2013 CRA-W
Graduate Cohort Workshop
The PhD Job Search Process
Natalie Enright Jerger (U Toronto)
Hillery Hunter (IBM Research)
Erin Treacy Solovey (MIT)
With thanks to Mary Fernandez, Nancy Amato, Margaret
Martonosi, Kathleen Fisher, Anne Condon, Amanda Stent
Why Now?
• Work back from your goal
– To get a job you need:
• Publications, experience, connections….
– To get them you need:
• Research, internships, conferences, service,
teaching experience, networking…
– To know what you want, you need:
• Academic/industry experience, mentoring,
awareness, exploration
• It starts now
Remember
• You are intelligent
• You are capable
• You can do it
• THIS SHOULD BE EXCITING!
Finding Your Job
Your application
Preparing your job talk
Preparing for an interview
The big day!
After the interview...
Managing offers
But that’s a long way off!
September
May
What Do You Want?
• What kind(s) of position are you
looking for?
– Research university? Research lab?
Teaching college? Post Doc? Development?
Hedge fund? Start-up?
• Where are you (and any significant
other) willing to live?
– West coast? East coast? South? Midwest?
International? Urban? Rural? ...?
• Internships are a good way to find out what
you like.
September-October
Materials
• You need:
– A way to keep track of your
information
•
•
•
•
Available jobs
Application status
Your materials (about you)
Your research (about them)
– A way to reduce stress
– A schedule for what to do next
September-October
Tips
• Add each posting to your
spreadsheet
– Note due dates
– Create a schedule for adapting materials
to postings (one thing per day)
• Goal is inclusivity
– Don’t apply somewhere you are 100%
sure you won’t go
– But, keep an open mind! You might be
surprised what you end up liking the best
What’s Available?
•
Who would you like to work with?
•
What type of a schedule/lifestyle would you like to have?
•
Information sources:
– Your network (includes your advisor, other professors, other
grad students & recent grads)
– CRA http://www.cra.org/ads/
– ACM http://jobs.acm.org/
– Systers http://www.cra-w.org/PhdjobhuntHers
– International http://www.jobs.ac.uk/
– Disciplinary listservs (IEEE, AAAI, etc.)
– Local entrepreneur networks
September-October
Your Application
• Cover Letter
• Curriculum Vitae (academic, lab jobs)
– Research and teaching experience, jobs held, talks
given, papers published, refereeing, other service...
• Resume (hedge fund, some industry, startups)
– Greater focus on technical skillsets, intellectual
property, startup experience, business experience &
interests
• Research Statement (academic jobs)
– What is your vision for your research?
• Teaching Statement (academic jobs)
– What is your vision for teaching?
• Letters of recommendation (3-5)
• Transcript (sometimes)
October
Tips
• Start drafting early!
• Look at materials from friends
• Show result to advisor and other
mentors, and your peer network;
revise until done
• It is worth investing a lot of time
– You will create different versions of these
materials for different jobs (their website
is your friend)
Identifying Letter Writers
• With advisor, develop a list of
candidates:
– Familiar with your research
– Respected in the academic community
• Possible sources (in addition to
advisor):
– Your thesis committee
– Internship mentors
– People you TA’d for
– Collaborators
Early November
Tips
• Ask letter-writers way in advance of
deadlines. It takes a lot of work to write a
good letter!
• If they say ‘no’, don’t press; find someone
else
• Get the correct contact info for each writer
• Give them a list of the
institutions/deadlines, and a copy of your
application materials
• Keep track of which schools have which
letters; send gentle reminders if necessary
• Thank them & tell them where you end up!
After you applied (and even before)...
• Even before you apply, contact & discuss your
application with champions at the institution
– E.g., at conferences, invite yourself to visit, ….
– (These are also potential letter writers)
• Getting your application noticed from the
hundreds that have been received……
– Contact champions at the institution to let them know you
applied so they can alert the search committee
• Work with your advisor to identify people
• Ask your advisor to contact them (you can do it too)
• Check with an administrative contact to be
sure your letters have been received
– Advisor’s letter is CRUCIAL
The Goal of the
Interview...
• Main objective: TO GET AN OFFER
– You are being evaluated – the institution is the
buyer and you are the seller
– You can decide later if you will accept it, but you
won’t have that choice if you don’t have an offer
• Secondary objectives:
– Learn about the department (post-offer visits for
this purpose are common)
– Expand your network by meeting new
colleagues (potential future collaborators, letter
writers!)
Interview Components
• Telephone interview (first filter)
– Very common for teaching schools, increasingly
common elsewhere
• Job Talk (research – academic and
industry)
• Classroom teaching example (at
teaching institution, often)
• One-on-One meetings with colleagues,
supervisors, department head, deans,
students, etc.
– Including people outside your department
• Meals with all of the above
– Yes, this is part of the interview!
Preparing a Job Talk
The goal of a job talk is to convince a broad audience
that you have identified an important and difficult
problem, that you have come up with an innovative and
effective solution, that you have concrete ideas for a
future research agenda, and that you will be a strong
contributor to their scholarly community.
- Edward D. Lazowska
(and, ideally, to convince all the attendees that you
would be a great collaborator for them and for their
institution….)
December/January
Tips for Job Talk
• Go to job talks (start now), ask faculty how they
were received, note what works and doesn’t
• Give practice talk(s) and incorporate feedback
– Practice answering questions
– Video your talk and (gulp!) watch it
• Adapt your talk to your audience
– If the expert on X is at that institution, don’t forget
to cite them in the related work (if appropriate)
– At a teaching school, undergrads will likely attend
and their opinion will matter
• Logistics
– Bring a back up copy!
– Ask for timing guidelines and respect them
Preparing for an Interview
• Do your homework!
– The web, your advisor, research colleagues, ...
• Questions to find answers to:
– Research – What are individual strengths and what
major research projects are going on?
– Teaching - What is the curriculum like? What is the
teaching load?
– Think about how you would fit into the department
– research collaborations & teaching?
• Let host know special needs
Before each interview
Tips
• Request schedule a few days in advance
of visit
– Check up on the people you will meet
– Request to meet people/groups not on the schedule
• Make sure you get to talk to a woman professor or two;
watch how women are treated in the department
• Make sure you get to talk to students to “see” the
department from their perspective
• Have backup of your talk on memory
stick and on your webpage
– You may show bits of it to faculty who missed your
talk
• Keep your webpage updated with papers,
research descriptions, technical interests
– May refer to it in individual meetings
Questions They May Ask You….
Research
– Tell me about your thesis and other work you have
done.
– What do you want to work on next and why?
• What resources do you need to do your research?
(Startup…)
– Where do you plan to obtain funding for your
research?
• Have you participated in proposals before?
– Why you are interested in this institution?
• Who could you see collaborating with here?
More Questions They May Ask You…
Teaching
– What courses would you like to teach and why?
• Could you teach course X?
– Why are you interested in teaching?
– What is your teaching philosophy?
General
– Do you have questions for me?
– Where else are you interviewing? Do you have
offers?
– Do you have a two-body problem? Do you have
children or do you plan to have children?
(illegal/inappropriate)
Role Play & Audience
Practicum
• Panelist Role Play with feedback
– Good/Bad examples for answering
• Who could you see yourself collaborating with?
• Questions to practice at home
– Practice the following questions with a
partner:
• Where do you see your research going from here
and why do you think you can do it at this
institution?
• How would you feel about teaching course X?
– Video tape these and watch them!
Questions You May Ask Them…
Institutional Culture
– What is like to work here?
– How are decisions made in the organization?
• What kind of role do junior people play?
– Is collaboration encouraged/supported? What about
across departmental boundaries?
• How does the department relate to the rest of the
institution?
Students
– What is the quality of the students?
• Where do the dept’s graduates get jobs?
– How does admissions work?
– How do students find advisors?
– How are teaching assistants selected?
More Questions You May
Ask Them….
Teaching
– How are teaching assignments made?
– How are new courses introduced into the
curriculum?
– What is the teaching load?
Career Development & Evaluation
– What career development programs/resources
does the organization have?
• Formal or informal mentoring programs?
– How will I be evaluated?
– What is the tenure process like?
Tips For the Big Day(s)!
• Enjoy and have fun (to the extent you can)
– Don’t book yourself into crazy travel! (Sometimes it’s also
permitted to spend an extra night to get to know the area)
– Get plenty of sleep & eat well. Take a water bottle & snack
– Meals are part of the interview. Drink moderately
• Try to imagine yourself in the environment:
– Do you want these people as your colleagues potentially
forever?
– Would you have the out-of-work life you would like to have?
• Even if you don’t like it, do your best
– Don't say negative things about other institutions or people.
It can come back to haunt you!
– People talk with colleagues, and you’ll run into them later
• Consider when or whether to mention any two-body issues
• Ask host what to expect in follow up
After the Interview
• Go home after first interview, to recover and get
support
• Schedule down time generally!
• Talk to advisor: they may be getting feedback
• Send notes thanking people you met
– Personalize them, particularly for the people you
‘connected’ with – they are future colleagues, even if you
don’t go there
• Follow up with anything you said you would do,
e.g., send papers, contacts
• Make notes for yourself about your impressions
right away before you forget
• Edit your materials or practice question responses
based on feedback
Managing Offers
• Celebrate success;
Don't take rejection personally
• Evaluate strengths/weaknesses of each offer
• Negotiate!
• Imagine yourself in each place, how you’d feel
• For places you’re serious about, ask for a post-offer visit.
You can bring your significant other
• Don’t pressure yourself to make the “perfect” decision –
many people change job paths multiple times throughout
their career
April/May
What Can You Negotiate?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Salary, bonus, stock grant, stock options, vacation time
Moving allowance, home sale/purchase assistance
Funds for a second visit or house search trip
Leave time before/after you start
Help with job search for partner, access to institutional childcare,
housing, ...
Academic
– Startup funds: equipment, research, curriculum development
(teaching track faculty), travel, student support, summer salary
– Space for you and your students
– Teaching load
Possible negotiations in industry: travel to conferences, summer
interns
Asking now can help your new boss/department head request
resources from higher ups
– If you have other offers, this can help too
Role Play
• Panelist Role Play
– Bad examples for first job offer
conversation
• Start up salary low-ball
• Lack of space
• Start-up funds
• How might you have handled these
situations differently?
Tips
• Do your homework – talk and ask
• Use available resouces: PhdjobhuntHers email list;
mentors; Taulbee salary surveys; glassdoor.com
• You won’t get what you don’t ask for – don’t be afraid to
ask for what you need or what you know others have
gotten
• Negotiation is a game/an art – do not feel badly about
the process
• Be respectful of institutional constraints
• Let people know of factors that might influence their
offers (e.g. better offers from elsewhere; news about a
best paper award)
• Some details will be spelled out in formal offer, others
can be documented in emails, yet others will be based
on trust
• Don’t feel pressure to commit immediately
In the Mean Time...
• Publish (good) papers!
• Network at conferences so people know you (letters!)
– Give talks whenever possible
• Do internships at various kinds of institutions; talk to students
who return from internships
• Watch professors around you
• TA, help write a grant proposal, serve on committees
• Attend an entrepreneurship seminar/business class
• Pay attention to how your institution does hiring
– Go to job talks!
– Meet with speakers in student session
• Be able to talk knowledgeably about many areas of CS
– Attend seminars in your department, even if not in your
area
• Work to maintain and build a credible technical on-line
presence & network (webpage, linkedin, blogs, etc.)
Use the Skills Now!
• PhD job search is a few years
away
• But these skills apply also for:
– Fellowships
– Internships
Questions?
Your Big Picture
Your Materials