Getting scientific on the academic job market

Advice on how to succeed on the academic job market is not hard to come by. Just about everyone seems to have an opinion. Senior faculty and placement directors have opinions. People on search committees have opinions. People on philosophy blogs have opinions. Etc. Yet, as is typically the case, these opinions often diverge sharply. One person says it is an absolute necessity to publish in top-20 journals, another person denies it. One person says publishing in lower-tier journals hurts you, another person denies it. And of course many people just say it's all one big crap-shoot--like buying a lottery ticket. Get lucky, you get a job. Unlucky, you don't.

I'd like to try to do better than this. I would like to collect and analyze data from candidates on the market each year so that we can actually get a clearer, fact-based picture of which sorts of things benefit/harm people on the market. In the past, I have collected some data on new hires, and the data suggested some surprising things: namely, that (A) lower-tier publications do not appear to harm candidates, but indeed, help them, and (B) top-tier publications appear entirely unnecessary for landing a teaching job.

This year, however, and in future years, I would like to collect data from people currently on the market. In particular, I would like to ask people to report all of the following data in the comments section to this post:

• PhD program Leiter rank:
• Graduation status: (ABD, graduated 1 year ago, 2 years ago, 3 years ago, etc.)
• Current position: (Graduate student, Adjunct, Post-Doc, VAP, etc.)
• Total # of jobs applied for:
• Total # of interviews:
• Total # of TT interviews:
• Total # of non-TT interviews:
• Total # of job offers:
• Total # of publications:
• Total # of top-5 publications: (general rankings here, moral philosophy rankings here, etc.)
• Total # of top-10 publications:
• Total # of top-20 publications:
• Total # of non-top-20 publications:
• # of years experience solo-teaching:
• Student evaluation average: 

Anything I left out? Anyway, please spread the word so that we can get a good data-set. I'll then crunch the numbers and see if there are any trends!

Comments

[Lost]

You left out total # of jobs applied for.

PhD program Leiter rank: 20-30
Graduation status: graduated last Fall
Current position: post-doc
Total # of jobs applied for: 5
Total # of interviews: 1
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: n/a
Total # of publications: 1 forthcoming
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 1
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1.5
Student evaluation average: 4.8/5

[anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: top 5
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: ABD/student
Total # of jobs applied for: 45
Total # of interviews: 1
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of publications: 0
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

thanks for collecting this data, Marcus. You might also wish to collect (at some point..) # job offers, since that's ultimately what we all care about.

[Marcus Arvan]

anon: Thanks for noting that. I've now put job offers as a category--and if you and "Lost" would like to submit comments with that data, please do.

Let me just say that the reason I didn't initially list it as a category is that I'm not sure how useful it is. Some candidates may report few job offers simply because they received one attractive offer early on and took themselves off the market before they could receive more offers. This is a really serious confound that could lead the data on that dimension to be really misleading.

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: 20 - 30
Graduation status: Graduated 1 year ago
Current position: unemployed
Total # of jobs applied for: 55
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of publications: 0
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

[grad]

PhD program Leiter rank: 30-40
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: grad
Total # of jobs applied for: 70?
Total # of interviews: 1
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0 (so far)
Total # of publications: 1
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1.5
Student evaluation average: 4.85 (as solo)

[Anon]

Program rank: unranked
Graduation status: defended in November
Total # of jobs applied for: 20
Total # of interviews: 3
Total # of TT interviews: 3
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 1
Total # of top 5-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 1
# of years solo teaching experience: 7

[dslak]

PhD program Leiter rank: unranked
Graduation status: 2 years ago
Current position: Adjunct
Total # of jobs applied for: 16
Total # of interviews: 2
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 1
Total # of job offers: 0 (but awaiting replies)
Total # of publications: 3
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 3
# of years experience solo-teaching: 4
Student evaluation average: 3.49/4

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: 10-20
Graduation status: graduated 1 year ago
Current position: Post-Doc
Total # of jobs applied for: 65
Total # of interviews: 4
Total # of TT interviews: 2
Total # of non-TT interviews: 2
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 4
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 3
# of years experience solo-teaching: 3
Student evaluation average: 4.8/5.0

[Anon]

Some other factors that may be helpful to keep track of:

Average conference presentations in the past two years
AOS
Job offer(s) for TT jobs vs. Job offer(s) for non-TT jobs
# of letters of recommendations
Any recommendations from outside one's own department?

[Anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: unranked
Graduation status: graduated 1 year ago
Current position: Non-academic job
Total # of jobs applied for: 37
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 8
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 8
# of years experience solo-teaching: 7
Student evaluation average: 4.7/5

[incrediblylucky]

PhD program Leiter rank: top 10
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: grad student
Total # of jobs applied for: 70ish
Total # of interviews: 5
Total # of TT interviews: 5
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 2
Total # of publications: 0
Total # of years experience solo-teaching: 1
Student evaluation average: 4.75 / 5

[Anonymous]

The questions asked here raise my blood pressure since they already suggest that the authors of this survey think these are the most important factors (like Leiter school rank) in making hiring decisions and I find the assumption that I would even know or care what my rank is there highly annoying.

What mattered in my case for landing a tenure-track job at a good school: 1) experience in a field outside of philosophy, 2) good and attentive dissertation advisor, 3) Dept. willing to think outside of the box in hiring an interdisciplinary scholar, 4) Excellent writing skills, 5) Ability to offer something to the department that it lacked.

[Anonymous]

I might add that I feel the same way about the student-evaluation question. Luckily evidence of teaching skill goes far beyond what students are evaluating and good schools will know this.

[Marcus Arvan]

Anonymous: thanks for your comment. A few thoughts:

(1) You may feel like you know what worked for you, but the problem is--if you read any blogs--is that everyone seems to feel that way. Opinions on job market success are a dime a dozen. Ask 100 philosophers and you'll get something like 100 answers. The nice thing about empirical research is that it's testable. This data will show whether or not the items reported here do matter.

(2) To piggyback on that last point, no, this survey does not assume that these are the only things that matter. It is a survey to *test* whether they matter, and if so, how much. Statistics don't lie. The data will either show that Leiter ranking matters, or that it doesn't; that publications matter, or they don't; and that teaching evals matter, or they don't. That way it's not a matter of opinion or anecdotes--neither yours not mine. It will be a matter of statistical fact. And I think such facts are more helpful than anecdotal opinions.

(3) While the things you list (having a supportive advisor, being a good writer, etc.) may be important, they are not measurable in a survey. All this survey as to do is discover which *measurables* matter in the job market. Immeasurables are something else: they can't be measured.

[Anonymous]

"The questions asked here raise my blood pressure since they already suggest that the authors of this survey think these are the most important factors (like Leiter school rank) in making hiring decisions and I find the assumption that I would even know or care what my rank is there highly annoying."

I take it that these are the criteria that Marcus thinks search committees are paying attention to. If so, I would suggest adding one more factor (and I know it's controversial, but it may reveal further facts): gender.

[Expat Grad]

Marcus, I'm a bit worried about journal rankings (and not just in this context) ---I do think that overall journal rankings are likely to matter to search committees, but whether top speciality journals do will depend on the specialities of the committee members. For example, in my case, apart from top five-ish generalist journals, Philosophia Mathematica is far and away the best place to publish, yet it rarely even makes onto surveys, much less top-20 lists. Point being, linking to a list of top ethics journals may be misleading.

That said, It's awesome that you're taking this on!

[anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: 17
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: Graduate student
Total # of jobs applied for: 40
Total # of interviews: 3
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 2
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 2
Total # of top-5 publications: unclear
Total # of top-10 publications: unclear
Total # of top-20 publications: unclear
Total # of non-top-20 publications: unclear (rankings not specialized enough!)
# of years experience solo-teaching: 7 years (teaching "solo" since MA in philosophy, what does "solo" mean here?)
Student evaluation average: 4.5

Note - a Google spreadsheet linked to a form or a Survey monkey page might be a better way for you to gather this data than a blog comment thread.

[anon grad]

PhD program Leiter rank: top 10
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: grad student
Total # of jobs applied for: ~40
Total # of interviews: 5
Total # of TT interviews: 3
Total # of non-TT interviews: 2
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 0
Total # of years experience solo-teaching: 2 summers
Student evaluation average: ?

[anon]

Again, compiling this information is a great idea! I hope you get a lot of responses.

PhD program Leiter rank: 10-20
Graduation status: PhD
Current position: VAP
Total # of jobs applied for: ~20
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of top-5 publications: 1
# of years experience solo-teaching: 4
Student evaluation average: ~4.25/5

[Zombie]

Marcus, you might want to add a category for current job rank (and number of years), to get a sense of who is trying to move up or move over.

[gradanon]

Add gender and race? Those are huge factors not captured by the other numbers.

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: top 10
Graduation status: graduated 3 yrs ago
Current position: Post-doc
Total # of jobs applied for: 23
Total # of interviews: 4
Total # of TT interviews: 4
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 3
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 2
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 2
Student evaluation average: 4.5

[A male philosopher]

PhD program Leiter rank: 17-20

Graduation status: Ph.D. 2 years ago

Current position: Post-Doc

Total # of jobs applied for: 50

Total # of interviews: 4

Total # of TT interviews: 4

Total # of non-TT interviews: 0

Total # of job offers: 0

Total # of publications: 8

Total # of top-5 publications: 0

Total # of top-10 publications: 2

Total # of top-11-to-20 publications: 4

Total # of non-top-20 publications: 2 (not all publications are in journals, you know...)

# of years experience solo-teaching: 3

Student evaluation average: ...?!

[Anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: 40-50
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: Graduate student/Adjunct
Total # of jobs applied for: 70
Total # of interviews: 1
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 2
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 1
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 1
# of years experience solo-teaching: 4
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

[White male philosopher]

PhD program Leiter rank: 40-50
Graduation status: PhD 2 years ago
Current position: Postdoc
Total # of jobs applied for: 85
Total # of interviews: 12
Total # of TT interviews: 5
Total # of non-TT interviews: 7
Total # of job offers: 3 (2 TT)
Total # of publications: 6
Total # of top-5 publications: 0 (1 interdisciplinary)
Total # of top-10 publications: 0 (2 interdisciplinary)
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 2
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1.5
Student evaluation average: ?

[Another white male philosopher]

PhD program Leiter rank: 10-20
Graduation status: PhD 7 years ago
Current position: VAP
Total # of jobs applied for: 135
Total # of interviews: 14
Total # of TT interviews: 14
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 14
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 14
# of years experience solo-teaching: 10+
Student evaluation average: 4.7

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank:Unranked
Graduation status: .5 years ago
Current position: full-time lecturer (non TT)
Total # of jobs applied for: 60
Total # of interviews:0
Total # of TT interviews:0
Total # of non-TT interviews:0
Total # of job offers:0
Total # of publications:3
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications:1
Total # of top-20 publications:0
Total # of non-top-20 publications:2
# of years experience solo-teaching:5
Student evaluation average:3.6/4

[Anon White Male Phil]

PhD program Leiter rank: 20-30
Graduation status: PhD Summer 2014
Current position: Postdoc
Total # of jobs applied for: ~70
Total # of interviews: 4
Total # of TT interviews: 4
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 4 (1 published, 3 forthcoming)
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 2 in non-top-20 journals + 2 other
# of years experience solo-teaching: 3
Student evaluation average: 4.4/5

A few thoughts:

1. As we (should) all know, quantitative student evaluation information is problematic. For instance, there are a variety of different scales used at different institutions, which influences student response. A 4.5 average on a 5 pt scale doesn't mean the same thing as a 9 average on a 10 point scale (though the latter scales to the former).

2. Is the general top-20 vs not-top-20 really a particularly useful distinction? In many cases, it seems to me that top specialist journal pubs would be preferable to those in journals ranked in the 10-20 range. This is especially problematic, since the top-ethics-journal rankings are linked. So someone with a pub in, say Social Theory and Practice can say that she has a top-20 pub, whereas others with pubs in, say, Philosophia Mathematica, JHP, Philosophy of Science, etc., cannot make the same claim. Yet within the relevant subdiscipline these journals may be strongly preferred to many in the 'general' top-20 and of similar quality and prestige to those in the ethics top-20.

[anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: 30-40
Graduation status:
Current position: Grad Student
Total # of jobs applied for: 30
Total # of interviews: 1
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications:
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 3
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 1
# of years experience solo-teaching: 3
Student evaluation average: 4.8/5

[Whitey McMalerson]

PhD program Leiter rank: 20-30
Graduation status: defended Fall 2014
Current position: Graduate Student
Total # of jobs applied for: 70+
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 1
Total # of top-5 publications: (general rankings here, moral philosophy rankings here, etc.)
Total # of top-10 publications:
Total # of top-20 publications:
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 1
# of years experience solo-teaching: 3 years
Student evaluation average: 4.6/5

[Anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: unranked
Graduation status: Graduated 1 year ago
Current position: Lecturer
Total # of jobs applied for: ~30
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 4 (2 of these are forthcoming)
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 3 (two in top 3 specialty journals)
# of years experience solo-teaching: 4
Student evaluation average: 4.3/5

[Anon]

Why not make a survey through Google Docs? It's easier to use in analysis; it will automatically generate a spreadsheet with the results, instead of having to transcribe them. It also might encourage both wider sharing and more responses.

[post-doc]

PhD program Leiter rank: 10-15
Graduation status: Graduated 1 year ago
Current position: post-doc
Total # of jobs applied for: about 35
Total # of interviews: 7
Total # of TT interviews: 6
Total # of non-TT interviews: 1
Total # of job offers: 2
Total # of publications: 3
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 3
# of years experience solo-teaching: 5
Student evaluation average: 4.7/5

[Another Grad student]

PhD program Leiter rank: non-ranked
Graduation status: ABD (defense set for May)
Current position: Grad Student
Total # of jobs applied for: 80
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of publications: 6 (2 are book reviews)
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 1
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 5
# of years experience solo-teaching:8 semester long courses.
Student evaluation average: 4/5

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: Unranked
Graduation status: defended July 2014
Current position: lecturer
Total # of jobs applied for: 60
Total # of interviews: 0
Total # of TT interviews: 0
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of publications: 3
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 1
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 2
# of years experience solo-teaching:5
Student evaluation average: 3.6/4

[anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: 20-30
Graduation status: graduated 1 year ago
Current position: VAP
Total # of jobs applied for: 30
Total # of interviews: 2
Total # of TT interviews: 1
Total # of non-TT interviews: 1
Total # of job offers: 1 (non-TT)
Total # of publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 2
Student evaluation average: 5.5/6

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: Top 5
Graduation status: Graduated last summer
Current position: Post-doc
Total # of jobs applied for: 45
Total # of interviews: 4.5
Total # of TT interviews: 2
Total # of non-TT interviews: 2.5
Total # of job offers: 1 (may go up to 2)
Total # of publications: 7
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 7 (all in specialty journals)
# of years experience solo-teaching: 1
Student evaluation average: N/A

P.S. - is "Chris Rogers" above for real? Not only absurdly good year w/0 pubs, but name links to application assistance firm. I suspect it's an ad...

[Marcus Arvan]

Anon: Thanks for catching that, re: "Chris Rogers". I suspect it's an ad as well, so I will do some checking and delete the entry if that's the case!

[Update: The data by "Chris Rogers" has been deleted, as I have been unable to dispel doubts about its accuracy].

[Helen]

PhD program Leiter rank: unranked
Graduation status: defended 2011
Current position: Assistant professor
Total # of jobs applied for: ? 60 maybe
Total # of interviews: 12
Total # of TT interviews: 10
Total # of non-TT interviews: 2
Total # of job offers: 2
Total # of publications: 55
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 2
Total # of top-20 publications: 2
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 53: most papers in speciality philosophy journals, remainder in edited volumes & conference proceedings
# of years experience solo-teaching: 7
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

[Anon]

PhD program Leiter rank: 1-10
Graduation status: August 2014
Current position: Postdoc (teaching)
Total # of jobs applied for: 20
Total # of interviews: 4
Total # of TT interviews: 4
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 8
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 3 (in top 10 journals from two different AOSs; none in top 10 generalist journals)
Total # of top-20 publications: 4
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 4 (1 co-edited volume under contract; 1 research article in a volume edited by someone else; 2 encyclopedia articles)
# of years experience solo-teaching: 0.5
Student evaluation average: 4.25/5

[Anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: unranked
Graduation status: graduated 2010
Current position: VAP
Total # of jobs applied for:10
Total # of interviews: 2
Total # of TT interviews: 2
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 4
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 4 (specialist journals) + book contract
# of years experience solo-teaching: 5 yrs full time or 9 yrs including part-time teaching during grad school
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

[Anonymous]

PhD program Leiter rank: 20 - 30
Graduation status: graduated 2013
Current position: VAP
Total # of jobs applied for: 86
Total # of interviews: 7
Total # of TT interviews: 7
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 1
Total # of publications: 5
Total # of top-5 publications: 0
Total # of top-10 publications: 1
Total # of top-20 publications: 1
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 4
# of years experience solo-teaching: 2 years full time, 4 years part time during grad school
Student evaluation average: 4.4/5

[worried ABD]

PhD program Leiter rank: 50+
Graduation status: ABD
Current position: grad student
Total # of jobs applied for: 70 (will keep applying)
Total # of interviews: 6
Total # of TT interviews: 3
Total # of non-TT interviews: 3
Total # of job offers: 0 (yet)
Total # of publications: 2
Total # of top-5 publications: 2 (specialist journals)
Total # of top-10 publications: 0
Total # of top-20 publications: 0
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 0
# of years experience solo-teaching: 6 years as a grad student (2 solo courses per year)
Student evaluation average: 4.8

[Trying To Move]

PhD program Leiter rank: Unranked
Graduation status: PhD 6yrs
Current position: Assistant prof (TT)
Total # of jobs applied for: 19
Total # of interviews: 3
Total # of TT interviews: 3
Total # of non-TT interviews: 0
Total # of job offers: 0
Total # of publications: 25 (+some newspaper stuff, reviews) + book contract
Total # of top-5 publications: 2 (specialist)
Total # of top-10 publications: ?
Total # of top-20 publications: ?
Total # of non-top-20 publications: 2?
# of years experience solo-teaching: 11
Student evaluation average: 4.5/5

[Trying To Move]

Sorry about that "2?" typo on non-top-20 pubs. Should just be "?"

[a concern]

The value of the statistics people are supplying is breaking down a bit. For the number of publications in each tier to be useful and comparable across entries, it seems we need a clear list of which journals belong in which categories. People are claiming to publish in top 5 journals, but then qualify it as "in specialist journals." This will mean very different things to different people. I know the top journals in Philosophy of Science. But people outside philosophy of science may not hold these journals in the same regard experts in the field do. And hiring committees are motley lots.

[Talia]

I think that you know that you left out gender, and I think you did it on purpose. It's dishonest to pretend it's not a factor, so I won't be participating.