On this page, I will be collecting links to useful resources for graduate students. It is a work in progress.

How to find an academic job in communication

For the PhD students at the University of North Dakota, I created a series of google doc presentations about how to find an academic position in communication. They’re bare-bones by design – I wanted to provide a bird’s eye view. Others have provided more detailed descriptions of the possible variations (see links below). But those are a tough place to jump in, and they will make more sense – I hope – once students have a general sense of what to expect.

These slides come from my experience on the job market, and they are partial in two senses – they are not complete (there is always more to add), and they reflect my personal experience. (For context, since 2007, I have had seven on-campus interviews, at schools ranging from a small liberal arts college to top-tier research universities, in both the United States and Canada. I have had three job offers, all at research-oriented schools.)

The presentations are available here. I hope they are useful, but they are at best a supplement to the advice students get from their advisers.

I also provide sample cover letters here and here, and a sample CV here. The same caveat applies.

On-line presence

If you are looking for a job, search committees will google you. Be sure the content they find is what you want them to see. At the very least, I recommend a page on academia.edu, which will tend to appear among the first hits.

A page on WordPress (like this one) isn’t too hard, either.

Job lists

Job wiki (2015–2016)
National Communication Association
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
HigherEdJobs
Inside Higher Ed
Chronicle of Higher Education
University Affairs (for jobs in Canada) (use the drop-down menu to narrow down the search)

Other resources

Jonathan Sterne has created an incredible resource in his website Sterneworks. I especially recommend the page on professionalization.

Jonathan Gray has a number of entries in his blog “The Extratextuals” about the job search process. His take on the challenges of the job search – the long waits and the frustration – is especially useful.

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