic citation tracking, which allows researchers to monitor how often your academic publications are cited by others, reflecting how well-cited your work is, and provides one centralized place for all your academic publications.

One feature that is heavily used by others is that users can set up alerts and recommendations, notifying you when your work is cited or when new research relevant to your interests is published.

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Steps on Creating your Google Scholar Profile

Step 1: Sign in or sign up for a new Google account. You can create a new Google account here.

Step 2: Go to Google Scholar and click "Set up your Google Scholar Profile".

Step 3: Fill out the prompted fields. Be sure to include your university email so your affiliation can be verified.

Step 4: Search for published articles or papers you have written and select them to be shown under your profile.

Step 5: You can choose to either have Google apply updates automatically, so it will find your publications automatically and show them under your profile, or you can have Google email you updates to review.

Step 6: Make your profile public in order to make your profile visible.

Additional Resources: Boost Your Online Visibility – Create a Google Scholar Profile

Creating an ORC ID

Creating an ORCID iD is a valuable step for anyone involved in academic research or scholarly publishing. It provides you with a unique, persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from other researchers, even those with similar names. This identifier stays with you throughout your career, regardless of changes in name, institution, or research focus. One of the major benefits of ORCID is that it consolidates all your scholarly contributions—such as publications, grants, datasets, and peer reviews—into a single, easily accessible profile. This not only improves your visibility in the academic community but also enhances your professional credibility. Many publishers, funders, and institutions now require or strongly encourage the use of ORCID iDs because they streamline manuscript and grant submissions by auto-filling your information and linking directly to your work. Additionally, ORCID supports open science by promoting transparency and proper attribution of scholarly output. It’s free, easy to set up, and integrates with other platforms like Scopus, ResearcherID, and LinkedIn, making it a powerful tool for managing your academic identity.

How to Create Your ORCID iD

  1. Go to the ORCID Registration Page 
    Visit the official ORCID website: 
    👉 https://orcid.org/register 
  2. Fill Out the Registration Form 
    Enter your:
    1. Full name 
    2. Primary email address (you can add more later) 
    3. Create a secure password 
  3. Set Your Visibility Preferences 
    Choose who can see your ORCID record: 
    1. Everyone (recommended for discoverability) 
    2. Trusted parties 
    3. Only me 
  4. Agree to the Terms of Use 
    Review and accept ORCID’s privacy policy and terms of use. 
  5. Click “Register” 
    Once submitted, you’ll receive a confirmation email. 
  6. Verify Your Email Address 
    Open the email from ORCID and click the verification link to activate your account. 
  7. Complete Your Profile 
    After logging in, you can: 
    1. Add your education, employment, and funding history 
    2. Link your ORCID to other platforms (e.g., Scopus, ResearcherID, LinkedIn) 
    3. Import publications from databases like CrossRef or DataCite

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