Seek First to Understand: Know the metrics on how you will be evaluated
How is tenure decided at your university?
- Is it based more on peer evaluation or “paper counting”
- How is teaching evaluated? How is “service” evaluated? How important is funding
- How important are relationships with the department chair or dean?
Take getting tenure seriously, but not too seriously
- Seek out a proper balance, and do not compromise things that are important to you
Some other things to learn: working with university bureaucracies, getting funding (internal or external), departmental politics