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This Must Be the Place

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By David S. Marks

In my first column about my job hunt in ecology, I wrote about searching for a place in academe -- a department where I could make a career, in a region where I could pursue the study of local organisms.

Let's cut to the chase: I start in the fall as an assistant professor of ecology at a teaching-oriented university in the North. In many ways it feels like a remarkable and surprising development and in other ways like a natural outcome. Before I move across the country (again) and jump into my new job, I'd like to take this opportunity to reflect on the process.

I am an empirical scientist, so I can't do this without some statistics. In the final accounting, I applied for 39 jobs this year -- 36 of them on the tenure track. In that pool, 15 of the jobs were at doctoral universities, 5 at master's-level institutions, and 19 at four-year colleges. I applied to 9 institutions in the Northeast, 19 in the Midwest, 4 in the Southeast, and 7 in the West.

Over all, I had reasonable success. I learned that I made the first cut at 15 departments -- either because I was asked to do an interview of some sort (11), was notified by letter during the process (3), or found out later in a rejection letter (1). I had eight telephone interviews and three on-campus interviews as a finalist.

I have received 29 rejection letters, I withdrew from one search, and I've yet to hear from eight institutions. In that last category are two departments where I had telephone interviews but never heard from the search committee again, and six institutions that apparently have been avoiding me ever since my initial application.

At one institution that shall remain nameless, someone really deserves a lump of coal in their stocking next Christmas: I have applied for a total of three positions there and have never received any acknowledgment. That may be a good thing, given what it says about the college.

I applied for a variety of positions -- some them straightforward biology jobs, some of them in two or three specific subfields, and some in environmental studies. Of my pool of 39 jobs, 23 explicitly mentioned that the position would involve interdisciplinary or environmental work. Of those, 6 were directly in environmental sciences, 4 were biology positions that emphasized applied research, and 13 were biology jobs that involved some teaching in environmental areas.

I had hoped that I would have a leg up on the competition for interdisciplinary or environmental-studies positions because of my dissertation topic and my current postdoctoral work on a multidisciplinary project. But that didn't happen. I made the first cut for those interdisciplinary jobs at the same rate (9 of 23) as I did the straightforward biology positions (6 of 16), and was chosen as a finalist only for the more traditional jobs.

So all the hype about departments being interested in scholars with interdisciplinary expertise didn't pan out for me. I had found only two jobs open at newfangled interdisciplinary research institutes similar to my current employer, and I wasn't a finalist for either.

Indeed, my impression is that I more often drew the interest of search committees because of my demonstrated expertise in local ecological systems near the college at hand than because of any ability to integrate across disciplines.

In my previous column, I described two of my campus-interview experiences -- one at a large university and another at a liberal-arts college. In the end I wasn't offered either job. Fortunately I got a call from that Northern university.

I was excited about it from the start, in part, because while undergraduate teaching is the primary mission of the university, I would also be a mentor there for master's-level students. I would thus be able to apply both my teaching and research skills. Getting tenure there would not depend primarily on grant-writing, although I would have the opportunity to conduct research.

I liked that the teaching load was reasonable, and that the course assignments fit my interests. I also liked that the department already had several active assistant or associate professors who would be logical candidates for research collaboration.

Finally, the climate and natural environment of the region surrounding the university are attractive to me for both personal and professional reasons. The university is in a cold state, which was a real priority for me since I do research outdoors during the summer, and dislike hot weather. I am familiar with some of the local flora and fauna because of similarities to the state in which I was a graduate student. And I have relatives in the state, and my wife's relatives are within a day's drive.

It isn't completely a fairy-tale ending. My principal disappointment came during the post-offer negotiations. I had read that when a potential employer offers you a job, you are in the strongest bargaining position of your entire career. I had a list of demands prepared: a paid visit to find a house, help arranging a nonfaculty job for my wife, and research equipment. I presumed that I would be reimbursed for my moving expenses.

However, when it came time for the big phone call with the dean, the responses were "no, we don't pay for that," "here is a phone number; make your own contacts," and "we have internal grants; you can apply for one later." I was quite happy with the salary and fringe benefits, but they were set by union contract and there was no negotiating to be done. I did eventually secure a small amount of start-up money, but over all, that part of the hiring process was a big dud.

Apparently most of the advice about post-offer negotiating applies to elite research institutions.

Despite a few frustrations, I am very happy with the outcome of my search. A little perspective came recently in the form of a conversation I overheard between two of my fellow postdocs. Both had contracts with our research project that were ending, but they had yet to work out their next destination. I am greatly relieved not to be in that position. Having a job I am actually enthusiastic about seems like icing on the cake.

My new destination will simultaneously be the town in which I live, the university at which I work, the natural environment in which I conduct research, and the home in which my family grows up. My wife and I recently visited our new town to take care of bureaucratic tasks and to find a place to live, and in many ways we wished we didn't have to return to our current city.

I have conducted a search for place, and, barring major plot twists, I think I have found it.