Job Market Resource Sharing

On this page I am happy to share a plethora of resources from my first time on the job market. These were for positions that would begin in Fall 2023. I applied for these positions in my last year of doctoral work. I was finishing writing my dissertation during that year. I also had a young child (she turned two a month after my January fly-outs), and was working in an assistantship. 

I share these as an effort to demystify the job market. My approach and materials are not perfect. They represent one set of examples and are meant to give ideas. I give some more links at the end with additional resources. I hope this is helpful!

General Advice

Before you start looking, consider some of the following...

• Are you open to working anywhere, or are you location-bound?

• Are you hoping to mostly do research, mostly teach, or do some of both?

• Do you care about being on the tenure track?

• Do you care about "prestige" of your institution?

• Are you looking for educational leadership, policy, higher ed, and so on, positions?

• Do you want to be a professor, or more in "industry" like at an AIR or Rand?

Considering these things closely will help to narrow down the kinds of institutions you are looking for and help to guide your search. If you want to do more research than teaching, an R1 university will be best as the typical teaching load will be around 2 courses each semester (before any course buyouts, etc). If you are interested in teaching, a small liberal arts college (SLAC), regional college, or even community college could be a good choice. R2s are somewhere in the middle where you have research expectations but you teach more (maybe a 3:3-ish load). 

Being location-bound substantially narrows possibilities available to you, but it is good to know up front. Keep in mind that at many universities, it is okay/doable to be slightly far away, as it's unusual that you'd be expected to be in-office five days a week. For example, where I work now, I met folks at faculty orientation who lived as far as two hours away because they only come to campus one day per week. Your mileage may vary, of course, but keep this in mind. 

I suggest talking these things over with your mentor/advisor.

Job Search Tracking Spreadsheet

First is a spreadsheet I used to track all the jobs I applied for. You will see various columns present related to dates, requirements, and so on. I also wanted to stay close to Chicago (which didn't end up working out) so I tracked that as well. There is also a second sheet that lists my comparison of the two universities that offered me a job.  I applied to a lot of jobs--I was willing to accept any job I was offered in order to get into academia. 

Cover Letter

This is the submitted cover letter for the position I ultimately accepted following my first round on the job market. I kept this cover letter largely the same for each job, with specific pieces I would tailor to the individual jobs in the first and last paragraphs, and sometimes elsewhere if the position had something specific. If I could go back, I would likely approach the cover letters in a tiered way... For jobs that I was less interested in, I would send a fairly generic cover letter like this one. For the jobs I was more interested in, I would very deliberately tailor my cover letter to explicitly reflect/parallel language in the job posting. I would make very clear, likely with bolding or underlining, in explicit statements how I meet their required/preferred qualifications.

Research Statement

This was an extended version of what was on my cover letter. If I could change this I would make it shorter, and I would also have a section discussing plans for grant applications.

Teaching Statement

This one was trickier for me to write because I've never been a K12 teacher or an instructor of record--my only experience was as a TA. Much of what I discussed was aspirational. I provide a second example from my second search, where I speak directly to my actual teaching experiences.

Diversity Statement

With this statement I tried to provide a concrete description of where I have been and the efforts I could make at a university. I think if I had to do this over again, I would likely really deliberately tailor this to each university. If a university is asking for one of these statements it is likely they really value DEI work. So I would do my homework, researching DEI work currently going on at the university, and note specifically how I could fit into or expand those efforts. I think the proposals I made here were very generic.

List of References

I am not going to provide my references. I had my advisor, a professor on my dissertation committee who I had done outside research with, and a professor who I had taken classes with and also taught as a TA with. I tried to consider my references together as a package--how will each individual complement one another to provide a full picture of myself as a scholar? Who can speak to your research trajectory? Teaching? Service work? 

Preparing for the Zoom Interviews

Before each Zoom interview, I wrote out notes for myself about the position, what they were looking for, and how I fit each aspect. I also got the names of the committee members and looked each up to learn more about them and consider how I might connect to their work. Writing the notes down helped me to solidify the information in my head. I would also look at the curriculum for the program hiring to get an idea of courses I might be well-prepared to teach. I rehearsed introducing my research work concisely. Most Zoom interviews asked the same sorts of questions... Why did you apply to this position? What is your research? Tell us how you teach diverse students. Do you have plans for grants? What service do you engage in? I found some lists online of lots of questions and took notes on my answers to all of them, again, just to help really absorb my thoughts.

Preparing for the On Campus Interview

You will likely need to prepare for several formal interviews, a job talk (sharing your research), and potentially a teaching demo. Similar to the Zoom interviews, I did a lot of research to ensure I had a really strong understanding of the context and the people within it. I wrote a lot of notes on each person on the committee/that I would meet, the programs, mission, and so on, and put those into a "cheat sheet" that I kept with me to read and reread. The formal interviews felt stressful but were often somewhat similar--introducing your research, why you want to be at the university, teaching matters, and so on. For the job talk, I was given around 30-45 minutes for each of the campus visits I did. I tried to introduce myself, my research, present a specific paper (in progress), discuss my future work, and then connected to the university. I also gathered lists of questions I might expect and ask within the interviews and prepped to answer them, writing (again!) notes. I provide below a sample schedule from one of my on-campus interviews, my job talk, notes on the different interview types, and a list of questions for them. I also provide a teaching demo slide deck from my second time on the market.

What to pack? In addition to the normal clothing, my recommendations include to ensure you bring...

• Electrolyte packets--I continually put these in my water to ensure I felt my best

• Snacks and keep them in your bag to eat because eating during the interview is hard

• Mints

• Mini steamer--easier than an iron

• Ibuprofen

• Honey sticks and/or cough drops

• Bandaids

• Floss

• Tide stick

• Chocolate or some other special snack to eat when you are on your own after the interview

Other Resources

• UCEA Job Search Materials: https://ucea.org/handbook_8.php 

• The Professor Is In: https://theprofessorisin.com/ 

• Job Search Spreadsheet 1—This is more often used for higher education-focused jobs but K-12 will sometimes show up. View in Incognito mode: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EQRP0-SwFIXijICV9IPP5pdZEez2MhCSaM2AiqHvO2w/edit?gid=1986790433#gid=1986790433 

• Job Search Spreadsheet 2—This is a newer K-12 leadership-focused spreadsheet. View in Incognito mode: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16zh6hzDKrgtw1pdk8WhniG3zmBQ95z9oCd4xlb4LIMo/edit?gid=520008257#gid=520008257 

• Paul Bruno’s Academic Job Market resources: https://www.paul-bruno.com/2021/07/tips-for-the-academic-job-market/ 

• Policy Jobs:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KHaR3tw_ww355nrmKqQeiUHse5euIDubyXNlw6RrVNg/htmlview?pli=1#gid=1026863657