WELCOME!

THE PROFESSOR IS HAPPY TO SEE YOU.

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Are You Tired of the Academic Run-Around —– an Advisor Who’s Never In, a Grad Program That Doesn’t Care, Funding That’s Never Enough, a Job Market That’s in The Tank, and a Tenure System That’s a Total Mystery —– And No One to Give You an Honest Answer?

I am here to help.  I am Karen L. Kelsky, Ph.D..  I am  “The Professor.” I spent 15 years as a R1 tenured professor, department head, and university advisor, and I tell you the truth.  The truth about grad school.  The truth about funding. The truth about the job market.  And the truth about tenure.  To the best of my ability.

I also tell you the truth about your writing, your applications, your job chances, and your tenure case. If they suck, I will tell you. And then we will get a plan to improve them.

On the ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ Blog (see the categories to the left), I offer the  hands-on information you need now to get through the hoops of academia.

In The Prof Shop you’ll find Guidebooks that teach you how to prevail in your academic job market and grant-writing.

Want more?   I work with you, one-on-one, with complete confidentiality, on the writing, speaking and interview skills you need to move closer to your professional goals.  My  methods quickly hone in on your strengths and your challenges, and outline the steps you need to take to be successful in each of your specific applications and projects.  Together we chart a path to make you competitive –whether in your applications, grants, the elusive tenure track job, or your tenure case.  The Dr. Karen guarantee:  bullshit-free advising on your grants, your writing, the job market, and tenure, as well as coaching on whether to stay in academia or bail. I’ve been there; I know.

I am the available and career-savvy adviser you need, that you should already have, but probably don’t.

Interested?  Please get in touch with me by email to inquire or make a plan.  Gettenure@gmail.com

~~”After talking with her I aced my next telephone interview and was invited for an interview. I was offered 2 post-docs at a VERY prestigious university. Thank you Karen!”– 2009 Ph.D., Social Sciences

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Curious to Know More?  

Read more by and about The Professor in these places:   The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education (again), “From Graduate School to Welfare” (yes, Chronicle of Higher Education) and Inside Higher Ed.  

Read  about her personal story here: Death of a Soul on Campus, on the blog Worst Professor Ever.

Read her Testimonials here.  

Read her (uncensored) bio here.  

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How can I help you in your academic career?    Services listed here (please note: I no longer offer dissertation editing services):

~Grant applications small and large

~C.V.s and resumes

~Academic Job Market cover letters, teaching statements, research statements, and writing samples

~The Job Talk

~Academic Job Interviews–both conference interviews and campus visits

~Tenure documents (Research statements and teaching philosophies)

~Refereed journal articles

~Research and conference papers

~Coaching and consulting by skype about specific dilemmas related to your goals, current academic environment, or obstacles to success

~AND, bailing out and getting out of academia.  I’ve been there!  I know!  I’ll help you through that too.



CONTACT ME, DR. KAREN, @ gettenure@gmail.com

 


Curious to know more?   Keep reading below.   Learn more about Dr. Karen’s academic background.  See The Professor in action.  Read testimonials from clients.  And read Dr. Karen Kelsky’s Blog, Pearls of Wisdom.

~~”She is deeply committed to the success of those with whom she works, and I can say with all sincerity that if you hire her, you will see results!”  2009 Ph.D., University advisor

The Professor’s Approach

Dr. Karen Kelsky has mentored students and junior faculty at all levels.  Clients have landed numerous prestigious national and international grants, and tenure track jobs in scholarly fields, and the junior faculty she mentored have all been successful in tenure and promotion.  Do as she says and your applications, writing projects, and tenure dossiers will rise to the top tier of the competition.   It is a grueling process, she’s not gonna lie.  But the results are intense.

Of course it goes without saying that nobody can promise jobs where jobs don’t exist in a disintegrating academic job market, or guarantee the success of any one particular job application or grant application, manuscript submission, etc.  The politics and hidden agendas of any selection process are known only to the selection committee members themselves (and sometimes not even to all of them!) 

But Dr. Karen’s methods will ensure that what you submit is effective, persuasive, and targeted to the competition.

Click on the “About the Professor” and “Why Should You Trust Me” pages above to learn more about her academic background.

Her method?  All forms of academic writing and speaking—whether conference abstracts,  grant applications, job letters, conference presentations, job talks, or tenure statements — have a formula.  But advisors almost never teach these formulas, and indeed the vast majority of academics don’t realize just how formulaic their successful writing is. Dr. Karen has created schemata that, if followed, give you a command of the formulas, and that can be adapted to every project. 

The goal is not to produce “cookie-cutter” applications, but to discipline your writing to meet the unspoken and unacknowledged biases and expectations of evaluation committees who are impatient, overworked, and judgmental, and who give applications at most a minute or two of initial review. 

All writing is intensively tailored both to your personal project, and to the specific job or competition at hand.

Dr. Karen also offers the intensive Academic Job Interview Boot Camp, a one-hour session by skype in which she role plays a skeptical interviewer in your targeted job search committee, and puts you through the paces of the likely interview.

Finally, she can assist you in your tenure case–specifically writing your research statement, teaching philosophy, and even in strategizing your external reviewers.  As a Department Head, Dr. Karen put a number of junior faculty through successful tenure cases in her department and learned quite a bit about how tenure cases are judged

All of her strategies have been tested and refined over 15 years of work in competitive academic contexts.  While the Professor cannot guarantee a positive outcome in terms of a particular grant,  job, or tenure (there are variables in every selection process that no applicant can account for or predict), she guarantees that if you follow her advice, you will be among the top contenders in any evaluation or selection process.


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