Demystifying the Academic Job Search Process

1. Andrew Green, PhD University of California, Berkeley Demystifying the Academic Job Search Process

2. The Academic Job Search • Part 1 - Understanding the Process & Finding Job Announcements • Part 2 - Preparing your Application Materials (CV, Cover Letters, Teaching Portfolio, etc.)

3. Academic Landscape

4. Where the Jobs Are – Tenure Track • 42% Research Universities • 30% Masters Degree Granting Institutions • 12% Baccalaureate Colleges • 16% Community Colleges

5. The Different Types of Academic Institutions • Research Universities • Non-AAU Doctoral Universities • State University Systems • Small Liberal Arts Colleges • Community Colleges • What is the teaching load? • All are Looking for Colleagues

6. Constraints that Search Committees Operate Under: • Time is Scarce • Your Audience Feels Overburdened • They Rarely Have More Than a Passing Acquaintance With Your Specialty • You need to educate them & help them understand the value you have to offer

7. career.berkeley.edu

10. THE TIMING/STAGES OF THE PROCESS • T-24 Months Get Authorization • T-18 Agree On Job Ad • T-12 Create Search Committee • T-11 Run Ad • T-10 SC Meets with Affirmative Action Officer • T-9 Read Files • T-8.99 Decide On Long-Short List • T-8.98 SC Presents Recommendations to Full Department

11. T-8.97 Phone Interviews/Conference Interviews/Meetings • T-8.95 More Meetings=>Fights Break Out=>On-Campus Interview list Forwarded to Dean/Provost/Review Committee • T-7 On-Campus Interviews (3-4) • T-6.99 Job Talk • T-6.2 Full Dept. Meets & Votes • T-6.1 Recommendation=>Provost/President

12. T-6 Initial Offer Made • T-5.5 Initial Offer Rejected • T-5.3 More Meetings=>Second Offer Made • T-5.2 Negotiations Begin • T-5.1 Official Offer Letter Received • T-2 First Paycheck/Benefits/Faculty Library Card

13. Common Questions • Deciding When to Go Out • What is the Difference Between Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor? • What Does “Open Search” Mean?

15. Chronicle of Higher Education

17. H-Net

18. Scholarly Societies Project

19. http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/

23. www.academic360.com/

24. Council for Christian Colleges & Universities

25. Times HigherEd Supplement

26. http://www.norcalherc.org

29. California Community Colleges

30. Where To Apply • Cast Your Bread Widely • Job Descriptions are not “Set in Stone” • Applying Does not Commit you to Accepting • Allow Yourself to be Woo’ed • Not Sure Where “Type-X” Jobs are Listed?

32. http://www.petersons.com/

37. Postdoc Funding Sources

38. Academic Jobs Wiki

39. Academic Jobs Wiki

40. Spanish • Rejections before MLA • Rejections after MLA • Canceled Searches • Phone Interviews Scheduled Campus Interviews Scheduled • Offers Made • Have you heard about...? • Search-Related Comments, Questions, Tips, FAQs, Etc.

41. His smile was gracious and his eyes sage as he took my CV, and began the diagnostic. "Ah," intoned the Eminence, "perhaps you are the victim of a basic misunderstanding. This is a sales document.”On The Market

42. Preparing your Application Materials 1. CVs 2. Cover Letters 3. Statements of Teaching Philosophy 4. Letters of Recommendation The Academic Job Search

43. Too Often Grad Students & PhDs • Deem These Truths to be Self-Evident • Don’t Understand the Logic and Constraints that Search Committees Operate Under: • Time is Scarce • Your Audience Feels Overburdened • They are Risk Averse • Your Job is to Make it Easy for Them

44. Key Issues • Know Your Audience • Anticipate Questions and Concerns • Clarity, Organization, and Consistency • First Impressions Matter

45. What They Want • Application elements requested in survey of 30 life science-related faculty postings from Science Magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Ed: • Curriculum Vitae (30) • Letter of Application (30) • Description of future research plans/interests (21) • Letters of reference (17) • List of references (12) • Statement of teaching philosophy (8) • Representative reprints (7) • Description of research accomplishments, abstract (5) • Transcripts (4) • Descriptions of possible courses (2) • Summary of career/professional goals (2)

46. is usually the first point of contact between you and your future colleagues. Its conventional purpose is to provide a concise overview of your academic background and accomplishments. More to the point, however, the role of the CV is to pique the interest of the reader, get her/him to take a closer look at you and your other application materials, and ultimately invite you for an interview. The Curriculum Vitae (loosely, Latin for "the course of one's life/career")

47. CVs: Making It Easy for Your Overburdened Audience • Organization • Clarity • Consistency

48. Organization Means that your information is presented in a manner that highlights what is most relevant, and pulls the reader's eye directly to it, rather than making him/her search for it.

49. 1998-present Ph.D. Cand. inEast-West Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies. Specializing in Contemplative Psychology and Religious Comparative Studies. Dissertation title: “The Integration of Piaget in Ecopsychology” Chair: Hiram Walker

50. PhD California Institute of Integral Studies East-West Psychology, expected May 2011 The Integration of Piaget in Ecopsychology Hiram Walker (Chair), Linda Ryan, E. Barry Keehn Examination Fields: Contemplative Psychology Religious Comparative Studies