Applying for an Academic Job Guide

Practice
You can practice and improve the skills needed to talk about your research at conferences and seminars. You should:

• practice delivering your paper out loud and perhaps in front of a mirror
• time your presentation
• learn the main points and talk to the audience about them rather than reading the paper at speed
• give each talk as if someone in the audience were going to give you a job.
• be prepared and on time for your presentation

Versions
It is useful to have several versions of your ‘research topic talk’:

the 30-second version for brief introductions ‘I am X and am researching in Y and my argument is Z’
• the 5-minute version for introducing a paper which gives the audience a clear summary of what you are offering
• followed by the 20-minute exposition of your research
• nd a 40-minute in-depth version.

Qualifications
What departments are looking for is active scholars who can ‘bring something’ to their profile: fresh research, areas of teaching which complement their existing provision, and a sense of academic entrepreneurship, which might involve running research seminars, organising conferences, editing collections, and so on. It is sometimes hard for young scholars to get to grips with the latter demand, but one of the fundamental lessons is that the world will not beat a path to your door on the basis of an excellent PhD: you have to sell yourself; and since a post may have as many as 100 applicants, you have to distinguish yourself from others. You also need patience and perseverance: in the current climate, it is very common for scholars to finish PhDs and take 1-3 years to build enough publications to make short-lists – during which time they have to subsist on part-time teaching or non-academic work.

The panel will want to see that you have abilities and potential in three categories: research, teaching, and administration.

Research
UK funding bodies demand that most academics publish their research. The next Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) which surveys and grades recent publications of each academic department is expected to be in 2006-2007. Departments will expect applicants to contribute to their research rating. A publication portfolio is therefore crucial in applying for UK academic posts and while completing your research project you should already be submitting work for publication in journals.

When applying for a post you should outline your plans for publication as well as list your completed and forthcoming publications. It is not good enough to have just finished a PhD: you need a plan to turn it into a book, and a plan for a follow-up project. Ideally you should have a raft of 2-3 journal articles submitted within a year of finishing your PhD (these could be drafts towards the book version, or conference papers in collections).

Take advice on publication from others, and bear in mind the time-lapse, often 1-3 years, between submission and publication of journal articles. Highly-rated journals will help you get a job, but they are harder to publish in. In the UK market, a contract for a book is likely to be the most crucial factor.

Teaching
Many research students will have gained teaching experience while completing their studies. Applicants should be able to demonstrate an ability and enthusiasm for teaching as well as an understanding of where they will fit in to the teaching provision of the department. Find out which courses the faculty offers and outline courses you might contribute.

Administration
This category covers both work for the good of the department: committees, advising students, and so on, and also work for the good of the academic community such as seminar or conference organisation. Junior staff are often expected simply to show willing in this area.

In a competitive market anything wrong with your application will prevent you reaching their short-list. Do not include personal details (references to your dogs, etc) and do not exaggerate wildly (e.g. listing half a dozen book ideas as ‘forthcoming’). Your application should include a covering letter relating your profile to the specifics of the job, and a curriculum vitae covering the following headings:

• a quick description of your MA thesis
• a fuller description of your PhD thesis
• and, crucially, a narrative description of your next research project
• publications (published, in press, submitted)
• he covering letter should indicate where you might fit in to the field and in to the department’s research profile
• provide a sample of research if it is called for

• teaching experience
• what courses you might teach
• how you might fit into the department’s teaching profile (again in the letter rather than the CV)
• a sample course outline that will complement, but is different from, the courses offered by the department (this could be prepared for the interview and handed over during it).

relevant administrative or other experience such as

• organisation of reading groups or workshops
• organisation of conferences or seminars
• editing of e-journals.

The covering letter should be no more than two pages long. The CV should not be too long.

• convey that you are the one they want to appoint
• show how you will fit in to the department
• show that you will be an addition to the department
• show a breadth of knowledge of your discipline as well as depth regarding your topic
• have rehearsed responses to obvious questions such as ‘tell us about your research’ and ‘what would you be able to teach?’

Often you will be asked to give either a 10-minute talk during the interview or a separate 20-minute presentation to the whole department. This should be a general and accessible talk:

• do not dryly read a paper – contextualise an ‘academic’ paper with a short ‘what I do’ talk
• practice your delivery so that you will engage the audience
• you might give a paper based on one you have practised at conference or seminars so that you can predict what questions are likely to come up, but it must be broadened in scope
• be prepared for off-the-wall or hostile questions – aim to react politely and in a scholarly manner.

You will get rejected and often the rejection will be nothing to do with you – the job is just not the right job for you, or the competition is just very stiff.

Remember that you only need to get one job.

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H-Net (www.h-net.org/jobs/) a good site for almost all academic disciplines in the United States. H-Net offers e-mail list serves in almost every humanities topic and is useful for picking up issues that are 'au courant' in your field and noticing jobs, calls for papers, and so on.

The American Historical Association (www.theaha.org/) displays posts for historians and related fields, articles on the job market and some coaching documents, on interviews at conferences for example. Organisations such as the American Political Science Association (www.apsanet.org); MLA or Modern Language Association (www.mla.org); the American Studies Association (www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asainfo.html), advertise relevant jobs in their newsletters. The Chronicle of Higher Education (www.chronicle.com) has job listings, articles on the job market.
The Academic Jobsearch Handbook (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001) has templates for job applications and useful advice.

Application Process
Applicants for academic posts in the US should be able to demonstrate their abilities in the three categories of research, teaching and administration/service (see above). In the UK you can expect the panel to have read your application materials and studied your research background by the time they interview you. The main difference in applying for academic posts in the US is that the panel will not have read your work or your submission before the interview. In the US you have to sell yourself.

You will have to give your 40-minute version of your research talk to a panel that will include members outside your discipline. You will, therefore, need to pitch your talk at undergraduate level rather than give a highly detailed paper. The talk must be a polished overview of your research demonstrating why it might be interesting across disciplines. You will have to give your 2-minute version of your research talk in individual meetings with faculty members.

The interview process will take place over three days with dinners, individual meetings, and presentations. You will be ‘on-stage’ at all times.