Chapter published in:
Professional Development in Applied Linguistics: A guide to success for graduate students and early career facultyEdited by Luke Plonsky
[Not in series 229] 2020
► pp. 80–98
Navigating the academic job market
Avizia Long | San José State University
Graham Crookes | University of Hawaii at Manoa
An important goal for most PhD students is to procure gainful
employment. Although PhD students receive a great deal of training in the
areas of critiquing, conducting, and publishing research, the process of
searching, applying for, and securing an academic job is one that is often
shrouded in mystery. This chapter attempts to shed some light on this
arduous and stressful task, and in doing so make it less mysterious.
Although the chapter is written with PhD students in mind, it may also be
helpful for early career scholars with limited experience on the job market.
Regardless of your individual background/circumstance, training, and
previous job-searching experiences (or lack thereof), the goal is a shared
one: To navigate the academic job market effectively and obtain one or more
job offers. In this chapter, we cover three key phases in the job search
process, including preparing for the job market (as early as possible),
starting the search (approximately one year before one hopes to be
employed), and excelling in job interviews. In each section, we highlight
key aspects of the preparation stage, and provide specific steps an aspiring
academic can take. It is our experience that few reasonably comprehensive
resources exist that provide insight into the entire process of securing an
academic job (see Kelsky, 2015).
Furthermore, few resources offer the joint perspective(s) of new (i.e.,
Avizia and Kris) and seasoned (i.e., Graham) scholars who have successfully
obtained academic jobs in the field. A particular goal of this chapter is to
provide such a resource within the particular context of the field of
applied linguistics.
Published online: 30 July 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.229.07lon
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.229.07lon