In this solo episode, I discuss what to look for in a job ad, what to do if there’s information missing from the ad that you want to know before applying, and why it’s important to the save job ad after applying for a position.
Transcript
Hello everyone and thank you for taking time out of your day to tune in to this episode about reading job ads and deciding where to apply. In this episode, I’ll share some things I learned about this process including what to look for in a job ad, what to do if there’s information missing from the ad that you want to know, and why it’s important to save job ads for positions you apply for.
Before I dive in, I want to give a little context about my journey applying for faculty positions. I am just one person and the information I share is just from my own personal experiences. One thing I’ve learned from talking to others before this season and while recording interviews for this season of the podcast is that everyone’s journey on the job market looks really different depending on several different factors. Both personal and professional factors can, and I think, should, influence the job search process.
For me, I went on the job market three times before accepting a position. Partly because of the pandemic and partly for personal reasons. Now for those who are unfamiliar with the faculty job search process, you may be surprised to learn that there is only one interview cycle per calendar year. Which means that I went on the job market three years in a row (2020, 2021, and 2022). It’s not uncommon to go on the job market multiple times. But there’s also many people who just go on it once before getting an offer and accepting a position.
The last time I went on the job market, the 2021-22 cycle, I had a much clearer picture of what to look for in a job ad and that’s what I’ll focus on today.
The first time I went on the job market was during my first year of my postdoc position, the fall of 2019 into the spring of 2020. The way that faculty job searches go is that job ads typically start going live in the fall, into the spring semester. Interviews typically start late fall and continue into the spring semester. I went on the job market at this point to see what it was like and get some interview practice. & if I found a great fit, I knew I could try to negotiate my start date for when my postdoc ended.
When I first started looking at faculty job ads, I really didn’t know what to look for. They can be pretty generic and often leave a lot to be desired in terms of information about the expectations for the position. Over time, I learned to look for some key pieces of information.
The first is the type of position-is it tenure track, non-tenure track, clinical assistant professor, a standard assistant professor position, or open to an assistant or associate professor, as well as the contract lengths. Some positions have 9-month contracts, some 10-months, and some 12-month. The type of position being advertised is important to know and pay attention to because you want to make sure that you’re applying to a position that you would actually consider taking if it were offered to you. Applying to faculty positions is a really exhausting and stressful process, so it’s not worth applying to positions that you aren’t even really considering. For example, if you don’t want to do any clinical education in a campus clinic and really value extra time for research instead, a clinical assistant professor position would not be a good fit because a large portion of your time would be dedicated to clinical education. Contract length is also important. If you have summer responsibilities or want to spend time with your family during summers then a 9 or 10 month contract is ideal for you. Summer months can also be a time to earn supplemental income from grant funding or other opportunities like summer teaching.
The next thing to pay close attention to is where the department is housed at the university. Communication sciences and disorders programs could be in several different kinds of colleges within a university. They could be in colleges of education, health professions, public health, etc. This is an important thing to note because this could influence the potential collaborators you have within your college. It could also influence your internal funding opportunities. It could also dictate some of the initiatives in the department or resources available to you. If you advance to the final interview stage, you often interview with the dean of the college that the department is housed in, so you’ll definitely want to be familiar with this information by then.
Another thing to pay close attention to in the job ad is the description of the department. Specifically, what kinds of programs do they have in the department? Are there undergrad and grad programs? Do they have a PhD program? Do they have an AuD program? Do they have distance education programs? Not all departments have the same kinds of programs and the kinds of programs they have will impact the teaching and mentoring that you can do in that department. I know for me personally, I did not realize how much variability there is in the types of programs that CSD departments offer until I went on the job market!
It’s also important to look to see if there is any discussion in the job ad about the program being new or in the accreditation process. Sometimes this is stated and sometimes it takes more digging on their website. Some people may love the opportunity to be one of the founding faculty members of a new program and get to help with things like designing the curriculum and clinical programs. Others may want to be in a more established department. Either way it’s good to know how established the department is when it gets to the interview phase because that can impact some of the questions they ask you.
The next, and maybe most obvious thing to pay attention to is required application documents. These may include a CV, cover letter, research statement, teaching statement, diversity statement, letters of recommendation, teaching evaluations, and/or college transcripts. Typically each ad will ask for some combination of these documents. Some may want all of them, others may only want a cover letter and CV.
The job ad will also typically list a deadline for the application. This can be misleading. Sometimes there is wording that says something to the effect of-We will begin reviewing applications on october 15th and continue accepting applications until the position is filled. What this really means is have your application turned in by october 15th. That’s the date that the search committee will start going through the applications so turn in your application before that date. If your application isn’t in yet, they’ll likely start interviews without you. Other job ads may say that they will start reviewing application immediately. That means apply right away. I would try to get those applications in with a week or two at most to make sure your application can be reviewed with the others they receive.
Now what happens if you see the ad after the deadline and are really interested in applying? Reach out to the search committee chair, who should be listed on the ad, saying that you just saw the post and are excited about the opportunity and ask if your application would be considered at that point. Again, these applications take a lot of time. Don’t waste your time if they have already identified their new hire. It could happen that they started interviewing already, but would still consider you.
In addition to these key pieces of information, some of the more detailed job ads may specifically state key things they are looking for in an applicant. For example, they may be looking for someone with a particular skill or area of expertise. In my experience, if you do not have that skill or expertise-still apply! There’s no guarantee that they will find someone with that skill or expertise and if they do, that person may not accept their offer. So just go ahead and apply anyway!
Now that you’ve taken note of these key pieces of information, you still may have some more questions about the position before deciding if you want to apply or not. Maybe you want to know about the expectations for how your time would be dedicated to teaching, research, and service and it isn’t listed in the ad. In my experience, many times it’s not. Or maybe the contract term isn’t stated and that’s really important in your decision because you want a 9-month contract so you can have more time with your children in the summer. In these situations, reach out to the search committee chair identified in the ad or the contact person that is listed. They are the best people to answer your questions and can save you the time and effort of applying if the position expectations don’t match what you’re looking for.
There may be other things that you want to know about the position too that don’t seem appropriate to ask a search committee chair directly but would influence into your decision to apply or not. Maybe you want to know more about the experiences of the faculty in the department-do they like working there? Are they successful at getting tenure? For these kinds of questions, ask around your network. Ask your mentors if they know faculty in that department or have colleagues that do. The field of SLP is small and chances are that you will find out a lot about different departments just from asking your mentors and colleagues. I took advantage of being at ASHA for this purpose. Many people knew I was on the job market and were happy to share information with me about various departments that I was applying to. Now I will say, you may hear stories of how the department has been in the past or how it was when certain people were there which may not be how the department is today. Culture shifts within departments can happen with new leadership, retirements, etc. So while the information from others can be helpful, don’t base your decision to apply for a position solely based on one person’s account. Try to get information from a few different sources if you can!
You can also spend some time on the department’s website to find out more information about the position. For example, you can look to see how big the department is by looking at the list of faculty, you can see what initiatives are currently going on in the department by looking at their strategic plan, and you can usually find all of the programs they offer listed as well.
After you’ve done some digging and gotten all of your questions answered, you may decide that you want to go ahead and apply for the position. However, one last consideration before doing so should be weighing any personal factors that are influencing your job search. For me, location was crucial because I am married, and I needed to find a position in a city or town that had job opportunities for my husband. For others it may be that they need a position in a city with good schools for their kids. Maybe you were an international PhD student and now need a job that will sponsor a visa. Whatever those personal factors are, I can’t stress enough how much it is OK and absolutely, so important, to make sure that you prioritize them in your job search process. Life is about so much more than work and you want to set yourself up in a place that works for you not only professionally, but also personally.
For me since location was a big factor impacting my job search, I learned over the course of being on the job market for a few cycles, how important it is to do your research before applying for any positions. During my second job market cycle in the middle of COVID, I was offered a position that I interviewed for virtually. I didn’t know very much about the area and since it was COVID, I didn’t have an on campus interview to see the area until after I received an offer. It wasn’t until my husband and I visited the town and did more research about the area that we realized it wasn’t going to work for his job opportunities. This was a huge lesson to learn and changed how I approached applying for positions the next cycle. The next cycle, which was this past year, we identified general areas that would work for both of us professionally and personally, before any job ads went up. Then when a job was posted that I was interested in in one of those areas, we did more specific research about things like the cost of living and job opportunities for my husband in that area before I decided if I was going to apply or not. That saved me from getting really invested in a position that wasn’t going to work out for us in the long run.
After going through that experience, I strongly suggest that you figure out what your deal breakers are before starting to apply. You can write them down at the start of your search and revisit them throughout the process to encourage you to stay true to what you are looking for during the process.
Once you’ve decided you are going to apply for the position, copy and paste the job ad into a word doc and save it on your computer. Don’t just save the link for the post because often times once the department starts reviewing applications they take the post down. If you are invited to interview for the position, you will likely want to refer back to the job ad during your preparation. Once you start submitting applications for multiple positions, they all start to blend together so my advice is to save all the ads for positions you apply for so you can reference them later. Search committees will want to see that you have done your research about the department during your interviews, and part of that is knowing details about the position you’re applying for in the job ad.
So to recap, when you’re reading job ads there are lots of key pieces of information to look for including, the type of position, the contract length, the college that the department is in, the types of programs in the department, whether it’s a new or established CSD program, the required application documents, and the application deadline.
If you have any questions about the position before deciding whether or not to apply, you can reach out the the search committee chair listed on the job ad. You can also talk with mentors and colleagues to see if they have any information about the position or the department. Your job application process will go much smoother if you can establish what you are looking for and your deal breakers before applying, including both professional and personal factors. Once you’ve decided where you want to apply, be sure to save the job ad in case you need to revisit it in the future during the interview process.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hopefully this is helpful for applicants that are going on the market and trying to figure out where to start!
Thank you for tuning in for another episode of About, from, & With. If you haven’t already, be sure to follow the podcast so you’ll be notified of new episodes when they come out. I’d also love if you could take a quick second to leave a review of the podcast to help others find it. You can follow me and the podcast on Instagram @danikapfeiffer.slp or twitter @aboutfrom_with. Until next time, stay humble and kind.
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