Careers In Academia

The Career Services Center offers programs and online resources to assist graduate students with the academic job search. These resources greatly complement, but do not replace, the specialized knowledge that faculty and alumni in your academic department can share with you in your specific discipline. Because practices vary among academic disciplines, job candidates are encouraged to work closely with their departments, in addition to the Career Services Center.

Advertised PositionsGrad Services

Most tenure-track positions are advertised nationally through multiple sources. General resources are listed below. Job candidates need to be aware of the opportunities within their discipline, which are shared in scholarly newsletters and journals, by job-email alert services, and with postings at conferences.

Surviving the Job Search

Understanding the academic hiring process prior to sending out application materials will greatly help you effectively and efficiently approach institutions. The timeline for hiring a tenure-track position assistant professor position can start nearly two-years prior to them making an offer. 

Review the UC San Diego  Academic Job Search Survival Handbook,PDF document icon to understand the hiring process from the institution's perspective. Also find information on creating quality and appropriate application materials. Prepare for your interview, campus visit and job talk. Negotiate an offer with confidence.

This page includes information regarding:

Postdocs, grants & fellowships

Teaching & Non-Faculty Careers


Finding Jobs 
General Resources

The Chronicle of Higher Education is the most well-known resource for comprehensive information concerning the academic market. Subscribers receive the weekly print version and access to all articles and resources online. Most of the Chronicle is accessible online to non-subscribers. Readers can also utilize their job alert service, too.

Scholarly & Professional Societies a searchable database of over 1700 scholarly associations. Below are links to several additional, discipline and area-specific resources compiled by the by the University of Waterloo.

Academic 360 a resource on an array of scholarly organizations, listservs, and other discipline-specific career-related info. Academic 360 can aid in identifying where to find academic and nonacademic job postings.

Academic Careers Online includes faculty, research, postdoc, adjunct, administrative, and senior management positions at institutions of higher learning and research centers worldwide.

PhDs.org provides job and postdoc listings, mostly in science, math, engineering, but not exclusively, as well as valuable articles and advice.

Education Week provides info on a multitude of positions, some academic. Especially useful to administrators, curriculum designers, and consultants in education and not-for-profit organizations.

Higher Ed Jobs is one of the largest databases of open positions in higher education, for tenure track and adjunct faculty, staff, and administrators.

Southern California) Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) is a web-based search engine that includes faculty and staff job listings at all member institutions in Southern California focused on helping dual-career couples.

International Academic Jobs

By Discipline

Comprehensive Faculty Jobs The Chronicle of Higher Education

Credentials: Cover Letters, CVs, Teaching Portfolios and References

Create an Effective CV & Samples

CVs - Elements Of and How to Put Them Together Courtesy of UC Berkeley

Application Materials & Samples Courtesy of the University of Virginia

Life & Social Science Samples and Resources Courtesy of UC San Francisco

Elements of an Effective Teaching Portfolio Courtesy of UC Berkeley

Interviewing, Salary, & Negotiation

The Academic Interview from the telephone to the "job talk": a comprehensive lists of tips and strategies that will help you successfully navigate the faculty interview process, Courtesy of the University of Virginia

Academic Job Interview Advice Courtesy of the University of Maryland

"Preparing for Campus Interviews" The Chronicle of Higher Education

Questions to Ask (and be ready for) During an Academic Interview Courtesy of Dartmouth University

"So...What Do You Study?" Inside Higher Ed

"What Search Committees Want" The Modern Language Association 


Salaries
 & Benefits

Average Faculty Salaries The Chronicle of Higher Education

AAUP Faculty Salary Survey American Association of University Professors

Negotiation

Negotiation in the Arts & Humanities Courtesy of Yale University

Negotiating the Non-Tenure Track The Chronicle of Higher Education

Negotiating a Junior Faculty Position AAAS and the Journal Science 

Negotiating an Academic Job Offer Ph.D.org

Related Articles

The Hiring Process from the Other Side The Chronicle of Higher Education

Graduate Student to Junior Faculty Professor Courtesy of UC Berkeley

"So You Want to Be A Professor" Matt Anderson, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, Physics, San  Diego State University (UC San Diego's Academic Job Search Series panelist, Spring 2008)

How We Did It (from the academic search committee's perspective), The Chronicle of Higher Education

Mastering Your Ph.D. Series Mastering Your Ph.D.: Survival and Success in the Doctoral Years and Beyond (Springer, 2006).

Recommended Reading

Electronic

The Academic Scientists' Toolkit  a valuable services of articles and resources which is a must read for scientist Going on the Market. James Austin,Science Careers (2004)

Tomorrow's Professor seeks to foster a diverse, world-wide teaching and learning ecology among its over 30,000 subscribers at over 600 institutions and organizations in over 108 countries around the world.

Are You Ready to Go on the Market? Mary Morris Heiberger and Julie Miller Vick, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Getting Psyched Up for the Market Mary Morris Heiberger and Julie Miller Vick, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Dual Academic Career Resources Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC)

Going on the Market... by Joy Connolly, Classics, New York University

Landing an Academic Job Jonathan A. Dantzig, Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana

Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide for Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty HHMI Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Securing an Academic Job in Music Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester

Surviving and Thriving in Academia Committee on Women in Psychology and American Psychological Association 

Who Are You? David B. Rivers, Inside Higher Ed 

Print

The Academic Job Search Handbook, (Fourth Edition), Julia Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).

Academic Couples, Marianne Ferber and Jane Loeb (University of Illinois, 1997).

The Adjunct Professor's Guide to Success, Richard E. Lyons, Marcella L. Kysilka, and George E. Pawlas (Allyn and Bacon, 1999).

Advice for New Faculty Members, Robert Boice (Allyn and Bacon, 2000).

The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School through Tenure, John A. Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Schine Gold. (University of Chicago Press, 2001).

The Chicago Handbook for Teachers, Alan Brinkley, Betty Dessants, Michael Flamm, Cynthia Fleming, Charles Forcey, and Eric Rothschild (The University of Chicago Press, 1999).

Faculty in New Jobs, Robert Menges and Associates (Josey-Bass Publishers, 1999).

Job Search in Academe, Dawn M. Formo and Cheryl Reed (Stylus Publishing, 1999).

Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering, Richard M. Reis (IEEE Press, 1997).

A Ph.D. is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science, Peter J. Feibelman (Addison-Wesley, 1994)

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Development Seminars

  • Academic Interview Basics for PhDs
  • The Academic Job Search Series
  • Mastering the Academic Job Talk for PhDs

For further details and to register for these and other Graduate Student Seminars & Events, please log into Port Triton.