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Academic job market thread: So, I feel incredibly lucky to have a job. Just, wildly, outlandishly lucky. Here's a look under the hood bc I always like this kind of thing. 1/16 #AcademicTwitter #phdchat #AcademicChatter #epitwitter #medtwitter
I submitted my first assistant professor job app in December 2018, and was working on my last app in Oct 2020 when the post vanished, probably because of pandemic budget stuff. All told, I submitted 45-50 applications, had ~17 first round interviews and 10 visits. 2/16
I knew going in that Los Angeles was my top choice, for many reasons, mainly that I love living in LA and my partner is a music producer w/ a career here. 3/16
Academia being what it is, kind of had to be open to other places. I only applied to universities in places Zack was theoretically open to, knowing that if a non-LA one worked out, we'd have to do a few years long-distance before he could transfer his work. 4/16
And for me, I preferred somewhere w/ at least 3 separate research institutes w/ ppl in my field (unis/policy think tanks/govt). Arbitrary rule, but decent proxy for things that matter to me professionally/intellectually. 5/16
Being a research-focused person, I applied to R1s, but included med schools, public health schools, policy schools, pharmacy schools. The letters and materials varied quite a bit for different roles. I went the route of tailoring each one (though of course made some errors). 6/16
I had two visits where the original posting I applied for wasn't quite what I was looking for (i.e., ad was for faculty to support a specific already funded project) but when I got there, they were willing to mold/create one where I could establish my own research. 7/16
So, plug for applying if interested in department, even if the specific role doesn't seem quite right. I found postings via search alerts for aggregators like HERC & InsideHigherEd, job boards from orgs like SER, APHA & searching my keywords on interfolio 8/16
Also did a lot of networking at conferences and via mentors' networks. Learned about the opportunity in my new dept via a convo w/ a professor I'd met during an education/advocacy trip to Sacramento during grad school. 9/16
Consciously gave up on pride. The things they say about persistence in academia are true. A few times, I reached out to people I met during interviews that ultimately ended in rejection, to ask about other openings in their university. This was surprisingly well received! 10/16
The job I just accepted was the 5th I applied to at UCLA after the rest were rejected. There was 6th one I was working on that was cancelled before due date bc of pandemic, and 7th I opted not to apply for in Nov 2020 only because things had started moving w/ this offer. 11/16
I did half my interviews in person between Nov 2019-Feb 2020, and the rest virtually. Virtual interviews are strange! But so are in-person, just in a different way. 12/16
I have life-threatening food allergies (eat, air, contact), so with the in-person interviews I was very, very worried about this. Didn't want to appear too high maintenance, but also didn't want to have to leave mid-meal for the ER or discuss my research in benedryl'd haze 13/16
The academic dinner interview feels like a big deal, so I'd also sleuth out each restaurant - calling ahead to go over painstaking details to make sure that the during-dinner allergy convo could be quick/smooth. Most depts were very good w/ this & it was a good litmus test 14/16
I only pre-emptively declined two jobs. And one was partly bc of how they acted about food during the visit. Arguing w/ me when I asked staff if pre-made oatmeal was made w/ dairy, repeated comments from committee member, serving a LOT of nuts at my talk 15/16
Anyway, what a ride! For other epis/med folks etc happy to share my materials and recommend books -- loved Tomorrow's Professor, for example. 16/16
