A Classic Job-Search Guide Turns 25

Kevin Van Aelst for The Chronicle

Editor’s Note: Julie Miller Vick and Mary Morris Heiberger began writing their Career Talk column for The Chronicle when we created an online jobs and advice site, in 1998. In 2004, after Heiberger’s death, Vick was joined in writing the book and the Career Talk column by Jennifer S. Furlong. Now a new co-author joins their team: Rosanne Lurie, senior associate director of career services for graduate students and postdocs at the University of Pennsylvania. This month they talk about their fifth edition of The Academic Job Search Handbook and about what’s changed in the hiring process for Ph.D.s in the past quarter-century.

Julie: Three years ago we were pleased to learn that the University of Pennsylvania Press was interested in a new edition of The Academic Job Search Handbook. Jenny and I decided we needed a third co-author and approached Rosanne. We liked the idea of weaving another voice into the narrative and we knew there’d be a lot of work to do to update the book and to collect new samples of application documents (one of the strengths of our book) from successful job candidates. Much about the academic job market has changed — not just since the book came out nearly 25 years ago but even since the latest edition was published in 2008. Knowing about those market changes can help job candidates understand the hiring process and stay focused during their search.

Jenny: When the Handbook was first published in 1992, it was the only book of its kind available. Since that long-ago time (when, full disclosure, one of the co-authors of the fifth edition was still in high school), the rise of the Internet has led to a proliferation of voices and conversations about how to help doctoral students and postdocs be successful on the market. (For a brief history of changes in the academic labor market, read our two-part column on “How We Reached This Point.”)

Post 2008, social media has only served to amplify the discussion, with much lamenting and gnashing of teeth. Job candidates have many more outlets — some of them excellent — where they can find job-search advice. But that proliferation of voices, while offering more information, has also increased the levels of angst.

Julie: More than ever, students and postdocs who are planning for a faculty career need to be discerning listeners. From Day 1 in your department or lab, you should pay attention to advanced graduate students and postdocs who go on the market. Observe what works, and what doesn’t. Build relationships with a range of faculty members, particularly those with a reputation as savvy about the job market and professional development in your field. Follow closely the faculty searches done in your own department, and volunteer to serve on search committees when student representation is needed. Finally, read all the great advice that’s out there, saving particular articles for when you will be at that point in your search and need the advice. Start doing this in your first year of graduate school — even if your eventual job search is the last thing you are thinking about at that moment.

Rosanne: One of the things this Handbook does is help job candidates become more sophisticated participants in the market. We’ve offered people a foundation for understanding and engaging in it — for example, detailed sections on how to use networking and social media for professional development and on how to approach potential references. Our goal is for candidates who read the book — and other resources — to be able to take charge of their own professional development and job search.

Jenny: The Academic Job Search Handbook is built around a simple idea: If you are seeking a faculty career, you will have a better chance of negotiating your way into the system if you understand the structures of academic institutions and the conventions of academic hiring. The book encourages the development of self-efficacy, rather than adopting a tone of resignation, frustration, or cynicism — a trap that is easy to fall into in conversations about academic careers.

Job seekers are not powerless, even when the nature of the market includes many elements out of their control. Since the recession of 2008-9, we have seen national recognition of the major shifts in academic hiring — namely, the decrease in tenure-track jobs (relative to the number of recent Ph.D.s) and the decrease in funding for scientific research (where once there were more research options for scientists). The “language of crisis” surrounding the faculty job market has raised everyone’s anxiety level.

Julie: Recently, the Council of Graduate Schools undertook a study to investigate Ph.D. career outcomes across the disciplines (Understanding Ph.D. Career Pathways for Program Improvement). Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are offering grants to principal investigators focused on trainees’ career development, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Next Generation program has a similar goal.

These and many other developments mean that more people than ever on your campus are prepared to help you navigate the job market — deans, provosts, career-services staff, and faculty advisers. Some universities even provide noncredit courses on career issues for Ph.D.s — such as “The Academic Job Search” at Stanford University and the “Academic Job Market Workshop” at Arizona State University (both of which use our Handbook as required reading).

You may still find people in academe who are slow to recognize the enormity of the change in the academic job market, but generally speaking, your Ph.D.-granting institution wants you to succeed, and its leadership may be less focused on narrow measures of doctoral-student success than in the past.

Rosanne: We noticed that many successful candidates who contributed to our book were very enterprising in seeking out the support they needed for their job search. So, early-career grad students: You don’t feel you have the services you need? Ask for them. And keep asking until you get them.

In the late 1990s, postdocs and graduate students at the University of California at San Francisco lobbied for creation of an office to help trainees move on successfully after they finished their doctorates. That office started modestly with a director and a part-time career adviser, and is now a well-established leader in the field. Its staff have contributed enormously to STEM career services nationally — as co-inventors of myIDP and authors of articles on career paths for Ph.D.s. More important, perhaps, doctoral students and postdocs at the university now have first-rate career support, whether they pursue academic careers or some other options.

Beyond a single anecdote, the exponential growth in institutional members of the Graduate Career Consortium attests to the growing commitment across academe to providing career guidance to doctoral students, Ph.D. alums, and postdocs. The first version of the consortium met in 1987 with only four universities represented. By 2000, there were 19 member institutions. Today, the group includes 185 institutions that offer career services to graduate students and Ph.D.s. Some of those members contributed insights that helped us enhance and update the Handbook.

Jenny: Another major market change has been the heightened job requirements of an assistant professorship — and the many documents that departments routinely ask candidates to submit now as part of their applications (such as diversity statements and teaching portfolios). Some postings simply include a brief description of the job as well as the experience and expertise sought. But many others demand more than ever from candidates — expecting new hires to develop a new concentration, a new major, or even a new degree program early on in their tenure. Additionally, the rapid globalization of the student population at most American institutions has placed new burdens on faculty members, beyond the basic need to develop cross-cultural competencies.

In short, colleges and universities seem to be asking more and more of new assistant professors.

As a result, the fifth edition our Handbook includes an analysis of several job announcements, a section for international scholars seeking to work at a campus in the United States, a chapter on cultural and experiential diversity, and an expanded section on alt-ac or nonfaculty positions.

Julie: Finally, one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the market is that there are more postdocs than ever — not just in the sciences but also in the humanities and social sciences, where doing a postdoc wasn’t always expected. I’ve even talked with humanities Ph.D.s who are considering a second postdoc after a productive first one.

For years now, many people have needed to line up a string of adjunct or visiting faculty positions while waiting for a tenure-track position — but in many disciplines this market is as challenging as I’ve ever seen it. People are locked in a holding pattern as the tenure-track market gets tighter and tighter.

Rosanne: The years spent in that holding pattern are the toughest for candidates. If you’re going on the market in the future, you will need to decide how much time you want to invest in temporary work. For most people, those temporary positions are a necessity if you hope to secure a tenure-track position. Be sure you’re using them productively — to build a mature scholarly voice. And always ask yourself: What next?

Jenny: Many Ph.D.s, burned out by the rough academic market, start to explore their nonfaculty options. Nowadays, however, we also meet doctoral students whose main goal, from the very beginning of their Ph.D. programs, is a nonfaculty career. Still others want to learn skills that will enable them to seek a nonfaculty option as a solid Plan B.

They — and we as career advisers — want to normalize the idea that nonfaculty paths are an option to explore, which is why there is a new chapter on nonfaculty options, sample materials from successful job seekers, and a chart of Ph.D.s by field, position, and type of employer.

Julie: Over the years, many Chronicle readers have shared their insights and experiences on academic hiring, work, and life, as well critiques of our advice. We are always grateful for your input. Finding a tenure-track job has never been easy, but today’s graduate students face an extremely challenging climate in which to pursue a Ph.D. and/or a faculty career. We are pleased that our book has been a resource for so many for so long, and we admire those who commit themselves to contributing to scholarship and the field of higher education.