Ten simple rules for giving an effective academic job talk

“…It is important to practice mock interviews and practice talks with peers and mentors. As with in-person interviews, you should be prepared to answer questions about your past research, as well as the topics you are interested in studying in the future [ 7 ]. You may decide to take short handwritten or typed notes during the interview (these can be helpful for a follow-up email; Rule 9).…”

Section: Rule 4: Be An Interviewer and An Intervieweementioning

confidence: 99%

Ten simple rules for acing virtual interviews

et al. 2021

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“…This is something that could be directly implemented by field-specific societies and funding institutions. Search committees will also need to value these experiences as equivalent to the current in-person system (66,67). Investments in this area would equip trainees with sufficient information to confidently pursue the career options best-suited to their individual goals and needs.…”

Section: Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from a survey-based analysis of the academic job market

Fernandes

Sarabipour

Smith

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Many postdoctoral fellows in the STEM fields enter the academic job market with little knowledge of the process and expectations, and without any means to assess their qualifications relative to the general applicant pool. Demystifying this process is critical, as there is little information publicly available. In this work, we provide insight into the process of academic job searches by gathering data to establish background metrics for typical faculty job applicants, and further correlate these metrics with job search outcomes. We analyzed 317 responses to an anonymous survey for faculty job applicants from the May 2018 -May 2019 market cycle. Responses were about evenly split by gender, largely North American-centric and life science focused, and highly successful with 58% of applicants receiving at least one offer. Traditional metrics (funding, publications, etc.) of a positive research track record above a certain threshold of qualifications were unable to completely differentiate applicants that did and did not receive a job offer. Our findings suggest that there is no single clear path to a faculty job offer and that perhaps criteria not captured by our survey may also influence landing a faculty position above a certain threshold of qualification. Furthermore, our survey did capture applicants' perception of the faculty job application process as unnecessarily stressful, time-consuming, and largely lacking in feedback, irrespective of a successful outcome. We hope that this study will provide an avenue for better data-driven decision making by the applicants and search committees, better evidence-based mentorship practices by principal investigators, and improved hiring practices by institutions.

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Ten simple rules for giving an effective academic job talk

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

The postdoctoral blueprint part two: the faculty application

The postdoctoral blueprint part two: the faculty application

Ten simple rules for acing virtual interviews

Insights from a survey-based analysis of the academic job market

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