Or as my colleague, Rodger Tarr used to ask unsuspecting job candidates, “Tell me the title of your second book.”

This one perhaps belongs in my follow up, “Proverbs for the third year academic,” but it is never too early to start thinking about tenure. Research expectations vary enormously from school to school: some places want books, some want articles, but the relative proportion of the research seem pretty similar: strong tenure portfolios include some publications that emerge out of your dissertation and some research that goes in new directions. The logic of the strength is simple. If you have peer-reviewed publications from your dissertation research, it validates that dissertation (and by extension to committee who recommended hiring you), and if you also have research that moves beyond the dissertation it shows that you have a robust research program that will continue after tenure. The two together make you look good. Leaving your dissertation behind and moving on to new things is a difficult step, but it will make you feel really grown up. The experience is right up there with paying off your student loans.