Attention, Search Committees

In today’s Career Talk column, Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong provide a refresher course for newcomers to the academic hiring process and veterans on how to conduct a good search. Here are the highlights:

You’ll get a better pool of candidates if you’re clear about what you’re looking for in a candidate in the job announcement. If you post “short, imprecise job announcements,” then be prepared “to receive nothing less than a flood of applicants,” Vick and Furlong write.
Ditto for application requirements. “Don’t just say: Send dossier. Be specific about which materials you want to see,” they write.
Keep candidates posted on the status of the search. If you can’t respond personally to hundreds of job applicants, Vick and Furlong suggest search committees “post a timeline on their Web sites and update it regularly — for example, ‘scheduled screening interviews with 14 candidates.’” That’s an easy way for a committee to save time while still treating candidates respectfully.
Don’t force candidates to make an immediate decision or use inappropriate recruiting tactics.
Don’t ask inappropriate questions about race, age, children, marital status, and religion (unless it is a religious institution). “If there’s something you think a candidate should know (about great local day care, wonderful schools, relocation help for spouses), you might state those benefits without asking the candidate any direct personal questions,” Vick and Furlong write.