Going on the faculty job market last year was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. In the end, I was very fortunate to land a job as an Assistant Professor at Emory University, which I start in January 2022. My husband will also be a faculty member at Emory in a different department, and figuring out how to get not just one but TWO tenure-track job offers in the same place was a huge challenge.

I’ve now learned a million things about the faculty job search process that I thought could be helpful for others. This list is an abbreviated version of all the advice floating around in my head.

Just to be clear, this is my personal perspective and I’m sure opinions may vary. In addition, some of this advice may apply more to my field (biological sciences) than others. My advice is mainly targeted for research-intensive faculty jobs, although I also applied for teaching-focused jobs at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and could write a whole separate post about that.

So take everything with a grain of salt, and feel free to comment at the end with any additional thoughts!

 

10 Tips for the Faculty Job Search

 

1. Join Future PI Slack. It is an incredible resource to connect with postdocs going through the same thing as you. Almost any question you have about the job search process will be answered. You can find tons of links and resources, examples of application materials and interview questions, even template emails for writing thank you notes.

 

2. Apply broadly. If this is really the job you want, you need to play the numbers. These days it is incredibly difficult to get a tenure-track faculty job, especially at an R1 university. I had to apply to ~90 R1 jobs to get four R1 interviews and two offers, and one of those came through a spousal hire. A hit rate of 1 in 90 is not heartening, I know. If you’re a superstar postdoc you may have a better success rate, but I think most people shouldn’t count on it. I had a much higher success rate with teaching-intensive positions, but I’m not sure that they’re less competitive; most likely my background just made me a better candidate for those jobs.

So, I recommend applying anywhere and everywhere that you would reasonably consider working and living. Don’t exclusively target jobs in “your field”; you can likely pitch your work for adjacent fields as well. And don’t take job ads too literally. They often say they’re looking for someone working in some specific research area. Sometimes that’s true, but often it’s not – once the applications actually come in, they may consider anyone doing cool stuff who would fit well with the department. For example, my husband works in rodents and he got interviewed for a position that stated they only wanted human neuroscience research. So you never know.

 

3. Describe a clear vision for your future research that is broadly interesting, important, unique, and different from your advisor. Emphasize why you’ll have a unique research niche and aren’t just doing some variant of what the rest of the field is doing. The more you can set yourself apart, the better. Get lots of feedback on your research statement to make sure these elements come through.

 

4. Tailor your applications extensively. Read each job ad carefully and scour the department’s website to find out what they value. Translational research? Interdisciplinary collaborations? Being a leader in a specific field or technique? Teaching and education? Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Once you get a sense of the department’s priorities, highlight your alignment with them. I mostly did this in the cover letter, but I also had several different versions of my research, teaching, and diversity statements that emphasized different things.

 

5. Nail the screening interview by being prepared. These are usually 15-30 minute Zoom interviews where you’re being peppered with questions by 3-6 faculty. This is VERY little time to make a good impression! The key is to be extremely well-prepared. They usually ask the same 5-10 questions, which can include:

• Why are you interested in working here?
• What is your research vision?
• What distinguishes you in your field?
• How would you describe your research to an undergraduate student?
• How would you fit in with our department? Who would you collaborate with?
• What is the first project you will do in your lab?
• What is your mentoring approach?
• How would you contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion?
• What courses could you teach?

You should prepare answers for every possible question, tailor those answers for that department (see tip #4), and then practice your answers extensively. Practice so much that you could answer these questions in your sleep! Take a moment to organize your thoughts before answering a question, especially if it’s one you weren’t prepared for. You will only have a minute or two and it is very easy to accidentally ramble on. Make a mental outline of important points to hit. If you tend to get nervous, do a few practice sessions with other people – especially people you find intimidating!

 

6. Make your job talk and chalk talk very broad – usually way broader than you think. You need to make sure that every faculty member in the department can understand your past and future research, no matter their background. Emphasize the overall vision, approach, and significance of your research much more than the details.

 

7. Stay calm when answering questions during your talks. Try not to get flustered, and don’t get defensive. Acknowledge the limitations of your work, but don’t blindly accept all criticism – you are the expert, not them.

Most of all, consider Q&A to be an opportunity for interesting scientific discussions with smart people. I believe that most faculty are judging your style of responding to questions and engaging in discussion more than they care about the actual answer to any specific question. They want to hire someone who will be an engaging colleague, someone who they’ll be able to chat about science with in the hallway and bounce ideas off. Present yourself as that person.

 

8. Some advice for the two-body problem, in which your spouse or partner is also applying for tenure-track jobs:

a) First, you should know that partner hires are feasible and not uncommon. You’re not in some crazy impossible situation that no one has ever heard of. These days partner hires happen all the time, although it can still be very difficult. The good news is that many institutions have procedures and even funds set aside to facilitate partner hires. What will happen is that after the department makes you an offer and you bring up your partner, they will ask for your partner’s application materials and circulate those to relevant departments (possibly including their own). If they find a department that’s interested and has an opening, then the partner will likely need to go through some kind of interview process. This can take over a month, so be prepared to wait.

b) You should also know why departments are incentivized to hire your partner, assuming they’re a good fit. It’s not just charity. At many universities it is very difficult for departments to expand. Often they really want to hire new faculty and they’re constantly putting in requests to do so, but the deans and higher-ups will limit how many hires they’re allowed to make. In some years they may not be allowed to hire anyone. So when a great candidate comes across their desk as a potential spousal hire – an “extra” hire that they didn’t even have to ask for – the department may get really excited. There can also be financial incentives, where the university kicks in money to help the department make the hire.

c) To maximize your chances of getting two jobs, you and your partner should go on the job market at the same time. This doubles your chances of getting an offer (which you can then leverage for a second offer) and also ensures that schools take you both seriously. If one of you needs to wait longer or apply earlier than ideal, that’s ok. I recommend not disclosing your two-body situation during your interviews. Wait until you have a verbal offer, but then bring it up immediately. Remember, it takes a long time to work something out.

d) Very often, departments will say they have no tenure-track positions available for the partner and instead will offer some kind of non-tenure-track position. Don’t be afraid to push for the tenure-track job, but realistically you may have to settle for less. Have serious conversations with your partner about what each person is willing to accept, whose career is the priority, and how you will make your final decision. The non-tenure-track positions I was offered varied widely, from being a glorified postdoc (hell no) to being almost equal to a tenure-track PI (getting decent startup and lab space, etc.). You also want to know how the faculty in that department treat people in those non-tenure-track positions. Will they treat you (or your partner) as an equal colleague?

 

9. Be aware that timelines for different departments’ searches may be extremely disparate. I received my first job offer in January and my last one in May. That means that I often had to make decisions about accepting or declining an offer without knowing what other interviews or offers I (or my spouse) might receive later on. If you’re applying to PUIs, you should know that they operate much more quickly than an R1: if you get a job offer, they expect you to decide within 1-2 weeks. R1s will typically continue discussions with you for several weeks or months, but they may also set a deadline at some point.

 

10. Negotiations are hard, but only because most of us have never done this before. In reality, you’re probably negotiating with someone who has the same goals as you. Typically it’s the department chair, and they’re not your adversary; they’re your partner. They want you to receive a good startup package, salary, etc. because they want you to come there and be happy and successful. Often the department chair is advocating on your behalf to the dean, and it’s the dean who is pinching pennies.

Ask for what you need. Do your research in figuring out what startup amount your lab requires and what salary would be reasonable. If they’re offering something that’s way too low, don’t be afraid to ask for more. Advocate for yourself. As long as you’re polite and professional, you’re not going to offend anyone. If you feel awkward or guilty about asking for more money or space, don’t think of it as making demands for yourself: think of it as negotiating on behalf of your future lab members. Don’t shortchange those poor future students and postdocs!

 

Feel free to comment below if you’d like to share your own tips on the faculty job search!