Tuesday, November 10, 2020

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 165 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 165 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching assistant professor positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On November 12, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 463 research/teaching positions and 29 teaching faculty positions.

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search?  This is the second open thread. Click here for the first open thread, which closed on November 11, 2020.

237 comments:

  1. I know it is super early, but anyone heard anything from Barnard? A lot of the PUIs seem to be doing first rounds on a very accelerated timeline.

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    1. Barnard has started scheduling interviews.

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  2. Out of curiosity, how long are people's research statements either for R1 or PUI positions?

    My statement for R1 chemistry jobs is 10 pages and for engineering 3 pages.

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    1. My R1 Chemistry research statement is 7 page long (single line spacing).

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    2. A lot of the places I applied had specified page limits, so I ended up with 4 versions varying from 9 to 3 pages. If it wasn't specified, I normally sent R2/MS institutions the full 9 and sent PUIs a 5 or 3-page version depending on their perceived commitment to doing research in more than just lip service.

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    3. Mine for chemistry R1 is 13 pages including a 1pg summary at the beginning. I have a shorter 7pg version for the schools with length requirements.

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    4. I've been told by multiple people to keep it under 3 pages. I have 3 versions: (1) a 1 pg summary statement w/ figures, (2) a 2 pg statement w/ references (I typically send this one), and (3) a 5 pg with more technical specifics for each project (like an NIH proposal w/ sub-aims). I like the 2pg statement b/c it gives just enough info on the big picture ideas without inviting too much criticism on the details...yet, like an LOI ;)

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    5. My PUI research statement is about 2-3 pages of text then some more with figures, refs, and other things. It's skimmable put also detailed enough. I'm not interested in an R1 so mine is VERY focused on PUIs.

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    6. @3:37pm I know for biology, 3 pgs max is what is typically done, and since you mentioned NIH this makes sense. Maybe it's also typical for chem bio. My understanding was that R1 chemistry statements tend to be much longer.

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    7. Mine standard one is 14 pages, including a 1 page summary (and a very small table of contents) at the beginning, a 2 page summary of previous research at the end, and references. I have no idea if this is good or not (though mentors have indicated that's fine), it's just how it came out. I have other versions of it for apps with length requirements but the 14 pager is my default.

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    8. When I was applying, I had 3, 5, and 10 page versions depending on the length requirements of the particular institute. I don't recall submitting the 5 page version to many places, but I got offers with both the 3 and the 10. I'm sitting on an R1 search committee and reviewing applications now. Long proposals have information only subject matter experts on the committee care about. Many universities like to have at least one member of the search from outside the department and it would be highly unusual to have all the search members be in the particular sub-field the position is for. It is very important to get to the point and explain the importance of your research (also include that in the 1-1.5 page cover letter). The committee will probably not read a 10+ page proposal word for word. I don't think it will be discarded for being long, but it will be skimmed...

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    9. My research statement goes from 3-5 pages (including references and figures) depending on the requirements of the call. I am applying to chem & biochem positions. My impression is that you do not want to hit an overworked committee with all the details on the science. They will grill you at the research proposal talk, if they are interested.

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  3. Mine is 8 pages for both Chemistry and Engineering R1 unless required for a shorter length. Does Engineering prefer a shorter research statement than Chemistry?

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    1. What I've heard from faculty in electrical, CHEME, and MSE is that in engineering, shorter statements (3-5 pgs ish) are the norm. It's also common to discuss your previous research accomplishments in there whereas I don't think that's common in chemistry. I have no idea what works, I haven't gotten any interviews in chemistry or engineering, so who knows what's "best."

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  4. If a place starts scheduling pre-interviews, how long does it usually take before you know you did not make it into the pool?

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    1. it depends, last year i was in this limbo for over a month before the committee let me know i would not be advancing to an on-site interview, other times i know it takes less than a week.

      I think most committees understand that this is not a fun process for the applicant, and I don't think that people view it negatively if you ask them during your skype interview what the timeline is (provided you do so in a respectful manner). If that ship has sailed already though, I would just recommend patience.

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  5. Based on my experience from last year, if I didn't hear back within one week of the phone/zoom interview, I wasn't invited for an onsite. A couple places have still not let me know that I won't be having an onsite.

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    1. well, there is no universal rule. I had 5 on-sites last year; some reached me within a week or two after their deadlines, some others - much later. It depends on their number of applicants, type of school and busy schedules of faculty members serving in search committees.

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    2. Last year, for the schools that I did not proceed to the next round after the phone interview, they all informed me about it through emails. I guess it depends on the schools.

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    3. That's nice that they don't delay notifying applicants who made it to the zoom interview. What do they do for onsite at PUIs?

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  6. Any news from Utah Valley?

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  7. Beloit College is scheduling preliminary phone interviews.

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  8. Drury University is scheduling preliminary Zoom interviews.

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  9. University of Washington is scheduling first-round interviews.

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    1. Any chance you'd be willing to share what area?

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    2. Physical-ish. From their email it seemed like they were scheduling all candidates, not only ones in a specific area, but my opinion is worth what you paid for it.

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  10. Has anyone heard back from The King's University?

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    1. I got an email from them asking for responses to some questions on integration of Christian faith with teaching, scholarship, etc. That was due 11/4 or 11/5 I think, but I haven't heard anything back since then.

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    2. Got an email from King's requesting a preliminary zoom call; they said it's not an "interview" but it sure sounds like the usual preliminary/screening zoom interview.

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  11. Has anyone heard back from Bryn Mawr since the initial zoom interviews a few weeks ago?

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  12. Any word from Gustavus Adolphus since they extended their deadline to 10/31?

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  13. Davidson scheduling their virtual on-site interviews.

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    1. Did you receive the email for virtual on-site interview on Friday?

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    2. No. Email was received on Nov. 11th.

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  14. Hamilton College sent out notification that they will hire for Biochem this year and maybe the environmental analytical position later this year, but not the pchem position this year. Stated that they may hire pchem next year and will be probably looking for visiting pchemist for one year next year.

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    1. They are scheduling initial zoom interviews for the biochem position.

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    2. I got a similar email. I assume that's what takes them so long to arrange everything.

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    3. I also got a similar email for the environmental-analytical position. Basically they're scheduling biochem now and hope to schedule environmental-analytical probably after Jan 1.

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  15. What exactly is the difference between a research statement and a research plan (I have seen a call asking for both)? Is the research plan supposed to be a fully developed proposal (NIH-like) of one or more of the projects presented in the 2-5 page research statement? Thank you for any input.

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    1. I think they are the same thing. Unless there are specific requirements in the posting, I send the same research statement everywhere regardless of what they call it. It's possible a research statement could want some information about your previous research accomplishments in addition to the proposal, but that should be explicitly stated in the posting.

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    2. Reply to Anon 6:21pm
      Thanks! That was my impression too, that both terms referred to the same type of document. But then I came across an offer (Scripps) asking for both a research statement AND a research plan, and no details are provided in the posting. That is a bit confusing.

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    3. I'd suggest emailing the search committee contact. I bet the statement is a summary of your previous accomplishments based on the fact they want two.

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  16. Has anyone heard anything from Kansas State or Texas Tech? I know both were evaluating applications as received (Kansas St had a cap at 10/30) and it's been well over a month since I submitted mine.

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    1. Not yet. Good luck!

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    2. Kansas State is scheduling interviews

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    3. Texas Teach has started phone interview last week

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  17. MIT has started scheduling pre-interviews.

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    1. Any chance you'd be willing to share what area?

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  18. Princeton is scheduling pre-interviews

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    1. Any news from Princeton?

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    2. Second round interviews are now being scheduled

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  19. Any new updates from Auburn?

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    1. Auburn is scheduling Zoom interviews for the experimental pchem position now

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    2. No news for the computational position

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  20. North Carolina State University is scheduling preliminary interviews.

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  21. What is the general time period over which pre-interviews are scheduled? In other words, after a university has started scheduling pre-interviews, how long does it generally take for the university to send out emails for all the pre-interviews?

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    1. I guess they typically send out all the invitations in the same day?

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    2. Depends on the school, no way of knowing.

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  22. Penn State Altoona is scheduling phone interviews.

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  23. Any word from Lawrence (in Wisconsin)?

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  24. How diligent are schools at informing applicants that they will not be selected for the first round of interviews? I'm curious as to how common it is to never receive any type of response from a school about one's application status.

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    1. Extremely - it is the modal outcome.

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    2. Chemjobber: with "Extremely" do you mean that the schools are "extremely diligent" or that "it is extremely common not to receive any type of response"? Thank you for clarifying!

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    3. It is extremely common to never receive any type of response from a school about one's application status.

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  25. What are some of the common questions in a 15-minute zoom interview at an R1 university? Thank you.

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    1. 1.Introduce yourself;
      2.Describe your accomplishment;
      3.Describe your future plans;
      4.Teaching philosophy/approach;
      5.How do you differentiate from your postdoc advisor;
      6.Why this position;
      7.Why do you think your background fits our program.

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    2. Agree with Anon@8:53PM. A couple more:
      - talk about your mentoring style
      - what are your plans for obtaining funding for your research?
      - what will you do to address issues of diversity/equity/inclusion in your research and/or teaching?

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  26. University of Texas at El Paso has sent out email for Zoom interviews. (Health, Human Disease, and Diagnostics Position)

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    1. Can you please share which field for you? @7:31pm and are they doing on site now?

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  27. Received rejection letter from Wesleyan University.

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    1. If you don't mind sharing, was this after the first interview?

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    2. This was a rejection with no interviews.

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  28. Any word from Northwestern and UNLV? Their priority dates were quite a while back, right?

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    1. I think that Northwestern has started the pre-interview

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  29. Any body know when is the deadline for University of North Texas (Computational/ Theoretical) deadline?

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  30. Has anybody heard from UC Davis after the preliminary interview yet?

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    1. UC Davis did send out the next round of interview invitations.

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    2. Theory or organic? Deadline for theory was just last week.

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    3. I would think just the organic position, as they did prelim interviews and said they would contact about next round last week.

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  31. Did anyone here apply to Samford? Their deadline has passed, and I'm guessing it is safe to assume that they will not accept new applications?

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  32. Has anybody heard from Dartmouth on the organic position?

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  33. Has anybody heard from UC Berkeley?

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    1. Priority date was 10/30, so probably several more weeks until they start to schedule interviews.

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  34. Has anybody heard from Wayne State?

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    1. They will have the pre-interview this week

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    2. Analytical, biochemistry, or theory?

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    3. I'm not anon@12:25, but for me it's analytical-ish.

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    4. Thank you! I did not hear back from them, so this is very helpful to know.

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  35. Gwynedd Mercy is scheduling preliminary Zoom interviews

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  36. Has anyone heard from South Florida after the preliminary interview?

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    1. Not yet. They had told me it would be a few weeks when I asked them, though.

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    2. USF is scheduling on sites. notification 11/24

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    3. @1.08pm, could you please share, which field for University of South Florida (org, Inorg, Phy, Analytical)?

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  37. Did anyone hear from Notre Dame or UCLA for the theory position? Thank you.

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    1. I have not heard from Notre Dame yet.

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    2. UCLA Theory not yet.

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  38. CSU Long Beach is scheduling virtual "on site" interviews.

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  39. Wesleyan scheduling virtual "on-site" interviews.

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    1. If you don't mind sharing, when did you receive the email?

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  40. Any news from Utah Valley?

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  41. CMU is scheduling online interviews.

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    1. Just to be clear, this is Carnegie Mellon right?

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  42. Has anyone heard from The University of Utah?

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    1. UTAH Chemical biology not yet. (Deadline was 10/15/20)

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  43. Texas Tech University is scheduling first interviews for organic position.

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  44. Southern Illinois Edwardsville is scheduling first interviews.

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    1. If you do not mind, for what field ?

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    2. It was in their department of pharmaceutical sciences

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    3. I see, thanks for your reply.

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  45. Has anybody heard from Texas A&M yet? Been > a month since their deadline...

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    1. There is still a lot of radio silence for the 10/15 deadlines so I would say that we should all expect 6-8 weeks before hearing back from anything

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    2. Texas A&M has started scheduling initial interviews

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    3. Thanks! Do you mind sharing what area??

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  46. Did anyone heard from Valdosta?

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    1. They are scheduling virtual onsites.

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  47. UC Santa Cruz is scheduling first-round interviews for their Teaching Assistant Professor position.

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  48. Has Auburn started the interviews for the computational position?

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    1. They have, yes. The email went out last week.

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  49. Has anyone heard from Western Carolina?

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  50. Any news from Notre Dame?

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  51. Beloit College has scheduled remote "visits"

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  52. Gustavus Adolphus is conducting initial Zoom interviews.

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  53. Did anyone heard from Richmond?

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  54. Any update from Emory for theoretical ?

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    1. Wasn't this an open search?

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    2. @5.11. Emory hired two theorists last year, I don't think that they are looking for another one this year.

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  55. The College of New Jersey is scheduling Zoom interviews.

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  56. Any news from USC-Aiken?

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  57. Very quiet, I thought there would be interview news from many universities after the holidays.

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  58. E-mails from Denison and Berea that the positions have been filled

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  59. Has anyone heard from Chicago about the inorganic positions?

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    1. UChicago is holding first-round interviews

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  60. Would some of you be willing to share the questions you were asked in your interviews (rephrasing them to keep you anonymous)?

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    1. Good resource is to check out the future PI slack channel, there are a lot of questions posted. Most people there are biologists, though.

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  61. Anybody hear anything from Dartmouth yet?

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  62. Roberts Wesleyan College scheduling Zoom prelim interviews

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  63. The University of Richmond is scheduling first-round phone interview.

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  64. Notre Dame is scheduling pre-interview for theoretical.

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  65. Has anyone heard anything from Carnegie Mellon after Zoom-interviews?

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    1. It seems like it's too early for that... maybe next week? Unless other places with similar timelines are already contacting candidates.

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    2. They were still doing interviews at the beginning of this week so it is likely too soon to have heard anything.

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  66. Has anyone heard from UC Berkeley and Yale?

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  67. Minnesota is scheduling Zoom interviews

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    1. for Chem or for ChemE?

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    2. If you don't mind, for what field?

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    3. Chem (this is the chemistry thread)

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    4. There is sometimes overlap. I didn't have a problem with their question, no need to be harsh imo.

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    5. I'm pretty sure 5:48 what asking what type of chemistry (analytical, theoretical, organic, etc) like all of the comments that have asked that exact wording previously about "open" positions. People just want info in this extremely stressful time.

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    6. @8:29 no intention to be harsh, hard to convey tone online. I didn't realize there were ChemE comments here. @5:48 my area is physical.

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    7. No worries! Best of luck!

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  68. University of Utah (materials chem position) scheduling zoom interviews

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  69. Notre Dame (Chem/Biochem - Cancer Drug Discovery) is scheduling zoom interviews for next wk.

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    1. @3:21 pm, do you mind sharing which field (physical, computational chemistry, org, med chem)?

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    2. for me: org/synbio/chembio

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  70. WHICH FIELD PERSON: QUIT IT, YOU'RE FILLING UP MY INBOX AND I WILL BEGIN DELETING YOUR POSTS.

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    1. Not the which field person, but what's wrong with asking that? I think it can be helpful to know the field so that it may provide a reason as to why applicants may be rejected.

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    2. When you ask 3 times in 8 minutes, it's a bit much. I do not believe these nudges are necessary. People share what they want to share.

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    3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  71. Texas tech is scheduling Zoom interviews for the experimental pchem position

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  72. Any news regarding University of Wisconsin Parkside?

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  73. UCLA (bioinorganic) is scheduling interviews

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  74. Are CMU Zoom interviews over for theoretical ?

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    1. My understanding is that there is a single search committee for the position handling both theoretical and experimental candidates, and I think the interviews ended late last week or earlier this week but am not certain.

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    2. Mine was experimental, but I think it's a single search committee.

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    3. Great, thanks both for your replies. Best of luck!

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  75. Any news from Lawrence Tech?

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  76. Any news from SIU Carbondale?

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  77. Anybody hear from Emory or Scripps so far?

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    1. Scripps had requested letters mid November, but I haven't heard anything since.

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    2. Same here on Scripps -- letters requested in Nov, and nothing since

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    3. Any news from Caltech?

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    4. @3:17 Caltech did a round of phone interviews for the Chem search at the beginning of Dec, but no word since, as far as I know. No idea about the Chem E search, though.

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    5. @3:17 Any idea the type of research program they (Caltech) are looking for?

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  78. Did Anyone hear from Ohio State, Utah, MSKCC, VCU (med chem and chem biol)?

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    1. Ohio State (med chem), Utah (med chem) and MSK (chem biol) have started scheduling the interviews

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  79. Does anyone know whether Carnegie Mellon made decisions regarding their on-sites? Last week some people mentioned that it could take a while as they handle both theoretical and experimental searches, but it has been 2 weeks since they started their Zoom interviews.

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    1. For what it's worth, my screening interview was ~2 weeks ago and I have not heard anything since.

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    2. well, I asked them when I can expect to hear from them, when I had my Zoom-interview 2 weeks ago. I assume, that I haven't made the cut, but the chosen ones did not share the news. Actually, there are many updates regarding zoom-interviews here, but very little info on on-sites.

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    3. addition to @2.56. I forgot to write that they told me that the committee should decide within a week or so.

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  80. Rec'd rejection letter from Johns Hopkins Medicine - Pharmacology (12/16)

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  81. any news from Berkeley or Yale or NYU theory?

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  82. did anyone hear back from Emory?

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  83. Got a rejection email from UT-El Paso

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    1. If you do not mind sharing, did they ask for letters from your references ?

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  84. Rejection letter from Princeton Chemistry - 12/17

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  85. Just received rejection email from Princeton!

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