北美 Faculty 申请小结
By Yutuo
02/26/2021
1. 实力永远是第一位的。需要有top的publication，但是实力未必体现在top journal/conference的数量上 — 0和1的差距往往要比1和10的差距大。越是top的学校，往往并不单纯的去看数量，而更看重工作本身的impact。一篇有1000个citation的工作可能比10篇100个citation的工作更有意义。如果用谈恋爱相亲做类比的话，这部分就相当于颜值，学历，财富等硬通货，但是具体怎么衡量综合实力，每个人的标准会略有差异，但总体上有一点，那就是只少得有一处吸引人的地方。
2. 运气也是非常重要的。你的方向是不是他们最需要的最感兴趣的，你和committee是不是投缘。这一点有点玄幻，就好像两个人的结合，虽然大体上讲究个门当户对，但是也绝非按照硬实力配对。这里需要讲的一个trick就是，如果research没有办法做的非常深入的话，那么也可以往广度发展，做交叉学科，这样做的好处至少有3个：
1) job talk的时候故事非常好讲，motivation会非常strong；
2) 由于是交叉方向，往往committee的人很难有人对你的领域完全理解，这也就为你创造了很多迂回空间，也不容易被人一眼看穿 — 增加一些神秘感是很有帮助的，尤其是在自己的硬实力并非无懈
可击的时候；
3) 投简历的时候选择面更宽，不一定限制在本专业。以我知道的CS PhD为例：最终去的department包括：Information Technology/System/Management/Engineering, Industry Engineering Electrical Engineering, Psychology/Neuroscience, Neural/Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, Radiology等等。其中不乏100+学校的PhD找到了top20的教职的例子。但如果找CS的faculty position，以目前人才的饱和程度看，则难如登天。
3. Interview。实力是短时间内无法改变的，运气是不可控的，interview就显得尤为重要，或者说，是最重要的一环。interview的准备工作网上都有很多完备的介绍，就不展开说明了。但是需要强调的一点，就是job talk时讲故事的能力。这里的重点，绝对不是为了表现你的工作以及你本人如何如何牛X，而是你的工作如何如何重要。如果他们觉得你不牛X，就不会邀请你做on campus的interview，所以这一点是无需证明的。同理，你也不需要秀你的专业技术 — 那些专业方面的奇技淫巧，不懂你研究的人是很难通过一个talk就get到的。而懂你研究的人并不是你的争取对象 — 他们是已经站在你这一边的人。你的重点是要争取那些不是很了解你工作的人，让他们get到的研究的重要性，以及让他们觉得未来他们可以跟你存在潜在的collaboration，你的到来会是对这个department很好的补充。绝大多数情况下，faculty search committee里面的人只有1-2个真正懂你的research，但是最终大家投票的时候是每人一票的。
具体到job talk，就是要尽量的简单易懂，最开始的几页slides要从一些人们日常有直观感受的内容（也就是大家都知道的事情）说起，例如可以搜一些新闻的headline来凸显这个问题的对于普罗大众的impact，然后再切入到自己的research topic中。当年做postdoc的时候，听过系里面的job talk，其中两个让我印象最为深刻，都是做optimization的，最让人印象深刻的是，一个如此mathematical的topic，两位candidates却极少用数学公式及证明，而是用了大量的图片和动画演示让听众理解其工
作的原理（现在此二人分别是Princeton和MIT的AP）。
另外一个问题就是，如果自己有多个工作，那么在job talk的时候，就要有主次。个人感觉，详细介绍的最好不要超过三个，而这三个工作虽然看似独立，但最好有一个主线串起来（类似于漫威系列的电影），而剩下的工作，则可以在talk最后简要介绍一下即可。
4. 申请文书 & Connection。前者网上有很多的sample，就不赘述了。而后者包含两部分：一部分是你老板的connection。在北美，相对于学校的reputation，大家更看重老板的名气（当然，前提是老板有名气）。记得当年系里面candidate过来面试的时候，教授们从来不是说，这个人是XX学校来的，而是说这个人是XX的学生。当然，老板的connection也是我们没有办法控制的。而自身connection，个人觉得，主要的渠道就是开会时的social，当然，也包括平时在自己系里面的social，尤其是低年级的时候，多跟高年级的师兄和postdoc聊聊，因为这些人说不定哪天就去其他学校当AP去了。另外一个渠道就是通过网络主动跟别人建立学术联系/合作，这种情况往往是起源于你对于对方工作的充分了解，当然这种需要自身有比较强的硬实力。这里想说的一点是，由于民族性格和语言壁垒的问题，大多数中国人并不擅长跟老外在公众场合打交道，尤其是在自己没有特别出色的工作发表的时候，往往羞于跟同行交流，生怕露怯。本人这一点其实也并不擅长，所以没有什么经验可谈。但想说的一点是，自己research的水平并不是关键，关键是有自信。我曾经不止一次见过组里的老外，把自己做的非常 incremental 的工作用非常骄傲的语气给别人present，明明仅仅是一个水会的poster，但是滔滔不绝的样子仿佛是CNS级别的工作。这一点，是十分值得学习的。
暂时就想到这么多，后续有其他idea的话再补充。
CAREER ADVICE
An Overview of the Faculty Job Application Process
By Academic Positions
02/26/2021
Applying for a faculty position at a North American university is a long process that requires several specialized documents and a lengthy interview process. Here’s an overview of the application process.
Timing
Academic jobs can be posted at any time, but many American and Canadian tenure-track jobs are posted in the late summer or early fall. Applications are then generally due in November and December. Shorter, fixed-contract positions like visiting assistant professorships or lecturerships are often posted in the spring.
Key Application Materials
For most faculty positions the following application materials are required:
- A cover letter– the cover letter presents overview of the applicant and shows why they are the right person for this position. An academic cover letter will cover the candidate’s research and contributions to the field as well as publishing plans, future projects, teaching experience, and specific interest in the department.
- A CV– A curriculum vitae lists the applicant’s academic qualifications, employment history, plublications, awards, grants, conference presentations, teaching experience, and service activities. Learn more about how to write an academic CV here.
- Recommendation letters– Most positions require three to five letters of recommendation from senior faculty who can comment thoughtfully on the applicant and their work.
In addition to a cover letter, CV, and recommendation letters there are several other documents that might be required as part of the application. These could include:
- a teaching portfolio,
- sample syllabi,
- a writing sample,
- a research statement
- a statement of teaching philosophy
First-Round Interviews
There will be several rounds of interviews for faculty positions. After reviewing all the applications, the search committee will create a shortlist of 15 to 25 candidates. In many fields, the first-round of interviews take place at the discipline’s national association’s annual meeting. Candidates might be asked to provide secondary material before the interview such as a writing sample. Conference interviews usually last 20-30 minutes and will take place in a hotel room, suite, or cubicle in the conference centre. If the field doesn’t conduct conference interviews, first-round interviews will be done over Skype. Regardless of the format, the candidate will be asked about things like their dissertation, publications, plans for future projects, teaching, and course development. After these interviews are complete, the search committee will narrow down the shortlist. The remaining candidates are then ranked by the entire department and the top three are flown out for individual on-campus interviews.
The Campus Interview
Each of the top three applicants will be invited to spend a day on two on campus. During this time, they will have several one on one meetings/interviews with the search committee, departmental faculty, the department head, and even the dean. Each candidate will give a “job talk” lecture on their research to the faculty, graduate students, and sometimes undergrads in the department. The job talk is followed by a Q&A and often a reception. Many campus interviews will also include a teaching demonstration, where the candidate will prepare a sample lesson for undergraduate students. During the visit, the candidate will get a tour of campus and also eat meals with members of the faculty and search committee.
Making an Offer
After the campus interviews are complete, the department will make its final decision. Once they get permission from the administration to make the offer, the chair will contact the successful applicant and offer them the position. The candidate will then receive the full offer letter and contract and the time frame to accept. If the candidate turns down the offer, the department may make an offer to their second choice candidate or there may be a failed search.
If the candidate accepts the offer, the chair of the search committee will contact the other finalists and let them know that the position has been filled.
Source: https://academicpositions.com/career-advice/an-overview-of-the-faculty-job-application-process
CAREER NEWS
Fifteen to one: how many applications it can take to land a single academic job offer
Survey finds that standard metrics of success can’t completely explain why some candidates get offers and others don’t.
02/26/2021
It takes at least 15 job applications to land a single offer, finds a survey of 317 early-career researchers who applied for faculty positions in a range of nations1. The results have shed light on a hiring process that is often opaque, frustrating and hard to predict. Contrary to common belief, the authors found that a publication in a high-profile journal isn’t an absolute prerequisite for a successful application.
The survey was conducted by members of the Future PI Slack community, a postdoctoral support group. They collected responses from researchers who had applied for faculty positions between May 2018 and May 2019. Respondents hailed from 13 countries, although 72% were from the United States; 85% were in the life sciences. Overall, 58% received job offers, significantly above the average from other studies, suggesting that successful applicants were especially willing to take the survey. Only 26% had an authorship credit in Cell, Nature or Science.
The survey tracked conventional metrics of success such as fellowships, citations and publications, and found that these measures were only modestly effective at predicting which applicants would get job offers. The authors tried to construct a flow chart to predict the applicants’ fate, but it was less than 60% accurate.
More is more
One clear lesson was that jobseekers shouldn’t skimp on applications. Those who submitted more than 15 applications landed substantially more on-site interviews than those who didn’t. They also received more job offers, but the correlation wasn’t so strong, suggesting that the shotgun approach to applications can go only so far. Jobseekers do better when they send applications that are precisely tailored to the position sought, says survey co-author Chris Smith, manager of the postdoc programme at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Publication in a high-profile journal helped an applicant’s cause, but it was no guarantee of success, the study found. Jobseekers who were first authors of a paper in Cell, Nature or Science received offers on 11% of their applications. For people who had no papers in those journals, the success rate per application was 2%.
The authors also polled 15 faculty members who had served on hiring committees to find out what makes an application successful. The results suggest that committees seek candidates who will be good colleagues and scientists, says the study’s lead author, Amanda Haage, a biomedical scientist at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. The committees looked at affability as well as at track records, she says.
Intangible assets
Recruitment of academics is more holistic than many think, explains Robert Bowles, a careers adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry in Cambridge, UK. Applicants “tend to forget about the intangibles”, he says. “Publications and grants buy you a ticket into the lottery, but they are not going to win it for you.”
When asked for their general thoughts on the application process, jobseekers had a nearly universal negative outlook. Most were frustrated that they did not receive feedback on their applications.
But faculty members on hiring committees find it impossible to provide detailed feedback on all applications. All 15 surveyed said that they typically receive more than 100 applications per job offer; 10 said they usually get more than 200.
It’s just one more sign of a stark imbalance in academia. Jobseekers outnumber positions, and that disparity is expected to get worse in the wake of the current coronavirus pandemic.
In this environment, postdocs should keep in mind that unsuccessful applications do not mean failure, says biochemist Rosemary Bass, a careers adviser at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. “We see people who think that making five applications and not getting an interview means that they are a reject,” Bass says. “The current situation is bringing home the difficulties of the academic job market to PhD students and postdocs in a way that we as careers advisers have not managed to previously.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02224-5
