Preparing for the Job Market: The Lay of the Land (Part I)

1. Preparing for the Job Market: The Lay of the Land (Part I) Bill Carbonaro, DGS University of Notre Dame Department of Sociology January 2012

2. Step ONE: Decide What You Want Knowing the “lay of the land” . . . .

3. What Type of Job Do you Want? The “Job Market” in sociology has many different segments (niches): • Different Types of Candidates are competing for Different Types of Jobs LONG BEFORE hitting the job market, you must decide what type of job you want, and plan accordingly. “Find your niche and dominate it!”

4. Is there Academic Life Beyond Sociology? • Any other dept.s as options? •  It depends on what you want and what you can do. Job Market Segments Academic Non-Academic • RESEARCH ONE • Notre Dame, University of Indiana-Bloomington, etc. • RESEARCH TWO • IUSB, Towson, Univ. of South Alabama • TEACHING INSTITUTIONS • Small Liberal Arts (E.g., Skidmore, Kenyon, Middlebury) • State System (E.g., U-W Whitewater, Cal State) • Community Colleges • ADJUNCT TEACHING • PUBLIC • Government Agencies • NGO’s (Quasi-public) • PRIVATE • Market/Survey Research Firms • Independent Research Firms • Non-Profits • Think Tanks • COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES • Institutional Research • College Administration • Research Centers, Institutes (E.g., ICPSR, etc.)

5. How Academic Jobs Differ

6. Income Differences across Institution Types

7. Two Questions only YOU can Answer What’s most important to you about your job? What kind of career do you want to have?

8. Step Two: Knowing if You are Ready

9. Are You are Ready? How Do You Know Whether You Are Ready to go “on the market?” Answer really depends upon the kind of job you are seeking. Try to cover all of your bases, but be sure that your strengths match up with the kind of job you are seeking Ex – Seeking a teaching job: build a very strong teaching record, but be sure to publish something as a grad student Ex – Seeking a research job: focus on research excellence, but be sure to establish a track record of respectable teaching

10. What Employers Look For

11. Weighting the Criteria The weight given to each category varies depending on the type of position sought

12. Judging Research Potential BEST BEST BEST

13. Other Research Benchmarks Book Writers? • How does a book manuscript get weighted? • Do you have a contract? • What press is publishing it? (Status hierarchy) • Is it empirical?

14. Other Research Benchmarks CONFERENCE ACTIVITY • Where (what conference) was the paper presented? • How active was the student in presenting (a lot or a little)? RESEARCH GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS • External Money – NSF Dissertation Improvement Grants, Dissertation Fellowships • Internal Money – Not as noteworthy, but something! *** Neither of these things is a SUBSTITUTE for publications!!!

15. Teaching Benchmarks BEST BEST BEST

16. Other Teaching Issues Does it matter WHERE (at what institution) you teach? Does teaching a lot of courses (in number or variety) help? (How much teaching is “enough”?) Does the classes that you teach matter? Is NEVER teaching as a Grad Student a hindrance?

17. Be wary of the tradeoff b/w quality and your rate of progress!  Faster is better, but not if it comes at the expense of quality Dissertation Progress

18. Time to Graduation Does it matter how long you take to finish your Ph.D? YES – There IS a such a thing as finishing too fast! • No benefit to getting done in four years, only to find that no one will hire you because you don’t have the right things on your CV! • Although, post-docs are always an option for these cases. There IS a stigma to taking too long! • What is “too long?”  In sociology, between six and seven years is normal. Eight is OK. Beyond eight is not good (and not really possible at ND). • CAVEAT – this is issue is ALWAYS judged relative to your productivity as a grad student.

19. Time to Graduation Does it matter how long you take to finish your Ph.D? REMEMBER  Notre Dame’s graduate programs are set up on a “fast clock.” Mostly, a six year clock, and getting funding from the department beyond the sixth year is generally NOT an option.

20. Does Where you Go Matter? Sort of – Effects are indirect. Quality of Applicants + Quality of Job Placement Grad Student Accomplishments (Publishing, Teaching, etc.) +++ ++ ++ Quality of Grad Program ++

21. Example – Beth C Year in Program: 5th • Type of Job Sought: • Research One or Two • Research Profile: • First authored publication in top specialty journal • Probably a second authored publication in top specialty journal • Second author encyclopedia entry • Numerous conference presentations • Teaching Experience: • TA for one semester • Teaching Year fellowship (Two classes next year) • Dissertation Progress: • Three paper format: • Analyses for all three papers under way • Papers being presented at conferences • One will be under review at journal in the summer/fall OVERALL ASSESSMENT: Good fit between the record and the jobs she is applying for

22. Timing of the Job Market Events

23. Timing of Job Market Events Other Disciplines? • Each discipline outside of sociology has its own calendar • Education Departments, Schools of Education – Mostly in the spring • Economics – January and February • Etc.

24. Pursuing a Post-Doc?

25. Pursuing a Post-Doc? Should I plan to do a Post-Doctoral Fellowship? • Students should think more seriously about whether this route makes sense for them. • Avoid thinking of it as simply your “back-up” plan. • It’s not a “consolation prize”; it can be a great opportunity to launch a successful career.

26. Things to Consider Regarding the Post-Doc Does my skill set and research agenda “fit” the post-doc market? • Most post-docs seek applicants with quantitative research skills in substantive where research money is readily available. Ex – Robert Wood Johnson; Ies Postdoctoral Fellows; CREO, Rice Post-Docs

27. What’s a “Good” Post-Doc? • Provides time to work on one’s own research • Provides opportunities to branch out into new research directions • Provides new opportunities to meet and work with esteemed faculty in highly ranked departments • Provides opportunities to work with other talented young scholars (grad students or fellow post-docs)

28. What’s a “Good” Post-Doc? • Competitive Application Process (“Credentialing” – cf. “Teach for America”) • One year vs. Two Year • Nine Month vs. Twelve Month Appointment • Possible teaching opportunities (if needed)

29. Who Benefits from a Post-Doc? • Students who seek a research position but who have not yet built a strong research record • Students who need additional training that one’s home institution cannot provide (E.g., specializations that lie beyond one’s dept; advanced methodological training that is not available in one’s home program; etc.)

30. Who Benefits from a Post-Doc? • Students who are on the job market when there are few jobs, or there have several bad years and the job market is “recovering” • Allows time for the supply-side “queue” to clear

31. Does a Post-Doc Look Bad on Your CV? NOT AT ALL! • It has become more common. • It is FAR BETTER than adjunct (“visiting professor”) stints (even at good departments) • It shows that you are serious about pursuing a research career. ** REMEMBER – you have to produce! Make the most of your time.