At least in my discipline, getting a tenure-track position is the hard part; afterwards, it's very typical to get tenure. (The only consistent exceptions that I

At least in my discipline, getting a tenure-track position is the hard part; afterwards, it's very typical to get tenure. (The only consistent exceptions that I know of are at absolutely top schools; and tenure-track faculty there often end up moving to slightly less good schools and getting tenured there.) >your case is exceptional and not the average. My case is not exceptional; it is merely above average. Certainly I got lucky, but not wildly so. I continue to pay attention to the job market, and it strikes me that people who have done work comparable to mine are, on average, getting positions comparable to mine. (It is in the humanities that the situation is really dire, and that even the most brilliant people are getting screwed over.)