Part 1: Introducing a Series of Posts on the Academic Job Search in Science Education

The Tenure-Track Job Search Process in Science/STEM Education: Advice & Recommendations from Two Recent Job-seekers

Tina Vo, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Joshua Rosenberg, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Hi everyone, we are Tina and Josh, and we were recently on the job market and were fortunate to be hired for tenure-track positions in science/STEM education. Why that backslash? Well, Tina was hired to a science education position, whereas Josh was hired into a STEM education position with a science education focus. We will use these terms more or less interchangeably in this post.

 Tina (on the left) and Josh (on the right)

We wanted to write this post to memorialize our experiences and to help you become familiar with this process. This is part one of four posts on the topic; look for the other three to be posted in the coming weeks. Each part overlaps, but there are different stages of the job search process that are demanding in different ways. Between the two of us, we’ve consulted (panic-read) hundreds of online texts on the subject and synthesize some of that knowledge here by outlining what we think are the key parts of these different stages, from preparing through negotiating the job offer.

While most of the ideas are pretty general, some of these points really only apply to education/science education in America, so take everything with a grain of salt. When in doubt, do not hesitate to ask your advisor or a trusted mentor. Our broader philosophy: ultimately, do what makes you happy, as advisers, peer groups, and parents cannot figure that out for you.

A few things up front: there are many pathways towards employment after grad school, and tenure-track positions are not and, given the range of career options available to those with advanced degrees in science education, should not be everyone’s goal. We should note our searches were skewed towards research-focused institutions, places where research and teaching are emphasized about the same amount--or some institutions where research may be emphasized more. Again, much like for tenure-track positions, research-focused institutions are not everyone’s ambition, but hopefully some of what we write may be useful for everyone. However, if tenure-track is the pathway you’ve chosen, hopefully these insights might help make your journey less tumultuous. We have organized our ideas chronologically, so depending on where you are in the process you might not need some of these bits.

One last note: This post is probably going to be most useful for folks who know they’re going on the market sooner rather than later. Therefore, if you’re preparing for the job market, but are a few years away, there are likely better sources of information. How do you know if you’re ready? Ask your advisor, trusted mentors, or peers.

Overall Expectations

What is the search like? It is, in one word: intense! Here are a few general notes regarding overall expectations.

1. The search could begin as early as the summer before you graduate and will dominate your Fall and Spring semester. Here is a rough timeline of how our searches went:

Additionally, know your timeline for graduating and make sure to meet your milestones, deadlines, and benchmarks. Curious about when academic jobs are posted? As one of us out of curiosity found, at least for jobs in a related field (which has enough similarities to make us think that the same pattern applies in science education--and corresponds to when we noticed positions were announced in this past year), August through October is when most jobs are posted. Though faculty positions were mainly posted during this period, they (and especially research associate, post-doc, and others, too) are posted at other times, too.

2.  Being on the market requires you to identify and articulate who you are as an academic (even if you aren’t really sure...eek!).
3. Networking: figuring out your networking style and figuring out how to engage with people is important. Every stage of the process depends on working well and playing nice with other people.
4. Figure out a support network among your peers, mentors, partners, and everyone else. You are a finite resource, choose wisely.

In this post, we set out to introduce ourselves and some of our thoughts on the job market in general. Next time on the ‘Josh and Tina got a job’ blog hour: Preparation for the Job Market, where we discuss some steps to take before you submit your first application to apply for jobs. This next post will be especially timely, as the month of August/September is prime-time to prepare for the job postings that will be announced in that and the coming months.

It’s important to prepare appropriately. Get help when needed!