Scholarlyhires Blog

When you search academic positions on a university job website, be aware that not all university jobs are listed in an organized fashion.  For instance, at some schools faculty openings may show up in a different area than university administrative jobs.  When you search for community college jobs, they may show up as adjunct jobs or part-time positions, rather than faculty jobs.

Academic Deans jobs may be listed in a variety of places, so do not give up easily.  Higher Ed recruiting is clearly an inexact science, but the reward of getting good college positions can be a lifetime of fulfillment. Whether you search community college jobs or search jobs in university environments we hope you have the best of success in fulfilling higher education careers.

For Postdoctoral positions, we wish you a lot of success, and some luck. University positions for post doc jobs generally are not listed, or are listed haphazardly.  We suggest that you contact the departments directly, or even contact the Provost or Academic Affairs departments to find out the proper procedures for applying.

When beginning an Academic Job Search, consider asking yourself the following questions:

If I were a higher education recruiting profession, what would be the key points I would want to cover in recruiting for this position?
For adjunct jobs, ask what the recurring opportunities to teach are. Some schools turn adjuncts over continually, to get a breadth of teaching skills.
For deans jobs, find out if successful prior job-holders are inside hires or outside hires. Do politics often get in the way of success?

In general, university administrative jobs choose the “promote from within” concept first unless significant change management is a prerequisite. Faculty recruiting often keys on finding the candidate who best fills the particular void in the department.

When you search higher education job opportunities think of marriage. In many ways it is similar. There is a courtship, then you decide if you can live with the other party, then you look for the good, the bad and the ugly. Then you fall in love.  Isn’t that simple? Of course it is not simple.  Happy job hunting!

COLA is a very important consideration for academic job seekers, including faculty, university administrators and post-docs; we don’t mean Coke vs. Pepsi. COLA is cost-of-living-adjustment.
Start by asking yourself the question: “if I was to continue my academic career at this institution, what compensation package would I be entitled to?” The theory of the answer should not vary by type of university employee (faculty, university administrators and post-docs), so you can easily set your bounds as a starting point.

There are many evaluative tools for COLA as you progress through your academic careers, and they should give you much more information than simply one adjusted number. At a minimum, for higher education careers, COLA should have sub-factors for: groceries, housing, utilities, transportation and healthcare.
One of the first questions academic jobs seekers will be asked by the department search committee will be what kind of compensation you are seeking. Have your guns loaded with an answer such as:
“Based on where I currently am, both location and financially, a fair package at XYZ University in City would be $##K.” Keep the answer to the department search committee representative simple, but well thought out. Remember, it is only a starting point for negotiations during higher education career planning and can prevent significant angst later.