Posted on behalf of the Prospective Professor

When I started the process of finding a job, I assumed that the most challenging aspect would be the endless grilling during the interviews. I imagined that during my individual meetings with faculty members they would challenge my basic chemistry and biology knowledge, test me on my familiarity with their work and just generally attempt to check the integrity of my fundamental scientific knowledge. I expected that the proposal defense seminar (or “chalk talk”) would be filled with impossible questions, many that could only warrant the answer, “That’s an interesting question, I will have to look into that” (read as, I have NO idea).

I’m happy to report that the experience was nothing like this. People were excited to meet me and tell me about their department. Most started the meeting by saying, “Do you have any questions about our department that I could answer for you?” It was in less than 50% of the cases that we actually got around to talking about science. And while I wouldn’t call the “chalk talks” easy, I can honestly say that it was only on the rare occasion when I didn’t have an answer to a question or that I felt that people were “testing” me instead of being genuinely curious about my ideas.

It turns out that despite the huge amount of concern I poured into the interviews, I hadn’t recognized what would be the most challenging aspect of the job hunt: Deciding which job to accept.

There are so many factors to consider ranging from the quality and number of grad students, to instrumentation availability and collegiality of the faculty. I have to take into account the start-up and salary offers, teaching requirements, fundability of the institution, space availability, and the mission of the department. Next, I must decide if a chemistry department, biochemistry department or medical school would best fulfill all of my needs. And this is before I start to ponder the more personal issues such as location, cost of living, and personal relationships. How do I weigh each of these issues so that they are represented adequately in my final choice?

...

If I knew the answer to this question, I would have already made my decision!

Posted by Joshua Finkelstein at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted on behalf of the Prospective Professor

The calls to request interviews started to come late in October and the interviews themselves started as soon as mid-November. The visits last for 1-2 days and seem to follow the same general schedule, meals out with faculty, short meetings with 10-20(!) different people and two seminars, one describing previous research accomplishments and one detailing the proposed research plan (otherwise known as the “chalk talk” even though everyone uses slides).

It’s a spectacular experience to meet with so many people in the chemistry world. These will be my life long colleagues. I will see them at conferences and study sections, review their papers and they will review mine. I’ve learned about research that I might never have read about on my own accord, but that I’ve found incredibly intriguing. I’ve discussed my future plans with countless people and with each visit my ideas are challenged, analyzed and ultimately strengthened.

Despite the excitement, the novelties of travel wear off pretty quickly. Depending upon where you are coming from and going to, your internal clock will either make you extremely tired in the morning, or unbelievably groggy during dinner. And after a while the thrill of flying to a new place, staying in a fancy hotel and eating every meal out feels more like being trapped in a flying tin box towards a destination where you will stay in a sterile looking room with a hard bed while eating approximately 4x more food than usual. I never thought I’d see the day when the sight of the dessert menu makes me mildly queasy.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to visit these institutions, but I can’t help feeling a bit out of sorts as I sit on the floor of an airport waiting for a delayed flight while wearing the same suit that I’ve had on for the last week...

Posted by Catherine Goodman at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted on behalf of the Prospective Professor

Once you have figured out where the jobs are (see previous post), the next major hurdle in the process is preparation of the application materials. Upon reading the first job postings, it seemed pretty obvious. “Please include a cover letter, CV, a brief description of proposed research and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent directly to the department.” Got it. Then you sit down at your computer to start typing… Wait, do they care what font I use? Or how small the margins are? Forget that, how long is this thing supposed to be?!?!

I polled a number of people who have recently gone through this process. The answers left me more confused and unsure than when I started. I received many different responses to the question, “How many proposals should I submit, and how long should each be?”

“You must submit 3 proposals, no more, no less. And they cannot be longer than 2 pages.”
“Anywhere from 2-4 proposals, each between 2-4 pages.”
“5 pages each proposal, at least 2 proposals.”

I applied a complicated algorithm to average and weigh each answer (read as: fretted for endless hours) and eventually decided to go with the most conservative answer. 3 proposals, 2 pages each, 6 pages total. But then I read more ads. “Please submit a 3 page description of your proposed research…” “Include a one page summary of future research plans...” Humph. All told I needed a 6, 3, 2, and 1 page version of this thing.

I seriously contemplated submitting the following:
“Dear Search Committee,
1 page version: I want a job.
3 page version: I really want a job.
6 page version: I really, really want a job.”

Instead, I plodded on, carefully crafting each version (i.e., making margins smaller and smaller until the 3 page document suddenly fit onto 2 pages!). And cursed at the printer at 2 am when it ran out of magenta ink.

The next task on my list was to figure out that darn cover letter. Which person did I believe - the one that told me, “The cover letter is critical. It’s your one chance to get someone’s attention. You need to summarize your career up until now and your future plans all in one page.” Or the other that said, “In our department, they ripped off the cover letter and threw it away.” Sigh…

Posted by Catherine Goodman at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

[Editor's note: another guest blogger has joined our team...]

-------------

Posted on behalf of the Prospective Professor:

After eleven years of being entrenched in higher education, I am finally making a break for it. It’s my big moment to chase my wildest professional dreams! Yes, I am looking for my first job… But instead of being deterred after many years of late night studying, failed and repeated (and repeated and repeated) experiments and even after writing that several hundred page thesis (ugh!) I find myself overwhelmingly drawn to the world in which I have been trained. That’s right, I plan to be a professor.

I am currently a post-doc working in a chemical biology lab. Earlier this year, my advisor and I decided that I was ready to start the search for my independent position. Since then, I have attempted to gather as much information as possible about the academic job search process. Despite my best efforts, I’ve only been able to accumulate a collection of rumors, hearsay, and gossip. A few weeks ago, I was lamenting to a friend about the lack of information for those of use who have chosen to pursue a professorship, “Wouldn’t it have been helpful if someone had documented this whole crazy process??” Two days later, I got an email asking me to do just that. So, I hope that I will be able to offer some useful information, tips, and impressions as I make my way to the ultimate destination – a research laboratory of my own.

The first question to ask is: how do I find the open positions? I have been most dependent upon the job search engines available on the websites of a number of journals. For example, see Nature, Chemical & Engineering News, Science, and Cell. As far as I know, these sites post the same jobs that are printed at the back of each journal. However, the online postings appear up to a week before the print version. I have also used several other websites including ChemJobs and Academic Keys.

With each job posting, I was filled with both excitement and dread. I was simultaneously amazed at how many jobs I could apply for and terrified at the thought of attempting to decide which schools were the best fit for me. There are so many variables to consider, from the reputation and funding record of the department to the location and size of the university. And then there was that quiet (and often not-so-quiet) voice inside my head saying, “But what if you don’t get a job?! You must apply for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!”

The rumor mill tells me that for every open position there can be from 100 to 1,000 (and possibly more??) applicants. So each of us must find the balance between having confidence in our academic record and being practical about the level of competition. I’ve heard rumors of people who have applied to more than 100 positions and I’ve also heard tales of the bold scientist that applied to only one. Personally, I feel a bit like I am playing the lottery. How many jobs do I have to apply for to guarantee that I will get an offer? Not surprisingly, I’ve concluded it’s rather difficult to play the odds when I have no idea what the odds are.

In the end, I have decided to apply only for the positions that I could actually see myself accepting. This might seem obvious, but trust me, that not-so-quiet voice can be rather difficult to drown out. For me, the magic number is 43. Only time will tell if I have correctly predicted the probably of success.

(ed's note: I also found the Chronicle of Higher Education helpful in my job searching.)

Posted by Catherine Goodman at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)