Books for the Academic Job Market

Well, so I did a review of books for the academic job market for the American Sociological Association's Science, Knowledge and Technology section, but they don't seem to have that newsletter online, so I'll post it here:

Review: The Job Market and Your Academic Career

Erica Coslor

Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology

University of Chicago

In preparation for going on the job market next fall, I have a number of books on my shelf. One new title is The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science, which I had initially picked up to review for the newsletter for insight into the careers of scientists. While it does serve this function, with topics like ‘who owns the [laboratory] notebooks?’ it has also turned out to be a good read for someone preparing for the job market. In this respect, it pairs nicely with The Academic Job Search Handbook and The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career.

Both of the Chicago guides provide an overarching view of an academic career, from entering graduate school, picking a topic, finding a job and then getting tenure. The Academic Job Search Handbook is more targeted to the job search process itself and how to prepare the necessary pieces of your job packet, with useful samples of cover letters, CVs, and advice about campus visits. It also highlights some of the common complications to finding an academic job, such as being part of a dual career couple. The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career takes a conversational style between three professors, highlighting the diversity in research styles, academic positions, and other elements of one’s academic career. The conversation-based format makes the book easy to read, but in my opinion, more difficult to refer back to specific topics. On the other hand, The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science, despite being tailored to the needs of research and laboratory-based scientists, reads much better as an academic career reference. In addition to being a newer publication, it is laid out with easy-to-scan subheadings, and covers topics like making poster presentations, time management, and working with others.

If you have the time, I found all three books useful, and I would recommend that you start with The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career, move on to The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science, and then read The Academic Job Search Handbook. If you are trying to choose between the Chicago guides, you can see my personal preference, and I suspect this might be because I am already close to the end of the PhD. The conversational style of the Guide to Your Academic Career might be a better way for new graduate students and those considering graduate school to ease into the topic.

The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science

A Toolkit for Students and Postdocs

Victor Bloomfield and Esam El-Fakahany

University of Chicago Press, 2008. ($20.00 paperback)

The Academic Job Search Handbook, Fourth Edition

Julia Miller Vick and Jennifer Furlong

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. ($18.95 paperback)

The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career

A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School Through Tenure

John Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Schine Gold

University of Chicago Press, 2001. ($14.00 paperback)