Navigating the academic hiring process

(🇺🇸) 🇬🇧 (🇨🇦)

Guilherme D. Garcia (gdgarcia.ca)

Université Laval

2022-08-17

My timeline

• PhD at McGill (2012–2017)
  • 1 semester at Concordia (LTA)
• 4 years at Ball State (US, TT)
• 1 semester at Newcastle (UK, TT*)
• Now at Laval (TT)
• About 50 TT applications between 2016 and 2021

First things first

• There’s a lot of “randomness” in academic hiring

• “Best candidate” is a highly subjective term

• The actual process is at least in part a black box

• Of course, a great CV is key

• But there are things you just can’t control

Applications: UK vs North America

• Overall, applications aren’t that different. But:

• Faster and simpler process (= less tiring)

• Less waiting after you apply/are interviewed

Applying

Interviewing

Waiting

Applications: UK vs North America

• More objective/transparent (or less subjective?)
• Also less flexible (little to no negotiation)
• Typically required:
  • cover letter, statements, writing samples, course evals
• Job talks often on the same day
• My case: job talk + discussion of a course I’d propose

Some important points (you can control)

• Visit these regularly: linguistlist.org and jobs.ac.uk
  • Also professional associations related to your subfield
• Have a strong web presence (self-marketing)
• In interviews/job talks, read the room:
  • Approachable - fancy - approachable structure
  • Sweet spot depends a lot on the department/position
  • Knowing faculty and student profile will help

Some important points (you can control)

• Get papers out asap (e.g., OSF)
  • But also materials (handouts, tutorials)
• What’s the current/next big trend? E.g., data science in the past decade or so for linguistics. This helps you “package” and sell your application
• Teaching can matter a lot depending on the dept
• Technical skills → good for research and teaching

Reading suggestion

• Some links and extras here: gdgarcia.ca/graduate
• One very useful book to check out:

Thanks!

Extras: Academia in the UK (vs US)

• Russel Group (🇬🇧) = R1 (🇺🇸) = Medical Doctoral (🇨🇦)
• Lecturer > Senior lecturer > (Reader) > Professor
• Much more homogeneous (salaries, teaching loads)
• Less teaching than an R3/R2, but more service
• Also more bureaucratic
• Tenure doesn’t exist (technically): contracts are open-ended
  • In practice, basically the same thing