Faculty positions: Biopharmaceutical Discovery Cluster Hire, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

From the inbox, a cluster hiring opportunity at the University of Delaware: 

The University of Delaware is seeking applications for several open rank tenure-track professorships as part of a multiyear hiring effort in the area of biopharmaceutical discovery. Applicants must have a doctoral or equivalent degree, documented evidence of high quality research productivity, and a strong commitment to both research and teaching. 

Applicants with research interests broadly relevant to biopharmaceutical discovery that span chemistry (e.g. chemoproteomics, molecular probes for biological imaging, metabolomics); biology (e.g. diseases of immune or tissue dysfunction) and engineering (e.g. synthetic biology, protein design, metabolic engineering) will be considered.   Successful applicants could have faculty appointments in one or more of several departments, including Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Psychological and Brain Sciences.  

...Using the Interfolio® online system at UD, http://apply.interfolio.com/54714 , applicant should submit a) a cover letter; b) a statement of current and long-term research plans; c) a statement of teaching philosophy; d) a curriculum vitae; and e) three contact references.  Any questions can be directed to Susan Cheadle (scheadle@udel.edu) or to Dr. Joseph Fox (jmfox@udel.edu), Chair, Faculty Search Committee, Biopharmaceutical Discovery Cluster Hire University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716.  Review of applications will begin on receipt and continue until October 31st for full consideration. Positions will remain open until filled.

Full ad here. Apply here. Best wishes to those interested.   

Time for some anecdata: industrial job search stats, 2016-2017

From the inbox, a set of job search stats for a single graduate student reader (we'll call them JA): 

Total applications: 108
Interviews: 8 (5 phone interviews, 3 on site (2 on-site interviews w/o phone interview))
Formal Rejections: 18
Outstanding applications: 90 

Industry R&D role: 55
Industry Post-Doc: 3
Industry Other: 38
Academia-related: 3
Sales: 4
Consulting: 3
Miscellaneous: 2 

Job secured: Industry Post-Doc

Anyone else? Contributions very much appreciated. Thank you, and best wishes to faithful reader JA.

UPDATE: A contribution from Adamantane.
UPDATE 2: A contribution from "ET." 

Job search stats: The Golden Years

It's time to revisit the job search stats that the blog has collected so far. As you might remember, I've divided up the modern era of chemistry employment as follows:

• The Golden Years: pre-2003 
• The Clouds Before The Storm: 2003-2007
• The Great Recession: 1/1/08 to 7/31/2009
• These Modern Times: 8/2009 - present

Today, we're covering The Golden Years:

Industrial B.S./M.S.-level position, time period, number of full apps/on-site interviews (no phone)/offers:

#22A (biologist): 1996: 10/3/1
#31: 4/1997-9/1997: 190/5/2

#17: 9/1999: 2/2/2

#22B (biologist): 1999: 10/2/1

Industrial Ph.D.-level position, time period, number of full apps/on-site interviews (no phone)/offers:

#9D: 9/1990-2/1991: 50/3/2

#9C: 4/1992: 2/1/1

#9B: 11/2000: 3/2/1

#30A: "late '90s": 15/10/8

So, not a whole bunch of data points, but what do I notice?:

• I think what I notice is that applications bear interview fruit a lot easier. 
• The number of applications (with the exception of #31) is a lot lower than These Modern Times (50+). 

I wonder -- if there are more jobs per candidate, does that mean that there will be lower numbers of applications per candidate? I would think yes, but I'm no statistician. I'll be crunching the numbers for 2003-2009 next week. 

Job search stats: industrial positions, These Modern Times

Thank you to the 30 plus people who input their job search data into my post last week. I've started crunching the data by first separating the data by academic versus industrial job searches, education level and by separating by time period. In my mind, I separate "modern chemistry employment" into 4 eras:

• The Golden Years: pre-2003 
• The Clouds Before The Storm: 2003-2007
• The Great Recession: 1/1/08 to 7/31/2009
• These Modern Times: 8/2009 - present

If someone else has better names for these eras, I'm all ears. 

I've focused my efforts on industrial positions in These Modern Times because that's the bulk of the entries. I'll be covering the other entries next week. 

Industrial B.S./M.S.-level position, time period, number of full apps/on-site interviews (no phone)/offers

#10: 5/10-present, 500/15/3

#16: 10/10-12/10, 1/1/1 

#13: 6/12-9/12, 50/3/1

#24: 11/12-present, 40/0/0

Industrial Ph.D.-level positions, time period, number of full apps/on-site interviews (no phone)/offers

#30: 2009-2012: "Hundreds"/5/4

#9:  3/09-2/11, 400/9/1

#15: 8/09-12/10, 100/3/1

#4: 9/09-9/10, 172/7/2

#27: 9/09-3/10, 55/2/1

#12: 9/10-3/11, 4/1/1

#23A: 12/10-5/11, 70/2/1

#6: 3/11-9/11, 50/2/2

#25: 8/11-10/12, 156/7/1

#1: 3/12-10/12, 86/2/2

#19: 4/12-present, 80/1/0

#32: Spring 2012 - Fall 2012, 46/0/1

#23B: 5/12-10/12, 70/3/3

#11: Fall 2012 - present, 40/1/0

#20: 10/12-present, 51/1/0

I haven't done a thorough statistical analysis of these different entries (coming soon), but here's what I see:

• There's no real detectable difference between the odds for a B.S./M.S. position versus a Ph.D. position (with this small data set, anyway.) 
• It's not uncommon for successful job searches to take over 50+ full applications. The smallest number is 4; it makes CoulombicExplosion quite an outlier. What was your trick, CE?
• Successful job searches take between 6 months and one year, as we might have expected. 
• The likelihood of any one full job application turning into an on-site interview is well below 5% and probably closer to 1%. 
• However, the likelihood of an on-site interview turning into an offer is closer to even money. 

As Dr. Zoidberg said, it would be great to hear from all the successful job searches as to what tips they would offer to readers. I would like to know if they feel that their searches were due to any particular factor. 

Readers, what trends do you see? 

Lastly, I want to make sure that no one feels thinks I'm pretending this is a scientific, statistically-valid survey of job searches in chemistry. It's not (yet.)