Scholarlyhires Blog

What do you really know about your prospective employer? After 25 years as a university professor, I’ve done my share of applying for faculty positions and seeing applicants visit my academic departments. We generally follow the advice: apply for any and all academic positions, but do you ever wonder if some jobs simply aren’t worth applying for? Here is “food for thought” as you prepare application packets.

Do some real research on each department you hope to apply to. For example, is your “academic pedigree” compatible with that of your prospective colleagues? Did you all earn your doctorates from similar types of universities and graduate programs? How might that influence your motivation as a teacher and scholar relative to your prospective colleagues? If you’re highly motivated to do research, publish and write grant proposals, are you applying to an academic department where you wouldn’t be the only one engaged in such activity? More importantly, what kind of infrastructure is in place within this academic department and the institution of higher education to positively and genuinely support such activity?

Ask about your prospective colleagues’ areas of expertise. Could you genuinely collaborate with them, or would you be the only faculty member doing your area of work? Do you enjoy intellectual isolation?
Will you have sufficient opportunity to balance teaching and scholarly activity, or must you choose one role over the other? If you really prefer teaching to scholarship, perhaps applying to major research departments isn’t wise. If you really want to be known for scholarly work, perhaps you shouldn’t apply to 2-year and 4-year teaching colleges.

Apply to jobs making most sense for YOUR academic careers, not for the sake of getting a job. If you apply for jobs for the sake of getting one, it probably won’t be THE RIGHT ONE.

A 2011 research report, “The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas” published by Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, stated that some people have covert biases against creativity when there is a level of uncertainty about the imagined result. I thought of academic leaders who do not appreciate creativity. By creativity I am referring to diversity of all types (e.g. race, ethnicity, geographic background, and free thinking).

In recent years I have noticed that higher education sometimes places greater emphasis on personal qualities than on skill set and experience. Are we stifling administrative creativity at our universities by hiring individuals for higher education jobs with whom we feel comfortable (e.g. friends, colleagues, and sometimes family)? We sometimes overlook individuals who may be better qualified for positions based on education, training, and experiences. In higher education, administrators often rotate among universities – establishing leadership teams comprised of longstanding trusted advisers. It is important to also interject individuals already employed at these universities who have studied and trained and dreamed of advancing in university positions. Can a person enter the pipeline by virtue of skills and knowledge and not only the ability to make someone feel comfortable?

I encourage academic administrators to weight the selection criteria for higher education positions in favor of education, training, and experience. These are the qualities that we have espoused as essential to career success. The covert criteria of making the supervisor feel comfortable or knowing someone who knows somebody should be nonexistent. Institutional and personal growth occurs when there is diversity of opinion and method. Have the strength to endure and appreciate differences for the sake of creativity and growth.

Are searching for dean jobs or faculty jobs? You can now refine your search at Scholarlyhires.com where there are numerous postings of new college jobs every day. What’s more, if you search for faculty jobs on the site’s online journal your search results will be specific to the keywords you input. This means that you won’t get any search results which you do not need. Universities often post details of vacant positions on this online journal seeking applicants for executives, administrative management, professors and post-docs positions.

As an applicant you can create an account so as to easily apply to any post including higher education jobs and post doc jobs. You can thus also easily monitor all the jobs that you have applied for. Universities can also create accounts to post available jobs for which they can then receive all the applications via the website or via a mail-in or email option. Viewing the backgrounds of the applicants is also possible if the applicants choose to make their background descriptions visible to the public.

For all the above mentioned and a lot more, visit www.scholarlyhires.com

So you are beginning an Academic Job Search.This is the time of the year to find university jobs, particularly faculty jobs.

Quantity of job responses, particularly in higher education, is not nearly as important as quality of job responses. Fit between you and academic institution is most important as you search university jobs, and accentuating the hot points of the job will get you much farther in the process.

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.

For adjunct jobs, ask what the recurring opportunities to teach are. Some schools turn adjuncts over continually, to get a breadth of teaching skills.

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.

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!

It does not have to be that difficult – expand your search mindset. Higher Education jobs, despite what you might read still exist, and not in small numbers. Obviously certain states, such as Texas, have put the hammer down, but university jobs, college jobs, and especially community college jobs do exist. When you search college jobs, be mindful that competition is more plentiful, so tailor your responses specifically to the position you are applying for.

Quantity of job responses, particularly in higher education, is not nearly as important as quality of job responses. Fit between you and academic institution is most important as you search university jobs, and accentuating the hot points of the job will get you much farther in the process. Read the job description, and then highlight ten key phrases (50 characters or less) that could be viewed as keywords in a search. Make sure you address at least five of them in your response, and not superficially. That’s what human resources or the search committees want to see.
This is the time of the year to find university jobs, particularly faculty jobs. Good luck and happy hunting.

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!