Job Market Experience

Information Systems - 2021

Rongen “Sophia” Zhang

Apr. 2022

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My Timeline

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Strategic Planning�(from the start of PhD program)�

• Your job market timeline
• Think about who you are, who you want to be, where you want to go? 
• Personal values
• Family needs
• Professional pursuit

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Strategic Planning

• Equip yourself with what you need to go where you want to be
• Visualize your dream school/Schools you will definitely not go
• Big Factors
• Research/Teaching focus
• Location: City or small town
• Research focus, potential collaborators
• Culture
• Tenure requirements
• What do you need? 
• Look at target school’s recent hire’s profile/CV/Google scholar as a reference point
• Publication? What Tier journal? How many?
• Teaching? What kind of class
• Service?

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Strategic Planning

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• How wide to cast your net?
• 40+ applications (5~250)
• With a few prioritized focused schools, then cast your net based on your bandwidth
• Tradeoff of time and energy: customizing <-> increasing likelihood
• Get to know your colleagues, give your colleagues chance to know you and your research
• Build mental network of researchers in conferences/workshops
• Who does what, being where
• Leverage LinkedIn
• Locate potential recommenders, build connections/collaboration opportunities
• Take & Give

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Tactic Planning �(3-6 month ahead)�

• Identify your job market paper and focus on developing it
• If want to go to research school, having R&R would serve you well 
• Draft package
• Tailor based on sample package
• Revise like your journal submission
• Don’t be afraid of reaching out for feedback
• Request recommendation letter early
• Manage application process systematically

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Packages

• Cover Letter
• 1-2 pages. Only highlight your profiles, don’t elaborate all the details of all your projects.
• Focus on customization to the school/department. Find key words in their advertisements, match the applicable ones to mention in your letter.
• The devil is in the details.
• Research Statement

An established strategic management scholar’s academic identity document at different stages, which is helpful to use as a template for research statement

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1w99my_KN5SPLBv5SweLWE3OBYytt5z57

• Teaching Statement
• Besides the breath of topic you can teach, use concrete examples to illustrate the effectiveness of your teaching strategies
• Diversity Statement
• Leverage GSU’s achievement in diversity. Something like:

“Moreover, Georgia State University has been a pioneer and a national model in eliminating achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, or income. I have been influenced by the incredible success that GSU has made possible for students of varying ethnic and economic backgrounds. “

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Prepare for Interviews

• Research the faculty in the interview, but not too much at this stage, focus on your own research elevator pitch
• 1 minute version
• 3-minute version
• 5-minute version
• Imagine yourself being the search committee, what would you want to know?
• Identify why do you want to be there?
• Identify what you are going to contribute to them [research, teaching, service]
• Identify who do you want to work with (connection between your research with theirs)
• Practice pace and pause. Be fluent but natural. Don’t be the one dominating the conversation, which shows a lack of confidence. Give your interviewers opportunities to ask “This is interesting, tell me more…”
• Prepare good questions to ask

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Job Talk

• Seek feedback from your advisor and other faculty
• Practice at least a dozen of times
• Record yourself
• Rehearsal with your peers
• Rehearsal with your family & friends
• Rehearsal with your faculty
• Slides: Less is more. Reduce full sentences, ideally only leave phrases.
• Interaction: make natural eye contacts with audience; handle questions in a polite and professional way

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Other Resources

• My own application package
• https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qih2boz9tv2m3lx/AABjqUhcJzqYFcfZYNf85IoZa?dl=0
• Management PhD Job Market Resource (Interview questions, school status, etc)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_6SrJpgkK_gO2WJVTUo8E1nd3j-008Z_YrLkXe9xLp4/edit#gid=0

• Reverse-Engineering a Successful Tenure or Promotion Review
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMGkr7sAcqg

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It is not even the beginning of the end. �But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.��-- Winston Churchill

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