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[fedscholar]

Have you all observed any pattern of geographic inertia (the tendency for people to hire those from their general region) in hiring?  In my field (ecology/environmental science) it would have obvious practical advantages, as places have a lot of unique species and dynamics.  I do know that tippity top tier schools are more cosmopolitan, and therefore, more likely to hire from other such institutions regardless of geography, but is this the case more generally? 

So, if a hypothetical candidate from S. California, or Atlanta, applied to a job in Maine, would they be at a minor disadvantage compared to a similar candidate from Massachusetts or Vermont, all else being equal? If this exists, how strong is it? What are the mechanisms?

[postdoconsteroids]

Have you all observed any pattern of geographic inertia (the tendency for people to hire those from their general region) in hiring?  In my field (ecology/environmental science) it would have obvious practical advantages, as places have a lot of unique species and dynamics.  I do know that tippity top tier schools are more cosmopolitan, and therefore, more likely to hire from other such institutions regardless of geography, but is this the case more generally? 

So, if a hypothetical candidate from S. California, or Atlanta, applied to a job in Maine, would they be at a minor disadvantage compared to a similar candidate from Massachusetts or Vermont, all else being equal? If this exists, how strong is it? What are the mechanisms?

My only thought is this:  if there's evidence that you're committed to a particular area, an SC in that region might be inclined to think that you will also be more committed to their school, and won't jump ship at the first chance you get.

Not that this has helped me and my half-academic two body problem.

[offthemarket]

In places that are less appealing or more remote, local people are often hired because they're more likely to stay and be happy. In expensive places, local people are hired because they're willing to put up with the high cost of living.

At my university, salaries are pretty good but the area is the cost of living is very high. Few people without a great reason to live in this particular place would want to move here on a faculty salary, when they could live high on the hog elsewhere on the same salary. That's why I'm here, because I'm a local.

[helpful]

Wouldn't the focus of your research (with regards to local species or to species outside of the geographic area but that the university has courses on) be a big factor?

[proftowanda]

We've had our share of job-hoppers, sometimes at the cost of faculty lines, but always at the cost of at least temporary extra work for others of us in serving students, serving on committees, and the like.

So, all things being equal in a search for a tenure-track line, I like to see an indication of intent to stay.

However, that does not at all mean that the applicant has to be from our area.  Some have some sort of family tie, even if not immediate family, that indicates familiarity with our area.  As useful, though, can be indications in their answers to our questions that they have familiarity with our sort of campus and students and have researched those as well as our area.

[westcoastgirl]

To be honest, I've heard that this may be the case, but I've never seen it play out. A friend just served on the SC and they are offering the job to the person who lives way across the country and prior to the invite, had never been to that region. The other two candidates are from that area. It's a good school, but not to the point where they can say "Hey, we are so good, we know he/she will come." In fact, there is some speculation that the first choice may use their offer as a counteroffer. According to my friend, they've got nothing to lose except a few days. They'll simply offer the position to Candidate two.

During another search, the candidate laid his/her cards on the table which affirmed his/her commitment to the region in a very natural way (over the course of conversations). It seems like it was welcome since he/she is based far, far away. It may have cleared up the "why is this person applying here?" questions.

Then again, in this market (or in others) academics can't be overly committed to regions these days as candidates and SCs well know. You just go to the damn job, the job doesn't come to you.

[drnobody]

Not sure how relevant this is but in my field, education, I know of some specific examples where certain states have sought graduates from our school (far away from said states) because our R1 is very highly ranked in the sub-field and the state's educational policies, programs, etc. are considered progressive (sometimes good, sometimes bad, but definitely a forerunner of what's to come). So perhaps this type of factor could apply to some degree.

[ruralguy]

In my dept. of 5, 2 people are from pretty much the immedate area, 1 other is from the broad region, 1 is a hybrid, with some background in the region and some elsewhere, and I am the only one in my dept. with no prior connection of significance to the region. Soem depts. will have the opposite---maybe one of seven is connected to the region, and everyone else isn't.

So, in all, yes, for my SLAC there is a little bit of geographic inertia, and to a smaller extent, hiring of folks who went here and similar SLACs.

[totoro]

I've seen a strong tendency for California schools to hire people with PhDs from California. At my current department in Australia we have a lot of PhDs from our university because of our strong emphasis on regional (Asia-Pacific) expertise.

[seniorscholar]

Certainly not the case with a big department at a big university in a big city which is not New York. Mentally checking the gowns at graduation, I believe we do have two PhDs from Columbia, and two from Berkeley, and in each case one of the two was a native (of NY or of SanFrancisco) though the other two are originally from North Dakota and from India . . . and we do have, come to think of it, three people in the department who grew up in this city or its suburbs, went to college/grad school in other places, and have (or had) family around, but that's about it. This is the difference in hiring in a location that attracts urbanites.

[proftowanda]

Certainly not the case with a big department at a big university in a big city which is not New York. Mentally checking the gowns at graduation, I believe we do have two PhDs from Columbia, and two from Berkeley, and in each case one of the two was a native (of NY or of SanFrancisco) though the other two are originally from North Dakota and from India . . . and we do have, come to think of it, three people in the department who grew up in this city or its suburbs, went to college/grad school in other places, and have (or had) family around, but that's about it. This is the difference in hiring in a location that attracts urbanites.

Ah, yes; life in a big city does help my campus as well, as my department also has an array from across this country and several other countries -- although not so big a city that that those who love the country life can't have it, if they're willing to do a (reasonable) commute.  So perhaps this is more typical of our sorts of campuses, while campuses in less-populated areas are more likely to have to hire more locals, who do know the area and like it?

However, I have seen colleagues from some regions of the country who just can't seem to adjust and yearn to return to those regions.  One said that she realized that her children were going to grow up to be Xians (X being our city), accents and all, so they had to move to save them from such an awful fate, unquote. 

She and others from the New York City area seem to have an especially difficult adjustment.  I've noticed that even after decades, many still see only the New York Times and never subscribe to our local newspapers, yet wonder why they're out of the loop on local politics, which can have immense impact on their careers. 

[quasihumanist]

So, if a hypothetical candidate from S. California, or Atlanta, applied to a job in Maine, would they be at a minor disadvantage compared to a similar candidate from Massachusetts or Vermont, all else being equal? If this exists, how strong is it? What are the mechanisms?

From my experience at a SLAC where about half the students were from the same state, and another quarter from nearby states, there is absolutely a disadvantage, and for good reasons.

The United States is not homogeneous.  Different places are culturally different.  Faculty who don't already know the culture of an area have to learn to communicate with students from the area.  If the school has a fairly national student body, or a student body from cities that already have many cultures within them, then this doesn't make much of a difference.  If the student body is culturally fairly homogeneous, then faculty who don't know the culture are at a very significant disadvantage in the classroom compared to other faculty.  Of course, most people do learn to teach within the local culture, but this can take some time.

This is already obvious in a two day interview if the candidate interacts with students to any significant extent.  The candidate who is from the area will generally have more positive interactions with the students than the candidate who is not.  (Most faculty have probably at least lived for a few years in different parts of the country, so this might not be noticeable in faculty interactions.)

Many astute departments will try to account for cultural differences in their evaluations, both on the account that the students are essentially being unfair (and will benefit from exposure to different cultures) and because the difference disappears over time as a candidate from elsewhere adjusts.  However, this accounting for cultural difference can be quite hard to do.

(In some sense - this whole problem is a milder version of an old conundrum.  Suppose most students at a college are racist and refuse to learn from black professors.  Should the college discriminate against black candidates on the grounds that, because the students are racist, black professors will unfortunately not be effective in the classroom?  If it hires black professors, can or should it deny them tenure after they continually get very negative evaluations because the students are racist?  Now substitute 'xenophobic' for 'racist' and 'not from here' for 'black'.  This is a milder version because black people basically stay black, while someone not from here eventually becomes from here.)

[watermarkup]

Over the last five years, just over 10% of hires in my MLA discipline (for both TT and non-TT positions at public and private universities) have received their PhDs from grad programs located in the same state as the hiring school. That's higher than you'd expect if people were landing jobs randomly, but not high enough to worry about.

[msparticularity]

I think there are at least two issues in play here:

-If one's CV creates the appearance of a long-term commitment to a particular geographic area, a SC in a very different region may be leery--more disposed to imagine one is merely looking to negotiate a better salary or other goodies in the current position;

-As quasihumanist says, there really are some regional differences that are cultural, and these may affect the ways in which new hires fit in--or fail to fit in--in a region that is new to them.

The way I overcame these had a lot to do with my referees, and a bit to do with my cover letter. I had been in the Intermountain West for a couple of decades, and four years ago was applying for Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic positions. My advisor was able to point to my earlier life in, and my family connections with, those regions. I simply said, in the last paragraph of my cover letter, that I had been tied to my current geographic setting for some time, but no longer was.

[systeme_d_]

I have honestly never seen such a thing.  In my field, it's just not logistically possible for one department to employ folks who are all from the same region of the country.  Well, I suppose it could happen in theory, but it would require a really bizarre set of circumstances.

My former department employed folks from NC, MI, WI, OH, IN, MA, CA, AZ, OR, and Ontario.
My current department, which is larger, is also more international in terms of faculty origins.  We have folks from all over the US as well as from at least four other countries.