So you’ve decided you want a faculty position focused on teaching. While this job search may not be as daunting as landing a faculty position at an R01, tenure-track jobs at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) are still highly competitive posts. How do you prepare yourself to be an attractive applicant and how do you craft a strong application?

The first step may be intimidating, depending on your advisor. What? You don’t want to be like me? You may face hostility and disappointment, but this is your life, and you need to fight for it. You’ll need your advisor’s letter of recommendation, and you may get some release to participate in career-building activities, such as teaching a course.

As a grad student at an R01, your contacts in the world of PUIs may be limited. Change that. It’s not so hard: generally faculty at PUIs are quite friendly and generous about lending a helping hand. After all, mentoring is a major component of the PUI position, so it’s in their blood. It is likely that many PUI faculty have connections with people in your department or are alums of your grad program, so ask around. Seek them out at conferences. These contacts can give you perspectives on their jobs and institutions, and invaluable advice and guidance both before and after you land a position.

You’ve narrowed your career goals to an academic career focused on teaching. Now narrow them further. PUIs are not one size fits all. Research expectations, culture, and facilities vary widely, as do startup funds. What is your ideal teaching vs. research balance? How much startup money will you need? What kind of student population do you want to serve? Where do you want to live and how much do you care? Hiring committees are looking for an applicant who is a good fit with their institution. Before you write your application letters, research the schools to which you are applying so that you can highlight how you and the college are a good match.

You need to show you can teach, and the more experience you have, the better. Unfortunately, teaching opportunities during grad school are limited. Teaching your own course is the best thing you can do. It is quite common for smaller colleges and community colleges to hire temporary faculty to teach courses, and often they will consider an applicant in the later stages of her grad career. Having a personal connection with someone in the department that is hiring helps a lot, another benefit of networking. Before you start looking for a teaching gig, you’ll need to talk with your advisor about it. Again this can be difficult, as your teaching activities will take time away from your research, and you need a sympathetic advisor to support that. You can also support yourself with temporary teaching jobs after you graduate, perhaps in conjunction with a research postdoc.

One teaching gig you may not have to fight for at all during grad school is to serve as a TA. TAships can be good teaching opportunities if you work with a great professor and you invest yourself in the class. Don’t be the TA who shows up to section with nothing but a piece of chalk and says, "Are there any questions from lecture?" Treat your section as if it were your own class, and use it as a venue to develop your teaching skills. Design captivating presentations and be creative in coming up with effective ways to teach. Ask the professor if you can prepare and deliver the course lecture once or twice. Conduct review sessions and write study guides. TAing can be a great way to develop your classroom skills without the added burden of course development.

Hiring committees like applicants that are serious about teaching. A common issue with applicants is that they actually desire an R01 post and the PUI job is just a plan B. If this is your plan A, make sure that comes across, both in your application letter and your teaching statement. A teaching statement is usually a required component of your application and is an opportunity for you to describe your pedagogical philosophy. This is a good place to illustrate your enthusiasm for teaching, and to show that you have put a lot of thought into how to effectively teach.

So how can you show that you’re a good teacher? Most important are students’ evaluations . . . if they’re good, of course. Also, be sure to keep all instruction materials you have generated. Often hiring committees ask for a "teaching portfolio," which is where you will put your evaluations and a selection of your teaching materials: presentation notes, assignments, tests, study guides, quizzes, homework problems, etc.

As a PUI faculty, you will be expected to run a research program that undergraduates can meaningfully engage in. You will outline your plan in a research proposal. A strong proposal must explain how the research is suited for undergraduate involvement. It should also be practical given the constraints of your teaching load, your workforce, and your budget, and it should be something you are prepared to lead, given your background and expertise. Of course, the stronger your publication record, the better. Hiring committees are usually looking to fill a specific subject niche: neurobiology, immunology, or molecular biology, for example. Unless you want to tailor your research for them, you just have to hope your plan fits what they’re looking for.

In addition to teaching and research, faculty are expected to engage in community service. This means service to the college and service to the community outside the college. You can strengthen your CV by being a leader in activities outside the lab. Serving on campus committees and participating in outreach programs are good ways to get involved.

CV
Research proposal
Teaching statement
Teaching portfolio (not always required)
Letters of recommendation (typically 3)

If you pass the application stage, you will be asked for an interview. Sometimes there is a phone interview first, then an on-site interview. For the phone interview, be prepared to discuss practical details of the job, such as your research plan and what courses you would like to teach. Focus on the same themes mentioned above, with added emphasis on why you and the college are a good match.

At the on-site interview, you will be asked to give a talk on your research and a classroom lecture (the search committee will provide you with a topic ahead of time), and submit a sample syllabus for a course you would teach. You will also meet with the members of the search committee and perhaps with students as well. This is your chance to show what you’ve got! One thing the committee will be looking for is how you interact with students, so make sure that you design an interactive classroom lecture, not one that is so chock full of material that you don’t have time for questions or student participation. Also, make sure to find out who the audience for your research talk will be, so you can pitch it at the appropriate level.