ENTERING THE IVORY TOWER - CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY APPLICANTS

Although counseling psychologists have a long history of studying thei r own professional development, no data exist describing the character istics of successful academic job applicants. This study describes the demographic and scholarly characteristics of 27 recently hired facult y members in counseling psychology programs, and the nature of the pos itions that they filled. Consistent with expectations, our results ind icate that research productivity is a function of academic rank. Our d ata also indicate that recent Ph.D. graduates are applying for academi c positions with an established history of publications and profession al presentations. Almost half of all available faculty position identi fied in this study were the result of faculty retirements. Other chara cteristics of successful academic hires and the positions that they fi lled are discussed.