Being a bit of a scientist, I like numbers. So here's a great quantity of histograms to illustrate my experiences with the assistant professor job market. Now when I spout off my experience writing faculty job applications, handling remote academic interviews, and thriving during 12 hour campus visit interviews, you'll know just how many grains of salt to throw my way.
I applied to 31 schools...most of which were research institutions, but a great proportion were liberal arts colleges as well.
I had a very busy autumn getting married and applying to academic institutions avoiding those ~3 weeks of wedding/honeymoon activity. I was essentially out of commission October 15 - November 10.
I've withdrawn myself from consideration from all remaining institutions, so hopefully these graphs won't change too much more! I received remote interviews from two-thirds of my liberal arts college applications and a little over a third of research universities. To me, this is representative of two things: (1) I felt much more passionate about my liberal arts
materials, and (2) my publication record could use some work. I've been in the process of switching communities, and it's been a rough switch. Nonetheless, a 50% return rate on applications --> remote interview is pretty lovely.
I had originally thought
I'd done terribly on phone interviews rather than Skype/video interviews, but it seems I performed pretty well on both. 75% of my phone interviews turned into on-campus interviews, and 50% for the remote video interviews. I know the "No"s here are actual "No"s and not "???", as once I had a job offer, I contacted the places with which I had remote interviewed, forcing them to provide me a concrete answer with respect to a
campus visit interview.
There was quite a bit of variance in how long it took academic institutions to extend remote interview invitations (left) and campus interview invitations (right), with teaching-oriented institutions keeping the tightest schedules. With the research universities it seemed almost random how long it would take to get an invitation!
I received on-campus interview invitations from more than 50% of the places I remote interviewed with: 2/3, to be exact, with a 100% success rate with research institutions and a 50% success rate with liberal arts colleges. I apparently could've used a bit more practice on my remote interviewing skills from the liberal arts perspective.
I received 5 job offers at varying points, and I withdrew myself from consideration for the two research institutions listed as '???'. So we may never know my absolute success rate!
However, I'm exceedingly pleased with these results. I worked my rear off on my application materials, and that process really helped me communicate more effectively about my work both during remote and face-to-face interviews. I'm proud of myself for committing so well to this process, learning so much, and not falling asleep during any of the 9 interview dinners at the end of a day of being "on". There's a great deal of luck involved in this process. Some institutions just weren't looking for a me-type professor at this time, but luck worked out pretty well on my behalf anyways. I'm incredibly grateful, and so excited about how things worked out!!
BYOV Posts on the Faculty Job Search
- Overview of the Assistant Professor Job Search
- Applying for Academic Positions
- Remote Interviews
- Packing for On-Campus Interviews
- On-Campus Interview Lessons Learned
- Sample Assistant Professor Job Hunt Timeline
- Reflections on Negotiation
- Descriptive Statistics of my Job Search
- Deciding Research or Liberal Arts
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