It means that it’s a competition, just like the Olympics.

It means that you can be among the best in the world and still not get a medal job.

It means that you have to go out there and do what needs to be done to the best of your ability anyway.

Potential employers don’t want to know what you think you can do. They want to know what you have already demonstrated you can do.

If there is lots of competition, you need to perform at a higher level to even be in the race.

In other words, if you haven’t yet finished your dissertation or are pretty damn close, you might not even get through the first screen.

You might need to have publications already out to really be in the running for a job where research is important.

You might need to have some experience actually developing and teaching courses (rather than just teaching assistantships) to be in the running for a job where teaching is important.

Make sure you are in the right event

If you want to win a medal in snowboarding, don’t compete in figure skating.

There are a lot of different kinds of academic jobs. You are going to compete best for those that are the closest match for you. A great slalom skier isn’t necessarily going to be a good contender for the downhill.

You need to know what kind of academic career you want. I’ve written about that before.

Remember that some institutions aspire to be different than they are (or have been recently) and thus they might require things of new hires that they didn’t require of their now senior faculty. They want you to take them in the direction they are going.

Train Prepare for that event

One size never fits all.

If you want a job at a top tier research intensive institution then you need to make sure you have the kinds of things those people want to see on your CV.

In North America, that is going to include a high-prestige graduate program though you might be able to compensate after the fact with a high-prestige post-doctoral fellowship.

If research is going to be an important criteria for tenure and promotion, then it is going to be important for hiring.

Similarly, if teaching is of prime importance, they are going to want to see real teaching experience.

Research, research, research

Read higher education publications for the country where you are applying.

In the US, you want to be reading the careers advice and other articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and probably Inside Higher Ed.
In the UK, the Times Higher (THE) and the Guardian are the places to read.
In Canada, read University Affairs and keep up with higher education debates in the main national newspapers.

Academic unions also have important information about individual institutions, trends in academic employment, etc.

In the US, the American Association of University Professors.
In the UK, the University and College Union.
In Canada, the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

Look at the website of any institution you plan to apply to. At least skim their strategic document, as it will give you an indication of what kinds of things they want to be seen to be prioritizing. In hiring “seen to be” is important. (interestingly as I write the Chronicle’s On Hiring newsletter has a post about this)

If faculty in that university are unionized you should see if the union provides any information. If not, there is likely to be a faculty association that might have useful information.

Long before you ever apply for an academic job, you should be learning about different institutions in the informal conversations you have at conferences and in on-line forums. When people are involved in hiring from the other side what did they find most frustrating? What were they most impressed by?

You cannot control the process

Just like an Olympic athlete, at the end of the day you have to accept that no matter how hard you work and no matter how good you are, you might not come home with a medal job.

There is nothing you can do about that.

You can make decisions about where you apply and how much effort you put into it.

You can make decisions about what you do to make yourself more competitive: submit articles for publication, gain teaching experience, etc.

And you can prepare a plan B.

I can help

If you think I’m on to something in this post and my previous posts about academic jobs, but you don’t know how to put it into practice in your own situation, you can hire me to coach you.

I can help you with anything from how to work out what kind of academic career you want to how to drafting application materials. And I provide lots of support and encouragement along the way.

All those Olympic athletes have coaches, after all.