Author: Lisa Hanasono, Ph.D.
In the NCFDD’s Faculty Success Program (FSP), we invite academics to think of their lives as a book with many chapters. Each chapter represents a specific time period in a person’s life such as their graduate school years, a post doc period, life as an early career scholar, becoming parents of young children, moving to a different university, pivoting to another research area, shifting into an academic leadership position, or retirement. Collectively, these chapters represent our life story. By approaching our life as a book with many chapters, we affirm our position as the authors of our own life stories and reclaim a sense of agency in shaping our own narratives.
Inspired by this approach, we could consider how each person’s professional journal or career could be represented metaphorically as a book with many chapters. Similar to books, careers can be linear and predictable. However, many careers (and books!) can be filled with unexpected plot twists, new characters, redemption arcs, callbacks, and revelations.
If your career was a book with many chapters, how would you structure your table of contents? What is your current career chapter, and what are its unique characteristics and goals? What do you want the next chapter of your career to entail— and what can you do now ensure a smooth transition?
To make the most of each career chapter, it can be beneficial to have a solid plan. Complementing some of the NCFDD’s core programming, such as our “Every Semester Needs a Plan” and “The Weekly Meeting,” our January 2026 webinar will invite you to think about the big picture. What is your current career chapter? What are the most important goals you want to accomplish in this chapter, and what plan will help you to complete them? In our interactive webinar titled “Every Career Chapter Needs a Plan,” we will guide you through a series of clarifying steps to define your career’s current chapter, identify key goals, and develop a high-level plan to set you up for success.
Please join Drs. Carlita Favero, Erin Furtak, and me at our live webinar titled “Every Career Chapter Needs at Plan” from 2:00 to 3:00pm Eastern Time on Friday, January 30. All NCFDD members are welcome to attend! To learn more and/or register, please log into the NCFDD’s website and visit this event’s webpage.
Additional NCFDD Resources:
- Faculty Success Program
- Post-Tenure Pathfinders Program
- Department Chair Success Program
- Every Semester Needs a Plan
- How to Align Your Time with Your Priorities
- Navigating the Academic Job Market: Practical Tips and Strategies
- Moving from Associate to Full Professor
- What I Wished I Would Have Known: Transitioning to Department Chair
- Academic Leadership: When, Why, and How to Step Up
- What I Wished I Would Have Known as an Academic Leader & University Administrator
- The 3 P’s to Plan Your Professional Pivot