How I Landed My Faculty Job in Higher Education

I was offered and accepted a tenure-track faculty position, and, almost immediately upon sharing the news, I received several requests from peers for tips. I decided to write a post about my experience, in case it is useful to others. I will warn any readers in the same way that I warned my peers: I’m not an expert on any of this, nor do I have extensive experience. I consulted with colleagues who landed tenure-track jobs before me and largely trusted my instincts throughout the process. Some of them were helpful, others were not. I can't help but believe luck was a major element of the process. Still, several of my tips were validated at a recent workshop for emerging higher education scholars. My comments may also be discipline-specific and not applicable outside of education fields. Lastly, I want to recognize at the outset that my experience on the job market was indelibly shaped by my identification as a white male. For a variety of reason that this post does not adequately address, faculty job searching tips are not universal.

For those of you seeking a quick reference list, I’m sorry to disappoint. This is going to be a long, meandering narrative because it is the only way I can wrap my head around the prolonged dance of landing a faculty job. Because I research higher education, I entered the search process understanding that the odds were against me. I knew that only a few tenure-track jobs would be posted and every single one of those positions would receive obscene numbers of applicants. Let us not forget that there is a whole pipeline of graduated PhDs who are still applying for jobs several years after completing their degree. So, I didn’t apply for many faculty jobs. I applied for administrative jobs, as well as policy analysis jobs. Simply put, I wanted to be employed, and I didn’t (and still don’t) believe that there is a single path to professional fulfillment. Fortunately, PhDs in education have the opportunity to work in a number of settings, making faculty jobs just one of many post-doctorate destinations.

With this in mind, I was selective about the jobs to which I applied. I did not want to work in the middle of nowhere, and I was moving with a spouse who has her own career and needs. This made it easier to focus on putting together strong applications for a few departments. I understand the rationale behind casting a wide net and applying for many jobs, even those that may not appear like a perfect fit. That wasn’t my strategy. In putting together my applications, I tailored everything I submitted to the position description, including my CV. Of course, there is only so much customization that can be done to a CV, and I agree that you shouldn’t pad a CV with pseudo-accomplishments. However, there are ways to make slight tweaks to help you align your background with the expectations of the job. One of the ways I did this was through a listing of research and teaching interests, which I could easily adjust to highlight certain research methodologies or content areas.

Beyond the CV, the cover letter and other documentation is truly where customization came into play. Before writing anything, I spoke with peers who had landed faculty jobs, and one of them was gracious enough to send me a copy of her cover letter, statement of research interests, and teaching philosophy. This was useful to me because I saw that these documents were carefully constructed essays, not generic one-page summaries. For one of the jobs to which I applied, I had to supply all three types of documents. This required a phenomenal amount of time, and it came as I was writing a major chapter of my dissertation. (Side note: don’t forget to plan for both finishing your dissertation and job searching at the same time.) For the job I eventually accepted, they asked for just a cover letter. However, what I produced was not a standard cover letter. I described the ways in which I was prepared to excel in the three pillars of the academic profession: teaching, research, and service.

I started with teaching because the school emphasized teaching over research—at least for the time being. The main idea behind the cover letter was to show how my teaching, research, and service intersect. I also sought to provide a narrative arc, so that the search committee could understand how my experiences and research were part of a bigger story—about the field and about my future. I received feedback from faculty mentors on my cover letter before sending it. They pointed out a few things that may elicit negative reactions, such as name-dropping well-known people with whom I have worked. They all requested to read my cover letter in tandem with the position description, again highlighting the importance of ensuring that your materials are in close conversation with the position as advertised. Once I was more or less happy with my materials, I submitted them, usually in mid-fall.

By December, I had basically given up on the idea of faculty job. I hadn’t heard a peep from a single institution, and I assumed that after three months, they had already made their first cut. I was wrong, to a degree. I never heard back from other institutions, but I received an email from my soon-to-be employer saying that they were still reviewing applications. Sometime in February, I received a phone call asking if I was still interested in the position and if I would interview by phone with the committee. I readily agreed, hung up the phone, then proceeded to panic. Everyone finds phone interviews horribly uncomfortable, and phone interviewing for a faculty job was new territory for me. Once again, I spoke with colleagues and faculty mentors. I also read a few articles about faculty interviews. I was able to put together a list of possible questions through these inquiries, and I wrote out a few ideas in response to each of them. I also spent hours (literally) studying the college and department’s websites. I effectively memorized the curricula for the programs in which I would be teaching and recorded the names and specializations of each faculty member in the department. Because of this research, I took note of a few “buzzwords” that seemed important to the department, such as “community.”

When I sat down for my phone interview, I kept this information in front of me. I was asked a total of about 6 questions. I recall answering the following questions.

1. What courses am I interested in teaching or feel qualified teaching? I answered this question in the context of the program curricula and the strengths of the other faculty, demonstrating the gaps I could fill. I also made clear that I could teach the courses mentioned in the position description.
2. What is my approach to leadership and how would I integrate this in my teaching and service? This question caught me off guard, but I stumbled through it.
3. What is my research agenda or program? This is a basic question that seemingly everyone is asked and every PhD student should be prepared to clearly answer. My answer to this question was long because I have a lot of research interests, and I indicated that I wanted to work with graduate students on several studies.

I walked away from the phone interview, like most people, feeling less than confident about my chances. Nevertheless, I received a phone call a few days later (I was the last to phone interview) asking me to come on campus for the next round of the process.

My on campus visit included a dinner with the search committee, followed by a full day of meetings and a job talk. Interestingly, I didn’t do much additional preparation for the on campus visit. I figured out what to wear by asking colleagues. There are a few blog entries on what women should wear. I wore a jacket and tie for both days of the visit, and although I was overdressed for the dinner with the search committee, I don’t regret it. Be sure to take note of the weather, bring extra clothing in case of disaster, and pack an umbrella. The major preparation for the on campus visit was creating a job talk. I created a PowerPoint and elected to focus on just one aspect of my dissertation research, as I only had 30 minutes to present. As was true in my cover letter, I sought to position my research in a set of bigger questions. I did not narrowly focus on this research project, but demonstrated how this study is part of a series of questions that intrigue me in the political economy and governance of higher education. I practiced my job talk obsessively, until it became second nature. I also practiced my job talk in front of my co-workers and few friends in order to get their feedback. My whole approach to the job talk was to indicate that I’m comfortable and confident talking about scholarly topics to a room full of strangers. I talked about my research like it was vitally important—because it is! One slide in my presentation linked the issues I was talking about to developments at the institution I was visiting. This is probably only possible for fellow higher education PhDs.

What I found most refreshing about the on campus visit is that it was extremely conversational. I was not directly interviewed, per se, at any point during my visit. I met with the search committee, the department chair, the dean, and graduate students. For the most part, it felt like I was talking with other educational scholars about things that interest us. It helped that I knew about many of the people with whom I met because I had read their CVs. I asked as many questions as possible, and I tried to express my enthusiasm for goals that are important to the department and the college, such as internationalization. My one take away from the campus visit is that I was being assessed as a future colleague. My record got me to this point, but I think personality played an important role in landing the job. This is frustrating to think about because it means that landing a faculty job sometimes comes down to factors over which you may have little to no control. The graduate student meeting was the most challenging for me, mainly because the graduate students asked tough questions about my qualifications. It caused imposter syndrome to rear its ugly head.

In case it is useful, here are a few questions that came up during my on campus visit:

1. What are you reading right now? This was apparently a favorite question of the dean. I didn’t mention this, but I actually found and read part of a book he wrote. 
2. What are your experiences with adult learners?
3. What are your experiences with teaching technologies?
4. What are the specific courses you could teach? They actually handed me a list of courses and asked me to identify those I felt comfortable teaching.
5. What were my thoughts on collaborating with other faculty members on research of mutual interest?
6. Does my research require funding, and how do I foresee funding it?

There were a few questions that made me uncomfortable. I was also asked frequently about my personal life. Although a few people told me to not talk about my spouse, it felt disingenuous to leave her out of the conversation entirely. I read the situation and was sensitive with my choice of language, but I wanted to make it clear that my personal life was just as important to me as being an assistant professor.

When I left the institution, I had a very good sense of the timeline and how an offer might arrive. The dean emailed me about 10 days later asking if I could chat. I knew based upon our conversation that this meant he was offering the position to me. We chatted by phone, and he spelled out the full offer package. He put the offer in writing to me after we spoke and gave me as much time as I needed to think it over. There is some disagreement over how to receive advice on a faculty job offer, but I elected to share it with a few faculty mentors. The consensus was that it was a fair offer for this type of institution. Since it was a public institution, I looked up faculty salaries in my department through a local newspaper database. I knew this information does not always reflect the full compensation of some faculty, but it was enough to see that my offer was comparable to other assistant professors in my department. In the end, I did very little negotiating. There are three reasons for this. First, I found that the offer satisfied my needs. Second, the dean explained to me in detail how he arrived at the offer package, which helped me understand areas that could be negotiated. Third, I had no counter offers and no other promising leads. My one regret is that I should have waited until after my wife had visited the city to accept the job. This is apparently standard practice at many institutions.

Here ends my story. I have no doubt I missed a few details. The important thing that I learned throughout the process was to seek help—this is not like any other job search! Do your homework—being able to understand the department, college, and institution is incredibly useful. It cuts down on surprises and helps you adjust your expectations and interview responses. I also want to stress a piece of advice I received from a senior scholar and tried to follow: be yourself. There was something in your materials that they liked about you, so trust in who you are and what you have to offer.