We're still in the process of figuring out all the moving details and job details for Matt so instead of talking about all that just now, I'll update you on how the whole job hunting process was for me. Lets just say it has been a long year!
Applying for faculty positions is a long, somewhat painful and often opaque process. I began applying in Fall 2012 (for jobs beginning in August 2013), somewhat half-heartedly as I knew I still had time left in my postdoc if I didn't get a job. I was fortunate to have one interview, which went fairly well even though I didn't get the job. I didn't think much more about applications until the workshop I went to in Boulder last July when I had some of my application materials reviewed.
Faculty applications are not like a regular job - you can't just send a CV/resume and a cover letter, they also require research statements and teaching statements and sometimes other things like evidence of teaching ability, lists and descriptions of courses you could teach, writing samples, transcripts and even evidence of external funding. They aren't something you can throw together in a few minutes. Anyway, at the workshop I had my research and teaching statements critiqued. At this point I wondered how I even got an interview seeing as how terrible they were! Fortunately the workshop helped me improve them so much I was feeling more confident about my application.
Come August/September 2013 faculty job ads started appearing and I applied to pretty much any job that fit with my interests. I actually ended up applying for 20 jobs! I was fortunate to find out about the OU job as it was actually advertised the year before and they didn't fill it - so it was still open and I got asked to apply after my boss visited there and I guess said good things about me. It's so great to have people on my side - it really helps when looking for jobs.
In my experience, you don't hear anything from most of these jobs until December/January/February when they contact you if they want an interview. I ended up having two phone interviews and three actual interviews. The interviews are exhausting. Two days of non stop meetings with professors, students, administrators, giving seminars, teaching classes and meals out with search committee members. Never mind all the traveling to actually get to the interviews. Most of the time they don't schedule any breaks - not even bathroom breaks and you feel like a school kid asking to use the bathroom. Its about the only time you actually get a moment to yourself and a chance to breath and regroup, so take advantage when you can.
I really enjoyed all three of my interviews, the people and students were great, I think my seminars and classes went well and I could see myself working in any of the departments. At this point it was the end of February and it was time to wait. Out of the 20 jobs I applied for, a few of them contacted me to say things like we're contacting your references, or you made it to the short list, or you haven't been invited for an interview but it was more common to just hear nothing. Even after a phone interview with one place I never heard anything from them, so I assumed that if I hadn't heard anything I could forget about those jobs and just wait on the three I interviewed at.
March came and I was fortunate enough to get offers for two Universities. This was both a blessing and a curse. Wonderful that I could chose, but awful that I had to make such a difficult decision and potentially have to let people down. It was really hard to decide and we took a long time considering all the pros and cons of the University, department, cities and states before eventually deciding on Oklahoma in the middle of March.
Then came the negotiating of the offer and the start up package and waiting to sign on the dotted line. I signed the department offer at the beginning of April and the official Provost offer at the end of April -over six months after sending my application! Now I have to be approved my the Board of Regents (hopefully a formality) and be approved for a new work visa (also hopefully a formality but surprisingly stressful non the less).
A good friend of mine from grad school also got a position at OU so we get to go through the new assistant professor and tenure track process together, hooray! So there it is, the long and often painful story of how I got this job.
I'll be starting as Assistant Professor exactly 10 years after I started attending OU as an undergraduate exchange student. The circle of atmospheric science is complete :-)
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| I better get used to this again! (From December 2004) |
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