A practical guide to the Academic Job Search:
Everything you need to think about before going on the academic job market
DISCLAIMER: Everything in this document is my opinion and I hold no responsibility for anything my advice does or doesn't do to help you in any way. ;)
First Time Critical part of application process:
- Update your web page
- Make sure all of your information is up to date
- Make it simple to navigate, fool proof..
- Your web page should have
- Contact information
- Publications (links to papers, abstracts, etc)
- Research (short discription, bio, etc)
- link in your research statement (pdf)
- Teaching (links to classes you've taught, TA'd etc)
- link in your teaching statement (pdf)
- Service (List service to the community)
- CV (pdf)
- Put together your CV (pdf) [Example .tex]
- Address
- Education (include pending PhD)
- Employment history
- Teaching Summary
- Papers: if you have enough, distill them into
- Juried Papers
- Non-juried Papers (tech reports, course notes, etc.)
- Funding/Honors
- Community Activities (include reviewing experiences, invited talks, etc.)
- References (at least 3, should have email, snail-mail addresses; include interdisciplinary if possible)
- some reference writers will ask you to write text.. this is good & in your favor
- Also, very important: give your reference writers an early
deadline (Oct.) for one letter. Keep on them to get the letter in.
Once they've written the first, the rest will be easy. I applied for
about 30 positions, and ended up just giving my writers a list of
schools and the email addresses they needed to send the letters to.
Most of them will be contacted by the schools, but it is good to go at
it from both directions.
- Contact your references, ask them if they mind being listed as a reference
- Research Statement (pdf) [Example .tex]
- Teaching Statement (pdf) [Example .tex]
- Cover letter (usually goes in the email as body of message) (pdf & text)
Now apply like crazy to everywhere
Job talk:
- ~45 minutes long
- Practice
- Practice
- Practice
- Use images... remove all un-necessary text
- Make your talk available for general CS audience.. : the rule I live by: only one equation, one reference to O(N)
- Your mother should get something out of your talk, even if she doesn't understand the details
- Your talk should provide evidence that you have 20 years worth of research, and at least a good 5 year focus, and that you can get funded to do it
- As for your research: Understand who will benefit from your research: Joe Public, Other academic departments, All of Engineering, All of CS, only your subfield, artists, psychologists, etc
- Leave audience with one sentence (or image!) that describes what've you talked about
- Number your slides: it make it easier for people to ask questions & refer to specific slides
Before Interviewing (when you have been invited)
- Department: Look at the department web page.. read a few abstracts.. gives you context, but don't be a know at all, it looks false
- Town/City:
- This is your life we are talking about, you have to live there & be happy.
- Consider cost of living
- Services: can you live in a small town, can you live in a big city, availability of
theatre, shopping, resturants
- Use www.realestate.com
Look at cost of living, cost of housing
- Best way to get this big picture:
- Call a realestate agent, tell them you are interviewing, ask if they can show you some houses when you are interviewing:
- why: you will get a free tour, some one who will tell you about where to live, the way the city is laid out, etc
When interviewing:
You will hopefully give your job talk early in the interview, then have ~30min to 1 hour conversations with profs; Make it easy on your self, don't try to talk about your stuff right away, ask them what they do. People who spend most of the time talking about themselves and who are listened to, like the people who listen. If you can, suggest how you could work together, how your work would benefit from their expertise (~not~ how their work would benefit from ~YOUR~ experience).
Most of the interviewing is not about your qualifications, qualifications have been proved by your letters & application, they got you the interview. The main goal of the one-on-one interviews, and lunches/dinner is to determine whether the folks in the department can work with you. It is a personality test.
Dinner... don't drink too much, don't eat too slow or too fast, this is where all the manners your mother taught you matters. Again, it is all about whether they get along with you & you with them.. it is not a party.. the interview does not stop when you leave the department, only when you get on the plane.
Start up packages
GET IT ALL IN WRITING!!!
- start up money (pot of money for computers, travel, misc.)
- student months of research assistantship: make sure they don't expire
- summer months (typically salaries in the states are 9 months, you need to find funding for the other 3 months, typically from grants)
- teaching requirments: how many classes per unit (quarter/sememster)
- Teaching waiver (sometimes it is possible to get a unit in which you don't have to teaching
- space:
know what you need, know what you want
GET IT IN WRITING (square feet & where relative to your office, other prof's office's)
- Mentoring: do junior faculty have grants with senior faculty?
- Moving expenses
- If they don't pay for moving expenses, add some $$ to your start-up package & pay for moving costs from that
- Awards: Look at whether profs in the dept have been awarded
- Sloan Fellowship
- Microsoft Faculty Fellowship
- Ask if department would support your nomination for these awards (GET IT IN WRITING)
- Support of Community activities
If you are interested in chairing conferences (sometime in your career), ask if you can get university sponsored staff to help with your responsibilities (GET IT IN WRITING)
- General Chair: 200 hours per conference
- Papers Chair: 50 hours per conference
Funding
- How much does a student cost for grants
- Ask about departmental costs for printing, supplies, etc
- Ask about returned overhead
- Many grants ask for matching money, will the department/university help?
- Ask about teaching buy out; this is not necessarily a good thing, but you may want to know about their policy
Students
- Ugrads: what's the curriculum? Do freshman take CS classes?
- Grads: How do they get accepted
- requirements
- by dept?
- only with a professor who will work with them
- do they get first year fellowships?
- How are TA-ships determined & distributed
- How many TA-ships does the department have per unit (quarter/semester)
- Set up a round-table with students only during your interview
- Gage personality of department
- Do students hang out together?
- Dept. parties?
- Conference attendance?
Two-Body Problem
- Solve the problem before you take the job offer and get everythign in writing. I was promised (years ago) a position, but it turned out that it was just a title and a desk, no $$$.
- If you are trying to find two professor positions at a single university, you have a lot of work ahead of you.. a few suggestions:
- Start talking to professors at other institutions early. Almost all of the jobs and interviews we've had have been at places where we knew at least one professor.
- Go to the places you think you have a chance at early.. even on your own dime, ie get yourself invited for a talk, before interviewing season starts, or even just a chance to tour the department, etc.
- Look for places that have already solved the two body problem
- If you interview & talk about finding a job for your spouse, know that unless you get it in writing, they will not do much to help you. Some universities say they have people who will help you, but believe me, this is mostly talk, I have not ever heard of a case that was really successfully solved. If they do offer to help, and can give you something concrete, get it in writing. But odds are this will not happen.. In the long run, this is your problem.. not theirs.
Accepting the offer
- They will give you a deadline.. but remember, if they have made an offer, they can extend the time.. don't be pressured by them to give a quick decision. (See Disclaimer)
- Once you get an offer, let all of your other places know (where you've been asked to schedule an interview or where you have interviewed), before you accept, this is the polite & correct way to proceed. Plus, then you can see if there is any competition for you & use this to help fit all of your requirements for start up packages, etc.
References