Tips for Navigating the Academic Job Market

Preparing for the Academic Job Search

Your research question(s) is, arguably, the most critical aspect of your entire portfolio. The evaluation of a “good” research question is highly subjective and will vary according to the discipline and types of positions for which you are applying. Some faculty deem a good research question as one that is fundable, while others are interested in a high degree of innovation, especially in the methods. No matter what, you do not want people to walk out of your job talk saying, “Who cares” or “That was not at all novel.”

It is critical to have a plan to answer your core research questions and your research methods. When you boil down the various academic processes to their core (e.g., dissertation, tenure, and promotion), they all center on the development of a research question, the application of appropriate methods to answer that question, and the dissemination of your findings—rinse and repeat. Prior to applying for academic jobs, a good question to consider is “If someone gave you unlimited funds, what would be your ideal study? What methods would you employ to answer your questions?”

Make sure that the format of your curriculum vitae (CV) is easy to follow, clear, and honest. It can be tempting to embellish aspects of your CV, especially as an early career professional, but the backlash against any perceptions related to lack of integrity is not worth it. Peer-reviewed publications are important, but hiring committees are also looking for potential. While your publication record is one important indicator, most early career professionals just starting out will not have many publications. Use your cover letter and/or research statement to go beyond the numbers on your CV and tell the story of your program of research. These documents should highlight your scholarly trajectory in addition to any accolades you have received so far such as funding and awards. Make sure that your cover letter clearly and concisely articulates your research agenda, the importance of your research ideas, your methodological prowess, and your next steps to further your research. Ask several colleagues to proofread your CV and offer you feedback—your CV is often an important piece of the first impression a search committee forms about you and your research.

Public health is highly interdisciplinary, and the public health job market in academia can be highly variable. Job announcements come out throughout the academic year, unlike other fields that have a more rigid job market structure. There are widely different opinions about what the top public health journals are and which conferences you should attend. Public health professionals work in diverse community and academic settings, and the people reviewing your application materials may not be familiar with your work. Search committee members will want recommendations from people who know you and your work very well, like your committee chairperson or former research supervisor. Securing and obtaining strong references is critical. Your references should be able to discuss your experience, aptitude, work ethic, and burgeoning body of work. Letter writers can also address any perceived weaknesses in your application packet such as having a very low publication count.

Unless you have a spouse or a family that is geographically restricted, be prepared to conduct a national search. It helps to be open-minded as there are good universities that you may have never considered before that would love to hire you. You might be pleasantly surprised that these places may be enthusiastic about your work and have the resources to help you develop into the best scholar you can be.

The Search

Conducting an academic job search is very time and energy consuming. I found it helpful to organize my search materials. I created a Microsoft Excel file that had all the jobs I was applying for, the date I applied, their advertised deadline, whether I had a contact at that school or department, and, if so, who they were. I kept track of the status of the positions I applied for—whether I received an offer, if they rejected my application, or when I needed to respond to an offer letter.

Once invitations for interviews started to come, I began pulling information together about that particular unit or school as well as about the overall institution. I pulled information from faculty pages, bio sketches, and CVs from the various websites of people I would be interested in working with or people who I knew I would meet during campus visits. I created a list of questions that I should be prepared to answer for each institution in addition to the answers to those questions. Additionally, I created a list of questions to ask—some general, some specific—to the individual institutions. I would put all these materials into a file folder designated for each school in which I was to interview. When I was preparing for an upcoming interview, I would simply pull the folder and start reviewing.

When you are ready to consider entering the academic job market, be sure to apply early and often. If you see a position that interests you, apply as early as you can. This means that you need to have a polished cover letter, CV, and list of references ready to go by the time you are seriously considering entering the job market. It also helps to write a teaching statement and a research statement, as many open postings require these materials. In my experience, it is not advantageous to wait until the deadline to apply. Often, search committees will already have a shortlist or even begin inviting promising candidates to campus before their announcement has even closed.

It can be very helpful to get someone on the search committee excited about you. You can call the search committee chair, dean, department chair, or faculty contact listed on the job announcement to ask some questions about the position, their hiring priorities, the university, and their timeline. You may be able to set up an informal interview at a conference to meet with that contact in person as well. It helps to attend conferences to set up informational interviews with people on search committees prior to attending the meeting. You may also be able to inquire about open positions and to set up a conference interview with a search committee meeting at conferences. For example, at large meetings that set up tables for schools and programs in the exposition area, they will sometimes have job announcements at their table as well as faculty attending the conference who are looking to conduct interviews. Even if the representatives do not have a job announcement, you can always ask the person at the table whether there are faculty or administration representatives attending the conference. I have found that even when places are not hiring, people appreciated that I inquired and in many cases have wanted to keep in contact.

Perhaps most important, I found it helpful to find someone I knew at the university or department through my network. It is very helpful to talk to people within your networks who are at the school or program in which you are interested in applying. They can usually provide the “lay of the land” for the unit and/or university. They may be able to provide some guidance about who to contact about the position that is not on the job announcement. Of course, these people may also be able to advocate for your candidacy.

Preparing for Interviews

Prepare your job talk early. This includes practicing the talk with your mentors and trusted colleagues. Once you send job applications off, you may not hear anything for weeks or months. Then all of a sudden, search committees will invite you for campus visits, expecting to schedule you as soon as possible. Job talks are important. Many academics say that they want to avoid “death by seminar,” but the job talk is often the only point of contact for faculty during campus visits. If people are not excited about or interested in your talk, they will have a harder time advocating for you. Even when faculty like a candidate, they will still voice disappointment in a poorly executed talk. The job talk should be very clear and must end on time. If the committee says to be prepared to present for 40 minutes, prepare for 35 knowing that you may stretch to 40 minutes on the day of the talk. Practicing the talk is critical. It important for your own mastery of the content as well as your timing. Practicing in front of your mentors and friends will generate important questions that you should be prepared to answer.

The job talk content varies widely. However, key elements include providing an overarching rationale and purpose for your work. Never assume that people will automatically know why you are doing this work if you do not explicitly tell them. The rationale may be based on theory and/or data, and some candidates provide a conceptual model that guides their work. Based on your rationale or conceptual model, clearly state your research question or hypothesis. Next, discuss the methods that you used to investigate this question or test your hypotheses. Discuss your findings and provide implications that are based on your data. Last, provide a few future directions based on this work.

Many job candidates are tempted to display their entire body of work in a job talk. It is very difficult to do this well, and you will likely run over time. In my experience, effective candidates can usually present two related empirical pieces in addition to providing a compelling rationale and discuss implications as well as overall future directions from the work. Some committees will want you to outline how you fit with their unit from a teaching and research perspective, so make sure that you allocate time and space for that if necessary.

Campus Visits

Once you are invited for campus visits, prepare yourself for a couple days of nonstop interviewing. Anticipate what search committee members and other faculty are going to ask. Prepare a two- to three-sentence “elevator pitch” to describe your work. Being knowledgeable about how your research fits and who might be your potential collaborators is key and demonstrates how serious you are about the hiring unit. Therefore, be able to identify where you see opportunities for collaboration or mentorship within the hiring unit.

Be prepared to talk about your teaching experience, approach to teaching, and what courses you would like to teach. Examine the school’s course offerings and find courses that you might want to teach. Then think about what your research is and how you could incorporate your interests into a new course that they do not currently offer. You should also be prepared to meet with students. Students will often be curious about your approach to mentorship, and the kinds of opportunities you might provide for students who work with you. If you do have the opportunity to meet with current students, be prepared to ask questions about their experience at the institution, what their needs for instruction and mentorship are, and why they chose to attend the unit.

Prepare a long list of good questions. Do not spend a lot of time asking questions that might highlight some insecurity you have. Prep so that you not only have a set of questions but also have areas you want to know about so that when people ask if you have any questions for them for the thousandth time during your visit, you will have a few questions you can ask. You can also compare different responses across different faculty. It helps to think carefully about what you need to be successful. This will not only be helpful in negotiating, but it helps demonstrate your academic maturity. What do you need from the outset to be successful? This includes office/lab startup funds, computing equipment, pilot funds, statisticians’ time, graduate student assistant, day care slot, parking, and other benefits you expect as part of an offer.

Be nice, accommodating, and approachable. Search committees and the broader faculty are trying to determine if you could be a colleague, a collaborator, a committee member. If they read arrogance or a bad attitude in the interview, you might not get that second interview or that job offer. It is a busy time for you as a job seeker, and you have to prepare for each interview. Try to be flexible to allow search committees to get you scheduled for interviews. If there is a snag (and there will be plenty), be understanding and accommodating.

Be confident! I walked into each interview thinking that I was the school’s number one choice and they were attempting to recruit me. I put my best foot forward—with confidence and self-assuredness. Obtaining your first offer will help tremendously.

After interviews, I made notes of what I observed during the visit. I usually did this on the plane ride back home while everything was still fresh. In addition, I sent thank you emails to everyone I met and highlighted something that we discussed during my interview or visit.

Conclusion

There are many other steps to navigating the academic job market, including negotiation and different types of recruitment. I have not provided an exhaustive list of tips in this article; rather, I have shared my own experience navigating the job market and serving on various search committees. I encourage prospective candidates to check in with their mentors and networks to gain their perspectives on these issues. The more advice you have, the better.