This newsletter is typically distributed the last Thursday of the month and contains a variety of resources, links, and reflections on graduate-level career & professional development, higher education, and an occasional detour into neuroscience topics, the area I formally trained in as a graduate student and postdoc.
Did you apply for assistant professor positions in 2023-2024? Regardless of whether you received a job offer or not, our Faculty Job Market Collaboration Team would appreciate you completing our annual applicant survey as we seek to bring transparency to the faculty job market.
In this recent publication, the authors found a positive correlation between academic mentors' publication citation counts and those of their mentees. The effect was stronger for graduate students and more prevalent in specific fields (philosophy, linguistics, epidemiology). The work adds to a body of literature that suggests the academic impact of early career researchers is increasingly influenced by the prominence and reputation of their supervisors or where they trained. The paper suggests academia has become less open and more stratified over time, specifically finding that their is less intergenerational mobility in growing one's citation counts beyond that of one's mentors.
The Class of 2025 has ambitious plans for their careers. But as they enter the final year of college, they're feeling the heat of a tight job market on top of student loans, the impact of AI, and a turbulent political climate.
National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) Programming & Resources
The NPA's SmartSkills program continues in 2024 featuring webinars on a variety of topics related to postdocs' career and professional development and well-being.
And check out the NPA's Resource Library for more guides and resources including a guide to the postdoc timeline, mentoring, and more.
September 16-20 in National Postdoc Appreciation Week (NPAW)
With Fall semesters beginning around the United States and faculty job advertisements now being posted, I shared a series of past blog posts focused on navigating the faculty job market.
Consider how you can be proactive in building your network, skills, and brand to help you be more competitive during a job search and secure the position you want.
