--- Summary of UofT's Workshop on Careers in Academia --- Prepared by Wayne Hayes Below is a brief point-form summary of the seminar that happened last Friday. I took notes and thought others who are looking for academic tenure-track jobs might be interested. It is transcribed from my notes and my memory. My comments are enclosed in square brackets. All quotes are paraphrased. >From: Marsha Chechik >Subject: reminder: careers in academia workshop >Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 14:40:47 -0500 > >This is a reminder that the informal workshop >"Careers in Academia" will take place tomorrow, Friday, >January 25, in WB342, starting at 12 p.m. (we have the >room until 2 p.m.). > >I am also pleased to announce that Steve Easterbrook, the >Chair of our Search Committee, has volunteered to address >the workshop with a few remarks. Thus, our panelists >are: > Angela Demke Brown, Sam Roweis, Faith Fich, > Toni Pitassi, Steve Easterbrook > >This workshop is geared towards Ph.D. students interested in >obtaining an academic position. > >The agenda of the workshop includes (very) short presentations >from our panelists and an opportunity for a Q&A session. --- Steve Easterbrook started, with a slide with the following 4 pieces of advice: 1) Get your Ph.D. at a good place (UofT is a good start! :-) 2) Get to know top people in your field, and more importantly, make sure *they* get to know *you*. This pays off in that they can be (among other useful things) excellent references on your C.V. later, if they know your work and are willing to say good things about you. This means you need to get over any fear of walking up to a stranger at a conference and introducing yourself. 3) Publish -- but be selective where. A few publications in well-respected journals is worth more than lots in trashy journals that accept anyhting. Sheer number rarely counts for anything. And publish before your thesis is finished, because it's too much of a delay to wait until after. 4) Make sure your C.V. is in order. In particular, the first page should contain where you got your Ph.D., your thesis title, your advisor. And your publications list should be ordered by importance: list peer-reviewed publications in journals before conference papers before talks an little unknown conferences. ---- Toni Pitassi went next. Toni's biggest piece of advice is "Make sure you love the problem you're studying, because if you're not enthusiastic about it, it's going to be hard to convince others that it's worthwhile research." On Steve's "get to know good people" point, she added that a conference isn't the only place to find them. You should also have meaningful conversations with good people who come to visit your department. Where to apply? Choose where you'd *like* to go. Don't be alarmed by advertisements saying, "We're only interesting in hiring people in sub-discipline XXX." If you want to go to a place, apply. The worst that can happen is a rejection letter. And once you've created an application package, it's negligible work to send it to yet another place. And look at other C.V.s of recent applicants; you'll get lots of ideas about how a "good" format looks. About references: It's good to have a good mix of people who know you (eg., your advisor), plus big names (as Steve suggested), plus people who are willing to "gush good things about you". Don't be afraid to send your papers to people in your area, so they get to know you. Before the interview: research the people who you'll meet. You don't want to be stuck not knowing who somebody is. You'll usually receive a shedule of your meetings, so you'll know in advance who you'll see. At the interview: the talk is vitally important. Many people will judge you based *only* on your talk. It's also one of the few times where you have the undivided attention of a large number of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. The "motivation" part of your talk (near the beginning) is important: why is this research important? Make sure at least the first 20 minutes is understandable by *anybody* in Comp. Sci., because most of the audience is not in your area. Practice the talk several times with a friendly audience: your friends, or advisor, and ensure that people outside your area attend your practice talk. --- Next, Faith Fich. Once you get an offer, you need to negotiate several things: salary, moving expenses, startup money (for equipment, grad student support, etc., because you don't have any grants yet), reduced teaching and administrative load in the first couple years to have time to start up your research. Ensure that you have a list of things you need, so you can substantiate the support amount you request. It may be possible to get credit towards sabbatical and tenure for time at other institutions / jobs. Remember that once you get an offer, it means the place *really* wants you. You are in a strong position to negotiate. You may want to give two talks at your interview: a colloquium to a general audience, plus a seminar in your area. Be up front if you have a 2-body problem (ie., you and your spouse are both looking for positions.) Some universities have special "soft" money just for this purpose, or may be able to at least help find a non-academic position, even if you and your spouse aren't even remotely related research-wise. A good reference is the Career Mentoring Workshops Booklet (in pdf) that contains an article on "Getting a Job", available at www.cra.org/Activities/craw/pubs.html --- Angela Demke Brown spoke next. She suggests a great book about negotiating is called "Getting to Yes" (I didn't catch the author). During negotiating, find out where your money will come from. Your salary usually comes from the department. If non-salary support also comes from the department, you're on your own bargaining for it. But if it comes from higher up, then the dept. is probably willing to help you bargain for it, because more money for you means more money for the department. Get a frequent flier ("Air Miles") card. You'll be doing lots of flying between interviews. Don't schedule more than 2 interviews per week; it's just impossible. And even then, don't do 2 a week for several weeks straight. You'll be dead at (or worse, before) the end. Remember that every minute spent with a local person, from being picked up at the airport, to the 8am breakfasts and 8pm dinners, is part of the interview. Be careful what you say, no matter how informal things appear. Give the same talk at all places. Don't even think about changing it, except possibly for minor tweaks designed to improve things that seem not to go smoothly. (eg., people keep asking the same question at the same point in the talk means you need to improve your explanation of that part.) Prepare in advance several short versions of your talk: 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes. These are to satisfy people who you meet in an elevator, for example, who say "I missed your talk. What did you say?" --- Finally, Sam Roweis spoke. He noted that there are only 2 times in your career that you're likely to be on the strong side of a negotiation: once when you get a job offer, and once when you get a tenure offer. In *both* cases, he suggests, you should have *other* offers in hand, with which to bargain. As an added bonus, in both cases, you want to make sure that you choose the place you do because it's the best choice, not because it was the only choice. [There was some disagreement from other panelists about going out to get other offers just before tenure. Others felt that this advice was more applicable to the US than Canada, where the policies re tenure are different.] Ensure *everything* you want (or have agreed upon by voice) is in writing in the offer letter, on paper (not just in e-mail), with a signature. If it's not there, you won't get it. Even getting a personal "memo" from the Chair to you isn't enough. It has to be official. Even in the current economic climate, you have options. Departments are desperate to hire good people. Be confident, but not pompous. During the interview, be sure to talk to students. [I think all of the panelists agreed on this point.] Grad students are your most honest source of information about "dirt" in the department: how it runs, what the environment is like, what politics or infighting exists. Ask about student funding (ask both the department officially, and the students themselves unofficially): is it good enough? Good funding attracts good students. How much freedom do grad students have in choosing (or switching) advisors? When discussing tenure, ask the hard-nosed questions: (1) how many people were hired into tenure-track? (2) what percentage of (1) came up for tenure? (3) what percentage of (2) got tenure? Some places will cite great numbers for (3) but will neglect to tell you the lousy numbers for (2), or vice versa. Don't be forced to make an early decision about places you interviewed early at. Tell them honestly that you haven't heard back from all places, and you need more time. *Never* make a hard decision in person or on the phone. Ask for the question in writing, and then think about it. Answers you should have prepared, because they're important and often asked: 1) What's your 5-year plan in research and teaching? 2) What are your next 3 papers going to be about (ie., what is your current work-in-progress)? 3) [From Faith] "Why do you want to come here?" 4) "If we make you an offer, will you accept it?" The last one is very tricky. They're interested in you, and they're basically trying to gauge if it's worth going through the enormous extra effort of making you a formal offer. If your answer is "no", you should probably tell them that, honestly but nicely, so as not to waste their time. The only exception is if you really need their offer to use as a bargaining chip for another offer you have (or may get), or if it's likely to be the only offer you'll get. A good response is, "If I say yes, will you make me an offer?" And if you *are* interested, tell them, explicitly and with enthusiasm. [Toni suggests: "I like this place, and would be excited to get an offer."] ---- monica schraefel had another suggestion: always be ready to walk away, if you feel you are being asked to compromise too far on a point in the negotiation that is critical to you. The hardest time to do this is when this is a place you want to be and an offer you would like to have - but if before you even start you are being asked to do somethng that seems too much of a compromise, be prepared to walk away. Let the other party know that this is a "deal breaker issue" for what could be, as Faith said, a 30+ year committment. And as Sam said, the message you send your administration in how you negotiate can set the tone for that group's perception of you. --- Final comments, without attribution: - discuss your progress through interviews with other candidates, to get a feel for the market, and to exchange ideas. - if you're changing countries, ask if there's immigration support. (It will be *really* hard without it.) - if you're applying to the country of your citizenship, you may want to list your citizenship on your C.V., since it's a plus. - ask them what's bad about their department. The answer is unlikely to be truthful, but will still be telling. - Steve says that he was looking for "a place where there was more than one person in my area, and with an existing, good, or growing project to collaborate in." - by far, the most important final thing in your choice of where to go is the people: these are going to be your colleauges every day for the next 30 years, not just in research, but on committees, in the hallway, at talks, etc. Make sure you're going to be comfortable.