The path to a permanent academic position is as challenging and competitive as ever. In this incisive book Steven M. Cahn, professor of philosophy, former provost, and advisor to countless graduate students, provides aspiring academics with the strategies and savvy to negotiate the complexities of professorial life.

Cahn covers an extensive range of critical issues: how to plan, complete, and defend a dissertation; how to navigate a job interview; how to improve teaching performance; how to prepare and publish research; how to develop a professional network; how to garner support for tenure. The advice he offers is remarkably frank, dealing, for example, with such hurdles as a difficult dissertation advisor, problematic colleagues, and the pressures of the tenure clock. Whether the reader is beginning graduate study, seeking an academic position, or striving to build a professorial career, Cahn's witty and telling insights will prove an invaluable guide to traversing the thickets of academia.