Deans give advice on getting jobs at U.

With the academic job market growing increasingly competitive, today's doctoral students need all the career advice they can get. In an attempt to help such students get a leg up in the hiring process, Career Planning and Placement Services, along with School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Dean Walter Licht and Engineering Graduate Dean Dwight Jaggard -- both of whom have a direct hand in their schools' job selection process -- held a conference entitled "Behind the Scenes with a Search Committee" for University students Friday. "For every position in a school there can be up to 400 applications, and the average is around 250 to 300," Licht began. Jaggard nevertheless managed to remain positive about the current job market. "We have definitely bounced back from where the job market was three years ago," he said. But Licht tempered this optimism as he explained the relatively impersonal first stages of the application process. "In the first round, departments can spend as little as 25 seconds on each application," Licht explained. "You will need something that will stand out in the first two paragraphs in your letter of introduction," he advised, adding that students who have studied under well-known experts in their field, for example, will have outstanding material for their resumes. "However, sometimes even big names aren't enough, and luck becomes the deciding factor," Licht warned. The hundreds of applications are quickly pared down to around 50 in just a matter of hours. These are then carefully sheared to a master list of about 10. Even at this stage, Licht and Jaggard emphasized the harsh realities of the application process. "There are constant department politics that are going on behind the scenes. Decisions can be made because of something that is entirely out of your control," Licht noted. Nevertheless, he added that students who have published work will be more attractive to University employers. In the arts and sciences departments, for example, Licht said an applicant's chances for getting a job increase exponentially with each chapter of his or her dissertation that has been published. During the final stages of the selection process, the department holds a convention where the 10 remaining candidates are invited to meet and interview with the faculty. Licht stressed the importance of applicants showing interest in supporting the undergraduate department during the interviews. "You love to teach undergrads. You cannot wait to teach the survey courses," he said. Finally, the 10 are whittled down to a very short list of three who are invited for a campus visit in the spring. "At this point, your social graces start to matter," Jaggard noted. The successful candidate "always eats with a knife and fork," he said.