At Career Services, the Graduate Student/Postdoc team has had a very busy summer planning an exciting event: our 2022 Faculty Job Search Prep Camp.
If you’re planning to apply for faculty jobs, either in this upcoming cycle or in the future, join us for this virtual two-part Faculty Job Search Prep Camp to get a head start on planning your job search. Through workshop presentations and faculty and alumni panels, we’ll help you understand how you can best prepare for each step of the process, from assessing your readiness to go on the faculty job market and crafting application materials to preparing for interviews and negotiating offers.
Schedule of Events – Part 1
Tuesday, August 2: Getting Ready to Apply
10am – 11am: Resources to help you through the academic job search process when applying for postdocs, non-tenure, and tenure track roles
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065210
This workshop will provide an overview of what an academic job search process looks like from beginning to end, and will focus on the resources both within and beyond Penn which are available to assist you. Some of the online tools highlighted that you can use to support your faculty application will include: the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, the PhD Career Training Platform, LinkedIn, Imagine PhD, and the Career Services website.
Preparing to Go On the Faculty Job Search:
Join PhD alumni and faculty for a conversation on preparing to go on the faculty job market. Panelists will share advice and discuss their own experiences of being job applicants as well as search committee members on the other side of the process. Topics discussed will include evaluating readiness to apply for tenure-track jobs, gaining insights into how search committees evaluate candidates through the lens of tenure and promotion, and acquiring professional development for academic success.
1pm – 2:15pm: STEM Panel | Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065235 | Faculty Bios
- Shivon Robinson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Williams College (Neuroscience 2016)
- Sarah Rooney, PhD, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Delaware (Bioengineering 2015)
- Manuela Tripepi, PhD, Associate Professor, Biology, Thomas Jefferson University (Microbiology, 2013)
- Steven Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (Computer Science 2017)
2pm – 3pm: Humanities & Social Sciences Panel | Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065242 | Faculty Bios
- Chloe Bakalar, PhD, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Temple University (Political Science, 2009)
- Xavier Dapena, PhD, Assistant Professor, Spanish & Film Studies, Iowa State University (Hispanic Studies and Cinema & Media Studies, 2020)
- Carla Lewandowski, PhD Associate Professor, Law and Justice Studies, Rowan University, (Criminology, 2012)
- Zita Cristina Nunes, PhD, Associate Professor, English, University of Pennsylvania (Comparative Literature, UC-Berkeley)
- Chenshu Zhou, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cinema Studies in the History of Art Department and Cinema & Media Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania (East Asian Languages & Cultures, Stanford)
Wednesday, August 3: Application Materials & Applying
10am – 11am: Creating a cohesive application packet (CV + cover letter + teaching/research/diversity documents)
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065251
This workshop will provide best practices for making your application packet a cohesive and convincing demonstration of your research, teaching, and service experiences. The CV, cover letter, and statements on research, teaching and diversity are often written separately, but will be reviewed by search committees as a complete packet. We will address how to create overlap between these documents to leverage the role that research, teaching, mentoring, and service play in all your scholarly approaches.
2pm – 3pm: Advice on finding the right STEM postdoc from current postdocs and recent faculty [Panel]
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065257
This discussion panel will feature postdocs from the science and engineering fields who will talk about their own experiences looking for postdocs, provide advice on what you can do when you start your search, and answer any questions you have on where and how you can seek out postdoc opportunities. This panel discussion will be a valuable resource for anyone considering a postdoc once they have finished with their PhD – even if you are still several years from finishing up right now. Additional panelists to be added soon.
- Caroline Bartman, PhD, Postdoc, Chemical Biology, Princeton University (Immunology 2018)
- Brigid Jensen, PhD, Postdoc, Weinberg ALS Center, Thomas Jefferson University (Neuroscience 2015)
- Zoltan Simani, PhD, Postdoc, Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania (Biochemistry, University of Debrecen, 2015)
Thursday, August 4: Application Materials – Teaching
10am – 10:30am: Talking about DEI in Your Teaching Materials
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065261
What are successful approaches to incorporating DEI into your teaching materials? Teaching materials often provide the opportunity to reflect on your understanding of diversity and inclusion in your own disciplines as well as in higher education broadly and discuss your contributions and aspirations in enhancing diversity through teaching. Jamiella Brooks, PhD, Associate Director at the Center for Teaching & Learning, will lead a workshop on using your DEI experiences and ideas into a teaching statement or teaching portfolio.
11am – 11:30am: How To Present Your Teaching Evaluations in your Teaching Portfolio
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065266
So you have some teaching evaluations, but how do you use them in creating your teaching portfolio? Catherine Turner, PhD, Senior Associate Director at the Center for Teaching & Learning, will walk you through how to best weave your teaching evaluations into a portfolio.
1pm – 1:30pm: Creating Effective Sample Syllabi
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065350
Some job postings will request a sample syllabus, or you may want to incorporate one in your teaching portfolio. This is especially helpful to search committees if the job ad lists a specific course they want the candidate to teach. What if you’ve never taught your own course before? Ian Petrie, PhD, Senior Associate Director at the Center for Teaching & Learning, will walk you through the best practices in putting together a sample syllabus, even if you have not taught the class (yet!)
2pm – 2:30pm: Teaching and Your Letters of Recommendation
Register here: https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1065353
How do you write about your teaching in a teaching statement? What if you’ve never taught your own course before? Ian Petrie, PhD, Senior Associate Director at the Center for Teaching & Learning, will walk you through how to write a compelling teaching statement that gives search committees a sense of who you are as a teacher and what motivates and guides your teaching.
Schedule of Events – Part 2
11 AM – 11:45 AM: Making the most of a visiting faculty role
Registration coming soon
Join us for a conversation with Cynthia Hsu, PhD. Cynthia received her PhD in Neurobiology from Duke University and then worked as a postdoc in Penn’s Department of Neuroscience/Chronobiology. Cynthia is in her second year as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology department at Bryn Mawr College. Come prepared with questions on how you can best approach a visiting role.
*Panel events will not be recorded to ensure that panelists can be candid in their remarks, but all workshops will be recorded and available for viewing on the Career Services YouTube channel by the early Fall.
