PhDSciNet Interview 10: A PhD’s Path to a Faculty Position

Historical interview: The following preserves the research experiences and personal views expressed in the original manuscript.

PhDSciNet Interview Series — A PhD's Path to a Faculty Position

Do you remember the essay you wrote as a child about what you wanted to be when you grew up? Many children wrote, 'I want to be a scientist.' If you chose to pursue a doctorate to make that dream come true, is your desire to explore the mysteries of the universe and humanity still burning brightly? After experiments that kept you up all night, papers that were painfully difficult to produce, countless revisions to your dissertation, and all the hardships along the way, do you still have your original enthusiasm for research and the willingness to continue on this path?

Mike shares his own story and experience of looking for a faculty position. We hope it will offer some inspiration to those of you who still hold on to that belief.

Introducing Our Guest

Mike's educational and career path: five years as a PhD student + three and a half years as a postdoctoral researcher + an assistant professorship outside mainland China.

01 The Effort I Put into Continuing an Academic Career

Question 01: Why did you choose to continue in academia?

Mike: Ever since I started my doctorate, I have wanted a position that would let me manage my own working hours. Compared with industry, academia offers more opportunities to meet that need. I also wanted to turn my knowledge into research outcomes and ultimately bring my own research ideas to life.

I also really enjoy working with students. Taking all of that together, academia suits me quite well.

[Brief takeaway: Personal needs + positive encouragement. Career choices reflect both your interests and what you have built up over time.]

Question 02: What did you do to prepare for the faculty job search?

Mike: In general, you need to develop your abilities across several dimensions. First, your publication record has to be good; that comes first. Second, there is your relationship with your supervisor. If you are capable and earn your supervisor's recognition, your recommendation letter will naturally be strong. Third, you may need to do a postdoc at a good university, because under the circumstances at the time, simply having a doctorate might not be enough to find a faculty position in science or engineering. To sum up, when applying for faculty positions, you need to meet publication requirements, have recommendation letters, and have a reasonably good educational and employment background.

[Brief takeaway: Publications, recommendation letters, and background all matter.]

Question 03: Roughly which universities did you apply to? How many interviews and offers did you receive?

Mike: I contacted universities both in mainland China and elsewhere. I applied to around ten universities and received interviews at four or five of them. In the end, I chose a university that I was quite happy with in several respects.

Of course, finding a faculty position is not something you can necessarily finish within a year. You need to spend a lot of time on it, both before and during the process. I began preparing for the faculty job search when I started my postdoc, and the whole process took me a little over three years.

[Faculty job-search tip: Cast a wide net, but also concentrate your efforts where they matter.]

Question 04: What is your strongest asset in the faculty job market?

Mike: I think your strongest asset is being able to explain clearly what you want to do and what you have already done, and to tell people why your work is distinctive. If you can explain that clearly and thoroughly, I believe you will get a reasonably good outcome.

Of course, your publications, recommendation letters, and educational and employment experience are also important assets that help you secure interviews and communicate with other people. So the three things I mentioned earlier are all very important too.

[Tip: Publications are important, but your job talk and ability to communicate your research are just as crucial.]

02 What Does a Faculty Position Mean to You?

Question 05: Do you see research as an intellectual calling, or simply as a job?

Mike: I think we should still treat it as a job. Once we take up a faculty position, we should approach it with an ordinary, balanced mindset. It is a normal job; we should neither sanctify it nor treat it as something exceptional.

Still, it is best if you can also enjoy doing research. Let me give a simple example. During my undergraduate final-year project, I encountered a problem that involved programming to analyze a set of data and a model from an experiment. For a long time, I could not quite work out the problem, and I had little idea how to approach the programming either. Then one night, while I was sleeping, a solution suddenly came to me—perhaps it was a moment of inspiration. I got up immediately, probably in the early hours of the morning, quickly wrote the code, and ran it successfully. To me, that showed that I had probably been thinking about the problem subconsciously all along, and that the thinking process really had produced a solution. I was extremely happy at the time.

That happened a few months before I started my doctorate. That experience, along with many similar ones, gradually reinforced a positive cycle of exploration and reward for me. So overall, research is a job. Of course, if you can enjoy the process of doing research, that is very good too.

[Brief takeaway: A faculty position is an ordinary job.]

Question 06: Has the job differed from what you expected?

Mike: Of course, it has differed from my expectations in some ways. As teachers, our primary responsibility is not actually research; it is teaching. I want to emphasize that strongly. Teaching is our foremost task. Research is the process through which we investigate things, and sometimes we do research in order to teach better.

When I was looking for a faculty position, I thought the job would be about doing research and publishing papers. But once I actually began teaching, I discovered that there were many additional things to do: supervising students, preparing and delivering classes, serving the department and the university, applying for research funding, and even taking part in many science outreach activities. All of these things fill your schedule very quickly.

Question 07: Has this job expanded your skill set?

Mike: Overall, I have found that there is even more I need to learn after taking up the position.

My most immediate impression is that you need to allocate your time more sensibly and effectively. In this respect, I really admire my former supervisor, who is a very well-known professor in our field. Although he had many students and postdocs in his group, whenever we emailed him, he responded very quickly. That is very important. Now that I am a faculty member myself, I have realized that if you do not deal with many things right away, you may forget to deal with them at all. I think this is something every young faculty member should learn after starting the job: how to allocate time more sensibly and effectively.

[Brief takeaway: A faculty position involves more than keeping your head down and doing research; it calls for a range of skills.]

03 How Should You Prepare for the Faculty Job Search?

Question 08: How should you prepare to look for a faculty position outside mainland China?

Mike: In many places outside mainland China, there is a clearly defined hiring season. It generally begins in early September and continues until applications start being reviewed, around December.

A faculty application includes a cover letter, a research statement, and a teaching statement; some universities also require a diversity statement. There may not seem to be many documents, but polishing them properly takes a great deal of time. If you are applying to universities outside mainland China, the materials are generally entirely in English. Throughout the process, you need to keep refining your language and thinking carefully about your research direction and ideas. Taken together, all of this takes a lot of time.

I have also heard that many universities offer guidance on applying for faculty positions. These programs begin in the summer. So if you intend to look for a faculty position, you should start preparing all your materials by the summer at the latest. From that preparation to finally securing a position, the whole process may take six months or even longer.

Question 09: Do you have any interview tips?

Mike: There are generally two rounds of interviews. The first is a phone interview, and its length varies. The people on what is called the committee—a faculty committee—will ask you to introduce yourself and explain what you have done, and then answer their questions. If you pass that stage, you will be invited to the university for an on-site interview. During the on-site interview, you have two main tasks. The first is to give a presentation introducing your work and what you plan to do in the future. The second is to talk and exchange ideas with professors in the department. Through that process, the professors learn about you, and you learn about the department. The on-site interview may last one day or two. It is exhausting because you need to maintain a very high level of concentration throughout, which is not easy.

Question 10: How should you plan a faculty job search in mainland China? How does it differ from applying elsewhere?

Mike: Recruitment at universities in mainland China differs somewhat from applications elsewhere. One trend in recruiting candidates with overseas experience is to use forums as a recruitment channel. Many universities organize regular or occasional forums to help universities and job seekers get to know one another. There may also be interviews and private conversations during that process.

Apart from these forums, there are a number of national high-level talent programs in mainland China. Applications to these programs follow fairly structured procedures. When you apply, what materials you need, and the steps after applying are all relatively fixed. For the specifics, you can ask the institution or university to which you are applying. They will give you clear guidance; the details cannot be generalized across every case.

Question 11: What advice would you give PhDs who are looking for faculty positions?

Mike: First, prepare in advance, whatever the circumstances. Organize your existing research ahead of time, and clarify and plan what you want to do in the future. During the application process, you will need to keep tailoring your materials to each university. So during your initial preparation, you should get your more general application materials ready: what you want to do, what you have done before, the highlights of your work, and any relevant coverage it has received. All of these things require you to set aside time and prepare thoroughly in advance.

Second, you may encounter setbacks or rejection letters during research or the job search, and you may lose confidence. At those times, it is even more important to give yourself something to believe in and not become discouraged. When your confidence is strong, sometimes more positive outcomes will gradually follow. I wish everyone a smooth job search!

[Brief takeaway: The faculty job-search process is complicated, so be sure to plan ahead.]

Research means countless failures and occasional successes, and it is those successes that lead us toward further success. May we stay true to our original aspirations, keep moving forward through the challenges, and continue to contribute along the path of research.

Faculty guest: Mike

Editor: Honey Peach Oolong (蜜桃乌龙)

Interviewer: Calorie (卡路里)

Audio recording: Fantuan (饭团)