I spoke with a former student not long ago who is completing a doctorate and pondering the job market. He mentioned that he had volunteered to serve on some departmental committees so that he would have something under "service" on his CV.
 
I remember that same advice coming from my professors: If you volunteer for service, then search committees will know that you understand the realities of life in the professoriate and maybe even something about departmental politics.  
 
After my conversation with the former student, I started pondering how often I have actually looked at the "service" section of an applicant's résumé. Indeed, after serving on search committees for the better part of two decades, I can't remember an applicant's "service" ever coming up in our deliberations for entry-level faculty positions (although for chairmanship searches, it's one of the first things to be discussed...

Discussions about tenure have reached fever pitch, whether the portrayal of public-school tenure in the film Waiting for Superman or politically inspired criticism of higher education's tenure policies or sound-bite scrutiny by the news media. We are about to enter a season of significant change in how tenure works.

I was talking about this recently with a friend who had served as an administrator at a college that offers multiyear contracts rather than tenure. He told me that when job candidates found out that there was no tenure track there, they routinely pulled out of their interviews or contract negotiations. That presented a significant challenge, he said, especially in competitive disciplines.

Given the current state of the job market, would a lack of tenure at an institution change how you pursue a position? 

Not long ago, I was handed a file that included a faculty application from about 1970. What was fascinating was to see how it has changed since then. My favorite line was the one with "height" and "weight." I actually laughed out loud when I read that.

As I pondered the application form, I also remembered something one of my doctoral professors told me about generating my CV. "Try to find a way to make your personality stand out: Include something interesting or distinctive, perhaps in your 'Interests' section, at the end. Everyone says 'film, reading, and travel,' so avoid those. I personally like to see something about baseball in that spot."

I thought this was a little odd—until I'd sat on enough search committees to hear the utter joy at seeing "gourmet cooking" listed as an interest. I thought one colleague would actually burst into tears at a résumé that mentioned "prolific...

Across academe, search committees are being established in anticipation of job announcements. The composition of these committees is often a matter of policy, with specific guidelines about who will serve (the ratio of men/women and senior/junior faculty members, and the representation from other units, from underrepresented populations, and from human resources).

Searches are hard, and the duties are not to be taken lightly. They can become fraught with political challenges as well. For many deans and department chairs, the empaneling of search committees is among the most complicated decisions they must make. As I have noted previously in this space, there is a saying that is pretty accurate: First-rate search committees hire first-rate candidates; second-rate committees hire third-rate candidates.

What is the best way to establish a search committee? How large should a committee be?...

Many universities have regional campuses that distribute academic programs across large geographical areas. At one time, the advice commonly given to job applicants was that they avoid teaching at such locations. The primary concern was that for tenure-track positions, it was almost impossible to achieve tenure without either "face-time" at the main campus department (which would one day vote on the bid) or with the higher-on-average teaching loads that regional campuses tend to have. A secondary concern was that regional campuses tend to be more enrollment-sensitive and that positions might be more volatile in terms of permanence.

Administrators at regional campuses seem to have common concerns about applicants as well. Do prospective faculty members understand the role and scope of the campus? Are they merely using the position as a stepping stone to another position elsewhere? Search...

In my most recent post, I asked how the public airing of departmental or institutional turmoil might influence a prospective candidate's actions. Now I'll extend that in the other direction.

Two senior professors, who served on a search committee together, were flipping through CV's over coffee.

Professor Jones said, "I like this dossier from Big Name University (one of the top 10 in their field). I'd love to have someone from there with us."

Professor Smith countered, "Yes, but that department is falling apart. The university has put it in receivership, and the place is rife with infighting. Have you read the stories in The Chronicle? There's even a Web site dedicated to the problems. I don't know that we need to bring in someone who has seen that kind of attitude during the doctorate. We shouldn't risk ruining the peace we have by hiring someone who has learned the politics of...

A campus was suffering through a significant economic struggle, which included a midyear budget cut. At a meeting with the university's leaders, who were growing impatient with the process of the cuts and with the lack of clear information about the situation, the institution's president declared, "No one should discuss these things off campus. If there is one thing that neither donors nor prospective students want to hear, it's that there are financial problems here. Donors won't give to problems, and prospective students are afraid of them. If we lose either of those groups, our problem will only grow worse." 

That conversation happened over a decade ago, before everyone figured out that information can find new and expansive homes on the Internet. It is almost impossible now to create an information lockdown, especially with the easy availability of Web sites where information,...