Feb to April

Mid-January through March: FLYOUT

• If you passed interviews, you will get to visit the place.
• Scheduling flyout:
  • Try not to put the most important the first one.
  • You should call the other nearby schools you have interviewed so that costs can be shared.
  • You usually pay for transport and get reimbursed later but hotel is usually covered by the school.
  • Keep all original receipts.
  • Make copies and mail the originals.
  • Never check your baggage! Bring a carry-on with your suits.
  • A typical fly-out:
    • Arrive the afternoon/night before.
    • Morning:
      • Someone may pick you up for an informal breakfast.
      • When you arrive, you will be given a schedule with a list of people to meet.
      • Most of time, you talk about your research.
      • Some of the times, you listen their research or even something unrelated.
    • Lunch:
      • Usually at the faculty dining hall with a large number of faculty, and not many within your field.
    • Afternoon:
      • Job talk: usually 1.5 hrs, make sure that most people understand the first 30 minutes
      • Meet more people
      • The last one to meet is either the department chair or the Dean. – Dinner:
      • Typically with the search committee and department head.
      • A chance to show that you are good person to be colleague.
      • Be relaxed, polite and engage in conversation during these dinners. – Some questions to ask during flyout:
    • What are the tenure requirements?
    • What has the tenure success rate been in the last few years?
    • Do you find the department to be collegial?
    • Where would you recommend living?
    • Is there any housing subsidy/allowance?
    • Does the department do a good job of supporting new faculty?
    • In terms of research support, mentorship, shielding from service duties, minimizing teaching preps, etc.?
    • Living environments: Are there good schools nearby? Good restau- rants?

February-April: Flyout and Offers

• Congratulation! You get an offer after 6-month search process!

  • Most of offers are verbal. Written formal offers need to get to the administration so they take a lot of time.
  • Offer always come with deadline. Usual case is two weeks.
  • Ask other schools that you have done a flyout to see if they would also like to make you an offer before the deadline.
  • Try to extend deadline for a few days if necessary but should avoid asking for too many days.
  • Bargaining is usually ONLY possible if you have another offer.
  • Make sure you dont bargain too hard.
  • Make sure you are aware of allowance (education, housing, and medi- cal).
  • Check if you are offered a standard package or not.

• JOE: Post-docs and other teaching positions are posted