Hacking the Academic Job Market

Dr. Karen Kelsky (The Professor Is In) speaks to students at her 2017 presentation

In this three hour talk with Q and A, I walk you through the conditions of the current American job market, the most common mistakes made by job-seekers, and the ways you can prepare your record, applications, and interviews.

We’ll cover:

The big-picture conditions of the U.S. tenure track job market
How to think like a search committee
The four core qualities of a successful tenure track job candidate
The all-important 5-Year Plan
The ethos of job market documents
The most common mistakes made by job seekers
The three keys to academic interviewing
The non-academic option

We also examine the common errors of tone made by job-seekers, such as narcissism, excessive humility, and hyper-emotionalism.

You’ll leave with a broad understanding of the real (as opposed to fantasy) criteria of tenure track hiring, how to tailor your record and application materials to maximize your chances of success, and how to strategize a career plan for the academic market, while keeping an eye on possible post-academic options.