Readiness for the Academic Job Market
Determine the best time to go on the academic job market

  • General Timeline for the Academic Job Market
  • How to Determine if You are at the Right Stage in Your Studies to Go on the Academic Job Market (Humanities)
  • How to Determine if You Are at the Right Stage in Your Studies to go on the Academic Job Market (STEM)
  • Other Academic Factors to Consider When Deciding to go on the Academic Job Market
  • Other Non-Academic Factors to Consider When Deciding to go on the Academic Job Market

About this lesson

You’ve decided to go on the academic job market, but are you ready? When is the right time for someone in your academic discipline to begin applying for academic jobs? How many publications do you need? How much of your dissertation should you have finished? Can you put in the time and work required to go on the academic job market while also keeping up with the demands of your PhD program or postdoc position?

This lesson will help you answer those questions by giving you an overview of the academic job market cycle and helping you decide if you are at the right stage in your studies to begin applying. With sections specifically tailored to the concerns of both STEM fields and the social sciences/humanities, this lesson is for anyone wondering WHEN they should start applying for faculty jobs.

And If you know you’re ready to start applying for academic jobs now, check out our lesson on CV writing, which is the first lesson in our Apply stage.

Workbook Activities

This lesson covers pages 24 to 26 in the Evaluate Stage Workbook. You can also use the Take Notes widget to complete these activities.  

  1. Research the specific timeline and stages in your academic job search. What are the different stages in the hiring process? What are you going to need to prepare and when will you be the busiest? 
  2. The video lesson presented many factors to consider as you determine your readiness to go on the academic job market. Reflect on where you are at in your studies, what your responsibilities are, and the support you have available. When is the best time for you to go on the academic job market?

Do you have a question for the Beyond the Professoriate team? Send us an email member@beyondprof.com

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Beyond Prof's training platform is easy to navigate. Students can move between lessons, or come back to a lesson when they need to refresh their memory (e.g. preparing for an interview!).

Feature not available in Demo Site.

Timestamps allow learners to quickly access information to move them forward in their job search.

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To encourage active learning, Beyond Prof's training platform includes a Take Notes widget with prepopulated questions and exercises. Students type directly into the widget while watching the video, and then print or save their notes.

This feature is unavailable in the demo site.

Picture of the take notes widget, available in Aurora

Tools for your job search

Beyond Prof’s training platform is designed as a step-by-step plan to help you move from academia to a nonacademic career. In each module, you’ll get the knowledge, tools, and guidance from Dr. Wood you need so that you can get paid for your skills and find a nonacademic job you enjoy.

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