The 2023 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 614 research/teaching positions and 73 teaching positions.
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.
On March 22, 2022, the 2022 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 576 research/teaching positions and 104 teaching faculty positions. On March 23, 2021, the 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 314 research/teaching positions and 58 teaching faculty positions.
Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This will be the fourth open thread. Here's a link to the current (third) thread. Here's a link to the second thread. Here's a link to the first open thread.
Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.
Welcome to the new thread!
ReplyDeletedid anyone hear from Columbia?
ReplyDeleteAn interesting Twitter account I came across that aims to chronicle failed faculty searches. No posts yet, but looks like it might be a useful feed in the future. https://twitter.com/ChemCarCrashes?s=20
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, this is definitely good for keeping up with hiring transparency
DeleteWithout a more reliable way to track which positions are (or aren't) filled it seems like more than a bit of a stretch to just assume that any positions that weren't publicly announced as filled through bumper cars, twitter, etc. were failed searches.
DeleteMany of the "failed" searches listed (21-22 cycle) in the car crash are actually successful: such as Alabama Huntsville, Clark U and Cleveland State. New hires are listed on their websites. I assume that some departments and individuals are simply low key and don't want public attentions on social media.
DeleteWe've updated these searches accordingly! (And will do so for any hires brought to our attention. DM or email us at chemcarcrashes@gmail.com.) The goal of our account is to promote more transparency in the hiring process, particularly as there isn't a more widely available and reliable list of hires or failed searches. We hope schools will recognize this as an issue and be more proactive with sharing information moving forward.
DeleteAre you going back to Tori's sheet at all or are you updating yours separately?
DeleteMany of the "car crashes" for 21-22 were successful (and promoted on social media)
DeleteI was hoping that chem car crashes would feature anonymous stories about failed searches (probably mainly from candidates who declined offers) rather than just another version of Tori's sheet. If the goal is to learn more about why searches fail, we need more than just a list of failures.
DeleteAgreed. Stories is what we really need. Making a way for committees or candidates to explain why no offer happened or offer was turned down
DeleteTwo stories that happened to me. 1) In October, a school invited me to schedule an on-site interview for February. That's just too much of a gap, and I had other options before February came around. 2) A school was not very accommodating with scheduling an on-site. I was given three dates, one the Monday following Thanksgiving and one the week of Christmas, and I was traveling for those holidays. I couldn't make the other date and was essentially told too bad and was forced to withdraw my app.
DeleteLink to the car crash spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W8vcb_oharziPr8hxpegulR7DeADF20WE_u6UhmY_K8/edit#gid=0
DeleteSo I don't have to keep opening twitter to get it
Will there be a bumper cars list this year?
ReplyDeleteI don't recall seeing a new tab for this year on the spreadsheet. Not sure if anyone has sent in bumper car info for this year. If bumper cars is no longer being managed, someone should make a new tracking sheet.
DeleteSeems like old one issn't being updated....
DeleteMaybe as an extension to Tori's search status tracker sheet? A second tab for who is headed where?
DeleteI created a sheet in Tori's status tracker so people can voluntarily announce their decision.
ReplyDeleteAppears Ohio State search a failure. Per an email I received, "Thank you for your interest in a tenure track faculty position in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacognosy in the College of Pharmacy at the Ohio State University. Due to unanticipated circumstances we have elected to put the search on hold for the 2022-2023 academic cycle and will not be filling the position this year. We expect to re-advertise the position and begin the search again in August of 2023 for an anticipated start date in summer or autumn 2024. The position will once again be focused in the areas of drug discovery, design, synthesis, or chemical biology with relevance to cancer research in partnership with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center."
ReplyDeleteAt this time of year, how many candidates are still holding onto an offer (neither accept nor reject) while waiting for a better offer?
ReplyDeleteThis article is worth a read for all tenure track chemists. It is a review of progress towards gender equality:
ReplyDeletehttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15291006231163179
This is irrelevant to this open thread, and further responses on this will be deleted. There are plenty of other places on the internet to fight the culture war.
DeleteLooking for advice - does anyone have experience with applying in a second cycle? I had interviews, but not offers. My supervisor said no school will interview me once I have been on the job cycle once. I am "spoilt goods" (or that I would only get interviews at small/less desirable schools).
ReplyDeleteYou're not damaged goods - you got interviews. It's so competitive that even good candidates miss out, and I was told to expect to need two cycles to find a position. That said, it probably won't look good to apply to the same place with the same exact proposal, even if it was just the in-person that didn't go well. Where you interviewed is likely the league you belong in, because making the cut upfront is probably the hardest part. Then there's a lot of non-science factors that come into play (how well you mesh with people, whether they think they can realistically land you, perceived cost of your research proposal vs what they can offer, etc.). Every year the schools/depts searching change, and that might provide you with enough of a new mix to make the your research proposal fly. Side note - I've seen this topic come up before, but I don't think it's a good look to list past in-person interviews as invited talks/presentations on your CV. Now that I'm on the other side (junior faculty), it causes me to pause (not in a good way) when I see applicants do that.
Delete6:40pm has it right in my opinion. I applied for 3 cycles, though one was 2020-2021 which was a terrible one because of the start of the pandemic. My second and third cycles, I had a similar number of interviews. I was fortunate to get a position this time, which was going to be my last before finding something else to do with my life.
DeleteThere is also lots of randomness--I know two people who had a single interview and got the job, as well as others with many interviews and no job.
I don't think applying with the same proposal will be a big deal, though hopefully you have new ideas from meeting with people at interviews. The exceptions are: you made it to the on-site round somewhere, which you probably won't do that again at the same place, regardless of your science; you had a Zoom interview, and the search failed and is reposted. Otherwise, I don't think it makes much of a difference.
Hang in there. I have seen the best chemists succeeded in their second year of job search. Most schools won't even realize that you have applied before. The fact that you did get interviews suggest that your documents were good, although you can definitely enrich your proposal and publication list if you come up with great ideas. I would recommend practicing your talks in front of a broader audience next time and improve the presentation which can take you from interview to offers.
DeleteI went on the market last cycle (2021-2022), got two zoom interviews and 1 in-person without a zoom, zero offers. I went back on the market this year (2022-2023) and got 4 zoom interviews, three of which matured into full interviews (some at the same places I zoomed the previous year) and an additional 3 full interviews without zoom. Moral of the story it can take two cycles hang in there!
DeleteWorth noting, there are different reasons why places where you had an on site interview didn't make you an offer. Its possible you were a close second choice that they would've been happy to hire as a back up plan if their first offer had fallen through. In such a case, as a known commodity that the department would've been happy with, having already interviewed could be to your advantage.
DeleteThat being said, applying for academic jobs can be a pretty exhausting process. For me personally, I would've had a hard time applying for another cycle and its probably worth reconsidering what you are looking for in a position and if there are alternative career pathways that you'd be satisfied with that might be worth more seriously pursuing at this stage.
Thank you all sooooo much! I really appreciate the encourgement and advice (now I just need to convince my current PI....) I definitely have new ideas and will change the research proposal a lot. Unfortunately, I won't have many new publications, as job applications consumed the last 12 months of my life. (@6:40 pm - Thanks for the advice on listing previous interview seminars. I will remove them from my CV so at least search committee do not know where i have previously visited). Fingers crossed for next cycle and congrats to anyone who got already got a position :)
DeleteI mean, it's not going to ruin your chances to have them on there as long as the majority of your talks aren't interviews. That's the issue I usually see - candidates using job talks to really fill in CV gaps or unnecessarily pad their otherwise fine CV. COVID happened, so a lack of talks isn't uncommon. It might actually be advantageous to list one with the school name if you interviewed somewhere you think was really good.
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