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Interview Season in Computer Science

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By Joseph Livingston

In the annual faculty hiring cycle in computer science, the fall and early winter months are reserved for the application process. Actually it's more like two application processes. As I search for my first tenure-track job, I've been knee-deep in both.

The first process starts with subscribing to an electronic mailing list and ends with spending $40 to mail thick manila envelopes around the country. The Computing Research Association maintains a mailing list that, as near as I can tell, receives every relevant job announcement. What started last fall as a trickle eventually turned into a collection of more than 100 postings for job openings. So if I do not become an assistant professor by August, it will not be for lack of options.

The second process is far less formal and involves making inquiries about job openings through back channels. As a first step, however, I had to spend some time finding out details of each of the colleges with openings. The good news is that this process allows for hours of guilt-free Web surfing. The bad news is that without some serious note-taking, it is impossible to remember which site says what. Then again, almost every site seems to claim that it is a "great place to live," has an "unusually collegial faculty," and has "a long-range vision to improve the department's standing."

My other source of general information has been the Taulbee Survey, also sponsored by the computing association. This annual report is the main source of information on the enrollment, production, and employment of Ph.D.'s in the field. It provides aggregate information about things like the number of degrees awarded, average faculty salaries, employment of recent graduates, and gender demographics. The results are also available by "department rank."

Because the nationwide response rate from Ph.D.'s in the field was 87 percent (and higher at highly ranked institutions), the survey gives an amazingly informative view of my field. On the other hand, you could construe accurate salary information as industrywide collusion, so such public information may have a cost.

After gathering all this information and talking with my adviser, I decided to apply to about 20 colleges. Preparing the applications was trying mainly because I completely misjudged which tasks would be easy and which would be difficult. Surprisingly, the easy part was preparing my CV, teaching statement, and research statement. Even though these documents must be well-written, concise, interesting, and inspiring, they are about my research and my personality. I can't think of any topics on which I am more qualified to write.

The difficult part was managing the details of the application process for each department. Some want letters of recommendation mailed directly. Others just want names of references whom they can contact. Still others want recommendation letters sent electronically. Two departments required electronic submission of my entire application. Others "encouraged" or "allowed" electronic submission, but even as a computer scientist, I found it easier to waste trees and print old-fashioned applications.

Having proofread the materials until I practically had them memorized, and triple-checked that I had the right cover letter in the right envelope, I congratulated myself on what was surely a tall pile of error-free applications. Alas, my self-assurance was premature.

About four hours after mailing my applications, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to sign any of my cover letters. Perhaps the hiring committees can view my omission as an indication that I am prepared for an illustrious career as an absent-minded professor.

While navigating the logistical details of these paper applications, I also pursued my options in the second application process, mainly through informal conversations and e-mail messages between myself and faculty members at other universities. At the same time, my adviser and other faculty members in my department were receiving their share of e-mail messages requesting "names of good graduating students."

Everything in this second parallel application process is noncommittal. E-mail messages sent to me would "encourage me to apply" or tell me some "unique strengths" of this or that department. I would, of course, reply with guarded interest, saying "I look forward to applying" and "the department could be an excellent match for me."

In a couple of cases I initiated this strange dance because a few departments in which I was interested had not posted job announcements by late November and I wanted to know if they would have openings. In other cases, I declined to apply to departments I had heard from informally because I was optimistic that my 20 applications would be enough.

In any case, it is now February and the application process has been replaced by stressing about getting interviews, thankfully getting some interviews, and more stressing about getting interviews. I have now scheduled seven trips in March, and I am very excited about some of the options. However, there are three other departments I have not heard from that I was quite interested in and that I thought were interested in me.

It is certainly not clear when it is safe to conclude that a department has passed me over. At this point, only one institution has officially rejected me. Most others will wait until the interview season has ended to inform me of that. I know a junior faculty member who received one rejection letter the following September, more than nine months after he had applied.

So I still have some time left to fret: Maybe all the remaining departments will call me tomorrow. Or perhaps the day after that. Or perhaps I should have signed my cover letters.