With so few faculty openings in so many fields, the basics of job hunting matter more than ever
Question: All my life I planned to be a professor. Now, as I come close to completing my dissertation, the economy is falling apart. Fellow graduate students who are on the job market tell stories of interviews being canceled and jobs being frozen. These are very smart and talented people. My professors are adamant that I am doing significant work and have many contributions to make, but I fear I’ll never be able to make them if there are no jobs. What should I do?
Julie: This is a difficult time to be searching for a position, regardless of your field. Organizations like the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association are reporting significant drops in the numbers of faculty positions (15 percent and 21 percent, respectively). Many other institutions are suspending faculty hires because of major losses in endowment earnings or state revenues. The economic situation has affected most sectors of the American economy, so Ph.D.'s who think they might do something else if they are unable to secure tenure-track jobs are also anxious. Faced with those facts, many graduate students and postdocs are wondering not only about how to improve their chances of success on the academic job market, but also what they might do if they can’t find any means of support after completing their Ph.D.'s or postdocs.
Jenny: You may have always seen yourself at a top-tier research institution — and in a good economy, maybe that’s where you should be. But now you need to apply to a variety of kinds of institutions. You will need to tailor your application materials to each institution. That means looking at the campus Web site and at other sources of information to learn what is unique about each institution, and incorporating what you learn into your cover letter. It also means that you need to talk to your advisers who always planned for you to go to a top research university and ask them to support your applications to liberal-arts colleges, community colleges, or other kinds of institutions. That might be a difficult conversation to have.
Julie: When it feels like the sky is falling, the most effective approach is to focus on the actions you can take rather than fixate on things beyond your control. You can’t single-handedly mend the financial markets or persuade a dean to open a tenure-track line in your field. What you can do, if you’re sending out application materials now, is make sure they are perfect, that your CV is error-free and presents your qualifications in the best possible light. Those are the basics. But in a “buyer’s market” the basics will matter more than usual. A typo that may have once been ignored may be reason enough to put your file in the “no” pile.
Jenny: If you’ve gotten far enough along in your search to be at the campus-interview stage, make sure you are well prepared. Above all, perfect your job talk and your teaching demonstration. Bring an enthusiasm about the institution to your interview and be sure to engage with your interviewers. The job may not have been your first choice when you applied back in November; you may even have applied purely for the practice. But if your options have narrowed, you’ll want to do your best to keep the remaining ones open. Finally, keep in mind that a job offer is not official until you receive an actual offer on paper. In the current economic climate, it’s entirely possible for an informal, verbal offer to evaporate.
Julie: Another strategy in a down economy is to widen what you would consider to be the range of attractive possibilities. We’re guessing that most students and postdocs, especially those in the humanities, have already done so. However, if you are still focused on one particular region of the country, or one type of institution, you’re seriously limiting your options. Your spouse or partner may be happily employed where you live and may not want to leave that job. But you may have to take a job elsewhere, and live apart for a few years, to get your career started. Perhaps you bought a house in the area where you are doing a postdoc and feel you can’t leave. Consider renting it out. You’re much more likely to get interviews and, hence, job offers, if you conduct a national search.
Jenny: If you are on the job market and you get an offer from an institution about which you were lukewarm, look at it again carefully before rejecting it. As discussed in a recent article in The Boston Globe and another in The Chronicle, some institutions are hiring lots of faculty candidates now knowing that they may not have the money to do so in the next few years. The old saying about “a bird in the hand” may be worth heeding in this economy. Be hopeful about your job search, but be realistic as well.
Julie: In a down economy, it’s essential to have your finances straightened out. If you’re graduating with student loans, be sure that you know the procedure for consolidating those loans or for deferring payment if you are unemployed. If you’ve had health insurance, either through your status as a student or through a postdoctoral fellowship, find out how much it would cost to extend your coverage through Cobra. Prepare your taxes earlier rather than later; if you need to pay additional taxes, it’s better to know as soon as possible. Take a look at The Chronicle’s On the Money forum and its Academic Assets column for further ideas about getting your financial life in order.
Jenny: Make sure you’re still connecting with people; in the long run, those ties will pay off. Take the time to attend conferences, present papers, and meet people in your field. If you’ve curtailed your travel because of financial concerns, maintain an active Web profile — participate in online discussion groups, build or update your own Web site, create a LinkedIn profile. See what conferences will be held nearby in the coming months and plan to attend. Regional meetings of large academic organizations are an often overlooked but rich source of contacts.
Julie: Find ways to support yourself, even if it takes you out of academe for a year or so. At the Ivy League universities where we work, we’ve heard professors advise students to consider full-time work outside of academe as an option, one that’s perhaps more viable than trying to piece together adjunct work. If you’re trying to develop a nonacademic Plan B, much of the advice we’ve given on that topic is still valuable. In this economy, you’ll need to spend much of your time conducting informational interviews and networking to find viable opportunities.
Jenny: If you have to seek work outside of academe to pay the bills until you can find a full-time academic position, it’s critical that you maintain an active presence as a researcher in your field. That can be extremely challenging; it takes a lot of energy to come home after a day of work, turn the computer on again, and start writing. But that is what you will need to do to secure a future in academe.
Julie: No academic job search is easy, even in a good economy. The advice we give here probably includes things that you’re already doing. In a tough economy, you need to do more of those things, and in a deliberate fashion.
Jenny: No one can predict what will happen with the economy. It will have to get better at some point, but it may get significantly worse before that. However, we do know that higher education is one of this country’s best — and perhaps least appreciated by many Americans — assets. People come from all over the world to benefit from our rich variety of institutions. Faculty members will always be needed to make that possible.