With a perpetually tight job market, the road to an academic career can be a rocky and frustrating one. There are lots of questions, and this book attempts to provide good, frank answers to them. The three authors, with more than 75 years of combined academic experience, talk openly about what is good and what's not so good about academic life. The book provides information on finding a mentor, avoiding the pitfalls when writing a dissertation and negotiating job listings. The authors also discuss tough issues such as departmental politics, dual-career marriages and sexual harassment. There are also short essays that offer advice on financing graduate education, publishing your first book and leaving academia for the corporate world.