Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Faculty candidates: have your package ready by September 1?

As part of the joint ChemBark/Chemjobber chemistry faculty openings, we're watching the deadline for applications, which are usually specified. Here is the breakdown based on the most recent update (today, September 1):

August: 6 (3%)
September 1-14: 9 (4.5%)
September 15-30: 36 (17.8%)
October 1-14: 52 (25.7%)
October 15-31: 49 (24.3%)
November 1-14: 10 (5.0%)
November 15-30: 7 (3.5%)
December 1-14: 2 (1.0%)
Not specified: 31 (15.3%)

We hope to be comprehensive, but at the moment, it is too soon to tell how successful we have been. That said, it is clear to me that the bulk of chemistry faculty positions that have an application deadline have one between September 15 and October 31.

This suggests to me that the wise candidate will probably have their package (applications, statements of teaching, letters from recommenders, buttscan, that sort of thing) complete or very-near-complete by September 1. 

4 comments:

  1. Some suggestions for writing a teaching statement http://proteinsandwavefunctions.blogspot.dk/2015/08/writing-informed-teaching-statement-for.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. To add some encouragement for those applying - last year, I made a personal list of Organic chemistry faculty openings (tenure track), specifically those not requiring a post-doc/not at a research intensive school. Including "as soon as received" deadlines that were posted Sept/Oct, 22 had deadlines before Oct. 31 (mostly Oct. 1-17) but by the end of October, I had another 20 openings that had deadlines in Nov.-Dec. and when I got an offer (just before Christmas), there were about another15-20 for Jan-Feb, although I wasn't counting too carefully anymore. My advice for those applying next year is to have most of your materials complete/revised over the summer so that when openings start coming, you are ready to make minor changes to each one and submit. I was not quite ready, so some of the August/early September deadlines got past me. For those applying this year, there are (or will be) a lot of opportunities out there...good luck and don't get discouraged, even if you bomb one of your phone interviews (I still flinch when I think about one of mine.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes. Template documents should be ready by 1 September, since you'll want to tailor the cover letter, teaching statement, and research statement to each school, and that can be upwards of 10 per week when you get into October.

    And you will bomb you first phone interview.

    ReplyDelete
  4. re. buttscan "Wovon man nicht schweigen kann, darĂ¼ber muss man sprechen." This is self-evident!

    I would certainly enjoy sending a buttscan to those departments advertising this year, but which have rejected me in past years. Alas, the $ 100 offer was from 2013, when I was still innocently employed. And it is limited to the first two people who take up the challenge.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20