Job Market Series Part 2: before it begins
Pre-job market decisions & things to think about
In no particular order!
What kind of job do I want?
As mentioned, I was only interested in applying to tenure-track R1 positions, primarily in psychology departments, with some applications sent to medical schools and schools of public health. From there, I decided where I wanted to end up and how my career would be structured. This breaks down into hard money vs soft money questions:
Hard money and soft money are two distinct sources of funding in academia. Hard money refers to the stable, long-term funding provided by the institution or university itself. This funding typically comes in the form of a salary or a regular stipend, providing security and stability for researchers. In contrast, soft money refers to partially or entirely funding your salary on external funds obtained through grants or contracts. While soft money provides academics with flexibility and the opportunity to pursue specific research projects, it also brings the challenge of continuous grant applications and a constantly evolving research agenda. The key difference between hard money and soft money lies in the level of stability and freedom they offer, as hard money provides consistent support for academic endeavors while soft money requires continuous efforts to secure funding for research activities (hard vs soft money explainer here).
My post-bac and PhD departments were both hard-money departments, so the PIs I worked with had a stable salary and were still writing grants all the time. My Postdoc at Brown was based in a soft-money department (medical school). I love research and know folks in medical schools/soft money positions, so I thought I would also love the freedom/flexibility soft money environment (no teaching expectations). I’m really glad I got the medical school experience as a postdoc, as I realized that I missed mentoring graduate students through their Ph.D. and I did miss teaching (and having a stable salary — hard to under-emphasize this piece), so I focused primarily on applying to hard-money positions. That being said, I did apply to some soft money or mixed hard-soft-money positions: in public health, it’s rare to be hard money, so I was open to this if the job was a good fit and I felt like funding would not be a huge struggle (i.e., are junior faculty well-funded, are they falling off the “K-cliff,” what supports exist for junior faculty to get funding, etc.).
My interdisciplinary research focus also meant that I was deciding to be either a “nutrition” person in a psychology department or a “psychology” person in a nutrition/public health department. I was also on the search for jobs that were explicitly interested in interdisciplinary work, which sometimes meant I was applying to be part of a center on campus with disciplinary homes in a few different departments. I wanted to land where what I was bringing was valued (and make getting funding/tenure less daunting).
Tip - look at job postings from previous job market seasons to see what departments are looking for and understand how you fit into this landscape (e.g., the psychjobwiki archive).
Thinking through where you want to land can also help inform where you decide your “home” conference is. Through grad school, I had two conferences that I would submit abstracts for and try to attend most years, so I would see the same people and develop relationships beyond my immediate department. Networking is really important, and it’s worth connecting with folks whose careers you are interested in emulating to some extent - especially early-career folks whose experience will be more like your own, as opposed to a very established late career professor.
Where do I want to live?
I think we’ve all been advised at some point in our careers to “go to where the jobs are” and be “as location flexible as possible.” Given the precarity of the job market, I understand this advice. However… I didn’t really follow it. I was in a position where I had funding for another 2 years, so I was intentional about where I was applying. Everyone has different priorities when deciding where they want to live. I wanted to make sure I could live somewhere for my entire career in a place that was supportive/safe for me and my family on multiple levels. Before the job market season even started, my partner and I sat down to talk about where we wanted to live. This included things like:
What are our non-negotiables for where we live?
What are some things we may flex on?
I made a huge spreadsheet of where I wanted to work and live (focused on primarily US jobs), which included states, cities, and universities. I talked it through the list with my partner (multiple times), and we ranked places in high, medium, low, and a will not apply list. This was a helpful starting point in narrowing down what to apply for and what not to apply for. When you apply and/or get to the next round, you can dig more into that particular city/town/place and envision the pros/cons of that place.
Grant writing experience
I highly recommend getting experience writing grants during your Ph.D. and postdoc. Not just smaller travel award grants (those are good!) but the big juicy NIH ones (or your field’s equivalent). Why? This is the currency of our research landscape and (for many) tenure - it is very difficult to do the research I want and keep the job I want without grants. If I hated grant writing, this is something to reflect on and make an informed decision about.
Getting experience writing big, juicy training grants also forces you to focus and to write coherently about (a) where you have come from, (b) why you study what you study, and (c) where you are going next in your career. It is helpful to do this even outside the context of a grant. AKA, think about your dreamy five-year plan for research! What would you do? How does it extend the work you’re doing now?
My grant writing experience:
Graduate school: NSF GRFP 1st year of graduate school. Later in graduate school: dissertation fellowships, PEO scholarship, writing an F32 for a potential postdoc, and co-I and co-writing an R01 with my PhD advisor
Postdoc: I entered a postdoc program at Brown with robust grant writing support and seminars. I wrote the K99 in the middle of 2021, and I highly recommend anyone eligible for one to write one for a few reasons:
Clarify the things I mentioned above (even without getting the money)
Mapped out a plan for the next 5 years of research, forcing you to think through the logical progression of fundable research questions (even without getting the money)
And, let’s be real, getting the money is no joke. I have no counterfactual to test this, but I did feel that the K99 gave me the receipts to prove to departments and programs that my interdisciplinary research was fundable at the NIH. It is also a great position to negotiate from because the R00 is bringing the institution money through indirects, and your startup package needs to be what anyone without a K99 would get, so you have extra funds to fund your research focus pre-tenure.
Think about and plan your publication pipeline
The job market takes a lot of time during a career season when you must also publish. I would not expect to be able to do much “Science” with a capital S while actively interviewing. Submitting materials, prepping for interviews, going on interviews, and negotiating felt like a full-time job from August-March. YMMV, but it was nice to have a publication or 2 in the hopper of the peer review process/under review to keep things moving. Think about which publications you can assist with as a co-author beforehand. If an R&R comes back during this time, you can either decide to revise and resubmit (if the revisions are easier) or ask for extensions on the R&R (as I did). This was also my strategy for prepping for postpartum while pregnant (a blog post for another time).
Self-promotion tips & tricks
As mentioned, in my prior professional life, I had some experience in communication and design. So all of my tips come from that domain, even though some academics feel ick about self-promotion. Promoting yourself to establish your professional reputation and advance your career is important, and I felt this was especially important ahead of the job market. Think about how you want to present online.
Website. I made/updated my website, showcasing my research and outreach activities (where folks could find my CV). Make sure you have a Google Scholar profile and any other professional website presences that are relevant to you and your field.
Word of Mouth. I reached out to mentors, colleagues, and collaborators to update them on my K99 NOA and let them know I was looking for TT jobs in psychology or related departments, forward my information to anyone hiring, or send potential job opportunities my way.
Social Media. Think about how you are presenting yourself on social media. Social media platforms (like Twitter) are another effective way to network, connect with peers, and share your research. If you're on the job market, posting about your availability and sharing updates can spread the word. You never know!
Headshots. I also spent money on professional photos since the last time I had photos taken was ~6 years prior. And, I won’t lie, I was 6 months postpartum, and getting a professional to take lovely photos of me at a time when I did not feel as good as the photos looked was nice. Some universities have free headshot days (e.g., UMN did!), so it’s worth asking to find out if there’s a way to get this done (or ask a friend who’s actually good at photography).
Conferences. Lastly, including a slide in conference presentations that mentions you're looking for a job and where to contact you can spread the word among colleagues and possibly lead to job opportunities. People can tell me otherwise, but I think folks genuinely want to know!
Build your support network
Babies:
Experts in play and being present; also great for laughing breaks when you’re on the job market
This is not a time to subscribe to outdated and misguided ideas of “doing it alone.” The academic job market is an arcane and stressful process that takes months of preparation and is full of rejection. This is a time to look into getting a therapist or mental health professional to meet with regularly to talk through your experience and develop extra tools to self-regulate. This is a time to figure out how you will take care of your soft squishy animal body while you pursue “the life of the mind” (whatever that means). Discovering what sleep you need, what movement feels good in your body, what food sustains you, and what habits/hobbies are life-giving (whatever all of that means to you) is very important and worth the time spent on them. For me, I focused on long walks outside, focused on food that helped my energy levels, watched America’s Funniest Home Videos/This Old House, and read romance novels as my life-giving habits (re: romance novels - if it’s good enough for bell hooks, it’s good enough for me). Playing with babies and the forced breaks from work they established in my life also helped. Figure out how you will build in breaks.
Build your social support network. Which of your mentors, family, friends, and colleagues are your cheerleaders? Who can you share good and bad news with? I had a text chain with 3 lab “sisters” of mine who were in the kinds of TT jobs I aspired to have, and their encouragement, honesty, and humor really meant the world to me and kept me off the path to panic attacks. They know who they are, and they are really the best.
