Finding Jobs in Academia
Introduction
Getting a job in academia isn't easy. When I started compiling the pieces necessary for job applications in late 2008, the market looked fine. By the time interview season was in full swing, schools were starting to initiate hiring freezes. When it finally came time for schools to make offers, many simply opted not to make any.
Many schools decide whether or not they have the monies to hire new faculty in the summer. Between summer 2008 (when schools decided they could afford to hire X number of faculty) and spring 2009 (when offers were to be made), most of these schools saw their endowments lose a digit or two.
The good news for future applicants is that the stock market probably won't drop 50% between the time job listings are posted and the time interview season is over. So your rejection rate probably will be less depressing than mine. The bad news is that there will be a lot fewer openings listed in 2009 than in 2008, since this summer schools are likely to decide that they have about enough money to buy a bobbing duck paperweight.
Anyhow, long story short: you need to be prepared going into the job application process. You can't half-ass anything, and you can't be too picky about where to apply. Your dream job probably won't be hiring. And if it is, there are probably a hundred people with postdocs or previous prof experience who'll be impossible to jump over.
So apply for postdocs. Even if you spend just one year at a different school extending your research, that experience will really impress hiring committees. It helps convince them that your thesis wasn't just ghostwritten by your adviser. It makes a convincing argument that you can flourish in academia -- an argument a finishing Ph.D would be hard-pressed to make.
Be mindful with your tenure-track applications, though. Staying at a tenure-track position with the goal of changing to another one quickly is not smiled upon. So before you send out an application for Lame Boring State Uinversity's tenure-track opening, ask yourself if you would honestly take the job if it were offered to you. Don't think you'll be fine working there one or two years and then bailing; imagine how awkward / difficult it would be asking for recommendations from colleagues who thought you'd be working there long-term.
In the end I sent out over 100 applications and had maybe 5 really close calls. Ultimately I was offered exactly one job, and it wasn't in academia. And even though all the time and effort I put into this job search netted me precisely zero academia job offers, I definitely learned a lot about the whole process. If I feel like giving the job market a shot in a year, two years, or ten years, I'll be ready to jump right in.
Stuff from the panel
Even though I amn't going into academia, I really wanted to. I spent a lot of time looking up advice online, soliciting advice from former UCSD grads who'd found jobs, picking my adviser's brain, etc. I got organized and found the work of applying for jobs to be very manageable. Hopefully the attached resources will help make the whole job apps rigmarole as gentle as possible:- A lengthy description of the whole job apps process: the stuff you need to do, when to do it, job interviews, commonly asked questions, on-campus visits, etc.
- An Excel spreadsheet, all dolled up, to help keep track of jobs and your progress with apps.
- A sample CV and cover letter. (TeX files)
- An excellent article from the Notices of the AMS that helped me get started with the Job Search process.