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tutorials:faculty_jobs

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Faculty Jobs

  • A brief guide on how to get a faculty job; by Chih-Horng Kuo (chk@gate.sinica.edu.tw)
    • The information here mostly reflects the opinion and experience of one person
    • Remember: Every vote counts
  • Target audience: graduate students and postdocs (in biology), interested in a faculty job in a research-oriented university/institute

Preface

  • Prerequisites
    • Know the job
    • Know yourself: Is this what you really want as a long-term career option?
    • How much do you plan to invest in the preparation? How to make the best investment?
  • This guide covers the process of application and interview
    • The chance of success is greatly influenced by factors before this process
    • Nevertheless, knowing the process may further improve the chance, or at least minimize the risk of messing up at the critical steps

Find Openings

  • Job ad posting sites, journals, email list
    • Science, Nature, etc
    • Professional organizations (e.g., academic society)
  • Social media (e.g., Twitter)
  • Departmental/institutional websites
  • Personal contact

Application Package

  • Read the job ad carefully
    • Deadline? Required materials? Specific instruction?
    • May emphasize or limit the research area(s); do not over-interpret
  • Common components
    • Cover letter
    • Curriculum Vitae (CV): make the information clear!
    • Research achievement
    • Future plan
      • Time scale: ~5-year to get promoted/tenured, long-term (10+ years)
    • Teaching statement
    • Reprints of representative publications
  • Recommendation letters
    • Often sent directly by referees
    • Ask early
    • Provide helpful information (e.g., updated CV, application package, points you would like to be highlighted)

Interview

  • Key points
    • This may seem like a daunting challenge, yet you should have plenty of experience of seeing people who did well or poorly when you are a student/postdoc. Participate in those events, watch the candidates closely in their seminars and meeting with students/postdocs. What can you learn?
    • Surprising fact: Based on my 20+ years of experience, in almost every round of faculty recruitment, ~1 out of the ~4-6 candidates (who all look excellent on paper) would mess up
    • Once you make it to this step, they want you to be successful. Prove them right!
    • People are looking for someone who is good professionally (research, teaching, etc) and likely will be a good colleague for the next few decades.
      • Be yourself, but also think about what kind of colleagues you would like to have, and behave (project the image) accordingly
      • Introverts often suffer some disadvantages. Being shy around strangers is normal, but overly so may be viewed as cold/uninterested/immature
    • Show them that you are ready to take the job. If you are not sure, then why should they hire you?
    • Interview goes both ways. Would them want to offer you a job? Would you want to accept the offer?
  • The host and staff are your friends, treat them with respect and ask for help as needed
  • Homework
    • Department/University/City
    • Question list
      • You want to know the place well (likely will work there for a very long time!)
      • You should be genuinely interested, show them
      • Different people may give different answers to the same questions; ask again (and again) as needed/appropriate
  • Travel arrangements
  • Seminars [important!]
    • Research talk (public)
    • Future direction (closed-door)
    • Teaching
  • Meeting with people
    • Faculty members
      • Are you prepared and know who they are?
      • Do you want to have them as future colleagues?
    • Students
      • Are they the kind of students that you would like to have?
      • Are they happy?
      • What do they like/dislike the department/university?
    • Administrators
      • The specifics of job offer and future expectation
  • Visiting the facility
    • Do they have what you need?
  • After the interview
    • Show appreciation
    • Follow-up as appropriate
  • What to do and what to avoid?

Negotiation

  • Make sure to get what you need to be successful
  • Nice to get what you want, but do not over-emphasize these
tutorials/faculty_jobs.txt · Last modified: 2022/10/12 10:11 by chkuo