In 2021-2022, I was on the job market. In preparation, I attended lots of workshops, seeked the advice of many people beyond my advisors, and referred to many informative blogs such as Kira Goldner’s excellent three part series. I highly recommend looking through these.
Advice
There is an overwhelming amount of advice. Most is good advice. But it is my opinion that, although well-intentioned, this advice does not always give a good return on investment.
If you ask “what can I do to prepare for the job market,” you will generally get good recommendations. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the market, the actual effect of following this advice on the job market outcome is often negligible.
Instead, you should ask “what can I do that will most affect my job outcome?” There are two key criteria for answers this question:
- The advice must be something you can actually do.
- If followed, it should significantly impact your ability to get a job.
As an applicant, there are many things you have zero control over. And there are many things that, for better or for worse, will minimally impact your ability to get a job. I’ve filtered this down my experience to what I personally found to be the 5 most impactful things you can actually do.
1. Get fit
When interviewing on-site, many faculty simply want to preview what it will be like to have you around as their coworker for the next 6 years.
So make sure you are in shape. Build up your endurance. Faculty interviews are a physically grueling process (12+ hours of walking, standing, and talking). If you aren’t in shape, you will quickly lose all your energy and be exhausted by the end of the day. And people generally don’t get good vibes when around tired people.
2. Have money reserves
Interviewing is expensive. My credit card bills for April, May, and June totalled approximately $11k. Eventually, you will get reimbursed. But reimbursement can take anywhere from 1-3 months, so you need to be able to front the cost initially.
3. Focus on the non-experts
At any department, chances are that the majority of faculty do not work in your area. Since faculty job decisions are typically made by consensus voting, this means that the majority of voting power has low expertise in your area.
Tailor your talk for non-experts. If you need to ration your time, spend it on the non-experts. These are the people that collectively hold the most decision-making power and offer the most potential to change an offer outcome. In contrast, the experts in your area form a small group, and hence have low voting power while being already inclined to support you.
4. Maximize your chances
At the start, keep the net wide and apply to as many places as possible. The faculty job market is a very unhealthy and unpredictable market. This is one of the few but largest impacting decisions you can make that will determine whether or not you obtain a job offer.
5. Plan a vacation
The process is physically rough and timeline-wise extremely long, taking up the better portion of a 9 month period. I planned a vacation for the end of my interviews. This gave me something to look forward to regardless of how I felt during the interview process, which I felt mentally helpful. Besides, after the interviewing season, you will probably need and take a break anyway.