Academic Search committees
(And how to impress them)
Chris Wyatt Ph.D
How to Get Shortlisted
1. Refine your CV
Most institutions have a standard format for a CV. Find out what it is and use it.
Not the institution that you are at, the institution you are applying to. Check on
Faculty pages.
If you have won awards spell out what they are ‘The Heymans medal’ is meaningless.
If you have obtained funding of any kind, even travel money, make a big deal of it.
If you have taught classes don’t just list them. What was your contribution? How was
your student feedback? If you haven’t taught…..beg for opportunities to do so.
If your abstract was selected for an oral presentation…….tell us.
Publications…….as many and as high impact as you can get……you knew this
If you are a member of a professional society endeavor to join the ranks of
The Organizing Committees. Most societies have trainee positions and getting
a position like this shows you mean business.
Get your supervisor to delegate some peer reviewing of journal articles to you.
They will enjoy doing this and if done officially it looks fantastic on a CV.
If you train research students list them. If the students you trained win awards list
those as well.
Do outreach. Judge at science fairs, get involved with Science Olympiad.
Three good publications are better than six trivial ones.
GET SOME FUNDING, ANY FUNDING, TO YOU, IN YOUR NAME
Make sure your reference letters are from well respected people and that they will be extremely supportive
OK so you are Shortlisted
How to Impress a Search Committee
1. Do some preparation. Know who all the faculty are and what their research strengths are.
2. Practice your presentation in front of an unforgiving audience. Don’t go over time.
3. Don’t be afraid to say I don’t know to a tricky question and try and meet with the person that asked it.
4. That preparation you did will allow you to see who might support your work, can you support theirs?
5. Know how you will fund your research. Read funded grant applications and learn from them.
6. Focus on a major research strategy but be aware that you will have students……what will they do.
7. What sort of students will you get? Graduate/undergraduate, be aware of limitations.
8. Demonstrate that you can integrate with the department.
9. Demonstrate that your skill set adds to the department’s strengths or shores up its weaknesses.
10.Be enthusiastic, focused and do a lot of research on the department you are applying to.
11.If your research is not high quality you will likely not get shortlisted.
12.If you apply for a teaching position with no teaching experience you will not be shortlisted
Wow, I Got the Job
Start-up Package
1. Do the preparation. You need to know how much money you require to set the lab up and do research for 3 years.
2. You need to know what other junior faculty in equivalent institutions are being offered.
3. A lot of time and effort goes into selecting a candidate if you are offered a position then the institution wants you.
4. The start-up package should not be a surprise. You MUST discuss it at interview. Show you have done the research.
5. Oh and OVERESTIMATE. A tech with a salary of 30K actually costs you 50K with benefits.