TY - JOUR
T1 - A survey-based analysis of the academic job market
AU - Fernandes, Jason D.
AU - Sarabipour, Sarvenaz
AU - Smith, Christopher T.
AU - Niemi, Natalie M.
AU - Jadavji, Nafisa M.
AU - Kozik, Ariangela J.
AU - Holehouse, Alex S.
AU - Pejaver, Vikas
AU - Symmons, Orsolya
AU - Bisson Filho, Alexandre W.
AU - Haage, Amanda
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Fernandes et al.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Many postdoctoral researchers apply for faculty positions knowing relatively little about the hiring process or what is needed to secure a job offer. To address this lack of knowledge about the hiring process we conducted a survey of applicants for faculty positions: the survey ran between May 2018 and May 2019, and received 317 responses. We analyzed the responses to explore the interplay between various scholarly metrics and hiring outcomes. We concluded that, above a certain threshold, the benchmarks traditionally used to measure research success – including funding, number of publications or journals published in – were unable to completely differentiate applicants with and without job offers. Respondents also reported that the hiring process was unnecessarily stressful, time-consuming, and lacking in feedback, irrespective of outcome. Our findings suggest that there is considerable scope to improve the transparency of the hiring process.
AB - Many postdoctoral researchers apply for faculty positions knowing relatively little about the hiring process or what is needed to secure a job offer. To address this lack of knowledge about the hiring process we conducted a survey of applicants for faculty positions: the survey ran between May 2018 and May 2019, and received 317 responses. We analyzed the responses to explore the interplay between various scholarly metrics and hiring outcomes. We concluded that, above a certain threshold, the benchmarks traditionally used to measure research success – including funding, number of publications or journals published in – were unable to completely differentiate applicants with and without job offers. Respondents also reported that the hiring process was unnecessarily stressful, time-consuming, and lacking in feedback, irrespective of outcome. Our findings suggest that there is considerable scope to improve the transparency of the hiring process.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087903260&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7554/eLife.54097
DO - 10.7554/eLife.54097
M3 - Article
C2 - 32530420
AN - SCOPUS:85087903260
SN - 2050-084X
VL - 9
SP - 1
EP - 30
JO - eLife
JF - eLife
M1 - e54097
ER -