• Sylvia Herbert's Faculty Application Advice
• Yisong Yue's Tips for CS Faculty Applications
• Daniel Seita's Faculty Application Experience

• Why do I want to go into academia?
• What is my financial situation?
• In my field, academia tends to pay less than industry. For example, a typical 12-month faculty salary in my field might be around $150,000, whereas industry salaries might be closer to $200,000. Academic salaries are quite good, but it is still an important factor to consider.
• How important is geography to me?
• Academic jobs often have strict geographical requirements, while industry positions may have more job opportunities in desirable locations or more flexibility for remote work. That said, I limited my academic job search to the greater LA and Boston areas for personal reasons, so it is still possible to find academic positions that fit geographical preferences!
• What is the flexibility of my partner's career?
• How do I feel about mentoring?
• How do I feel about teaching?
• How do I feel about guiding my own work and working independently?

• Attend conferences:
• Many conferences offer activities specifically for people seeking academic jobs. Although I didn’t attend these myself, talking to people who did helped me understand the application process. Such programs include: RSS's (Robotics: Science and Systems Conference) Pioneers and CDC's (Conference on Decision and Control) "Meet the Faculty Candidates" Poster Session.
• At your university:
• Attend job talks! Depending on the school this might be explicitly advertised as a faculty search seminar or more inconspicuously as a weekly research seminar. These talks are often the most polished research presentation that you'll see. Candidates usually put an enormous amount of effort into them. See what worked and what didn't.
• Attend thesis defenses, especially for people applying to academia. See what makes a good research presentation. Research quality is critical, but presentation style and ability to communicate complicated ideas is also important factors!
• Talk to senior students and alumni about their job application process. What worked for them? Why did they choose the path that they did?
• If possible, talk to faculty at your institution about what their typical week actually looks like. The day-to-day reality of academia is often very different from the job-talk version.

Your CV (curriculum vitae) should include all of your academic accomplishments, highlighting your best work.

• Remember that the search committee will contain members from the whole department, who may be unfamiliar with your exact field, so it can be useful to add metrics like venue acceptance rates to help highlight the impact of particular publications. Some people may value journals over conference publications, so make sure to indicate the difference.
• The tenure track job search prioritizes research first and foremost, however teaching and service are also very important components. Consider adding students you've mentored, peer review activities, volunteer work, etc.

I received mixed signals on the importance of cover letters. Many search committee members said that they never read them, but in a handful of my interviews a faculty member mentioned something that I only wrote in the cover letter.

In general, my cover letters were relatively the same across institutions with 1 paragraph that varied to mention the names of faculty members that I was interested in collaborating with and 1 paragraph that discussed university-specific programs For example, I highlighted Tufts' Human-Robot Interaction program and the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach in my cover letter because they were unique things about the university that I felt particularly drawn to.

The research statement is by far the most important component of the whole application for R1 univeristies that you have direct control over (the reference letters are arguably just as important but you have less control over those).

• 3-5 pages in my field. Mine was 4 pages of text and 1 page of bibliography.
• Presentation matters. My statement was cleanly split into: 1 page of background, vision, and philosophy; 2 pages of prior work towards achieving that vision; 1 page of proposed research; 1 page of references.
• Be careful with the level of technicality here. I would say that the background/vision/philosophy needs to be clearly understandable for anyone in your field, the prior work section needs to have clearly understandable takeaways with some details for experts to show your depth, and the proposed research should again be understandable for anyone in your field. Think of the hour-glass metaphor: start with big ideas, narrow into your prior work, then expand back out again.
• There should be multiple ways to read your statement, like a "choose your own adventure" book. You should allow for the following possible ways of reading your statement:
  • First third of the first page only
  • Bolded words and images only
  • Title, images, and captions only
  • First page only
  • First and last page only
  • First page, prior work bullets, and last page only
  • Full document
• Anyone who reads your research statement should be able to answer the following questions. I found it really useful to give my research statement to people and ask them answer these questions to see how their answers aligned with what I was trying to communicate:
  • Why should the regular person care about your area of research?
  • What is the current and potential impact of your work?
  • What are the future research frontiers in your field?
  • Why are you qualified to lead this research effort?
• Use your figure-making skills to break up your statement visually. It should be appealing as both a text document and an image itself. If you blurred out everything except for the bolded words and the images, your statement should still make sense.
• Your statement should outline research ideas at several time scales: 2-year plan (what will you be trying to do as soon as you arrive), 5-year plan (what will get you tenure), 10-year plan (awesome ideas edging on science fiction). Your statement should be mostly about your 2 year plan, a bit about your 5 year plan, and have a few sentences at the end signaling your 10 year plan.

The key takeaways should be: What is your vision? How does your background help you accomplish your 2 year plan? How will your 2 year plan enable your 5 year plan? How will your 5 year plan enable your 10 year plan? Through this your goal should be to get your committee to see how you could possibly go from "your background" to successfully completing your "10-year plan".

The teaching statement is probably the second most important piece of your application that you have direct control over. While it won't necessary be the one thing that will get you hired, it can certainly be the one thing that prevents you from getting hired. On the other hand, it can really help round out a candidate and help the department see how you would be as a peer and how you would fit into the community.

• Review your teaching experiences, but remember that you already have those listed on your resume. This should give the reader an understanding of what you're like as a teacher instead of just a bullet point list of accomplishments.
  • A good way to do this is by adding student quotes, a discussion of your teaching philosophy, and concrete examples of projects or student interactions.
• Mentoring / Advising
  • Teaching also includes advising, so be sure to include some idea of your advising style and philosophy.
• Teaching extends beyond the university classroom, so you can also include things like workshops, public talks, educational outreach, etc. This can be especially useful if the university doesn't accept a diversity statement since you can put some of that material here.
• It can be helpful to list courses or areas that you would feel comfortable teaching as well as new course ideas to supplement the department's existing offerings. This can help them see how you would "fit".

The key takeaways should be: what is this person like as a teacher and advisor? How can I see them fitting into the department's current courses and curricular needs?

With the current political environment, diversity statements might be disappearing. Tufts did not ask me to include this statement, but has nevertheless been a wonderful environment of inclusive excellence in my experience.

If you are asked to write one of these statements here are my recommendations:

• consult the university's DEI policies and try to understand where your volunteer work, mentoring experience, outreach, etc. fit within those guidelines
• as with the other statements: make it skimmable

The reader's key takeaways should be: What is the candidate's perspective on DEI efforts? Will the be a helpful, neutral, or harmful presence to these efforts on our campus? What efforts have they made in the past?

Recommendation letters are perhaps the most important part of the application package and the part that you have the least control over.

Prioritize letter writers who can make strong statements about your research experience. People who can also make statements about your teaching experience is a plus. My letter writers included my advisor, my summer internship advisor (who is also an tenured R1 faculty member), and the professor that I TA'd for when I won a teaching award.

The process of requesting letters:

• In the later summer / early fall, send an email or meet in person to inform your potential letter writers that you are applying and that you would like for them to write you a letter. Ask if they are willing to write a strong letterfor you.
• If they say yes, follow up with the relevant details for where you're applying (they may also suggest positions you weren't aware of!), a current version of your application package, and any other information that might help them write your letter such as a summary of your experience with them.
• Request a letter from them through the job application portal. Unfortunately, this is not centralized so they will likely receive many automated emails about letters throughout this process.
• Follow up! Make sure that they know the deadlines for the letters and keep in contact as those dates come closer.

• August
• 8/21: started compiling list of schools / companies that I might be interested in and journaling introspectively to decide which path was best for me.
• 8/25: started writing my research statement.
• September
• 9/22: completed first draft of application materials, compiled early list of existing job postings
• October
• 10/7: sent email requesting letters of recommendation
• 10/23: requested feedback from a bunch of friends, mentors, and peers on my application package
• 10/30: applied to Tufts-ME (my first application)
• November
• 11/12: applied to LMU-ECE, BU-ME
• 11/23: applied to UCI-CS
• 11/26: applied to BU-CV, UCI-ME
• 11/27: applied to CSULB-ME
• 11/29: applied to UCR-ECE
• December
• 12/3: began submitting applications to industry jobs (this was too late)
• 12/7: applied to USC-ECE
• 12/8: applied to UCLA-ME
• 12/19: applied to UCLA-EE
• January
• 1/7: Eaton fire displaced me and caused me to reschedule my original Tufts interview
• 1/21-1/22: Original Tufts interview
• 1/29-1/30: Rescheduled Tufts interview
• 1/31: Tufts asked for information regarding my startup needs (lab space, equipment, initial funding, etc.), I sent them back this estimate: link
• February
• 2/2: I received a verbal offer from Tufts that agreed to my full requested lab budget, I was able then able to negotiate some modest but meaningful changes to my offer (see the Offer section)
• 2/9: Zoom interview with UCR-ECE
• 2/12-2/16: second visit to Tufts
• 2/12: I received the official offer letter from Tufts with a 2 week decision timeline
• 2/19: Zoom interview with USC-ECE
• 2/24: On campus interview with UCR
• 2/25: Accepted Tufts offer
• 2/26: Invitation to interview in-person with USC (declined)
• March
• early March: NIH and NSF funding cuts, many academic job postings are taken down
• 3/21: invitation to zoom interview with CSULB (declined)

To do list before entering the zoom interview:

• If they ask for a short presentation, make sure that you have that well prepared.
• Prepare any materials that you need on hand during the interview. You don't want to have to search through your files for an important research video in real-time in front of the interviewer. Make sure that all relevant videos, figures, etc. are centralized in an easy to reference way, like a slide deck.
• Do background reading on the school and the department. Be prepared to confidently answer the question "Why this school? Why this department?". Know the relevant people that you might collaborate with and the resources that would be important to you.
• Prepare your interview space. You should have: water/coffee/tea on hand, good audio and video quality, privacy for the interview time period + 50% in case it goes long, good wifi, a professional looking background, professional looking attire (the right balance can be tricky in academia, but I wore a collared shirt, a tie, and a sweater)

This is the make-or-break portion of the application process. You need to convince them of your research vision and show them that you will be a good colleague: someone that they can imagine themselves working with, and someone that will have a positive impact on the students and department culture.

This is a bit of a "marathon" interview and generally consists of a research presentation and a series of ~30min interviews with faculty, interviews with students, and lunch and dinner with faculty. Some interviews also have a "vision talk" and a "chalk talk"; I didn't experience those, so I can't offer too much advice but check out Sylvia Herbert's blog where she has some discussion: link

Also, if you're interested, here is the video of my job talk from my Tufts interview: video link.

Next are some advice and details on my in-person interview experience (click to expand):

Here is the offer process as I understand it (note that my experience is approximately n=1, so this could differ greatly across institutions).

My Tufts interview was delayed by the LA fires which displaced me for a few weeks, so I was the last interview on their schedule. The next day the chair asked for the equipment that I would require to start my lab (I responded with this spreadsheet). Many schools make offers before negotiating the size of the equipment startup, but I think Tufts was just trying to make sure that my research vision fit in their budget. This creates the incentive to underestimate a start-up budget to make yourself sound affordable, do not do this. Make sure that you ask for what you need to be successful, if that doesn't fit in their budget they will tell you and you can move forward from there, but you need to set yourself up for success; that's in everyone's best interest.

Next the department conferred and discussed with the chair. They then extended an unofficial offer within 4 days of my interview. This was particularly fast because I was the last in their schedule, my interview was delayed, and the department had to quickly move on to another faculty search.

Once I had a verbal offer, I went back-and-forth negotiating with the chair. I was able to negotiate meaningful changes regarding salary, course releases, summer funding, named professorship, and RA support. I was very unprepared and inexperienced with respect to these negotiations so I consulted several mentors and advisors and tried to learn as much as I could fast. Hopefully, this helps others in their negotiations.

Now you can finally see the school with a relaxed perspective. Try to imagine what life would be like there. This is often a good opportunity to have more candid conversations with the current faculty, explore the area, tour the rest of the school, ask detailed questions about life logistics like: where to live, daycare availability, where's the best food, things like that.

In general, you can dress less formally for these interviews (I was kindly joshed with for wearing a tie to my second interview).

• CV: a curriculum vitae. This is a long-form resume, more common in the UK.
• Exploding Offer: A job offet with a short deadline for the candidate to accept, often leaving them unable to explore other opportunities before making a decision.
• 9-month and Summer Salary: Academic salaries are often split into 9-month and summer portions. The 9-month salary is paid by the university often from student tuition and the summer salary is paid by the faculty member to themselves out of research funds.
• Hidden Curriculum: the hidden curriculum is a set of lessons which are learned, but not openly intended. This includes things like social normals, values, beliefs, and biases. For example, researchers in robotics generally learn that it is normal to put "related works" and "limitations" sections in their research submissions which are not normal in the field of control theory. wiki page on hidden curriculum
• Job Talk: a "*job talk* is a presentation of an applicant's research during an interview, generally framed as an hour-long public research seminar.
• On the Market: A candidate is referred to as "on the market" when they are actively searching for a job.
• R1 and R2 Universities: the "R" description is the Carnegie Classificatoin of Institutions of Higher Eductoin used to classify universities by the amount of money that they spend on research. Here the "R" stands for "Research" and differentiates as:
  • R1: very high spending and docorate production (e.g., big state schools, famous private research universities)
  • R2: high spending and doctorate production (teaching-oriented schools, undergraduate-focused intitutions)
• Search Committee: the faculty members in the department who are responsible for organizing the job search. Ultimately, they are the members of the department that have the most impact on the hiring process.
• Tenure-Track Positions: A tenure-track position in academia is one that leads to the possibility of tenure, which is a lifetime appointment. In general this involves a ~6 year probationary period as an assistant professor and then a tenure review.
• Two Body Problem: This describes a situation where the applicant to a tenure track position has a partner/spouse that is also looking for a job, especially if they are also looking for an academic job. This is a notoriously difficult situation, but universities will often make accomodations to help the partner find a job. Ironically, this name comes from Newtonian mechanics where it describes a system containing two celestial bodies, which has a clean closed-form solution.