Alex Fabiano Campos

#PhD student: Makes $30k a year. Works on weekends as well. Zero life-work balance. "Do you think I have a chance to become a professor?" Prof: "Yes, of course! Finish this project and we will publish excellent papers. I am sure you will easily find a faculty position." ▫️ 2 years later: Student finishes the project. Professor writes a report. Papers are published. Student: "Do you think my CV is strong enough?" Prof: "Yes, you are the best!" ▫️ Next 4 months: Student submits 50 well-tailored applications for faculty positions. Zero interviews. A lot of broken dreams. ▫️ Key takeaways: 1. Make sure you distinguish encouragement from reality. - By encouraging you, your advisor may unintentionally give you too much hope. Keep a cool head. 2. Always ask other faculties for external opinion on your case. - Your advisor’s opinion is always biased. Look for more input outside your group. 3. Don’t expect fairness during candidate selection. - Hiring process is subjective by definition. It is done by people with very different views on who is the best. You may put tons of efforts into a research statement only to find out later that no one really reads it. 4. The reality is brutal. - Departments can receive 300-500 candidates per opening. Many have excellent CVs and cool ideas. At top- and mid-rank universities, selection criteria can become extremely questionable (like, who exactly was your PhD advisor? Is your recomm. letter 3 pages long? etc). And there is no need to say “You don’t know anything about it. It’s not like this”. I went through this myself. Many times. Along with many colleagues. Do not expect fairness. See luck as a big factor. Apply broadly but have a backdoor ready. #AcademicTwitter

Instead of serving as Guest Editors of “special issues” in various journals or looking for other ways to waste time, please spend this time on #PhD students. Your students need your help, time and encouragement. They are your best investment, not journals. Depth of research and its impact scale with the time you spend on discussions and brainstorms with students and postdocs. Same goes for the future success of your students. By ignoring it, you ignore the real impact you can make on science and society. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter