CAREER TALK

Market Changes

A new edition of a popular handbook on the academic job search underscores how the hiring process has changed

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines On Message Managing PR Crises No two controversies are the same, but some basic public-relations principles can help you handle the fallout. Career News Assorted Stipends The compensation-and-benefits packages paid to teaching and research assistants vary widely, according to a Chronicle survey. Ms. Mentor He's Hogging the Course I Want Should you wail to your colleagues, wait your turn, or find your own little piece of turf? Moving Up Managing From the Middle Five rules to help you as a midlevel administrator lead people over whom you have no real authority. Resource Salaries: Faculty | Administrative Presidential pay: Private | Public Financial resources: Salary and cost-of-living calculators Career resources: Academic | Nonacademic Library: Previous articles by topic | by date | by column Career Talk, Ms. Mentor, and more... Landing your first job On the tenure track Mid-career and on Administrative careers Nonacademic careers for Ph.D.'s Talk about your career Blogs

By JULIE MILLER VICK and JENNIFER S. FURLONG

Editor's Note: Ten years ago, The Chronicle debuted its online Career Network, featuring advice columns and first-person essays written by, and for, academics. The Career Talk column has been with us from the beginning, written by the authors of The Academic Job Search Handbook, first published 16 years ago by the University of Pennsylvania Press. This month, Penn Press is publishing the fourth edition of that book. We talked with our columnists, Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong (who became Vick's co-author after the death in 2003 of Mary Morris Heiberger), about the new edition and about changes in the academic hiring process.

The Academic Job Search Handbook was first published in 1992. How has the hiring process in academe changed since then? What's different about today's market?

Julie and Jenny: Probably the most significant change is the emergence of the Internet. It has altered the way candidates communicate with search committees, and drastically increased the amount of information about a given institution that they can use in preparing for interviews.

Conversely, the Internet has given search committees the opportunity to meet candidates online before meeting them in person — either through use of a search engine like Google or by looking at a link to a professional Web site provided by the candidate. Search-committee members are forming first impressions based on Web content that may not be in the candidate's control. That's why we continued to include some sample Web pages in the new edition, and it's why we would encourage candidates to pay close attention to their Web personae.

Another Internet-related development is the rise of online forums, such as The Chronicle's, in which candidates share information about the hiring process, the norms for candidate/committee behavior, and the status of particular searches.

Some fantastic advice can be found on such forums, but they can also increase the anxiety and confusion of job candidates, who will receive multiple opinions about how to approach any given situation. We encourage candidates to consider their own values in making a decision about how to proceed.

Certainly, since 1992, the number of temporary academic positions — adjunct, visiting, lectureships, postdocs — has only increased (a trend some critics call the "casualization" of the academic workplace). Finding a tenure-track job is a challenge for candidates in many, if not most, fields.

We increasingly see graduate students and postdocs who either have a Plan B career path in mind, or who chose to attend a doctoral program in order to pursue nonacademic careers, such as in consulting, finance, curatorial work, and industry or government research.

Candidates today seem much more aware of the challenges inherent in a faculty job search and the career options available to them if academe doesn't work out.

You've expanded the sections of the book that deal with dual-career couples, and with being pregnant or a new parent on the market. What are one or two key considerations that such couples need to talk through before they go on the market?

Julie and Jenny: Departments are well aware that many job candidates are members of a couple and that often both are academics. Departments aren't just looking to hire unattached Ph.D.'s.; they want to hire the strongest candidate who is the best fit for the job. In most cases, departments will do what it takes to get that candidate to say yes. But the difficulty is, a department that wants to hire you can't force another department to hire your spouse.

As members of an academic couple, you and your partner need to decide — before going on the market — whether you are willing to live apart for a while. If not, you need to agree on geographical locations that have the most opportunities for both of you. If you are willing to live apart for a while, talk about what that might mean. What if the two of you end up with offers from campuses that are thousands of miles apart. In the new book, we provide some questions that couples need to address before applying.

Should job candidates expect hiring committees to accommodate their need to breastfeed during the interview process?

Julie and Jenny: We wouldn't expect a job candidate to actually take her infant to an interview. However, many candidates whose job search took place just after the birth of a child have let us know that they were able to take time during a day of interviews to pump. If you find yourself in that situation, ask the person organizing your interview schedule to set aside a few breaks during the day. Also, if you're expecting a baby, we talk in the book about ways to "present the pregnancy" to interviewers.

Another expanded chapter in the fourth edition focuses on "atypical" candidates — international scholars, older scholars, people with "gaps" on their CV's. What is the best way for candidates who fall into one of those categories to handle the quirks of their personal background?

Julie and Jenny: The best way for candidates in those categories to present their background is to show that they are active scholars who are making a contribution to their disciplines. Your application materials should focus on your strengths, not your perceived weaknesses. And candidates for whom English is a second language should make sure their English is strong.

The chapter on "The Expanded Job Market" seems to recognize the unpredictability of the academic market and encourage Ph.D.'s to consider their nonacademic options. Why did you feel it was important to expand that chapter?

Julie and Jenny: The reality is that not everyone who completes a Ph.D. wants to pursue an academic career. They may come to that decision somewhere in the graduate program, while completing the dissertation, or even during a postdoc. However, some still want the degree. And, of course, another reality is that not everyone who applies for a faculty position will get one. So it's important to know what options are out there and consider them early on.

What changes, or new trends, do you see on the academic market of the future? Any new shifts that Ph.D.'s and graduate students should be aware of?

Julie and Jenny: The Internet continues to provide job candidates with new ways to stage their qualifications. Candidates must wisely manage their Web presence — be it blogs, Web sites, or contributions to online discussion groups. Ultimately some of that content is out of your control, which can be nerve-racking.

And those concerns do not end once you are hired; today's junior faculty members need to figure out what is an appropriate blog presence and how much contact to have with students over social-networking sites such as Facebook. Setting boundaries can be challenging, and the guidelines for what is, and isn't, appropriate are sometimes blurry.

Similarly, job candidates and new assistant professors will be increasingly evaluated on the type of technological know-how and creativity they bring to the classroom experience — both in person, and as part of a distance-learning program.

Interdisciplinarity continues to be a buzzword in academe. However, we find that candidates with interdisciplinary degrees sometimes struggle in the market as most academic positions at the assistant-professor rank fall within the lines of traditional departments. Those of you with interdisciplinary degrees should think carefully about how to market yourself and be sure that you develop skills relevant to departments organized in more traditional ways, such as being able to teach an entry-level course in a given field.

What else is new in this edition that might be of use to job seekers?

Julie and Jenny: Perhaps the most significant contribution is the increased number of sample written materials we include. A chapter entitled "Vitas" (shorthand for curriculum vitae) discusses the organization and content of the vita and includes samples from a variety of fields, all of which have been updated. In this edition are more sample research statements and teaching philosophies in a variety of disciplines. Also new this year is a sample interview itinerary, a teaching portfolio, and a sample offer letter.

We want candidates to see that there are many ways to craft an effective CV. There is no magic format that will guarantee committee interest in your candidacy. What matters is choosing a format that best highlights your credentials and is, to a certain extent, tailored to the type of institution to which you're applying.

For example, if you're interested in a career at a teaching-focused college, don't position the Teaching Experience section on the last page (something we have seen many a candidate do). In the book, at the top of each sample CV, we've added the type of institution in which the candidate is working. Readers can use that information to get a sense of how to tailor their own materials.

Julie Miller Vick is senior associate director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jennifer S. Furlong is associate director. They are authors of The Academic Job Search Handbook (University of Pennsylvania Press). If you have questions for the Career Talk columnists, send them to careertalk@chronicle.com. For an archive of previous Career Talk columns, see http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/archives/columns/career_talk.