This post is part of our blog series The Unwritten Curriculum. Check out our posts in this series (How to apply to grad school, The grad student life, How to submit a paper, Demystifying the qualifying exams, How to do a remote postdoc, and Paths to ecology I, II, and III). This post is written by me (Erin Mordecai). I’m a disease ecologist and a recently tenured associate professor at Stanford University in the Biology department. I applied for my job in 2013, interviewed and got the offer in 2014, and started in 2015.
It’s job application season. There are so many resources out there that you may already feel that you’re swimming in advice. But for those looking for a personal take on successful job applications from an ecology professor at an R1 university, I’d like to share my experiences in hopes that they are helpful to others. As in all things ecology, there are a few important caveats to keep in mind: (1) This is just one person’s opinion and experience. It is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather to give some hopefully useful examples and things to think about. (2) The academic job market can be extremely competitive, frustrating, and difficult and it doesn’t always work out for everyone in the way they want it to. This post does not address those issues or how to fix them, though I acknowledge that these are big and important topics. I encourage you to read Jeremy Fox’s excellent data-driven paper on the academic job market in ecology for more perspective. I have been very fortunate in my experience, and I acknowledge that there are a range of experiences out there. (3) Although I still think of myself as a “new” professor, my application is from 8 years ago, and a lot has changed since then. For example, none of the jobs I applied for requested a diversity statement, and now almost all faculty jobs do. (4) My experience comes from applying for and evaluating applications for tenure-track assistant professor jobs at research-intensive (R1) U.S. universities. Variations on this advice might be appropriate for other types of jobs.
With all that in mind, let’s dive in. The overall process (with typical approximate timing, which can vary widely) is: (1) job ads come out (late summer/early fall); (2) written applications are due (Oct.-Dec.); (3) candidates are selected for on-campus interviews (some search committees do a round of virtual interviews first; Nov.-Jan.); (4) in-person interviews are conducted (Jan.-Feb.); (5) offers are made, sometimes going down the line if the first offer is declined (Jan.-Mar.). Often, candidates who don’t make it past the written application stage don’t hear anything until way later; this is crappy, but that’s how it usually is. This post will focus on part (2): how to write a job application. I have lots of thoughts on the other steps too, but they’ll have to wait for another day.
A typical job application consists of: (1) a cover letter; (2) a research statement; (3) a teaching statement; (4) a CV; (5) a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement; and (6) recommendation letters. Components 1-4 from my application for an Assistant Professor in Ecology position at Stanford are linked here to provide a set of examples. Cover Letter. Research Statement. Teaching Statement. CV.
Cover Letter
The cover letter is a short (1- 1 ½ page) concise statement of who you are and why you’re a good fit for the job. It is helpful to give the committee a quick overview of some key information: where do you work now, when and where did you receive your PhD and in what field, and what is the basic arc of your work? In my opinion, big questions are much more compelling than methods. Framing your work around 2-3 big questions that will then form the 2-3 sections of your research statement can be a powerful way to convey a cohesive picture about who you are and what kinds of work you do. If there are important methods or areas of expertise you want to highlight, those should come after and be motivated by the research questions. After describing your research questions and approaches, in a new paragraph convey some specific reasons you are excited about the job and how you complement the existing strengths of the group to show why you’re a good fit for the job. If there are specific resources the university has to offer, such as field stations, core facilities, or other unique programs or opportunities, this is a good place to mention them. There are mixed opinions on whether or not to mention specific faculty you’d anticipate collaborating with: on one hand, it helps to establish your complementarity and fit to the group; on the other hand, you risk seeming presumptuous or offending someone if you leave them out. I did mention specific faculty by name in my cover letter back then, but if I were doing it now I probably wouldn’t.
Research Statement
The research statement is the most important component of the application, in my opinion. This is where you can present yourself as a whole person, showing the committee your vision and sense of purpose and inspiring them with the type of work you will do as their future colleague. It should be a 2-3 page statement that clearly demonstrates the scope and impact of your current and future research. It doesn’t need to cover everything you’ve ever done, but it should tell a clear and compelling story about your most important areas of work. My key advice here is to start by articulating your specific area of expertise and interest—for example, “I am a disease ecologist who studies the impact of global change on the dynamics of infectious disease in humans and wildlife”—and then stating 2-3 big focal questions that structure your work. Organize the remainder of the statement into 2-3 sections that mirror the focal questions, giving a carefully crafted synopsis of your previous and future work in each area. In each section, start with the big picture motivation—what is the major problem that your work aims to address, what was the state of the science prior to your work (and what were the gaps), and what did you do to advance the science by closing these gaps? You want to hit the highlights of your work, even if they are in several distinct areas (hence the 2-3 question structure suggestion); in fact it can be seen as a strength if you’re able to demonstrate significant contributions in multiple semi-independent research areas. Make sure that there is enough detail for the reader to get a general sense of how you approached the problem and that you leave them with clear conclusions about the results of your work.
To me, the biggest pitfall here is structuring the statement around what you did rather than around the big ideas that motivated it, the important results you found, and the way those results change how we think about the world. It is natural to frame your work around methods—that’s how we often discuss it in conversation: “I conducted a meta-analysis looking at effects of temperature on dengue transmission.” But that doesn’t convey why that is interesting and important. Here’s an alternative that leads with the bigger picture. “Theory predicts that climate change will have nonlinear effects on infectious diseases, increasing transmission in cooler settings while decreasing transmission in warmer settings. Yet empirical studies often test for a constant effect of temperature, ignoring the potential for these effects to vary in direction and magnitude. To evaluate the evidence for nonlinear effects of temperature on dengue, I conducted a meta-analysis.” You then want to leave the reader with a clear take-home message. For example: “We found that effects of temperature on dengue were positive up to 27ºC but negative above 27ºC, providing the first empirical support for the theoretical expectation that climate change will have nonlinear effects on dengue transmission.” As you discuss your work, include in-text parenthetical citations of the published paper to readers can connect the dots on your CV.
One or two very clear and compelling figures can be helpful for illustrating the key results, but only if they are very easy to understand. Avoid figures that have many panels, require a lot of explanation to interpret, or don’t have a take-home message that is immediately clear. This may require remaking figures from your published work to make them simpler and easier to read (e.g., making fonts larger and removing extra panels).
After describing the major results of your previous work, explain how this motivates new and exciting questions that will be the basis for your future research program. Organizationally, this may be done either within each of the 2-3 subsections or as a separate “Future directions” section at the end. Again, it is important to focus on the motivating questions and research gaps before diving into the details of what you will do. For example, rather than “I will extend the models to include factors besides temperature,” reframe to focus on the big picture: “The environment varies in many dimensions simultaneously. The impacts of temperature on disease dynamics may interact with other environmental variation, so that epidemics only occur when multiple conditions are favorable. I will investigate these interactive effects of environmental variation by…” If possible, it is nice (but not required) to tailor your future research directions to the institution where you’re applying, for example if they have a field station or a nearby study system where you would envision starting new work.
Teaching Statement
This typically 1-2 page statement covers your teaching philosophy, pedagogical approaches, teaching experience, mentorship experience, and the courses you could envision teaching. Briefly describe what motivates you as an educator and what approaches you take to be a more effective teacher. How do you ensure the success of all students in a diverse classroom? What innovations have you brought to the classes you TAed, taught, or guest lectured in, such as designing labs, leading discussion sections, or updating syllabi? Wherever you can, rather than simply listing courses you’ve worked on, give a sense of your own agency in those courses and how they demonstrate your teaching philosophy in action. This is also a great place to highlight any teaching or mentorship awards you’ve received. Typically, R1 university jobs will not require that you have had significant experience as an “instructor of record,” though institutions more focused on teaching and undergraduate education may. In describing what you could teach, think creatively about how you could bring your areas of expertise to students at a range of levels, from introductory to upper division undergraduate to graduate, and make sure to touch on any specific course needs that were mentioned in the job ad.
You may choose to highlight your experience mentoring undergraduates and other trainees either as part of the teaching statement or in the DEI statement (see below). Either way, try to focus on outcomes such as mentees going on to major in ecology, complete honors theses, publish papers, go to grad school, pursue scientific careers, or other happy outcomes.
CV
Many people think this is the most important part of a job application, but I don’t (see Research Statement). It is a myth that search committees simply count papers (or worse, count only Science and Nature papers) in selecting candidates. See Jeremy Fox’s excellent paper, which helps to dispel this myth. That said, the curriculum vitae, or CV, is undoubtedly important. A good CV should be formatted to be easy to read and to clearly highlight the following information (usually in distinct sections): name and contact information; education and training (institutions and years of degrees); previous positions (those relevant to your scientific career only); peer-reviewed publications; awards, honors, grants, and fellowships; research presentations; other professional experience; service. Typically in the U.S., CVs do not include a photo, age, or other personal information such as citizenship or marital status, but you can state your pronouns if you would like. Formatting can go a long way to conveying the information effectively. For multi-authored papers, put your name in bold. Use spacing between lines and indentation to clearly demarcate different entries from each other (especially in the publications section).
Resist the temptation to “pad” your CV by including extraneous information—reviewers will see right through it and be annoyed. The most common way this happens is including unpublished works (manuscripts in review, in prep, or preprints) in your peer-reviewed publication list. It’s a great idea to have a separate list of works that are in the pipeline, but I would only list the things that you are ready to share upon request. Even better, if you have work that is still going through peer review, put it on a preprint server and include the link on your CV in a “Preprints” section. This empowers you to share your work when you’re ready, rather than when journal reviewers get around to it. Preprints are especially valuable if some of the work you’re highlighting in your research statement is not published yet, to give you something tangible you can reference and committee members can go look up.
I was on the job market one year after finishing my PhD. As you’ll see on my job application CV, I had published 8 papers, of which 5 were first- or solo-authored, and the top journals were Ecology Letters, Ecology, American Naturalist, and Ecological Monographs. I share this information not to humble-brag, or to start another debate about the productivity necessary to get an academic job, or to guarantee any particular outcome for any particular publication record, but to give an anecdote to help ground expectations for what kind of a record can get you an R1 faculty job (in 2013). This is a strong publication record given the career stage, but I didn’t have any Science or Nature papers (still don’t) and I had fewer than 10 publications (one of my PhD advisors insisted I’d need at least 10 out of grad school to be competitive for jobs). I was really surprised when I got job interviews. I had no idea I would be competitive. Jeremy Fox’s blog post and the resulting publication on the academic job market in ecology are very helpful for grounding expectations in data. I agree wholeheartedly with his advice not to get pessimistic for the wrong reasons. I hope some people find this to be a hopeful message.
DEI Statement
This is a relatively new element of the faculty job application that has really gained traction in the last 5 years. Much like the “personal statement” in grad school applications, the DEI statement can be challenging to write because expectations are often unclear, many faculty advisors do not have experience writing them, and there are several potential pitfalls. However, the widespread adoption of DEI statements is also a fantastic opportunity to showcase work you are doing to build community, mentor the next generation of scientists, and other activities that help to promote the inclusion of historically marginalized groups in science. It also puts the onus on search committees to consider the dimensions on which a candidate can contribute beyond their research. None of my faculty job applications requested DEI statements, so I do not have a relevant example of my own to share. However, best practices for conducting an inclusive search advise scoring diversity statements on a predetermined rubric. The three core areas are a candidate’s: (1) demonstrated understanding of the issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion and the evidence-based approaches for improving DEI in scholarship, teaching, and mentorship; (2) track record in advancing DEI through teaching, mentorship, research, service, outreach, and other activities; and (3) future plans for DEI activities. There is excellent advice available on how to write a DEI statement (Vanderbilt, UCSD, Stanford), sample rubrics (Emory, UC Berkeley, U Michigan) and how to use them, and how to avoid pitfalls, as well as peer-reviewed articles on DEI statements.
Many aspects of the job application process are out of your control, and that’s what can make the process so difficult and frustrating. However, there are some aspects that are in your control, and that includes the application you put together. The elite women’s ultimate frisbee team Fury has won 11 national championships by following the guiding principle “CC the C”: consciously control the controllable. Invest the time you need to write stellar statements that clearly articulate your strengths and vision. Get feedback from a range of people, including your current and past advisors, lab members, and others you know who have been successful on the job market. Make sure to request letters early to give your writers plenty of time to prepare—typically, these come from a mix of your PhD and postdoc advisors as well as others who know you and your work well and who you know are strong supporters of your work. Recognize that there are many factors that shape a committee’s decision to make a job offer, many of which are outside of your control, so try to stay resilient and not to take any rejections too personally. There is lots of great advice out there on the job application process, so don’t just take my word for it!
Other Faculty Job Application Resources
Dynamic Ecology: Ask us anything: good advice for today’s ecology faculty job seekers
Dynamic Ecology: Useful links related to tenure track job searches in ecology (updated Oct. 2019)
Dynamic Ecology: “Illegal” questions at job interviews
Dynamic Ecology: How much do you—and should you—tailor your ecology faculty job application to the hiring institution?
ESA: So you’re about to…
Anurag Agrawal: Job question in ecology and evolution
Ecology Bits: Some advice for applying for faculty jobs, according to six Harvard assistant professors
Small Pond Science: On the breadth of faculty job applications
EcoEvoEvoEco: How to get a faculty position
PLOS Computational Biology: Ten simple rules for giving an effective academic job talk
Marissa Baskett: Grant & job resources
Science: In the tough academic job market, two principles can help you maximize your chances
UCSF: Sample materials for faculty positions
University of Pennsylvania: Research statements for faculty job applications
Broad Institute: Cover letter for a faculty position
Theoretical Ecology: Ecology jobs
Harvard University: CVs and cover letters