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Marketing Yourself on Paper for Academic Positions
Sponsored by APS Trainee Advisory Committee

In recent years, APS-sponsored trainee career development symposiums have traditionally focused on writing the curriculum vitae, interviewing skills (both post-doctoral and faculty), and recently alternative career paths for Ph.D.s.  All of these are important for trainees in choosing career paths and obtaining positions. However, there are many other important documents that are required as part of the application packet, especially when applying for academic faculty position.  Analysis of the Trainee Advisory Committee’s (TAC) survey and the webtrends for the TAC website indicates that trainees are interested in obtaining information on how to market themselves appropriately on paper to be competitive for these limited positions.  Therefore, we have organized a career development session that will examine the different components of the application packet for academic faculty positions. Experiences speakers will discuss 1) crafting cover letters, 2) writing the research statement and plan, and 3) the teaching portfolio (emphasizing the teaching philosophy).  The speakers will give informative presentations and we will conclude with a breakout interactive small group session discussing teaching portfolios.  The chosen speakers have a significant amount of recent experience in career counseling, on search committees hiring for positions at Research 1 institutions and in developing teaching portfolios.   We are confident that the timing of the topic and it invited speakers are appropriate, and would be attractive to Ph.D students nearing graduation, postdoctoral fellows (at all stages), as well as faculty thinking about transitioning to a new position.   We believe that this session will be a valuable and informative session for trainees perusing academic positions in both research and teaching institutions.  Additionally, this session will complement the Women’s Committee symposium entitled, “Gainfully Employed: From Launching a Job Search to Navigating Negotiations”.