Since I work in
control theory, maybe this advice is most relevant to folks from the
same field. These are mostly things I learnt during the job seasons over the last two years.
It
eventually ended me not getting any offers. So take it with a pinch of
salt, or a dab of hot sauce, or a sprinkle of third reviewer or...ok
I'll stop.
My
stats: I applied to around 60 places, including to controls, robotics and
applied math positions. Got 8 zoom interviews. And one campus interview. This was my second year trying.
So here goes.
1.
Apply early during your postdoc phase. Did you just start your postdoc?
Yes, you are ready! Are you in your last year of PhD?? Yes, you are
ready! Do not wait till you have finished 2 or 3 years of
postdoc. A common feeling among postdocs is “I haven’t done enough.” "my
citation number is still in double digits." My
experience has been that age from PhD graduation is a worse factor. In
fact,
if you wait for too long, it’s likely going to be the case that you
haven’t done something revolutionary, and so you will still be seen as
“someone
who hasn’t done enough" or "probably won't.” If you apply early, you
can be seen as “someone who could probably do a lot.” This is a weird
aspect of applying for tenure track positions that I did not learn about
or believe until much later. I tacitly assumed more years meant more
solid research foundations meant higher probability of landing a
position.
2. Making connections matters a
lot! I know, telling potential academics to make connections is like
telling Giraffes to climb a tree while adjusting their toupees. But you
absolutely need to do this. Just dust your footsteps and charge into
those conference cliques like a schmoozing rhino! Practice jokes you
have written down on the back of your palm. Just kidding. Don't do that!
Be normal, curious and personable. But good lord, don't talk about the
weather.
Remember that faculty members are
swamped as hell. They are probably looking at 200 or 300 faculty
applications. You have to pull all punches to make sure the application
gets more than 1 or 2 minutes of a reluctant glance. Most of the people
in the
committee have no idea what you do. Even the person who has some idea,
probably doesn’t know enough to evaluate if you are good. For example,
can you review a random paper from the journal you usually publish in
and evaluate it for its novelty? Likely, no! There is a high chance you
work in an extremely narrow sub-field of your broader area of expertise
that probably five other people in the world can assess and consider
important. And at least two of those five consider your work marginal,
and probably one other doesn't even think you work on the same problems.
Ouch!
3. Work on your application documents!!
I am not kidding. Really work on all the writing and psychological
tactics to get the hiring committee’s attention. The first year me and
my wife applied, we got two zoom calls. The second year, nothing in our
profiles significantly changed qualitatively. But we polished our
applications based on writing advice we gathered from advice online. It
increased from 1 call the first year to 8 calls the second year! And the first time
there were way more job postings!
After you finish your cover
letter of your own devices, spend two more months polishing it. It
makes a crazy amount of difference. All hail the cover letter!
4.
Prepare
for heartbreak. The potential loss of identity from the rejection, is
one of the worst hits to the psyche. After 4-5 years of PhD and now 5
years of postdoc, it can feel like it all lead to nothing. The way I
have reoriented myself around this is that I don’t need $200,000 funding
to do research. What I do is extremely important and fascinating to me,
and I enjoy the learning and creative process. A lucky thing about my
style of work is that I just need some pen and paper and the
occasional python/matlab to eat popcorn over some fancy-schmancy contour
plots, and some time during
the weekends. Maybe not the research program I intended. But after this
psychological shift, I felt way more relaxed about the kind of problems I
was thinking about. I even started thinking more about some of my older
research, and what kind of things I truly find interesting or
eventually impactful vs how I can find a relevant faculty job and
whether committees will see me as "fundable" or if my research results
seem "grand enough".
Whatever you tell
yourself to ease the pain, it needs months of
resolution and reflection. Seek a therapist if you have to. It’s one of
the biggest turning points in your life. You are leaving behind things
that you built for years your identity around, and along with that also
goes your academic social circle that you cherish and enjoy working
with. There's a lot at stake.
When
this time comes, do remember that it's not just you. You are not the
only giraffe with a toupee, Maurice! I have seen some amazing
postdocs of great caliber, who are struggling to land a tenure track
position. Some of them seem to have done all the right things. Have
really rich diverse research areas, published in the best journals, even
graduated from great schools and collaborated with well known people in
the field. It's just that crazy a numbers game.
5.
Become industry ready. Given the previous point, spread your skill set during your postdoc so
that you are also simultaneously industry ready. Keep your coding
skills sharp. (Though mine are still at the stage where I end up punching in latex syntax into python.) If you are from controls, channel you inner robust
controller!! Prepare for worst case scenarios (and punch that PID in the
face).
When I finally applied to the industry it felt so much
better in a way. It was no more like the painful silent inboxes during
the academic job application season. There are some really great
industrial positions out there and great people on the other
side who really value your skills. The response I got was in fact the
opposite of what I expected when I told some of them about my research
background. I have never had a bunch people listen to me and have been
so excited about a result of mine. (Oh, the pain of the dead conference
talk rooms, where every other attendee is a speaker.)
I am
sure the jobs are all not as
shiny as you'd like, but neither is the academic life. Have
you seen how sleep deprived everyone looks?? It's like everyone is in a
Groundhog day style drama stuck in their first week as a parent.
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