Brian C. Jenkins

Associate Professor of Teaching of Economics

Looking back, I wish that I had better appreciated the professional value of building relationships with colleagues at other institutions. There are many, many reasons why it’s important, but for the tenure process it serves to increase your visibility in the profession. To the extent that you can help others form a positive view of you and your work by, say, sharing your paper drafts with them or presenting at conferences and workshops, then it’s more likely that potential external letter writers will have positive views of you before they are asked to write and, from what I’ve seen, more impactful letters may follow.

For its part, UCI does a great job making clear how the promotion process works: how promotion cases are reviewed and decided at the department, school, and campus levels. The information sessions that the Vice Provost of Academic Personnel holds for junior faculty are particularly excellent opportunities for junior faculty to learn and to ask questions. I attended two of these sessions; one when I was first hired and a second the year before I began preparing my case for promotion. I think it was a great use of time.