I have applied to about 20 faculty positions in US colleges and I have reached the final interview stage 4 times. In case my application materials can be of some use to you, please feel free to check them out in the links below. Anyway, I have clearly not been successful in my attempts and I have now given up on trying again so please take whatever you think is suitable from my applications - and it is always good to keep your own flavor when writing your applications! :)

1. Assistant Professor of Theoretical Plant Quantitative Geneticist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022
2. Assistant Professor - Small Grains Breeder, North Carolina State University, 2023
3. Assistant Professor of Genetics - Tropical Fruit Crops, University of Florida, 2023
4. Assistant Professor in Plant Genetics, Genomics, and Breeding, St Louis University, 2024

In most cases, you will need to submit a cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching statement and diversity-equity-inclusion statement. Some places may require additional statements such as extension statement. It all depends on the nature of the position. You might encounter things like 70% research and 30% teaching, or 50% research, 30% teaching and 20% extension, etc.

In addition to the application materials, I am also sharing some experience that might be good to know if you are joining the game. To start, if you can find an opportunity to sit in one of these faculty applicant talks, it would give you a glimpse into the process. During my time, most of the interviews have two stages. The first stage is a broader screen through Zoom, typically taking about 15 to 30 minutes. I don’t know the exact number of applicants selected for this process but if I had to guess, it is probably around 10. You will interview with the search committee, which is usually around 5 to 6 people and one of them is the search chair. I find the format of online interview to vary a lot from one search committee to another, but they tend to have a fixed number of questions (usually 5 to 6) and may or may not always require you to give a short (~10 minutes) talk. Common topics for these questions include visions for research/teaching/DEI/extension/mentoring/training and plans for collaboration/funding/short-vs-long-term. Sometimes the interviewers can be quite stoic and do not respond to your answers - this can be a challenge for those of you who relies on cues or seeks a conversational style of interview. They normally allocate ~5 minutes for each question and answer. As for any type of interview, it is always good to prepare a list of questions so you can fill in the remaining time and gauge what they are looking for in the application. By the way, PhD students and postdocs can sometimes sit in this online panel - and so this is another great chance for you to experience the process if you know your department is hiring.

The second stage is usually in-person, typically lasting about 2 days not counting travels. Unless you are applying internally, chances are you will be flying in for these interviews. The interviews effectively start the moment you are getting picked up at the airport by one of the search committee members. But, don’t stress over this and just try your best to interact naturally. It is OK to make small talks. Interviews are two-ways and you need to also know if you will fit in the department! Interestingly, once you are invited to the second stage, I suspect that the search committee likes you enough so they are usually quite friendly with you and may help you with the interview process - so interact and ask them as much as you need to equip yourself for the next couple days. The next day is usually the most action packed day as that is your first official interview day. You will start off with a breakfast, and maybe a meeting with the department head before giving your talk. I don’t know the details but here is my take on the situation - once you are in the second stage, the selection process kinda shift hands from the search committee to the department and so the department head becomes more involved here. The department head will give you an overview of the department and what they are looking for in this position. You would want to give an overview of what research program you envision to the department head during the meeting - do your homework and prepare accordingly as the department head may not always understand much of your research area! You would also want to discuss support, packages and etc, essentially anything that would ensure you can develop a successful research group, as the department head is usually the one administering the budget for your position at this stage. Then comes your talk - make sure to keep within the time and do your best - I am sure you have given plenty of talks by this time. Most departments have at least 10-20 faculty members and so it is best to keep in mind on how you would present in a way that everyone can understand. And don’t forget about the students, postdocs, technicians and other staffs too! Sometimes due to scheduling issues, you may not get to present the talk first so that can be a little challenging as the talk is generally good to kick start everything. After the talk, you will meet with several faculty members, usually one-on-one, so be sure to read up on what they do and prepare some questions for them. Again, don’t freak out too much and remember they will be your colleagues if you succeed! At some point during the day, you will meet with the deans and other administrative staffs. This is also where you would discuss support and packages too. For example, there are many facilities that are not managed by the department head so the deans will be able to provide better details here. And if department head says “oh, I am not sure we have the budget for this equipment, why not you ask the dean later”, or anything similar, remember to talk about that here. One of the lunch will be with students, postdocs and staffs - come prepared to initiate conversations unless you happen to have one or two chatty ones. Students tend to be quite shy! Depending on the nature of the position, you may also have meetings with teaching staffs, extension staffs, commodity board and etc, essentially any party that has a stake in your position. Keep these in mind and tailor your communication style. After all the meetings, you will usually have a short break before dinner with several faculty members. Take that time to relax a bit and use the oppportunity to understand the department dynamics as much as you can. Some of these meetings can take place in the second day, which is normally a half-day. I don’t have the time to compile the questions at the moment but it is good to prepare various questions so you can understand the department better and show your enthusiasm!