Tales abound of doctoral candidates who apply for hundreds of faculty positions only to get very few invitations to interview and maybe, if they're lucky, a single offer of a temporary teaching position. Despite this doom-and-gloom forecast, as a doctoral candidate nearing completion in exercise physiology, I was facing the prospect of either getting a job, pursuing a postdoctoral appointment, or experiencing poverty firsthand.
Many Ph.D.'s in my field who desire a faculty job spend some time in a postdoctoral position. For me, that didn't seem like an option. I have a wife who has endured my five years of graduate school and an oldest child who will be entering kindergarten within the next year. It seemed extremely insensitive to impose the time and financial demands of a postdoctoral position upon my family. Being an optimist, or perhaps a fool, the next logical step seemed to be the pursuit of a tenure-track position.
When the position announcements began to appear last fall, I went through the usual frantic period of CV updating and revising. I wrote letters of application, obtained publication reprints, solicited letters of recommendation, and mailed application packets. Maintaining my optimism, I applied only for tenure-track positions at doctoral and comprehensive universities. Although I considered gainful employment to be superior to unemployment, I wanted to maintain a research agenda so that if an institution did not have facilities and support for research it didn't make my list.
At this point, it's important to mention that I came to the well of tenure-track employment with some knowledge of the expectations of search committees and universities. It has been drilled into my head that a successful job search begins long before a student completes preliminary exams. It begins with selecting the appropriate adviser early in the doctoral process. I have had the good fortune of working with an excellent adviser who has emphasized the need to publish research as well as develop skills of grantsmanship. My adviser has allowed me to write, and be first author, on most of our manuscripts. We also have several collaborative manuscripts in varying stages of preparation. There are only a few publications on the topic of my research, and almost half of them are from our laboratory. Our research has been presented to numerous scientific audiences and has attracted attention from the news media. All of which means that my research experience has exceeded that of most other doctoral candidates within the field of exercise physiology.
Knowing that securing a position in higher education also requires teaching experience, I have tried to obtain as much as possible, teaching at both "my" university and the local community college. And I have taken classes in college-teaching techniques to make me a more attractive candidate.
The wait for a response to my applications was much shorter than I expected. My first response came in the form of a phone interview in mid-November for a position at a doctoral university. That led to an on-campus visit in early December. I continued to send out applications while I waited to hear back from that university as well as from colleges with early application deadlines. By early February, I had had telephone interviews with five departments, been to on-campus interviews at four of them, received two additional invitations for campus interviews, and had two other institutions contact my references. So far, half of my applications had resulted in some expression of interest from the search committees. At this point it looked as if my hard work and preparation in graduate school were going to pay off.
My confidence was further bolstered when, at two of my campus interviews, an administrator told me outright that I was the first choice for the position. Another administrator told me that I had very favorably impressed the faculty and administrators, suggesting to me that I was a serious contender.
So, unlike the job-market horror stories I'd heard from friends and colleagues, I wound up with an offer from a doctoral university and two offers from comprehensive universities. When the offers came, I was ill prepared. I was not expecting to have a choice. Actually having to make a decision about where I would work had not been part of my training.
What I found extremely attractive about the offer from a doctoral university was, of course, the support for research, the prestige, the possibilities for advancement, and the money. In addition to equipment, the university offered me $20,000 in start-up money for my research as well as enough money to completely cover my moving expenses. The downsides of the job: Conducting research and securing outside grants would require a tremendous time commitment -- something that is very hard on family life. In addition, since I hadn't had a postdoc, I began to question my ability to secure the type of extramural grants necessary for success at the university.
My offers from comprehensive universities raised different issues. In both places, the position would be more oriented toward teaching, and as a result, presumably less challenging to a successful family life. It also would be less stressful than a research environment (although dealing with students can be very stressful). However, the teaching load would be much higher so it would be harder to conduct my research. Much to my surprise, the nine-month starting salary was only $1,000 less than the doctoral university had offered. Unfortunately, the amount they offered for moving expenses would barely cover renting a U-haul. My research would be encouraged, but the research support and equipment I would receive would be considerably less than what is available at a doctoral university.
Beyond deciding which type of institution suited me best, I also had to consider geography, since my offers came from different regions of the country. There were important considerations such as city size, recreation facilities, and overall cost of living. It might be nice to live close to grandparents and cousins. However, it might be nice to live far away from family too. This was not going to be a choice based purely on money, but a much more complicated decision.
I turned to friends, colleagues, professors, and family members to determine the path of my future. I received a great deal of advice, much of it contradictory. In the end, the choice was mine, with a lot of input from my wife.
For a person who does not like to reject anyone, it was not a comfortable experience to contact members of search committees to inform them that I had chosen another institution, and hopefully everyone understands that it was not personal but merely business. I will not be moving my family anywhere near my parents or my wife's parents. Lastly, I will not be on the faculty at a doctoral university. I chose instead to select a position for which I feel best suited and which will allow me to spend time with my wife and children. In the end, I hope things have worked out for the best.
