• Arrange for letters of recommendation to be written by everyone who will support your search. Your advisor will probably update his or her letter as your dissertation progresses through its final stages.
• Prepare your teaching portfolio in case you are asked for it. Develop a list of the materials you plan to include.
• Keep working on your dissertation or postdoctoral research.
• If you’re in an art or design field, prepare the visual materials you’ll be asked to submit with applications.
• Attend any programs on the academic job search that may be offered on campus or at conferences.
• Continue to keep in close touch with your advisor and other recommenders, and let them know where you are in the application process.
• If you find yourself confined to a specific geographical location, make direct inquiries to departments that particularly interest you. (What you are most likely to discover in this way are non-tenure track positions.)
• Review the literature in your field and subfield in preparation for interviews.
• Check to see that letters of application have been received by the departments to which you have applied.
• Investigate sources of funding for your research so that you can discuss your plans with hiring institutions.
• Plan ways to maintain your perspective and sense of humor during what can be a trying time. Be sure to seek out campus resources, encourage others who are going through the same thing, and nurture your own support network.
Eight Months Before
• Prepare yourself for the possibility of being contacted by email or phone to schedule interviews.
• If you are in a discipline where preliminary interviews for faculty positions are held at conferences, you may wish to consider whether or not you will attend even if you do not have interviews scheduled well in advance. Requests from search committees may come up unexpectedly, and it will help if you know how you will handle them.
• Prepare carefully for each preliminary interview, whether it is a phone, video, or conference interview. Remember to send thank you notes after each interview.
• If you are contacted for preliminary interviews, know that campus interviews are the next step in the process.
• If you give a presentation or job talk as part of an interview day on campus, practice it in advance. Organize a practice talk/presentation with your department and get feedback.
• Continue to look, apply, and interview for positions.
• This may be a stressful time. Plan to take some breaks for activities or events that you consider relaxing and renewing.
Six Months Before
• Continue to apply and interview for positions, although most openings will have been announced by now.
• You may begin to get offers. If you feel you need more time to make a decision about an offer, don’t hesitate to ask for it. You will, however, have to abide by whatever time frame you and the institution agree on for your decision. You don’t need to be totally open with everyone at this stage, but you must be completely honest. When you do accept a position, consider your acceptance a binding commitment.
• It is possible your job hunt will not yield the offers you seek. If you have received offers but have strong reservations about them, don’t think that you must take absolutely any job that is presented to you. Keep in mind, however, that in a competitive job market, tenure-track offers can be few and far between, so think carefully before rejecting an offer.
• If you did not receive any offers, talk with your advisor and others about the best way to position yourself for next year’s market. You can also keep watching for one-year appointments, which are often announced later than tenure-track positions.
• If your Plan B involves a non-faculty job search, see Chapter 23, “Exploring the Expanded Job Market,” for helpful resources.
• After you have accepted a job, take time to thank everyone who has been helpful to you in the process.
Chapter 4
Deciding Where and When to Apply
Before you begin a job search, think about what kind of job you want and whether you are currently prepared to compete successfully for it. Study position announcements to see what different types of institutions seem to require, and use the information to help plan your next steps. If you do not yet seem qualified to compete successfully for the jobs you really want, consider whether a postdoctoral position or fellowship, additional teaching experience, or another kind of opportunity will position you for a successful search.
It is important to think about both your priorities and your realistic chances of achieving your goals. Even in a tight market where you feel options are limited, it is still useful to keep your sights on what you really want. The more articulate you can be about your plans and goals, the easier it will be for you to communicate with your advisor and others who will assist you in your job search, to prepare for interviewing, and to assess job offers.
Sharing your thoughts with your advisor, department placement chair, and others who will work with you in your search can help these individuals act effectively on your behalf. Conversations with them can help you clarify your own thinking as it evolves. Honest faculty feedback about your choices can be enormously helpful to you. The best way for you to elicit it is to ask for candor, assuring those you ask that your feelings will not be hurt by what you hear. Needless to say, respond in a way that does not cause someone to regret his or her frankness with you.
Understanding the Market
Competition for faculty positions in every discipline is very strong. You must know something about the job market before you begin your search. The more informed you are, the better your search will be. The experience of graduate students a few years ahead of you in your department or postdocs who finished a few years earlier provides a very limited knowledge base. You need to do additional research to be conversant with several topics.
Learn about the hiring outlook in your discipline and in your field of research. Try to get a sense of how broad the market is in your field. You may find that opportunities exist outside traditional departmental definitions: for example, although your degree is from an arts and sciences department, you might seek a position in a professional school such as business, government, communication, or education. Find out how many times typically people in your field go on the job market before obtaining a faculty position. Additionally, if you are in a highly specialized field, it is crucial that you know when and where openings are anticipated.
There are several ways you can obtain this information. Read articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education. Contact your scholarly association (see Appendix 1) for reports it may have produced about the market. Check to see whether your department, university career center, or graduate dean’s office has records of the jobs taken by new Ph.D.s from your school. Talk with students in your department who are on the market or recent graduates who have new faculty positions. Even if you are not on the market yet, take a close look at the job postings for your field to get a sense of what is asked of job candidates. Above all, talk regularly with your department chair, mentor, and other faculty members about the job market in your field.
In addition it is crucial to keep abreast of general economic trends, particularly those that affect higher education. Read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other major media outlets. Attend presentations on trends in higher education, as the industry is currently changing quickly