Academic job market season (and phd advice!)

It’s time for the academic job market season again. I have been helping our students practice their AMA conference-style 30-minute job interviews.

Here’s some thoughts and general advice I compiled in a Twitter thread recently:

1. Use your time well. The goal is not to present every study and robustness check in this short interview format. Share the main narrative – and enough to spark interest in the topic and demonstrate the rigor and credibility of your findings.
2. State explicitly who you are and why you study what you study using the methods you use, e.g., “I study mobile and digital marketing using causal inference and machine learning. I got interested in these topics even before my PhD when I had a retail and ecommerce startup.”
3. Get to your job market paper (JMP) and research questions relatively early in the presentation. Shouldn’t take more than 1-2 slides to motivate. State your questions clearly.
4. Use the same language and terminology throughout the talk. Keep a consistent narrative. Avoid jargon and surprises. A new term on slide 12 with key results will likely confuse the audience.
5. Know who’s going to be in the audience (most departments tell you), have some idea about their work, and 1-2 specific questions you genuinely want to know about their group/department.
6. Reiterate your pipeline and overall research program in addition to the one JMP you spend most of the time on. Also be prepared to talk about teaching – courses you’ve taught and any innovative highlights, e.g., a new technology you implemented.
7. Follow up thank-you notes. I might be old-fashioned, but I still believe in these. No one is obligated to listen to your research; send an email to thank them individually for their attention and if possible, for the specific comments they gave you during the talk.

Most important, take care of yourself and be kind!