The job market is a roller coaster experience. There are lows and highs, twists and turns. As an applicant, all you read about is how terrible it is and how lucky people were to get their positions. We can do so much better than that.

I was expecting the worst from hearing about all those terrible experiences. For a few years, it wasn’t great, but this year blew everything out of the water. I credit much of that to having been inspired by how Dr. Alison Koenka, Dr. Emily Rosenzweig, Dr. Elizabeth Canning, and Dr. Michael Barger approached the job market together. Learning of their collaborative approach led me to form an early career research group with Dr. Michelle Rivers and Dr. Amber Witherby. Together with 20 other early career members, we took the market into our own hands and created a supportive community of scholars. We shared our stories and materials and offered encouragement. Why was this initiative so groundbreaking? Because we were sharing all that hidden curriculum that we had never learned, especially for those of us who are first-generation and underrepresented in the academy. I urge societies, like the Psychonomic Society, to build and support graduate and postdoc committees, so structures are in place to help form those relationships and spread that knowledge.

I also credit my positive experiences to the search committees I encountered this year. Each time I learned something new, I returned to the group, AND my fellow early career researchers (ECR) did the same. But that weight shouldn’t be placed on ECRs; it should be supported by search committees and societies more broadly. With that in mind, here are 7 ways search committees can be more inclusive and equitable in their approaches:

1. Provide ALL the information to the applicants, even things you think are common knowledge.

Before the zoom interview: Send a document with helpful information – a link to your department website, information about where to live, the lab space, policies on parental leave and dependent tuition assistance, benefits, housing and relocation services, faculty affinity groups, collaborations, examples of courses, the departmental equality, diversity, and inclusion work, whether and where there are lactation rooms in the building and on-campus, and information about the surrounding community (e.g., colleges/universities around, local conferences, community partners, and location information about the distance to lakes/mountains/coast/airports). Why put all that effort into creating a document with this information? Because it doesn’t assume the applicants have the background knowledge to ask about these things. It also removes some of the awkward feelings of trying to figure out some of this information. For example, it can be uncomfortable trying to figure out what parental leave is like or whether there are supports for having a family in the department.

During the initial zoom/phone interview: Type the questions you are asking in the chat. Why? Academics tend to love a good compound question, but those get tricky, so break it down and provide them for a reference. Also, do you remember being nervous interviewing or going completely blank? Help prevent that. English might also not be the applicant’s first language, so if you sped through your question, they might not have caught it all. If you want the applicant to answer the question, then truly provide it for them.

Before the campus interview: Give them a finalized schedule that includes –

• Contact information for the search chair(s), including cell phone number(s).
• The regular daily schedule you have planned with the names and locations of where to meet, and a map to reference.
• Information about who, when, and where they will be picked up or if they should Uber/Lyft somewhere.

During the campus interview: 

• Do not change the schedule during the interview – it just makes it harder on everyone and leads to confusion.
• Tell them about different programs, related departments, talk series, and grant/funding opportunities that might be of interest to them.
• Reshare some of the information provided on the original sheet you gave them before the interview.

Once you make the offer: Call them to congratulate them and give them tips for navigating the next step. If you are a recent hire in the department, email the applicant your example startup and offer support. Let the applicant know that you are there to answer any and all questions that may come up. Here is some advice that I received or have given since going through the process:

• When you write your startup request, justify why you want those funds and how you will use them.
• It is okay to ask recent hires if they’d be willing to share their startup requests or give additional advice about the process (e.g., things they wished they’d known to do or ask for).
• Call all your advisors and colleagues for advice and examples. They will want to celebrate you and support you. I called a postdoc I worked with as a grad student, and he took my call while at his kid’s basketball game to help me think through what I should ask for/how much certain things cost.
• When writing your startup, think about what you need to be successful in the next 3-5 years.
• To help with work-life balance, ask for a spot in the daycare. At Vanderbilt, I asked for a spot at the preschool, and they gave me a whole year of daycare for free.
• You can ask to defer a year if you have already accepted a postdoc or if you want to complete your fellowship.

2. Be clear and open about the process

The job market is full of uncertainty, so clarity about what happens next makes a world of difference. How can you do this? Here are some ways:

• Let applicants know the expectations for the position.
• Let them know the search process timeline.
• Let them know if they made the next cut and how that cut was decided.
• Once they’ve made the initial phone/zoom interview, keep them in the loop about where they are in the process (e.g., we had zoom interviews for 10 applicants, we are inviting four out for an initial round, and depending on how that goes, we might be reaching back out to you).
• Once they’ve made the campus interview tell them how long it might be to expect an email about the progress in the search.
• When you send the applicant an offer, send along helpful information such as those provided in suggestion #1.
• Once the applicant accepts the offer, let the other applicants know, give them feedback, and offer words of encouragement/acknowledgment of the challenging process.

Some examples of transparent searches can be found here and here.

3. Help make connections.

If you want a scholar to thrive, help them find parts of their interests at your university and in the local community. For example, one place recognized how much I enjoy working with students and communities of color and then made an extra effort to tell me about other local and institutional outreach programs I could become involved with. Another place recognized I want to diversify who I work with and told me about different programs to support me in doing so. Helping to make these connections don’t have to stop after the interviews. In fact, several of members of search committees have looked out for me and connected me to folks or opportunities since my interviews.

4. Value them.

Another equitable practice was that I felt seen and appreciated at several places. For example, a Latino faculty member said he was proud of me and knew all the challenges I had to overcome to get here. That validation was so authentic and meaningful. At another place, a female faculty member said she remembered what it was like figuring it all out on her own and the weight she felt back in the day. Those experiences were some of the best academic experiences I have ever had. They not only helped carry me through the interviews, but I remind myself of them when I feel the imposter syndrome kicking in as a new faculty member.

5. Give space. 

Breaks. Don’t ask if they want breaks; give them breaks during the campus interview and tell everyone to honor those breaks. Interviews are a lot so let them have a place to collect their thoughts and process their interactions. Let them breathe. It is even better if they have a central place to keep their things, charge their phones, access a fridge, and use as a home base. I’m especially thinking what it was like to be a new mom and worrying about whether I would have the space to pump and store milk.

Provide room for acceptance. Although warned by a colleague that I would probably cry a lot on the job market (and that it was okay to do so), I was shocked by just how true that would be on the interview trail. I had four back-to-back interviews within the span of two and half weeks, so I was overwhelmed and exhausted, especially with it being the first time being away from my then 2-yr old. I wish I could have spread it out more, but that wasn’t an option. Reflecting on it, I cried at some point at every on-campus place. It was so embarrassing! But everyone was lovely and thoughtful about it. It usually happened when someone said something nice about my path or when they referenced my son, or when I talked about my experiences being a Latina in the field. Here’s an example of an inclusive response: In a meeting with a Dean, they commented on my path. When I started to get choked up, they responded that it was okay to cry and that academia needs to understand that there’s an array of emotions. We need to make space for them.

6. Be respectful

There is no room for prejudice commentary. After talking with other recent Latinx/a/o/e/Hispanic faculty hires, it was unnerving to see how racist and homophonic some of their interactions were during the academic job market. I think it is essential to give some examples here, but before I do, I want to thank those who provided their stories for me to share, especially Dr. David Menendez, who supported me in having the courage to write this section. I wish I could take away the pain these toxic comments caused. Applicants received:

• Remarks questioning their ability, including the applicant being told that they are not a psychologist or smart enough to work with students. Even questioning them about being able to have written or have conducted their prior work.
• Insults about not being able to understand the applicant through their accents or surprised they didn’t have an accent.
• Remarks about whether they were Hispanic because they didn’t speak Spanish or looked more [insert ethnicity].
• Comments about upholding “traditional family values” when applicants were openly gay.
• Asides about how white women struggle more than people of color in academia.
• Advice about how there will be an increased service burden, but their plan was for you to learn how to say no.

Come on, people! While I experienced some of these in my career, I was taken aback that these instances occurred in the condensed period of academic interviews. For some, even all at one place. These sorts of comments make people even more nervous and distracted and heighten all kinds of stereotype threats. They not only impact the moment but can have lasting negative effects.

7. Focus on identifying ways to improve the process

Zero places asked for any feedback about their search committee practices. Sometimes I convince myself that they didn’t ask because they didn’t want to add another layer of unpaid labor or that maybe HR prevented them. Regardless, if I were on a search committee, I would want to know how we could improve our practices, just like I do in my research and teaching. Critically, the search committee should ask for feedback in a way that provides confidentiality and anonymity to the applicant and removes any foreseeable repercussions. While open-ended questions are fantastic, applicants might hold back what they would say because they don’t want to reveal their identity, so be sure to include closed-ended, multiple-choice questions. Why is asking for feedback important? Of course, I have examples:

• You might think a question you asked was incredible, but maybe to some, it was triggering, or perhaps it instilled terrible practices. For example, the most common question I received was, “Tell us about a time you worked with someone from a different background than you.” Immediately, as the search committee, you are asking the applicant to “other” people. It was jarring at first. As a Latina in academia, I work with people from different backgrounds 99% of the time. How was I supposed to answer that? Then I realized the question wasn’t intended for people like me. They wanted to know how I engage in inclusivity and support diversity, so why not ask that question?
• Some approaches come off wrong. During an interview, a faculty member asked me what questions I had been asking throughout my interviews because they didn’t think I knew what questions to ask and whether I was doing a good job. I think they were coming from a good place, but the delivery was awful. It made me feel awkward, and they basically said that I didn’t know what I was doing. Instead, they could have asked how I felt about the interviews or if I had any questions about the process because they remember what it was like and how challenging it can be.
• The “be respectful section” above also points to a whole set of reasons why search committees should ask for feedback.

At the end of the day, as academics, our goal should be to improve the field in its approaches, scope, and impact. It would be a disservice to the field to not meet those goals because we weren’t equitable and inclusive. Calling for change is hard, making the change is challenging, but seeing the change is extraordinary.

If any of you who are reading this post are on the tenure-track job market, I know what it is like to be the only one in your family to navigate this space, to fight the looming imposter syndrome, to have that sinking feeling when you hear yet again another prejudice remark, and to do so with a baby on your hip; And yes, even to burst into tears when kindness is shown. I see you and am cheering for you. Adding to the advice I received my graduate advisor Dr. Tim Nokes-Malach and postdoc advisor Dr. Andy Butler: As you think about your experiences on the market, remember you want to be at a place where you can focus on doing good work, a place that values you for who you are, and a place that supports your growth.