If you have any questions about these, please email me at kartik@astro.umd.edu
You should be the best in the world at what you do.

Research I type institutions look for people who are exceptionally
good at doing research but all ads have a few weasel words at the
bottom which allow them to hire somebody who is really good and may
not be doign research in the advertised area or at the level
advertised (i.e. junior vs. senior) position etc.

Better to be best at what is not this year's topic rather than being mediocre in
 this year's hot topic.

Most important part of applications: Letters

1) Thorough understanding by the referee of what you do and why it is
important.

2) Explicit comparison with your peers i.e. best ever etc.

3) Calibration exists among letter writers - so search cmtes do know
at least in some subfield who writes all effusive letters and who
doesn't.
 

You may want to ask your letter writer what kind of a letter it is
going to be but there really is no way of knowing what the calibration
is amongst the community.

Grades sometimes come up but they don't count for much usually -
obviosuly more important if you have not been out for very long.

Statement of proposed research - must be well-thought out and tailored
to the place you are applying for.  It is not really essential to
point out how ytou will involve grad students in this at Research I
institutions but it is much more important at 4 year colleges and
teaching institutions.  Research I institutions will look for the
interaction with grad students part on your visit to campus.

Cover Letter - Mike says he rarely pays attention to it but I
mentioned that there are books which emphasize that this is the single
most important piece of the application.  It probably varies from
person to person.

By the time you apply you ought to have a dozen or so publications

If you have a high citation rate, you might want to mention it b/c it
is unlikely that the search cmte. will go look it up unless its some
special case.

What is most important is the rate of paper production

Fellowships don't count as much for the search cmte. but if you apply
for a Hubble say and don't get it then that should tell you that some
cmte. thought that you were not in the top 10 applicant pool that year
- so fellowships should be used by you for your own evaluation.
 
 

Networking - Imporant b/c what usually happens is that when a position
is open the faculty will go and ask their buddies if there is any hot
shot person they would like to recommend.  Usually in a sub field
people know who is good and who is not.  At the same time, recognize
that its extremely rare that one knows that a certain person will make
the short list before the application process is complete.

Inside track - people who already have one usually lose in Mike's
experience b/c they don't get the same treatment as a candidate and
the faculty know their faults and need to have a reason to keep them
there.  Often they are not going to leave if they don't get the job.

Demonstrated ability to bring in money is something that varies from
place to place - places like Cal Tech probably don't care.  However,
come tenure time this is a big issue and so it is important for the
search smte. to know that you COULD bring in money.

The Campus Visit
----------------

They check how well you get along with the students

Most important are the private conversations with the individual faculty who are
 interested in finding out

1) How does the candidate work
2) How broad are their research interests
3) What are their teaching interests - could they teach a variety of classes
4) What interest do they have in other fields?
5) Why should I care about this person's research
6) How well do they work with people - will this person be able to
work with us when it comes time to sit on different committees etc.
7)Do they bring in new and interesting ideas ?
8) Can they attract grads and undergrads for research
9) Is this person an active person who is willing to be a leader and
NOT a follower!
10) Will this person help move the dept. in the right direction
 

Its imperative that one reads the Annual Report for a dept. before going there!

The vote at the end is a majority vote and so one person can torpedo
an applicant or help an applicant only by convincing a lot of the
other faculty - but this issue is out of the hands of the applicant