The Career Center recognizes the complexity of the academic job search particularly in light of the changing, and sometimes, difficult nature of the academic job market. We are here to aid PhD students throughout the process via our online resources, graduate student programs, and individual appointments.
When Does the Academic Job Search Happen?
Because of the structured nature of academia and the academic job search, you may not have much flexibility in your timeline. While the timing of a search may vary by discipline, a typical hiring cycle usually begins around October and concludes by April or May.
When Should I Begin to Search for Academic Roles?
An academic job search can last anywhere from 12 to 15 months. Generally the earlier you start the better. That being said, you should align your search with your degree completion. You will be competing against candidates who have finished their degrees, and perhaps even have some teaching or research experience. You should be able to give reasonable assurance that you will be finished by the time the job begins.
How Should I Approach the Search?
Obtaining feedback from advisors and mentors, junior faculty and recent grads from your department may provide good insight into your prospects, the norms of your discipline, and what constitutes market readiness. What follows is a rough timeline of how to approach the search.
Exploration Phase
In the exploration phase you may start researching what kind of opportunities exist or the kind of institutions you are most interested in. The expectation is to use this time to work towards finishing your dissertation and submitting publications, discussing your plans with advisors, and growing your community of academic contacts. While you are determining where you want to direct your search check out these resources:
- The Chronicle of Higher Education: Often known for its job posting system the Chronicle is also an excellent resource for career exploration. Follow its On Hiring blog, amongst others and peruse its articles and features on the academic job market.
- GradHacker: A collective blog for graduate students written by graduate students. Topics range from research productivity, teaching, life as a graduate student, and career choices for PhDs.
If you are part of a dual career couple you may take this time to investigate how this will impact you and your partner's search.
Preparation Phase
In the preparation phase you may continue to build community by attending professional conferences and meetings, preparing written materials including CVs, research statements, and teaching philosophies, and building your online presence.
Build your Documents
- CVs: A CV is the most requested document in the academic search. CVs are not just historical documents highlighting the depth and breadth of your academic and related experience. Strong CVs are also targeted to the audience they are trying to reach.
- Cover Letters: Cover letters for academic jobs do not substantively differ from those for non-academic ones. Structurally the letter is more or less the same. One trend we have observed is hiring committees asking candidates to explain their research and teaching interests in the cover letter rather than supplying separate research and teaching statements.
- Research Statements: Strong research statements tell the story of your life as a researcher highlighting past, present, and future research topics as well as the methods you use.
- Teaching Philosophies/Teaching Portfolios: Good teaching philosophies and portfolios highlight your strength as a teacher including the pedagogy you employ, the curriculum you develop, and how you evaluate the efficacy of your teaching.
Social Media/Online
As employers in other industries have increased their use of online and social media in finding and vetting candidates so to has academia. Entities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are all potential outlets for creating an online presence. It is also common for graduate students in particular to create their own websites highlighting their research, teaching, and service. At the very least check out:
- Google+: An easy way to create a visible presence on the web using one of Google's own tools.
- LinkedIn: We often get asked whether or not academics use LinkedIn? Many do and it is quite common for professional associations to form LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn also has high Google search recognizability so when someone Google searches your name your LinkedIn profile should appear close to the top of search results. Here's how to get started on LinkedIn.
- Academia.edu: This entity is sometimes referred to as the LinkedIn for researchers. Post research, publications, etc. and follow other researchers/scholars who are doing the same. Each time someone Google searches your name Academia.edu will let you know a search has occurred.
Execution Phase
In the execution phase you are applying for academic jobs, preparing for or participating in conference, phone, and on-campus interviews, and continuing to use your network to uncover leads. At this phase in the process you most likely should be searching for, applying to, and interviewing for academic jobs. You may hear about jobs through conferences, job placement websites, or your online and in person community, so stay alert!
Job Posting Websites
- Academic360: A meta site of resources for an academic job seeker.
- Academic Jobs Today: A daily site devoted to academic job seekers and employers seeking them.
- Academic Jobs Wiki: A community sourced wiki of academic job postings, preparation articles, and accounts of good and bad interviews. Don't forgot this is anonymous and open source so anyone can add information.
- American Association of Community Colleges: Their career center focuses on candidates interested in community college positions.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education: A go-to resource to search for teaching, research, administrative, and executive positions.
- HERCJobs: The Higher Education Recruitment Consortium was started in 2000 to address dual career couples. The national consortium and regional consortiums include job boards for faculty and administrative positions.
- HigherEdJobs: Search by category, location, or job type.
- MSU Library Postdoc Database: A listing of postdoc fellowships and grant opportunities.
- PhD's: A site devoted to candidates in the science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) disciplines.
- Postdoc Jobs: This site is specific to postdoc opportunities in a variety of fields.
- Research Gate: A place to search for research positions by field, and to connect with other researchers.
Academic Interviewing
Academic interviewing generally includes multiple steps. The first interview often takes place at a conference or meeting or over the phone or video conferencing software like Skype or Google Hangout.
Second interviews or campus interviews are generally day long events where you engage in multiple interviews with various academic constituencies who could include the hiring committee, students, department chair, dean, or even provost. These interviews are also where the Job Talk takes place. While the process of engaging in academic interviews is distinct general interviewing prep is still useful.
Generally the last steps in the process involve evaluating your offer(s), negotiating, and making plans for transitioning to your new appointment.
Considering a Non-Academic Job Search or Dual Job Search?
Many PhD students recognize that given the nature of today's market it also makes sense to concurrently explore non-academic opportunities. The University Career Center provides a wide range of resources on how to explore industry and non-academic roles, and we would love to meet with you and discuss more about how to support that exploration. Make an Appointment with the UCC PhD career coaching team today!