The academic job search handbook (3ed., U. Pennsylvania, 2001)

Average Rating: 4.5

Total Reviews: 15

Nice, generic handbook

I bought this book at the late stages of my job hunting process, days before my first, phone interview. Therefore, I did not read the first half of the book which has to do with planning the job search and searching (assisted with sample vitas, cover letters, etc. which cover half of this book's pages). My focus was in the interviewing, and later on in the negotiating phases. In that respect, I think that this book is what its title implies: a handbook giving generic guidelines to most of the situtations one might face while interviewing ( covering off-site, conference, phone, on-campus interviews), including a list of possible questions that might be asked. It gives you advise on how to prepare for each type of interview, what to expect, what to wear etc. in a brief manner, something that was very useful for my case, since I had only a few days to prepare for my first, phone interview. I also found some useful points in the "negotiating the job" section. Another aspect I liked about this book was that it covered specific situations such as dual-carrer couples, foreign nationals seeking US employment, etc. The last part of this book covers the "after you take the job" phase, which I plan to read.

Overall, this is a nice handbook, which outlines the basics, but doesn't get into much detail. I had to buy another book and combine information of both to better prepare for my job interviews. Half of the book is covered by sample materials, which I found useless, but given its low price, I would recommend it to anyone seeking for an academic job, as a start-up, quick reference guide, or a complementary book to another, more detailed one.

A must for all upcoming academics

I bought and read this book during the last year of my PhD and it gave valuable hints and insight to the academic job search process. I highly recommend it to all the ABD PhDs out there.

Very generic

This book is a useful introduction to the academic job search process. There are some nuggets of gold in it, but mostly, it has generic information that you could probably get from any professor. Things like, write journal papers, attend conferences, read web sites for job postings. The list of potential interview questions is good. Some of the sample cover letters etc. are OK.

Review:

relevant

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mariavd