If you are considering applying for faculty positions, check out the detailed guide from our conversation with Chris Doe, Santiago Jaramillo, Judith Eisen, David McCormick, and Jennifer Hoy.

Job Listing Sites

General science:

AAAS offers career advice and job listings. Some content may require membership, but much is accessible for free.

Cell has an extensive Life Science jobs site.

Nature also has an extensive job listing site.

Chronicles of Higher Learning has a very broad job listing sites across several different fields.

Ecology and Evolution:

The “Evolution Directory” (evoldir) has the latest in news, courses, workshops and announcements for the field of evolution, including a job site.  You can also subscribe to their mailing list.

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has a job board on their website. You can also subscribe to the ESA “ecolog” listserve.

Preparing your Application

Now that you’ve found a job you’re interested in, how do you go about getting that position? We’ve found some sites that will help.

Academic Faculty Positions

Books:

The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Academic Biology  by C. Ray Chandler, Lorne M. Wolfe, and Daniel E.L. Promislow offers insight into all the steps before, during, and after job searches.

Articles:

Joseph Provost offers insight into how to prepare for a teaching-focused academic position. In a tight job market, it’s important to keep all doors and options open. Primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) hire PhD’s with research experience to teach courses and mentor future scientists. Food for thought.

The cover letter:

Purdue OWL offers advice on writing the cover letter and examples of cover letters. Check out the bar on the left for specific topics about how to write letters for other steps in the application process, what research to do before writing the cover letter, and formatting the letter.

University of San Francisco offers samples of the entire application package, including cover letters, CVs, and budgets.

Looking for a behind-the-scenes look at cover letters? The Professor Is In has a great insiders look into what makes a bad cover letter. While the Professor specializes in anthropology, the letter writing tips offered can be applicable to any field.

Research Statement:

The research statement is a description of the work that you intent to do. While you need to convey a lot of information (what you’ve done during your postdoc career, future research plans, possible collaborations and funding), it should be short (2-3 pages), easy to read, and accessible to people outside of your field. Here are some sites that may be helpful when you sit down to write your research statement:

Cornell University has a list of good things to keep in mind.

University of Pennsylvania has samples of research statement from humanities, science, engineering and math.

The Professor Is In again has good tips for writing a research statement. Interesting note about PII…she’s a U of O alumni!

Non-Academic Positions

Not everyone wants an academic position (shocking, I know!). Here are some sites that will help you transition into an industry, government, or other career:

The Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology offers brochures on where to look for jobs, and information about what jobs are out there.