Academics still talk about “the job market” in the singular, as though only one exists. They mean, of course, the faculty job market. But there are many different labor markets, and increasingly, Ph.D.s are conducting what we call a “tandem search” — that is, simultaneously pursuing openings in academe and industry.
As experts on graduate career counseling, we have some advice for job candidates and their advisers on how to manage a dual search. We’re going to refer to these markets in singular terms, too: By “academe” we mean tenure-track faculty positions, visiting professorships, and postdoctoral research posts. By “industry,” we mean full-time jobs in companies, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and everything in between.
Most job candidates undertake a tandem search for mixed reasons. Maybe the academic job market in your field is hypercompetitive. Maybe you are genuinely interested in both research and application. Maybe you are geographically restricted in where you can live (or where you want to live), have a partner with a career of their own, or are concerned about finances after five or more years on a graduate stipend. Maybe you’re just curious about what’s out there and don’t want to close any doors. Whatever your reasons, a tandem search keeps your options open.
It is, however, an exercise in timing. The faculty hiring process spans the length of an entire academic year, from August or September all the way through to March or April. The length of industry hiring processes varies wildly, but it is almost never that long. For that reason, we recommend focusing on your academic job search in the fall and your industry job search in the spring — with some overlap. Below you’ll find a timeline to help you plan a tandem search this coming academic year that will give you the best possible chance on multiple markets.
Before we proceed, we’re going to presume that you’ve done a bit of pre-work on your industry job search. We hope that during the last few years of your doctoral program, you’ve taken a bit of time to explore your career possibilities and build a list of diverse options that you could see yourself pursuing. That way, as you run your tandem job search, you’re thinking through a carefully chosen set of appealing possibilities, rather than treating industry jobs as a consolation prize if your faculty search doesn’t pan out.
August. In the final weeks of summer break, before you go “on the market” for faculty positions, spend some time sprucing up your CV and other application materials. We’ve already written about how to get started on your cover letters. Any prep you can do at this point will save you precious time in the fall, once academic jobs have been posted. We recommend taking as much advantage of the summer as you can.
September-November. Most academic jobs are posted in late summer and early fall, with filing deadlines in October and November. Assembling application packets for multiple positions is extremely time consuming. During these months, probably 85 percent of your job-search energy and focus should be devoted to tailoring your cover letters, writing teaching and diversity statements, and shepherding your letters of recommendation through Interfolio. For those simultaneously trying to finish a dissertation, all of this feels like a lot. Be gentle with yourself during this very busy time.
However, the remaining 15 percent of that pool of energy and focus can be used to prepare for an industry search in ways that will pay off big in the spring. You don’t need to be applying for industry openings at this point, but you also don’t want to have to start at square one once you do. Here are some ideas for what you can do in these weeks to help your industry search:
- Read job ads to familiarize yourself with the lingo of nonacademic jobs, and gauge your skills and experience vis-à-vis opportunities.
- Explore sites like ImaginePhD (if you’re in the humanities and social sciences) or MyIDP (natural and biomedical sciences).
- Ramp up your informational interviews with people in industries that are most of interest to you.
- Spruce up your LinkedIn profile.
Should an industry job for which you are an exceptionally good fit come along during this time, you might consider applying for it anyway. You are not under any obligation — at the point of application — to decide if you would actually accept the job if it’s offered to you. Applying leaves your options open.
December. Most of your academic job applications will be in. Hiring in many industries pauses for the holidays around mid-to-late December, so give yourself a break, too, as you wait to hear if you’ve made the list for first-round faculty interviews.
January. This is when interview season gets underway. You might still apply for a few late-posting academic jobs, but the bulk of your applications will be done. While you are (with any luck) doing first-round interviews for academic posts, you can begin devoting more attention to your industry search.
Start by getting your résumé and cover letter in order for industry jobs. Now is a great time to talk about that with a career adviser at your university. Those two documents are very different from their academic cousins. The industry versions tend to be shorter and highly curated. Despite their brevity, you are going to need to figure out how to provide more context for your skills and work experiences, and you will have to carefully pick and choose what to include. Your research and teaching may or may not make the top of the list. For that reason, we don’t recommend trying to transform your CV into a résumé. Rather, think about them as entirely separate documents.
Which aspects of your professional identity to emphasize will depend on the industry (or industries). If you’re applying to a think tank or a public school, you definitely want to emphasize your research and teaching experiences. But for many other types of industry positions you might want to highlight the following instead:
- Internships or other industry experiences
- Languages or technical skills
- Public-facing work or communication skills
- Service and leadership roles you’ve performed for a university or a disciplinary society
Once you have a solid draft of your résumé, we recommend reaching out to people you know in industry (perhaps someone you talked with for an informational interview about their career), sharing your job documents, and asking for feedback.
February–March. By this point, you should know whether any departments have invited you to visit their campus for the crucial second-round interview. Most campus visits occur in these months. You’ll need to work with your adviser and committee to prepare a job talk and a teaching demonstration, and to practice answering questions when you meet faculty members and administrators at your prospective college. (You can find plenty of advice on these pages about all aspects of the campus interview, including the ins and outs of virtual visits and job-interview dinners.)
In between campus visits, you should start sending out industry applications. This is not a numbers game. As a Ph.D., you are not more likely to get a job if you submit 10 applications a day than if you do two or three a week. What matters is if your applications are well-crafted and aimed at positions for which you are genuinely a good fit.
Just as you tailored your cover letters and other job documents for academic openings, you will need to do the same for your industry applications. But once you have solid drafts of your résumé and cover letter, the tailoring should take much less time than it did for your faculty applications; it should be possible to send out an industry application in an afternoon. Don’t wait until your materials are “perfect” to begin applying. Hiring timelines vary quite a bit in industry, and it is not unusual for it to take six months to receive an offer (although it can also arrive much more quickly). You can and should continue to tweak your job materials along the way.
April–May. As the end of the academic year approaches, you should have a sense of where you are with both searches. If you get only one offer, and you like the place, the position, and the terms, then the decision is simple. But you are very likely to find yourself in some more-complicated scenarios, which we will consider in turn.
Scenario No. 1: You are offered an academic job while expecting another offer from an industry. Or perhaps it’s the reverse: A company made you an offer while you are awaiting word about an academic position.
This scenario is difficult because you’re comparing something concrete to something hypothetical. But in both situations, the question is the same: Do you want the job you’ve been offered? If the answer is unequivocally Yes, then congratulations. Accept it and go forth.
If the answer is, “Ehhhhh,” then you are left in a predicament that has been fairly common for years on the tenure-track market: The supply of Ph.D.s well exceeds the number of openings in many fields, which means a lot of people don’t get their top-choice position. Your choice here is to (a) say, “No, thank you” and keep searching, (b) reach out to the place you’re waiting to hear back from and say, “I got a job offer, but you are my top choice,” and see if that moves things along, but if it doesn’t, (c) accept an offer that you feel lukewarm about.
Financially, you might feel like (c) is your only option, and if so, that’s fine — take the job. It’s always possible you’ll like it more than you think you will, and if not, you can restart your job search. No job (not even a tenure-track one) is actually permanent. As long as there is space to build skills and expand your network, you may be well served by taking the opportunity.
However, know that you are not obligated to accept. The first offer is not always the right one. You can say no for reasons that have nothing to do with the work itself — because the job is in the wrong location, because it isn’t enough money, or because you got a bad feeling from the folks who already work there.
Scenario No. 2: You receive multiple offers at once, whether they’re in academe, in industry, or a mix. Sometimes the reward for a job well done is what in German is called Die Qual der Wahl, or “the agony of choice.” Many people, including your grad-school colleagues and your adviser, will tell you how lucky you are to be in this position. But unless the choice is very clear to you (and it might be), it may make you feel more anxious than lucky.
If you find yourself in this scenario, there are a number of factors you should consider. The weight you give to each of these is up to you, and they are not listed in any particular order:
- Nature of the work
- The people you’ll be working with
- Potential impact of the work
- Flexibility and structure of the job
- Geographic location
- Salary and other benefits
- Family and personal factors
- Growth and advancement prospects
All of those factors are important, because they can affect your ability to do the job well, and your desire to stay in it for longer than a year or two. It is not “selling out” to choose a particular career path because you want health insurance, you want to be able to save for retirement, or you want to live in a particular city, state, or region.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that there is no such thing as a “dream job.” A position can seem great on paper, but any misgivings you have during the interview process are worth paying attention to. Sometimes what seems like a good fit isn’t. Trust your instincts and speak to people who have your well-being in mind when making these sorts of decisions. Once the decision is made — and this is key — do your best not to second-guess yourself.
Scenario No. 3: It’s the end of May and you have yet to get any offers.
This is a tough position to be in, but it’s important to remember that a successful job search takes time. There is an element of serendipity to it that can’t be rushed. Just because you haven’t had an offer yet doesn’t mean you won’t ever get one.
In our experience, it can take time for a Ph.D. to find the right fit — the right position, the right employer, the right career path. It’s important not to panic and to take care of yourself so that you don’t get discouraged. That often means giving yourself time off to not think about your job search.
Once you’re ready to think about job hunting again, devote some reflection to both lanes of your tandem quest. Should you try again on the academic market? Should you devote more time and effort to your industry search? You can also adjust the types of jobs you apply for — narrowing or broadening your search — based on any feedback you’ve received.
Then reassess your application materials closely: Are they getting you to the interview stage? Are you having trouble advancing from the first stage to the next? Do you get to the end of the process but keep falling short of an offer? The first two issues can often be resolved with the aid of a career counselor. That last one is a little trickier.
In an industry search, consistently making it to the final round often means it is only a matter of time before something works out in your favor. In an academic search, that can also be true — but with so few tenure-track jobs available, it is far from inevitable. A second-place finish in your faculty search one year does not guarantee a first place finish the next. Ultimately, candidates have to decide for themselves how many times they are willing to go on the academic job market.
A job search can be a nerve-racking process. It is filled with uncertainty, and it often involves managing the anxieties and expectations of others as well as your own. Juggling searches in two (or more) job sectors can feel quite overwhelming — but it will also put you in the best possible position to really understand your options, and it increases your chances of finding a job that is a great fit for the life you want to live.
