Applying for an Academic Job

editor: David Buttler

Preparing application materials
Selecting references
Locating job opportunities
Sending in an application
Preparing for an interview
Post-interview suggestions
Negotiation options

Preparing application materials

You will need the following items:

a current CV listing publications, public service items, and research projects you have been involved in

a statement of teaching

a statement of research

transcripts of your graduate and undergraduate institutions

Selecting references

You will need four to five references that are willing to write a good letter of recommendation. Select people who know you well:

advisor,

managers from internships,

professors with whom you have TA'ed or done significant projects.

Give them sufficient material to help them in writing a solid letter:

A list of publications and a copy of the more important ones

A summary of the research projects you have been involved with and your contributions

Any additional information that they can use to increase the quality of their letter.

Locating job opportunities

CRA jobs bulletin board

The back pages of IEEE Computer or CACM list job openings

DBWorld mailing list

CS department web pages for specific schools you are interested in may list job openings

Sending in an application

Sooner is better. If you send it in late December / January it is already getting late for the next school year. Target sending applications in October or November. Different schools have different deadlines -- make sure you meet the deadline of any school that you are applying to. Note: make sure that you send in all of the application materials for each school you apply to. Different schools have slightly different requirements. Missing an item from your application means that the faculty from that school will likely not even read your CV, as your application will be held up in the administrative offices until it contains all of the required material.

Preparing for an interview

Identify influential members of the faculty who you will talk with and prepare a brief summary of their interests. If your interests are similar, make sure you have read some of their papers.

Prepare a list of courses that you are interested in teaching. Also, prepare to explain how you plan on teaching different classes: techniques, content areas, etc. This will be somewhat similar to your teaching statement, but be prepared to go into more detail.

Prepare a list of topics that you are interested in, and try to see which faculty would have similar interests. This includes academic subjects as well as extra-curricular activities.

Post-interview suggestions

Send a thank you note to people who went out of their way to accommodate your interview. This includes the department chair and the faculty member who organized your visit.

Negotiation Options

Contributed by Jim Davies, Jose Zagal, Paul Camp, and David Buttler

Many things should be taken into consideration when negotiating an academic job:

salary
Average startup salary in 2003 for a 9 month appointment is $75,000 for a school emphasizing teaching. Schools that are undergrad only may offer considerably less.
Post-Doc ~$85K for 12 months. Note that post-docs are much more variable than teaching schools and depend more on location.
Travel money
lab space
Space is often a critical issue -- very little bargaining room unless you are a distinguished professor.
computers and equipment for self
This can either be part of the startup funding or arranged separately. Typically you will get a laptop or a desktop of your choice, possibly both.
computers and equipment for students
startup funds
This overlaps with travel, equipment, summer salary, and RA funding
Summer salary
One or two summers of support. You may get support if you agree to teach during the summer.
How much you teach the first few years and how often.
This really depends on the type of school and how much emphasis they put or research or teaching.
A research school will likely require 1-2 courses per year for the first couple of years, and they may be grad seminars. Note that courses can often be bought out if you have research funding, although it would be unusual to teach fewer than 1 class a year.
A teaching school will typically ask you to teach 3 courses for a period of time, and then up that to 4 courses, either after the first couple of years or after tenure.
Funding for student assistants (RA's / TA's)
Moving expenses
This typically is included, but there is a cap on moving expenses and you have to either get bids from different moving companies or use the company that they recommend. They will often pay a fixed amount based on how far the move is (e.g. miles / 300 * per diem). Note that only large companies (e.g. IBM) are likely to offer any type of help in selling your house. Also, moving may be taken out of startup funding.

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