The Academic Employment Initiative: Perspective from an Academic Job Seeker
Another session of the Academic Employment Initiative (AEI) was held August 20, 2007, at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Boston, MA. First held in 2004, AEI has become an annual event at fall national meetings of the ACS. As in previous years, AEI was held during the interdisciplinary Sci-Mix poster session. Participants prepare a poster describing their research or teaching goals and meet with potential employers during the poster session. AEI was conceived by past ACS President Charles P. Casey and allows large numbers of academic employers and candidates to interact in a single venue with many opportunities to meet in a personal, face-to-face setting for mutual evaluations. This concept is similar to one used at the ACS career fair, held at each national meeting, which is tailored more for industrial positions. Ideally this process benefits all involved by maximizing the possibility that a more optimal fit between employer and potential faculty member can be realized. In addition, the possibility of interacting with multiple individuals at one event should save both employers and job seekers time and financial resources. This model has been highly successful in the context of the ACS career fair. As someone who plans to pursue an academic career, I participated in this latest AEI session, which gave me valuable insight into how this program works.
First, let me say that the program has much to offer. In particular, AEI is well-organized and logistic aspects of the event were carefully considered and effectively implemented. Employers could browse biographical sketches from the pool of AEI participants before the poster session. In addition to the main AEI session, several complementary presentations and training sessions were made available to assist job seekers with preparing for an academic job search. Topics included writing effective research proposals, preparing an academic résumé, and developing interviewing skills. These themes were discussed by a number of people with practical experience in these areas, including employees from the ACS Department of Career Services. One presentation that I found particularly useful was the session on interviewing skills presented by David Harwell (Assistant Director of the Department of Career Management and Development). This presentation included a hands-on component where interviewing techniques were honed by practicing on fellow attendees. However, all the sessions were quite useful and are a testament to excellent preparation and foresight on the part of the organizers. During the AEI session at Sci-Mix, colored stickers were affixed to the posters of AEI job-seekers so that prospective employers could identify individuals searching for positions oriented towards either research or teaching, as well as those interested in both.
Most of the employers at the event were small institutions without a heavy emphasis on research, such as liberal arts colleges or universities with small research programs. This was an excellent opportunity for attendees who were specifically interested in these types of institutions. An informal poll of several AEI presenters revealed that those seeking positions with an emphasis on teaching had reasonable success with identifying employment opportunities. However, I found very few representatives from institutions with a strong research emphasis. The lack of representation from these institutions was a distinct disappointment for AEI attendees (such as myself) who were interested in more research-intensive positions. In my view the AEI poster session was of limited utility for such individuals. It is unclear why representatives from major research institutions were not present, and I did not attempt to solicit comments from such institutions. Possibly, search committees at research-intensive institutions are simply not aware of the opportunity to use AEI as a recruiting tool. My personal experiences at the fall ACS meeting tend to support this hypothesis. While attending the technical sessions I had conversations with many people who were not even aware that AEI exists. Apart from fellow AEI participants, few of the individuals I spoke with had any idea what AEI is about. Discussions with current faculty members suggested that not many are cognizant of the advantages of incorporating AEI into faculty recruiting efforts. My observations may point towards a general lack of awareness about AEI among ACS members. Perhaps those in charge of publicizing AEI need to emphasize getting the message out to members who attend and organize technical sessions, which would encompass most of the individuals who would typically be present at an ACS national meeting. Current faculty members are a key demographic to connect with in this regard, as they have the most influence in determining how hiring decisions are made. It may be useful for AEI organizers to partner with ACS divisions to foster this awareness.
Another possibility is that academic institutions with fewer financial resources were more likely to participate in the AEI session. This would preferentially tend to include smaller research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions. Such places are typically less able to afford expensive advertising campaigns in order to generate interest from a large number of applicants. This makes AEI an excellent investment of their time and financial resources. This factor alone could be enough of an incentive to encourage such institutions to participate in AEI. Research-intensive institutions tend to have access to larger pools of funds that can be used to sponsor applicant searches. Thus, they are typically able to better publicize their faculty openings and can attract a large number of applicants. Such institutions may view participation in AEI as unnecessary to their recruiting efforts. Another possibility is that there may be some amount of inertia involved. It certainly requires less effort for those involved in faculty recruitment to continue to do so via well-established mechanisms. Some momentum will be required to overcome the activation barrier for participation since AEI is still relatively new. This may be less of an issue for smaller institutions that can adapt quickly to change.
In the future, I think it will be essential for more representatives from research-intensive institutions to attend AEI. Without the participation of these institutions, academic employment seekers with a research focus will also choose not to participate. Limited attendance from such candidates will make it even less attractive for research-intensive institutions to attend. This negative feedback loop could continue until AEI becomes the exclusive domain of institutions that focus more on teaching. While there is nothing wrong with catering to a subset of academia, this was not the original intent of AEI: it has the potential to be a much more comprehensive resource for academic employment. An important question that must be addressed is how participation from research-intensive institutions can be encouraged. This may involve working more closely with divisions to highlight the advantages of employing AEI to augment faculty recruiting efforts. Perhaps it would be helpful to contact chemistry department chairs directly in order to encourage their involvement.
In summary, the Academic Employment Initiative is an excellent idea that is well-planned and carefully implemented by the ACS. However, it has not yet reached its full potential due to limited participation from large research institutions. Hopefully this can be remedied in the future. Conversely, participation in AEI seems to provide an excellent return on the time investment required if one is interested in small or medium-sized academic institutions. Apart from these considerations, the workshops and presentations associated with AEI provided much useful information about preparing for an academic job search. I am sure this will continue to be the case for future sessions. These events also offer an excellent opportunity to network with other individuals in the academic job market, which I found to be quite helpful. My personal advice for the present is that, if one can arrange to participate in AEI without excessive expenditure of time and effort, it is useful to do so. However, do not expect AEI to replace a conventional academic job search, particularly if you are interested in large research-intensive institutions. This situation may change in the future, particularly if the ACS can increase the participation of such institutions.
