GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACADEMIC MARKET FOR FINANCE Ph.D. STUDENTS

In general, a finance department would like to hire a candidate that will do an excellent job in teaching, research, and service, without the need to be pushed in order to do their job..

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACADEMIC

MARKET FOR FINANCE Ph.D STUDENTS

Here is some information about the academic market This information comes from various faculty members The comments here are generalizations, and will not necessarily apply to every situation

research (such as designing new derivatives products), and FAU’s Ph.D program is not focused on thistype of training

FAU’s finance Ph.D program is full-time and should be considered only by people who would be able

to commit four years full-time to the program FAU does not have a shortcut finance program for people who are seeking a quick Ph.D There are many programs that advertise online “get your Ph.D within 1 year or less” or “credit for lifetime experience” etc that may be more appropriate for people who want to obtain a Ph.D quickly and without adjusting their work schedule or life style However, anyone pursuing degrees from those programs is advised to obtain information about whether that degree will enable them to achieve their career goals In general, it is more difficult for people with a Ph.D from shortcut programs to obtain a faculty position at an accredited university

Some people consider pursuing a Ph.D even though they have no plans to pursue a career once they attain the degree For example, they may have already been successful in the business world, and want

a Ph.D just because they have an interest in finance However, the Ph.D program trains students to do academic research People who have a natural curiosity about finance but do not plan to use the degree for university teaching may be better off learning finance on their own Academic research is quite different from practical finance literature, because it is more technical and involves lengthy processes for conducting research People who think they want to pursue a Ph.D just for fun should read some articles in academic finance journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, and

Journal of Financial Research and should ask themselves whether they would have a consistent interest

in learning and doing this type of research over a four-year period in which they would be in a Ph.D program

GENERAL JOB MARKET CONDITIONS

The academic job market in finance represents the interaction between the finance departments at universities that have open positions, and the finance Ph.D candidates that are working on their dissertation and are seeking a position The demand and supply conditions have been more favorable for finance Ph.D candidates than for Ph.D students in most other areas of concentration throughout the university In many years, the number of jobs available for finance faculty members exceeds the number of Ph.D students who are in the job market Academic job market conditions are influenced

by the economy, because state universities rely on state funding when they hire faculty, and states typically have more funds to spend when the economy is strong

When a finance department has an opening for a faculty position, it may receive more than 100

resumes If there are 100 job openings and 100 candidates, all the candidates may ultimately find a position, but not necessarily in their most desired state or the region of the U.S Even though you may have some preferences about a region of the U.S where you might be hired as a faculty member, keep

an open mind so that you reduce your chances of being disappointed

SALARIES

The salaries offered for faculty positions in finance are high They are generally higher than salaries offered for faculty positions in most other areas of concentration in a university The mean salary level for new faculty positions in finance can increase or decrease from one year to the next, depending on changes in the open positions and the supply of candidates in the job market

It is natural to be curious about salary levels in the job market However, be careful when interpreting the information that you receive There is substantial variation among salaries offered by finance departments, and news about the unusually high salary offers tend to receive more attention than the other salary offers, which creates a general upward bias in the perception of salaries For example, a person who takes a faculty position at Stanford or MIT in finance may earn an unusually high salary, but that salary is not representative of the market At the other extreme, a person who takes a faculty position at a very small college that is completely focused on teaching may earn a lower salary than thenorm in the job market Most students who complete their Ph.D in finance at FAU are hired for faculty positions at regional universities (numerous examples are listed on the course web site), which offer salaries in between these two extreme examples described above

Do not overestimate the general market salary, so that you will not be disappointed In fact, if you maintain conservative expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised at the salary offer you receive once you are in the job market You may hear some general information about existing salary offers from other finance Ph.D students at FAU who are presently in the job market Keep in mind that the salaries offered to FAU finance Ph.D candidates have varied substantially in a given year, as some FAU finance Ph.D candidates have been more marketable than others Hopefully, the information provided here will help you to be more marketable You have control over some of the factors that affect your marketability

FINANCE DEPARTMENT HIRING PROCESS

The hiring process by a finance department is often more involved than the process used in industry, asexplained here If you understand how a finance department screens its applicants, you may be able to build a resume that will make you more marketable when you enter the job market

First, it is important to realize that most graduates of Ph.D programs take jobs at other universities This normally means that they will need to relocate Some graduates attempt to attain faculty positions

at universities in the south Florida area This happens occasionally However, these universities do not have job openings every year In addition, they prefer to hire faculty members with diverse

backgrounds in terms of their training, so they may avoid loading up on FAU faculty

POSTING A JOB POSITION OPENING

A department may pursue a candidate who is just completing the Ph.D for an assistant professor position, or an experienced candidate who is at the associate professor or professor level Some

departments may consider candidates who are at any one of those three levels

Job Description

The department specifies the general duties required such as the particular courses that the person hiredwould teach The job description may also specify that research is required A research-oriented university may specify that the job requires substantial research and publication of research

Conversely, a university that has very little research requirements may specify a high teaching load within the job description Some universities fall in between these two extremes, and may specify a balanced blend of teaching, research, and service The job description is a means by which the

department can indicate it is pursuing a candidate to serve as a major researcher, or to primarily teach courses

SCREENING PROCESS

When a university receives resumes for its open position, it will attempt to screen the applicant pool down to about 10 or 20 applicants It screens the resumes based on the job description of the open position Some of the more common criteria are identified here for finance departments In general, a finance department would like to hire a candidate that will do an excellent job in teaching, research, and service, without the need to be pushed in order to do their job

Teaching Background or Preferences

The teaching ability of candidates may be measured by their educational background and teaching experience Thus, a finance department may assess a resume to determine whether the candidate has had special course work or performed research on the main topics covered by the course Some

candidates may also have real-world experience that can be useful in the classroom, especially when there is a need to apply theory to practice

Candidates with teaching experience are desirable because they already have invested the time to create course preparations In addition, they have teaching evaluations by their students, and grades that they assigned to their students This information indicates their performance (from the perspective

of students) along with their grading standards and level of rigor

Another important characteristic is a candidate’s willingness to teach a variety of courses Some finance departments may need a faculty member who can teach two or three different courses in a given semester

Research Potential

A candidate’s pedigree serves as an indicator of their research potential In the field of finance,

graduates of high-powered research universities are perceived to have more research potential than graduates of other universities, and rightfully so They likely had more exposure to research than most other candidates, and may be the best qualified for faculty positions that have a very heavy weight toward research However, in most years, less than 10 percent of the open finance faculty positions available are at universities that require a very heavy weight toward research If a person wants to pursue a high powered research job in finance at a university such as Stanford or University of

Chicago, they would need to (1) have the credentials to get in a graduate program at a top tier research university, (2) get through that PhD program

Most finance departments (even those that emphasize teaching) seek candidates who are capable of doing some research Important indicators of research potential include any papers that you had

published or accepted for publication in journals, or working papers In addition, your participation at

conferences on research papers (such as presentation of papers, discussion of papers) may serve as an indicator One of the most important indicators is the candidate’s discipline Some candidates tend to achieve their work goals in a timely manner, while others are more talk than action Finance

departments attempt to pursue candidates who have the discipline to complete their research ideas and

do not have to be pushed to perform their research obligations When PhD students submit working papers to journals while they are in their PhD program, this may signal that they are organized and disciplined and will be able to meet research obligations when they take a faculty position (as they willhave more time to focus on research then) Candidates who are less organized and disciplined may be less likely to complete their research obligations, regardless of their intelligence

Collegiality

Departments hope to hire someone who demonstrates collegiality The term collegiality is defined here

as a willingness to work with others within a department, or throughout the university Here are some examples of collegiality:

*working on research with others,

*being willing to offer research advice to colleagues even when you are not a co-author,

*sharing your teaching ideas with other colleagues who have an interest, and

*volunteering for committee assignments, even when you are not assigned to do them

In general, collegiality means that you are a team player, and serve the department or university, even when your efforts are not directly beneficial to yourself Some faculty members do their assigned tasks and volunteer to cover some other services (such as advising) when needed

While some people are very collegial and make great team players, there are other people who can cause friction within a department First, they do not cover their share of responsibilities within the department Second, they take credit for work performed by others Third, they attempt to turn one or more colleagues against others Fourth, they complain constantly that they have been given less resources and compensation than everyone else Fifth, rather than attempt to boost their own

productivity, they criticize the productivity of others That is, they attempt to reach the top by pulling everyone else below them A single non-collegial person can destroy the morale of a department Thus,departments attempt to avoid hiring candidates who lack collegiality During the time you are in a PhDprogram, you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your collegiality In general, your treatment

of fellow PhD students during your PhD program may serve as an indicator of how you would treat fellow faculty members once you are a faculty member

Initiative

Finance departments also seek candidates who have initiative For example, they may want to hire a person who takes the initiative to do some tasks (such as advising students) that may be part of the job even if these tasks are not officially listed in their job description In addition, they may want to hire a person who takes the initiative to do their job (and do it well) without being monitored This is a very important factor, perhaps more important than many Ph.D students realize From the department’s perspective, it pays faculty members a decent salary, and expects that its faculty members will performtheir duties without being constantly monitored By the time Ph.D students are in the job market, they would have had many chances to demonstrate their initiative (or lack of it), including their willingness

or ability to:

*attend all classes (and on time),

*complete assignments on time,

*initiate their research ideas,

*learn unusual computer or other skills on their own,

*cover all of their responsibilities without having to be prompted

Dissertation Topic and Status

A finance department commonly screens resumes in the fall and spring semesters for a position that will begin in the following fall semester Thus, many candidates who expect to complete their Ph.D bythe following fall semester have not yet completed their dissertation when they submit their resumes The status of the dissertation is critical The status should indicate whether the candidate has officially completed the dissertation, and if not, how much work still needs to be done Your dissertation

progress will likely influence the number of interviews you have at finance conferences or on

EXAMPLE OF THE SCREENING PROCESS

Consider the following example in which a Finance Department of a university wants to hire a faculty member starting in the fall semester It will start the screening process about one year before the time

at which the faculty member will be employed

Position Approval

Tom Barkley, the chair of the Finance Department, notices in July that the recent enrollment for finance courses has increased, and that most of the classes were completely full last semester He writes a memo to the university administration about why he needs funding to hire an additional faculty member While he wishes he could hire someone immediately, he realizes that the screening process will likely take about a year So he requests a new faculty member position for the following September (14 months from now) when that fall semester begins

Tom specifies the job description (types of courses that the new faculty member would teach) and the salary that he would need to pay to attract a qualified candidate He also explains why he needs to hire

a new faculty member A common argument is the need to offer additional courses to satisfy the increasing enrollment, or to replace a faculty member who retired or left the department for other reasons

University administrators receive more requests from department chairs to hire faculty members than they can accommodate, because the university has a limited budget In some cases, a position will be tentatively approved, and then eliminated several months later because the budget was worse than expected

First Screen of Applications

During the next month, Tom receives 100 applications for the position by Ph.D students who are presently at the A.B.D (all but dissertation) stage and are hoping to complete their dissertation in about one year He plans to interview about 14 candidates at the upcoming Financial Management conference He will first screen the stack of 100 applications down to 14 candidates, and will then call the candidates to schedule a one-hour interview period for each of the 14 candidates at the meeting Herecognizes that each of these candidates is attempting to get interviews at other universities as well, so

he wants to complete his initial screening of the 100 applications quickly He asks four of his faculty members to review the resumes of the candidates, and provide a list of the candidates that he should interview Tom invites this input because a new faculty member will likely be working on research and

on service committee assignments with the existing faculty members in the department It is important

to hire a candidate who will work well with existing faculty members

Tom receives the list of the top candidates from each faculty member Tom identifies 8 candidates that are named on each list, but it is more difficult to determine which of the other candidates should be interviewed Tom organizes a meeting with the faculty members to come to a consensus on an

additional 6 candidates to be interviewed He then contacts the 14 candidates and schedules a one-hour interview with each candidate

Interviews at Conference

In October, Tom goes to the Financial Management conference He prepares a summary of his

department’s goals and the backgrounds of his faculty members, which he provides to each candidate

He also prepares the following list of questions that he asks each candidate:

*Would you be comfortable teaching the specific courses that need to be taught?

*What is the status of your dissertation?

*When do you expect to have your dissertation completed?

*What type of research do you intend to do?

*What is your teaching philosophy?

After each interview, Tom fills out a report about each candidate Some candidates received favorable comments such as:

*enjoys teaching the types of courses that need to be taught,

*is very interested in a job at our university, and

*should finish with the dissertation within 5 months

Some other candidates received unfavorable comments, such as:

*seems disinterested in teaching,

*does not have social skills,

*views our university as a last resort if he does not get a job elsewhere,

*has not even started on the dissertation, and

*lacks the intellectual curiosity to do research

After Tom returns from the meeting, he provides his comments about each candidate to his faculty members The unfavorable comments allowed Tom and his faculty members to eliminate some of the candidates from the list Based on his interviews and the input of faculty members, the list of 14 candidates is reduced to 8 candidates

candidates that should be invited for a campus visit They also identify 2 other candidates that should

be considered if none of the first 3 candidates work out

Based on this screening process, 9 of the 14 candidates that were interviewed are eliminated from further consideration Tom writes a letter to the 9 candidates who have been eliminated and tells them that they are no longer being considered He then contacts the top three candidates and arranges a separate 2-day period for each of the 3 finalist candidates to visit his department and campus Finally,

he contacts the 2 candidates who should also be considered if none of the first three candidates work out, and informs them that they are still being considered, and that he will be back in touch with them

in a few months

Conducting Interviews on Campus

During the month of November, each of the 3 finalist candidates is invited to campus for a 2-day interview For each campus visit, Tom sets up a schedule so that the candidate can meet separately for one hour with each faculty member in the department, along with a few university administrators In addition, a one-hour period is scheduled for the candidate to present his or her dissertation topic This enables the department to assess the communication and research skills of the candidate In addition, the department can judge the candidate’s progress on the dissertation, and the likelihood that the dissertation will be completed by next fall After the presentation, Tom also takes the candidate to dinner, and invites a few faculty members to come along The dinner allows for a more relaxed

atmosphere in which the faculty can further assess the candidate, and the candidate can assess the department The campus visit allows the department to learn more about the candidate and the

candidate to learn more about the department to determine if there is a “fit.”

Making an Offer

By the end of November, all three finalist candidates had their campus visit, and Tom asks the faculty for their opinions about each candidate Tom and the faculty members rank the candidates They conclude from their collective opinions that two of the three candidates would be acceptable The thirdcandidate would not be given further consideration, because his presentation showed some deficiencies

in his research skills and his communication skills In January, Tom extends an offer to Karen Wilson, their “top choice” candidate who was rated the highest by the department Karen responds that she will

be going on campus visits to two other universities in February, and asks Tom if he can defer his decision until the end of February Tom is concerned about waiting so long, but agrees to the request because he believes that Karen will likely accept the offer

At the end of February, Karen informs Tom that she has accepted another university Tom then calls Mike Martin, the “second choice” candidate who he and his department rated highly, and extends an offer to him Mike responds that he recently accepted a job offer from another university, and that he probably would have accepted Tom’s offer had he called her a month ago In this case, Tom’s gamble

of waiting on the top candidate did not pay off, and suddenly Tom and his department are scrambling

to hire someone for the position before every qualified candidate takes a job elsewhere

Recall that Tom and his department identified two candidates that deserved consideration if none of their top 3 candidates worked out Tom calls each of these two candidates to invite them for a campus visit in March Both of the candidates have their campus visit At the end of March, Tom extends a job offer to one of these candidates, who accepts Tom’s offer in mid-April

Summary of Process

The process described here is typical for many universities Given the different schedules of Ph.D students and departments, and the time needed to schedule long distance trips, the campus interviews stretch over several months Even if a university is very organized, it may have to wait until a specific candidate has completed his or her campus visits Of course, it can impose a short deadline for an answer to its job offer, but may then lose out on the ideal candidate Because it takes so long for the job market to clear, it is understandable why the screening process may begin 12 to 14 months before the position is filled A key lesson is that the hiring process is slow, and it helps to keep your options open Do not automatically assume that you will be hired by a specific university, because there are many factors and people involved in the hiring decision Control what you can control to maximize your marketability, but do not let the anxiety of the job market absorb most of your time Some

candidates do not complete their dissertation before taking a job because they lose focus while in the job market

MAKING YOURSELF MARKETABLE

Now that you understand how the interviewing process works for a university, you can understand howyou can use the interviewing process to make yourself more marketable By increasing your

marketability, you may be able to increase your number of interviews at a conference, your number of campus interviews, and your number of job offers Thus, you are more likely to achieve a job at a university that you desire and at a salary that is acceptable to you

The suggestions here are general and do not cover everything Your dissertation chair or other faculty members may have other suggestions for you

TIMING YOUR ENTRANCE INTO THE JOB MARKET

To be seriously considered for a full-time tenure track position, you need to be at the A.B.D (all but dissertation) stage by the time you submit your resume to the Financial Management job market web

site In addition, you should have a dissertation idea by this time, and a dissertation proposal that is accepted by the time of the Financial Management conference Some Ph.D students enter the job market too early Universities attempt to screen out candidates who are not likely to complete their Ph.D by the time the job begins

Some Ph.D students may feel that they have nothing to lose by entering the job market early

However, there are some reasons why interviewing early can adversely affect you First, the

interviewing process takes time and money, and you may have used the time better by making more progress on completing your degree Second, if you enter the job market early, some universities that interview you at that time will remember you when you are back in the market the next year They mayconclude (whether correctly or not) that you thought you were going to complete your degree last year,and apparently did not (since you are still looking for a job) So they question your view that you reallywill complete your degree this year It is well known that many A.B.D.s never finish their dissertation, and Ph.D students who are in the market repeatedly may be branded as a potentially “permanent A.B.D.”

Even if you obtain a job when entering the job market too early, you will have to finish your

dissertation at the university where you take a job That university did not hire you to work on your dissertation, as it is paying you to do teaching, research, and service assignments Consequently, you would have to juggle the dissertation work with your other assignments The university may reduce thesalary paid to you until you have completed your dissertation In addition, it may impose a deadline date in which you must complete your dissertation, or your contract may be terminated You have less time to do what you were paid to do, and your performance could be weak as a result If you receive weak ratings on your performance in the first year, it may be difficult to overcome in order to achieve promotion or tenure in the future Ph.D students who enter the job market too early will likely be adversely affected in the long run, even if they do everything else right

ATTEND THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Some universities only consider candidates who attend the national conference and are interviewed there But since their interview schedule fills up, you need to send them a resume before the

conference If you do not get an interview at the annual conference, you might not be considered by theuniversity Therefore, attempt to go to the national conference in the year in which you are in the job market

Some Ph.D students do not go to the national conference because they are busy working on their dissertation or because the travel expenses are too high Yet, they may give up job opportunities as a

result of missing the conference While there are many distractions during a Ph.D program that should

be avoided, this is one distraction that is worthwhile It may affect your career path

It may be to your advantage to participate in the conference by presenting a paper or serving in some other capacity However, only consider such participation if it will not slow your progress on your dissertation If possible, plan in advance to submit a paper that you have developed in some depth, which can demonstrate to attendees (which may include prospective employers) your research and presentation skills

DEVELOPING YOUR RESUME

Make sure that your resume is organized and has no typos A resume that is disorganized and contains typos may reflect on the person While the format of the resume varies across candidates, the typical components are listed here:

Your Career Objective

Most candidates write something like this “Tenure-track position with balanced teaching and

research” This should be brief

technological skills developed as a graduate assistant

Publications or Papers Under Review

Include the title, names of coauthors, the journal where the paper is under review, and status (first submission, revise and resubmit, under second review, under third review, etc.)

Working Papers

Include the title of a few of your working papers and a short abstract of your research idea and/or results If you are working on your dissertation, then a description of your dissertation research will suffice here Do not list research that you have not yet done You might be asked to discuss your research idea and working paper in an interview or a campus visit and you should be able to describe it

in detail Do not list too many working papers; it may look as though you do not know how to focus and actually get a paper towards completion The objective is to show that you have a research

pipeline, and are able to generate research ideas without getting overwhelmed A few good-quality and developed papers that you can discuss comfortably will convey this

Conference Proceedings and Presentations

List, in order of first to most recent, the titles of all papers presented at conferences, as well as the name of the conference, the date, and the location of the conference If your presentation was invited, this is a signal that your work is well known and/or respected, and you should document this as well

Professional Affiliations

If you have participated in a national or regional conference in your field, state your membership in theorganization sponsoring the event You may have industry organization affiliations as well, which should be listed

Honors and Awards

If you received any doctoral dissertation awards, fellowships, competitive research grants, teaching or research awards, state the kind of award, a brief description, and the date

References

The number of references one should submit varies by field However, provide the names, positions, and contact information for at least three professional references, including your dissertation chair Ideally, you want to select references who can verify whatever attributes you wish to make known, such as excellent performance in courses, or as a research assistant, or when teaching Your

dissertation chair can summarize your progress on your dissertation as of the time that the reference letter is written

SUBMITTING YOUR RESUME

You need to submit your resumes to universities before the annual conference where interviews are conducted Some universities make their decisions on who to interview a few weeks before the

conference, based on the resumes they have received Thus, your resume needs to be received by the university by the time that the respective department screens the resumes Even if you submitted your

resume to the Financial Management resume, you can still benefit from sending your resume to every university that has an open position for which you want to be considered When you submit your resume to a university, you are confirming your interest to that university Finance departments do not want to waste their time interviewing candidates who may not be interested in working there Thus, they may develop their interview list directly from the resumes that they received, rather than screen from the Financial Management web site However, some other universities may screen from the Financial Management web site, so you should also have your resume posted there

Consolidate Your Resume and Related Information

Some universities may require samples of research papers that you have written and letters of

recommendation, and student evaluations of courses you taught while you were in the Ph.D program Consolidate all this information in one package, and send the entire package along with your resume (unless you are requested by the university to follow a different procedure) This ensures that all information about you is together

Consider what happens when an applicant sends in a resume, and that is followed up with three

separate letters of recommendation, and a research paper That results in 5 pieces of mail Now

consider that the department may receive 100 or more applications If all pieces of the mail are sent separately, the department may have 500 pieces that it needs to organize by applicant You can reduce the chance that the university will misplace some of your information if you submit one complete package This means that you would obtain the letters of recommendation, and make copies to include

in your package

Another advantage of this process is that you do not have to ask your professors to send out numerous letters for you In addition, you have full control to ensure that the letters are sent to the universities where you want to apply for a position This process may seem expensive, but it can affect your career path

Include Extra Information

Universities are often very concerned with student satisfaction and your ability and willingness to workwith the students Provide information about your familiarity with online pedagogical tools such as Blackboard, and your strengths in terms of presentation On a separate sheet, you may summarize yourstudent evaluations and grade distribution for each course that you have taught An example is shown

in the following table If you have the departmental summary of ratings for the course you taught (which is based on the ratings of all instructors who taught the same course in that semester), you could include that as well for comparison purposes

Sample of a Summary Evaluation Sheet

Summary of my student evaluations of my teaching in Finance 3403 over the last three semesters; scale is 1 to 5, with 1 being the best rating.

Finance 3403, fall semester

Finance 3403, spring semester

Finance 3403, summer semester

ATTEND REGIONAL CONFERENCES

Some universities may attend some regional conferences so that they can interview some desirable candidates who were not at the national conference, or with whom they would like to have a second interview When you submit your resume to a university, you may mention which conferences you will

be at, and can inquire whether the university will conduct interviews at any other conferences besides the national conference

PROMPT THE UNIVERSITIES IN WHICH YOU ARE INTERESTED

From the earlier example that describes how a university screens its applicants, recognize that

universities sometimes spend too much time on the wrong candidates Many universities may try to choose from a small set of candidates who have the best qualifications If there are 50 universities that are focused on hiring the top 10 candidates, 40 of those universities will come up short Once they realize that they will not be able to hire from that small set of candidates, they may be more willing to consider other applicants who have expressed an interest in them For this reason, it may be

worthwhile to periodically prompt a university in which you are interested You may have been “put

on hold” for months before they realize that they will not be able to hire their top candidate or even their top five candidates Even if they started their search process in August, they may not realize this until February or later

Some universities are embarrassed to acknowledge that you are placed on hold, so they may send a vague letter that simply says they will get back to you later This is frustrating to applicants, who often conclude after several months that the university must have hired someone else Since it is possible that you are being considered several months later, prompt the university to determine your status A simple way to prompt the university without being overly aggressive is to email the chair of the

department or whoever is conducting the search, and mention that you are still interested in the

position and would like to know if the position is still open You may also take this opportunity to attach your resume to the message, especially if you have anything new added to it since you first applied to that university You may also include an update on how you are progressing on your

dissertation within this message

Because of the screening process described above, the recruiting process can take several months You cannot speed up the process But you do have control over your progress on your dissertation by the time that you are interviewed You also have control over completing working papers and doing a good job in the classroom (which affect teaching evaluations, and therefore your marketability) Try to focus on making progress on the things you can control We have had some graduates receive an offer

in November and others receive an offer in June (or even July for a visiting professor position)

PREPARING FOR INTERVIEWS AT A CONFERENCE

Prior to the conference, finance departments contact candidates to set up interviews Keep an hourly schedule for the days of the conference that you can use to record interview times Have this schedule available when you receive calls so that you know what times you have open

If you are contacted for an interview, prepare for it You can demonstrate your interest in the university

by searching online for information about the university Also attempt to identify other faculty

members in the department and determine if you share similar teaching or research interests with them.Department chairs may serve as the key contact person at a university, but other faculty members within the department may have just as much influence on the hiring decision Some department members may be involved in an interview at a conference All of them will likely be involved in a campus interview

When you arrive at the conference, call each of the people who you are supposed to meet for

interviews and ask what room they are in at the hotel It is better to do this for all people all at once so that you are not scrambling to do this in between interviews Consider that there may be more than 100candidates who finish their interviews at about 10 minutes before the hour and then go to the lobby phones to find the room for their next interview There may not be enough phones to satisfy everyone

at that time You may be on the 10th floor for one interview that ends, rush down to the lobby, wait for

a phone, and then find out that your next interview is on the 11th floor You could make your 10 minutebreak between interviews more relaxing if you already know where all of your interviews are

The Interview

Make sure you wear a suit to your interviews At the FMA meeting, most people wear a suit during theday Also, bring a folder that contains your interview schedule, copies of your resume, your teaching evaluations, or anything that you want to interviewer to have You may have already sent this

information to each school that is interviewing you, but some interviewers may not be so organized The interviewer may be a department chair or a faculty member In some cases, there is a department chair with other faculty members The interviewer attempts to determine whether you would be a goodfit at their university If you come across as self-centered, you are less likely to appease the

department’s faculty members than a candidate who appears willing to be involved in helping the department perform well It is natural to be curious about what the university can provide to you, and ifyou fail to ask questions about the university’s resources, you may be perceived as disinterested or using the campus visit as a trial run But if your questions during the interview show no interest in the backgrounds of the department’s faculty members, it may suggest that you will not be a good team player After all, you are normally expected to show your better side during an interview that could help you get the job you want Common questions by candidates include:

*what data bases does the university have available? (such as CRSP or Compustat)

*what is the teaching load per semester?

*what is the number of course preps per semester?

If you do not show an interest in other potential future colleagues at the interview, you probably will not show an interest in others after getting the job offer If you come across as arrogant, or “too good” for the position you are interviewing for, you may develop a reputation in the field

One way to demonstrate your interest in your potential colleagues is to do some online searches of the research that they had published You may find that you have some research interests in common with them, and indicate that to them Thus, they may recognize that having you as a colleague may enhance their own research productivity The department might feel that you will bring new resources to the department That is, you would not only contribute your own research but would make others more productive through collaborative research An interest in the institution is also viewed favorably Your online search will indicate what kinds of programs the university has (masters degrees, Ph.D.s,

specialized programs)

After you leave the interview and before you start your next interview, write down any notes about the university (such as its teaching load, and its computer facilities) You might even prepare a spreadsheetbefore you go to the conference so that you can fill in info such as the teaching load and data bases available for every university If you have many interviews, it is difficult to keep track of which interviewer said what, so a brief written summary is very important

PREPARING FOR YOUR PRESENTATION DURING A CAMPUS INTERVIEW

If the interview on campus requires a presentation of your dissertation, be prepared for the

presentation While most candidates prepare, they may not display some of the characteristics that the department with the open position desires Specifically, here are some of the more common mistakes that are made in a presentation:

1 The presenter is not organized It leads the department to question whether the candidate wouldprepare properly when teaching a class

2 The presenter is unwilling to consider alternative views A department’s faculty members will often ask questions or even offer criticism during a presentation The criticism is normally constructive, and intended to offer ways in which the presenter may refine his dissertation He does not have to agree with every viewpoint, but should at least be willing to consider

alternative views If he shows a narrow-minded view at this presentation, he may exhibit that same trait later on if hired, which limits his ability to work on research or on committees with other colleagues

3 The presenter demonstrates by his limited presentation that the dissertation is far from

completion A presenter cannot really do anything during the presentation if his dissertation is

far from completion But he needs to recognize that his likelihood of finishing his dissertation

by the time he would be employed might be the most important single characteristic during the campus interview that is used by the department when they make a hiring decision

4 The presentation takes much longer than expected A presenter should be skilled at keeping a presentation within the time allotted for it If he is allotted 1 hour and if the audience questions normally take about 20 minutes, he should prepare a 40-minute presentation and should

practice it to ensure that it can be done within the proper time An excessively long presentationmight suggest that the candidate is unable to organize a set of thoughts within a given time period This might suggest that the presenter would not be able to complete class lectures within the designated time periods

RECOGNIZE THE POTENTIAL INFLUENCE OF FACULTY

While a department chair may officially communicate a job offer, the faculty members within the department normally have much influence on the hiring decision Any candidate who is hired will be working closely with other faculty members who share common teaching or research interests Thus, it

is natural that faculty members participate heavily in the hiring process Some candidates tend to take apolitical slant when they pursue a job, in which they attempt to assess the organizational chart so that they can appease those at a university who have all the power But they may not realize that a

department chair is a representative for faculty members, and normally attempts to make hiring

decisions that will satisfy faculty members while meeting the job description goals In general, faculty members will sense the political slant of a candidate who seems more interested in meeting the high-ranking administrators and less interested in them Faculty members hope that they can hire someone who is willing to work with them, not someone who views them as irrelevant

CONSIDERING A JOB OFFER

If you are fortunate enough to be able to choose between job offers, then consider the characteristics ofthe job offers, such as base salary, benefits, the retirement plan, summer research support, funding for travel to conferences, the availability of research or teaching assistants, institutional assistance for grant writing, class size, available data or software, and cost of living Evaluate the entire

compensation package, and then make a decision on that basis In order to find the answers to these questions, ask the department chair about where you can look for more information

It is also important to look for indicators of the institutional culture while on your campus visit Do youdetect factions in the department or people badmouthing one another? Do teaching loads appear to be tied to research productivity or are decisions made on a completely political basis? Is the department a

“revolving door” where all of the faculty leave as soon as they can find another position? If there are new faculty members, what kinds of research records do they have?

While you do not want to appear too aggressive or demanding, it is important to get the information you need while you are on campus so that you can make an informed decision Below is a checklist of potential considerations and questions you may want to investigate when you are on campus Not all considerations are equally important to every job applicant, and the relative weightings will differ based on each individual’s priorities Keep in mind that you will most likely have to make tradeoffs when you make your final job decision; no job is going to meet every one of your considerations perfectly

Factors to Assess When Considering a Prospective University Employer

and ScoreSalary Is the salary competitive?

Is the salary consistent with the work load?

How are salary adjustment decisions made?

What determines who gets merit pay increases?

What is the process for obtaining a market adjustment?

Cost of Living Will you be able to support the kind of

lifestyle you want given the cost of living inthe area?

How far are you willing to commute to be able to afford acceptable housing? [Perhaps you can meet with a real estate agent to learn more about the housing situation.]

What is the median home price?

How much are property taxes?

What is the average car insurance premium?

What is the average homeowners’ insurancepremium?

Pension - Vesting What is the employer’s contribution

towards a retirement plan?

How long do you need to be employed before the employer contributes?

Healthcare Benefits What plans are offered to employees?

What is covered under your plan?

How much will your monthly premium be?Tenure Requirements

Childcare How much does childcare cost in the area?

Does the university provide any day care centers on site or through partnerships with local day care centers?

Quality of Administration What are the university’s long-term goals?

If it is a private university, is it fiscally solvent?

Does it have a large endowment?

Does the administration seek financial external support?

Politics Are there any noticeable open hostilities

between faculty members?

Is there a tremendous amount of faculty turnover?

Is the faculty productive?

Face Time Expectations Do faculty come in to the department to

work 9:00 a.m to 5 p.m every day?

Do they expect that you will work from home or on site?

Research vs Teaching

Orientation

Does the university have a balance of research and teaching components of faculty job description, or is it primarily a research or teaching university?

Does the department encourage pedagogicalresearch and innovation?

What are the requirements for office hours?Moving Expenses What is the dollar amount the university

will pay for your moving expenses?

Bureaucracy Does the department appear to operate

efficiently?

Research Support Does the university have the

equipment/data/technical resources you need for your research?

Are summer research grants available?

If research grants are competitive, what are the criteria to apply?

Does the university have technical, network,and/or mechanical support for faculty?Does the university pay journal submission fees?

What is the process for obtaining data or equipment for research?

Is the teaching load manageable?

How is course scheduling conducted?

Is faculty input on what they will teach requested?

Can teaching load be reduced with demonstrated research productivity?

Is summer teaching available?

Course Preps How many new preps per year are you

expected to do?

Will your course preps be in a specialized area, or across the curriculum?

Opportunities for

developing new courses

Will you be expected or allowed to develop new courses?

Will you be expected to help develop new minor or major areas within the college?Teaching level –

undergraduate/graduate/both Will you be expected to teach undergraduate, graduate, and/or doctoral

courses?

Class Size How many students will be in a section?

If you are teaching a large section, will a teaching assistant be made available?

Research Requirements What are the research expectations of a new