How I got my job
My best advice is prepare, prepare, prepare.
If you want to get an academic job (and you can, even from University of
Delaware) be sure to start the process early. Job listings show up on JOE and
Chronicle Careers as soon as August. I personally used an Excel spreadsheet to
keep everything neat, organized, and easily mail merged.
(Shane's
spreadsheet should be viewed as an example.) This will make Deborah happy as
well when she has to print out your recommendation letters.
Buy yourself a big box of manila envelopes and
some mailing labels. Get all of your envelopes ready and where the stamps will
go, write the date of the application deadline. This way you can keep all of
your stuff in order and don’t miss any opportunities that you would have liked
to apply for.
I personally applied for about 165 academic
positions, which in hindsight was way too many. If I had to do it over, I
probably would have submitted about 100, but I wasn’t sure about what my
response rate would be. I got about 19 or 20 interviews and 5 campus visits.
To give you an idea of the range of schools that had interest in me (and thus
potentially you), here is the list of interviews that I had (both phone and at
the AEA meetings):
Louisiana State
University – Alexandria
East Carolina
University
Bloomsburg University
Keystone College
University of Hawaii - Hilo
North Georgia State College and University
St. Mary's College of Maryland
Mount St. Mary's College (MD)
Mount St. Mary College (NY)
University of Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota State University Moorhead
University of Wisconsin Whitewater
University of Redlands
Southern Utah University
Eastern Washington University
Alvernia College
Hampden-Sydney College
Metro State College of Denver
University of Cincinnati AERI
Paul Smith's College
As you can see, some of these are pretty decent
schools, and some are… not so much. The point is, you can get consideration
from good, small schools as well as decent larger schools if you present
yourself well. I think that my biggest asset was my teaching portfolio. (Shane's
portfolio should be viewed as an example.) It was very simple, but
contained a statement of teaching philosophy and my teaching evaluations. I
also wrote about three, easily customizable, cover letters – one for each type
of school I was applying for positions at. Be sure to sell your strengths
here. If it’s a small liberal arts school, play up how much you love student
interaction and how you’d like to include them in your research. If it’s a
bigger school, talk about how you like a large department and the research
opportunities that will be available there. Some schools want a research
sample. Talk to your advisor about what to do here, as everyone has their own
opinion. If you’ve got a “three essay” dissertation, a finished essay would be
a good thing for this (so I’ve heard). Anyway, this is one area where I don’t
have much advice to offer.
When you go to the AEA meetings for your
interviews, don’t be tempted to go out and drink with your friends who don’t
have interviews – you will regret it. Stay well rested and hydrated (and don’t
forget to eat!... seriously). The interview process is grueling and the
arrogance of academia rears its ugly head in these situations. You need to not
let this get to you. I personally experienced several comments such as “Oh,
you’re from UD… who would want to hire you?” and “Good luck, but nobody wants to
hire people from a second-rate school.” I repeat – don’t listen to these
people. From what I can tell, they’re just people from Harvard or Chicago who
would honestly never hire a UD graduate – and that’s ok. Just keep in mind that
they have NO idea what a school like a Bloomsburg University or a St. Mary’s
College of Maryland is looking for in a job candidate. I had very good
interviews with both of those schools, and one of them turned into a campus
visit. Also, don’t get discouraged if you have a bad interview. I had one
where all the guy did was tell me how terrible the school was that I was
interviewing with. He just went on and on about how the administration sucked
and everyone there was a third-rate loser, etc. I didn’t even get a chance to
talk. It was totally bizarre.
My best advice is to be
yourself. Don’t be intimidated by someone who is older and has better
credentials than you do (which is pretty much everyone at this point). Don’t be
intimidated by questions that are clearly only asked to see if you get
intimidated by them. Be confident in your abilities and your place in
academia. Sure, you aren’t graduating from MIT or Stanford, but that doesn’t
mean you aren’t hirable and aren’t smart. Just be sure to be honest with
yourself and keep your expectations realistic. You aren’t going to land that
tenure track position at UCLA. But, you can do well if what you want is a
non-flagship state school or a small, liberal arts school. In talking with one
of my contacts from my undergraduate days, they basically told me they’d never
hire anyone from a top 10 school because they tend to think that they’re too
good for a small school and don’t fit in. Is that a generalization? Sure, but
it definitely works to our advantage.
After the interview process, remember to be
patient (and to send thank you notes to those people who interviewed you… a
quick email does the trick). It takes some schools several weeks, if not
longer, to select who they want to invite. Also don’t be surprised if you get a
rejection letter that beats you home from the meetings. That happens too. I
got five offers for campus visits. They came from:
Louisiana State
University – Alexandria
East Carolina
University
University of
Hawaii – Hilo
Bloomsburg
University
Keystone College
A couple of those schools are pretty good and I
ended up taking a “Teaching Assistant Professor” position at ECU. It’s not
tenure track but I think it offers me the best opportunity to get a good tenure
track position in the future. There are people there doing research that have
expressed working with me. If I can get a few articles published then I think
I’ll have no problem getting a good tenure track position a few years down the
road. I was offered a tenure track position at a small school with no Economics
department. I would have been the only economist. While I would have had no
problem meeting their tenure requirements, it seemed like a dead end and that
once there, I would be stuck there forever, whether I liked it or not. As for
the other schools, I wish that Hawaii had acted sooner, because I really wanted
to visit there and work there, but I didn’t want to turn down a job at ECU for a
potential job in Hawaii. You’re an economist so think about the costs and
benefits when you get to this point.
You can make more money in the non-academic
market but the pay for academic jobs that are attainable is not too bad. It is
around $60k/year… but remember; you get the summer “off” and the lifestyle is
nice – you work around young people, don’t have completely set 9-5 hours, you
get to talk to people about stuff that is interesting to you, and you get to do
research on questions that you have (not your boss). Beware that some schools
pay terribly (under $40k – I think you’d be nuts to take one of those positions)
but do what’s right for you.
If I had to sum up everything in a nice, neat
sentence or two, I would first tell you to relax. Then prepare as much as
possible and stay organized. Be yourself on your interviews and be comfortable
talking about teaching as well as your research. Then relax some more and be
patient. I’m honestly still hearing back from schools that I applied to, and I
took a job offer two months ago.
Feel free to email me with any questions you might have.
Keep in mind that my advice is free, and most times you get what you pay for –
but I’m more than happy to try and help.
Shane Martin
shane.lewis.martin [at] gmail.com
