Part 3: The Solicitation & Application (August - January, maybe longer)

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, Tina and Josh back again!

In the last two posts, we discussed expectations for the job market as well as preparing for the process in terms of laying a foundation (and communicating with letter writers) as well as drafting the documents that you will need to submit as part of applications.

1. Find sources of calls

●      i.e., websites, professional associations and their associated mailing lists and social media channels, and even individuals who are sharing jobs (i.e., Ben Heddy  did this on Twitter with #edpsychjobhunters)

●      Some of our specific go-to’s were higheredjobs.com, chroniclevitae.com, careers.aera.net, and listservs for conferences (NARST, AERA, ASTE, NSTA ect.)

2. Looking at a call/solicitation: What to look at and consider?

●      Is it for you?- Think about the job, the location, the expectations. Do you meet the requirements? Maybe if you squint?

                                               i.     We applied for safety schools; we also reached for the stars, we considered post-docs, and industry work too.

                                             ii.     Both of us had very supportive partners who had geographical preferences.

                                           iii.     Both of us applied for a job where we lacked some of their preferred (sometimes required) skills.

                                            iv.     Don’t weed yourself out; that’s their job, not yours.

●      What is the deadline?

●      When do they need letters? Some letters are due before they can look at your application, some solicitations won’t ask for a letter of reference until after you interview.

●      Which documents do you need?

●      Do they list a contact person? Is this person the chair? Who can you call to find out?

3. A few notes on job application systems (i.e., how you submit your application)

●      Here are three we encountered:

                                               i.     The email - simply attach everything in an email, usually to an administrator / administrative assistant (be sure to still address to the search chair or the search committee)

                                             ii.     The fully online system

1.     university-specific (and sometimes idiosyncratic)

2.     part of some similar system you will see often (many Universities seem to use the same system on the back-end)

                                           iii.     Interfolio (an external [to the institution] service that was fairly common, in our experience)

●      Just one note: There is a ‘do everything twice’ system too; one of us (cough, cough, it was Josh) uploaded materials and solicited letters for a job, but forgot to submit it!

4. Tailoring documents

●      This can be a time suck at the beginning of the processes (2+ hrs). This is because both of us applied to so many types of schools and so many types of jobs. If a job is research focused, those are the types of examples you want to use in your cover letter versus teaching examples for teaching focused jobs. Keywords need to change based on the solicitation language (STEM educator, science educator, science education specialist ect.)

●      By the end of this processes we could just re-order the CV’s depending on the solicitation and take out paragraphs/examples of the cover letter depending on the focus (< 1hr).

5. It’s (probably/maybe; we can’t really say anything more accurate than this) okay to submit a few days late. Once, I (Tina) had missed an application deadline for a school by a day. After lamenting to Josh, he convinced me to apply anyway, and I got an on campus interview!

●      After a few days, there may be a higher chance that your application is not considered in the initial review, though we have very limited experience and just hunches on this issue.

●      When in doubt, submit, or send a message to the search chair.

6. Be on the lookout for additional follow up documents.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Overall advice on the solicitation and application: If you are unsure about applying to something, talk it out with a peer, particularly one who is also on the job market the year you are. Life is not a zero-sum game. Both of us talked each other into applying for jobs we didn’t think we were personally qualified for. We believed in the each other more than we believed in ourselves. We both applied for the same jobs. We both got call backs. HAVE A BUDDY WHO BELIEVES IN YOU! Talk to everyone and anyone who might have a lead, this can be exhausting for introverts, so target those interactions intentionally! In part four of this four part series coming up next, we discuss the interview (and negotiation) process: Look for it soon.