The average doctoral student will spend 7 to 8 years earning their degree. The average academic job market window, for those interested in academia is 3 to 5 months. Obviously, your success in the job search depends on what you did during those preceding years, including what degree you pursued, your publications, etc. However, what you do during those final months, that last 3% of time, also has a huge impact.

A successful job search requires a packet that will get you noticed by the hiring committee and into the initial list of potential hires. That success is a function of not only your accomplishments, but how you sell them to potential employers. This includes how you describe your research to date and, more importantly perhaps, your agenda and trajectory after you are hired. It also includes the degree to which you can convincingly convey your ability to teach the courses your prospective employer needs taught and your commitment to values such as equity and inclusion.

Once you break out of the crowd, your success often depends on your ability to convey your many attributes in interviews. Increasingly, these will include both Zoom interviews to determine fly-outs and in-person interviews used to make the final selection among candidates. Successful interviews require a knowledge of the place and people interviewing you and a well-practiced and highly polished ability to communicate your research, teaching, and collegiality to them.

The Last 3% is organized as a roundtable where faculty from across campus discuss their experience assessing packets and interviewing job candidates, as well as take your questions on these issues. We recognize that the job search is extremely stressful and that such stress is easier to manage if you can talk with people going through the same thing you are so the Center will create a Last 3% discussion board on the GMC website to facilitate those conversations.

Next session TBA.