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[nonlinear_career]

I am new to the forum. I stumbled across it when I was searching online for tips on applying for faculty positions in Australia, in engineering. I did my PhD in the US and I am currently a Postdoc. I am hoping that any Australians on the forum or applicants from the US who made the move to Australia can help me.

I am looking to apply for engineering faculty positions in Go8 universities as well as for one Postdoc position at one of the them. The position description documents do not ask for a research statement, but have a bunch of  'selection criteria', such as 'Demonstrated ability to publish', 'Demonstrated ability to secure funding' along with some generic ones like 'Demonstrated exceptional written and oral communication skills'.

I interpret the phrase 'Demonstrated ability' to mean that I have to write a paragraph or two about my past research and future plans, my publications etc. But assuming I write just two short paragraphs for each criterion, it is hard to convey a cohesive research plan. I can at best mention the areas in which I work or plan to work.

Is it expected that applicants submit a research statement and a teaching statement as supplementary material which can be referred to in the cover letter addressing the selection criteria.

One university (ANU) does ask for a 'research statement' so I suppose I can provide details here and only provide a summary in the letter addressing the selection criteria.

There are also a couple of selection criteria which leave me perplexed such as -
'Demonstrated understanding of equal opportunity principles' (sure I understand and believe in them but what do I do to 'demonstrate' such an understanding).
'Demonstrated ability to undertake administrative duties'. Being only a Postdoc I have never had any administrative duties. So I am not sure how I can convince the selection committee that I can undertake administrative duties. I am not sure if search committees in the US use this as an important criteria at least in engineering departments. I was under the impression that such considerations enter the picture during the actual interviews where applicants can be personally evaluated.

Thank you for any insight.

[highway61]

Welcome to the Forum!

There are plenty of threads on this sort of thing, so do a search for "Australia" and you should find some. In brief, ANSWER EACH CRITERION SEPARATELY using bullet points. In the US you'd write a nice coherent 2-3 page letter; not here. Use common sense for the "demonstrated ability" stuff: if you say "I understand and am committed to equal opportunity" you have demonstrated your ability and the HR people can check that. It's not as if a search committee is going to worry. Good luck--

[totoro]

I am new to the forum. I stumbled across it when I was searching online for tips on applying for faculty positions in Australia, in engineering. I did my PhD in the US and I am currently a Postdoc. I am hoping that any Australians on the forum or applicants from the US who made the move to Australia can help me.

I am looking to apply for engineering faculty positions in Go8 universities as well as for one Postdoc position at one of the them. The position description documents do not ask for a research statement, but have a bunch of  'selection criteria', such as 'Demonstrated ability to publish', 'Demonstrated ability to secure funding' along with some generic ones like 'Demonstrated exceptional written and oral communication skills'.

I interpret the phrase 'Demonstrated ability' to mean that I have to write a paragraph or two about my past research and future plans, my publications etc. But assuming I write just two short paragraphs for each criterion, it is hard to convey a cohesive research plan. I can at best mention the areas in which I work or plan to work.

Is it expected that applicants submit a research statement and a teaching statement as supplementary material which can be referred to in the cover letter addressing the selection criteria.

One university (ANU) does ask for a 'research statement' so I suppose I can provide details here and only provide a summary in the letter addressing the selection criteria.

There are also a couple of selection criteria which leave me perplexed such as -
'Demonstrated understanding of equal opportunity principles' (sure I understand and believe in them but what do I do to 'demonstrate' such an understanding).
'Demonstrated ability to undertake administrative duties'. Being only a Postdoc I have never had any administrative duties. So I am not sure how I can convince the selection committee that I can undertake administrative duties. I am not sure if search committees in the US use this as an important criteria at least in engineering departments. I was under the impression that such considerations enter the picture during the actual interviews where applicants can be personally evaluated.

Thank you for any insight.

Selection criteria are a standard thing for public sector jobs in Oz. Some are dreamt up by HR. It can vary how seriously they are taken. In the more internationally savvy departments they are used to foreigners not understanding and sending something different to what was asked for. A cover letter plus the criteria plus a CV would be normal. No cover letter is just as normal from Aussie candidates. I only read the CV anyway personally until the short-list is narrowed down a lot anyway.

[scampster]

I'm on the applicant side, but also in engineering. I had a phone interview with one Go8 school (they didn't do campus interviews) and a campus interview at a second tier school. I usually had a cover letter plus a document with the selection criteria that I responded to point by point. I used the (no more than one page) cover letter to have a research paragraph that stated up front my general research area and direction. And in some of the selection criteria there was room to expand. I know what you mean about feeling like it was hard to present a coherent picture of your trajectory, but at least that one paragraph in the cover letter made me feel like I had given an outline, even if some people won't ever read it.

I have to say that at least the Aussie selection criteria weren't as annoying as the UK ones. "Ability to use a computer and the internet." Really? For an online application? And I saw a lot of repetition between the Aussie ones, so it was easy to apply to other positions there once I had some canned responses (with some minor changes to reflect the language of the criteria).

I'll tell you though - one thing that really took me by surprise was how detailed of teaching and service questions they asked me compared to my US/Canada interviews, even at the Go8 school. So if you do get an interview, be prepared for questions like that (e.g. thinking through not only which courses you would teach, but HOW, and what committees you would be interested in working on, etc.)

[zyzzx]

Going to resurrect this, as I'm also a little confounded by the selection criteria thing. The position (lecturer, STEM)  asks for a CV, cover letter, and response to selection criteria. I get that I'm supposed to explicitly address each criteria, but I have no sense of what sort of responses they expect, in terms of length, amount of detail, and what needs to go in there.
For example, how much am I meant to ramble on about my excellent teamwork and communication skills? Also, for "demonstrated research excellence" my instinct is to talk about things like how much I've published, how much experience I have, and whatever metrics of research excellence I can come up with (any suggestions for such would be helpful), but now I'm wondering if this is where I'm supposed to be telling them about what my research actually is. Or does all of the research statement type stuff go down in that desirable criteria that mentions research interests? These are the only two criteria specifically about research.
For some, I really have no idea what they're looking for: how does someone with no supervisory experience convince someone of their "ability to supervise postgraduates" (ability, not "demonstrated ability" or experience)?
I can manage to come up with some sort of response to all of them, but I am worried that I am being too perfunctory or too literal with them.
I figured out cover letters and teaching and research statements from looking at ones used by older grad students, so what would be really useful is an example of a response to selection criteria for an academic position, but in my googling I have not been able to find such a thing. All the advice I've found online seems pretty generic, and not that relevant for academic jobs. Anybody know of any resources out there specifically for academic jobs?

[scotia]

Try looking in the 'Academics in the UK' board. The same types of criteria are used for UK jobs (the UK and Australian systems have a lot in common) and there have been several threads that discuss ways of addressing the criteria.

[zyzzx]

Try looking in the 'Academics in the UK' board. The same types of criteria are used for UK jobs (the UK and Australian systems have a lot in common) and there have been several threads that discuss ways of addressing the criteria.

Ah, right. Thanks.
Funny thing is, I've applied for jobs in Ireland and in New Zealand, which I'd expect to have similar procedures to the UK and Australia, but I don't remember doing anything with selection criteria (and I got interviews, so I know I didn't screw up the applications too badly).
Oh well, I did just have to fill out a HR application form for a US school that asked about things like my typing speed and my word processing proficiency, so I have answered sillier questions than that one about my ability to apply EEO principles.

[totoro]

http://www.google.com.au/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&safe=off&source=hp&q=responding+to+selection+criteria+academic+jobs&pbx=1&oq=responding+to+selection+criteria+academic+jobs&aq=f&aqi=q-w1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4134l7279l0l7521l14l14l0l0l0l0l350l3825l2-7.6l13l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=fc2a65501aa9e8a4&biw=1316&bih=709

[totoro]

I think on the ability thing, we'd want to see that you have already got a PhD and are already published so you can lead students through all these steps and say something sensible about how you would advise students.

[zyzzx]

Very helpful totoro, thanks!