2021–2022 (Marketing) Job Market: Advice and Material

Advice from my experience as a first-time candidate on the 2021–22 international marketing academic job market, and advanced AP job market candidate in 2023-24. It covers every stage: preparing, applying, waiting, first-round interviews, flyouts (in person and virtual), offers and negotiations, and outside options.

EMAC Job Market Training

I will chair the EMAC Job Market Training event for the next few years. If you’re going on the international academic job market, consider applying for the training to receive more detailed and personalized advice.

Recommended Resources

• Anatoli Colicev, PhD Journey slides (website)
• Shrabastee Banerjee, job market advice (website)
• Kiwoong Yoo, job market advice (website)
• AMA DocSIG (Doctoral Students Special Interest Group)
• iSPOC: practice job talks with feedback from junior faculty
• AMA Transition Guide from PhD to Assistant Professor
• JobMarketHacker: a script for organizing files and tracking applications
• Negotiation advice document

2021/2022 Marketing Job Market Advice – or: what I wish I knew before entering the market

So, you are (preparing to go) on the academic job market. Before we dive into advice and tips, let me first tell you:

1. YOU GOT THIS – you’re clearly smart, very resilient, and you can do this.
2. The job market process is draining, frustrating, and inefficient for most people. You’re not alone in the struggle, but I will emphasize again that you got this.

Phase 1 – Preparing

About 1.5 years before…

Consider applying for industry internships. If all goes well you will have access to fantastic data, and meet teams of amazing industry researchers. If it doesn’t go well, you will experience an industry interview process, and consider whether it’s something you want to explore after graduating.

About a year before…

The first application deadlines are typically mid-June (June 10-15). Start preparing about a year in advance. Lay out a detailed plan for the following items (ideally, do it together with your advisors during one meeting 1 year before the market):

• All the material you will need - drafts, letters, statements (how many and what types), cover letters
• When will you need to have the material ready (aim at 2-3 weeks before the first deadline)
• If you need external input (e.g. coauthors, letter-writers, institutions), and who do you need to contact
• How long in advance do you need to contact the external parties
• What exactly do you need from the external parties
• What you will do if the external parties do not deliver the material on time

Set up frequent meetings with your advisory team: if possible, try to meet with your advisors 1 year before the first deadline, 6 months, 3 months, then 1 meeting every 2 weeks until the first deadline:

• Go to the meetings prepared with a list of questions about your package
• Don’t be scared of asking seemingly “silly” questions (e.g. “is this sentence too weak?”) – you have never been through the market before and you cannot possibly know the answers.
• Check with them if you are on track with your drafts and with the rest of the deadlines you have previously set up

Prepare a LONG list of schools that may be interesting for you and save it in Excel. I have a huge list of schools compiled for my own market, I am willing to share it.

• Visit their websites in advance and find the “career” or “department recruiting” page. Save the link in the Excel list.
• If you have time to spare, visit the department page and browse through the names. Note in the Excel any names of faculty members you would be happy/interested to work with.
• Try to be honest with yourself: are you going to apply to all the schools (even placed where you are not too keen to relocate) or are you only going to apply to schools you are seriously interested in? Both strategies are used, and both have pros and cons.

Ask recent hires in your department/any recent hires in other departments (that you personally know) if they can share their market package with you:

• Ask faculty members you know personally if they know any recent hires and if they could reach out about their market package.
• Some people will not be willing to share their material with you. That’s fine, it’s not personal (most of the time).
• Be nice!!! That’s true in general :)

About 6 months before…

Ask faculty in your department, your advisors, your coauthors, your former advisors to read the first drafts of any of your market material. This includes first drafts of:

• Research and teaching statements
• Job market paper
• Interview presentations
• CV
• Fac simile cover letter

Check in with the external parties, and send reminders if you are expecting material from someone. Include:

• What are you expecting
• What is the deadline

About 1 month before…

• From now on, check regularly all the job boards for academic jobs for market openings and keep track of new listings
• Some candidates may set up a shared document with new listings and deadline information – ask your peers if they can give you access to the doc

Make sure all your package material is:

• Complete and truthful
• Checked by someone else (more senior)
• Delivered to you on time if you are still expecting external material (send reminders now if necessary)

Prepare your interview material. You should have at least:

• JMP presentations for AMA-style interviews:
• A 5-minute, 10-minute/15-minute, 20-minute, 30-minute version of the same presentation with varying levels of detail
• One slide for your dissertation/research pipeline. Include any information/signal that you have unique skills, knowledge, access to data/companies, etc.
• A general list of questions to ask any recruiters

About 1-2 weeks before…

• Get familiar with the JobMarketHacker script
• Create the folders, create the Jobs file, move all your package documents into the Misc folder
• Run a few “test” scripts, just to see if it works
• Send last reminders if you are still waiting for external material

Phase 2: Applying

• Make sure that your market material is customized for the target school (if possible, and especially for the schools you like the most)
• Check that you are not mixing up school/department/faculty names and addresses in the cover letter
• Have an Excel file in which you closely track and update the list of all the applications you send. Personally, I used the JobMarketHacker Jobs.xlsx file to keep track of the applications I submitted
• Applying to schools is going to take loads of time. Don’t wait until the very last minute :’(

Phase 3 – The Waiting Game

After you send out interviews, you will have some “idle time” until you get the first calls. Try to be as calm as possible about it, it is normal to wait even a few weeks before the first school calls you back.

You will receive news about other people being called for interviews (probably, from schools you applied to). Do everything in your power to avoid the stress that originates from this thought. The stress will eat you up if you let it and you will not perform well if you are excessively stressed.

• If a school hasn’t called you, does it mean you are not a valuable candidate or person? No.
• If a school hasn’t called you but called your friend/peer, does it mean your friend is a more valuable candidate or person? No.
• Then what does it mean if a school hasn’t called you? It probably means that, at this particular time, they need a different combination of prior experience, research interests, skillset, teaching experience, and”5-year-down-the-line” outlook. It is not necessarily a signal of your value as a candidate, it is definitely not a signal of your value as a person.

Phase 4 – First-Round Interviews (Online)

This list is valid for VIRTUAL/REMOTE first-round interviews:

Make sure you understand the format of the interview, if necessary, ask for clarifications via email:

• Which faculty members will be there?
• Are you required to present your JMP-AMA-style slides? How long do you have to go through the slides? Do they ask for no slides at all (some schools want no slides)?
• How much time do you have for Q&A? Is Q&A part of the presentation time or will the questions be asked at the end?

Before the interview:

Collect information about the people who will interview you:

• Keep it in the same Excel sheet you are using to track the interviews
• Know something about their research, teaching, service, PhD institution, their tenure level

Collect information about the school:

• Mission, vision, value
• Any institutes, data centers, graduate schools

Rehearse your presentations as many times as it makes you comfortable with the material:

• Recall what you wrote in the cover letter and if you mentioned any faculty members
• Prepare a list of 2-3 questions for the faculty

During the interview:

• Breathe and pace your speech (not too fast)
• If a question from the audience is unclear, don’t jump to an answer just because you feel pressured. it’s your right to request clarifications.
• I learned (at my expense :’)) ) that there may be cultural differences in expectations about the way your content is delivered. Competence and calmness are great, but it could happen that a certain level of enthusiasm and entertainment is expected instead (which may be not natural and/or could be considered above-average or out-of-context for some people/cultures)

Be ready to answer questions about yourself, like:

• Why did you apply to this school?
• Why do you want to move to Country X?
• Why do you think you will contribute to the department?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What is your research agenda? How would you describe your “identity” in the field?

Be ready to ask questions too. Some “easy” questions might be:

• What research support do you offer in the department?
• What are some opportunities to get data within/outside the school?
• Do you collaborate across departments?
• What is your timeline towards the second round/when can I expect to hear back from you?

After the interview:

Some people write thank you emails even after the first round interviews. This is not super common and you should not be penalized for not doing so. Do what you feel is best in that moment.

During the interview, you might be offered to reach out if you have more questions/doubts. Take people up on this offer if you actually have more questions/doubts. It’s a nice opportunity to clear your mind and have an additional point of contact.

Please don’t make strong inferences about your performance and relative chances. Interviews can be noisy on both ends. Sometimes the worst interviews bear the best conversion rates and vice-versa.

Phase 5.1 – Flyouts (In-Person)

These are going to be very practical tips, on top of whatever your advisor/collagues/peers may suggest to you:

• Remember the Excel sheet where you had the list of faculty from the school from the first round? Expand the list to include ALL the people you’ll meet during the flyout. Keep the sheet availabile to you and access it throughout the visit (print/iPad).
• If you’re visiting a new place and you’re curious about exploring it, plan your flight such that you have at least half a day to go around by yourself. I took 2 extra days in Barcelona to explore the city, even managed to fit in a beautiful 5K run on the Barceloneta seaside! I paid for 1 extra hotel night on my own (chose a cheap place) and it was awesome!!
• Dress up for the job talk! It’s fun and you’ll look amazing. Bring 1-2 formal/business casual outfits on top of your job talk suit (1 if the JT suit fails, a 1 for the dinner).
• Be informed about the weather and pack accordingly. I mildly regretted wearing a winter suit in the South of Europe.
• People who want to wear heels: bring a pair of flats in the job-talk backpack or suitcase. Change the shoes as soon as you finish the last meeting (thank me later).
• Bring band-aids/silicone patches: useful always, but especially in case you get blisters from heels/new shoes (thank me later II).
• In the job-talk backpack, also have some deodorant, disinfectant gel, face masks, and tissues.
• If you are required to wear a face mask during your talk, make sure you choose a “light” mask (no FFP2, no “thick” surgical). Also bring with you a nose spray and use it before you start talking. Speaking for 1.5h inside a facemask may get your nose all stuffed, and you may go into apnea (true story)
• Whenever you get a bathroom break, take it. If you don’t get one, ask for a minute between meetings. Same for water.
• If you have additional necessities (coffee, food, breaks, stationery), be spontaneous and ask. It’s also a great way to connect on personal levels.
• On your way back, use the time at any gates/stations/aircrafts to write the thank you emails. You can even use the same Excel file to make sure you recall the content of the meetings, and add a special detail about the people you met.
• Long-haul flight essentials: hydrating face wipes, hydrating sheet mask, hydrating lip balm or lip mask. Basically anything hydrating: in-flight air is extremely dry and tough on your skin and airways. Compression socks highly recommended, especially if you fly multiple intercontinental flights in a short time. Melatonin and sleep supplements are really helpful to cope with jet-lag (absent health concerns from consuming them).
• VIBES MATTER. Make sure you feel welcome, at ease, treated well, not dismissed, taken care of. When the vibes are off, trust your instincts.

Phase 5.2 – Flyouts (Virtual)

• Check the timezone difference before agreeing to a certain schedule. If they schedule meetings at 2AM, politely ask to schedule at a different time if possible – you can also offer to meet people over 2 days instead of 1, or to skip the lunch-dinner break in favor of ending the meetings at a more reasonable time. Some people power through, it’s up to you. I asked to reschedule 1-2 times because the original schedule was really really late for me.
• Whenever you get a bathroom break, take it. If you don’t get one, ask for a minute between meetings.
• Get up, take a walk, stretch your legs, open the window of the room you are in, have a snack, fill up your water.
• I really recommend investing in two pieces of equipment:
• • A good microphone (price level around 100€, you’ll use it for normal meetings/conferences/etc, and it will cover any background noise, it’s really worth it)
• • One, or even 2 ring lights (about 20€/light, will make you look FABULOUS on camera)
• Background must be neutral or mildly interesting. I don’t like virtual backgrounds, so the blurred background was a good option to mask my surroundings if needed
• I bought fresh flowers for myself before flyouts and placed them behind me: they mask background objects, look amazing on camera, people will compliment you for them, and they are a treat that YOU DESERVE!

Post-2021 advice: can you schedule an in-person visit? If yes, go!

Phase 6 – Offers and Negotiations

I am going to defer negotiation tips to people who are more senior/expert/received more than I did. My only advice is – if you’re a woman, you’re likely asking too little. Whatever your baseline is: ask for at least 10% more of what you are thinking (and it might still be too low).

I kept a document with negotiation advice that I found here and there on Twitter/Linkedin (not updated frequently). Here it is.

The Outside Options

PLEASE be aware that there is life happening outside of academia. About a year before the market starts, try looking into job openings in industry/public policy/organization in an area close to your research interests.

Understand what are the requirements to apply for outside jobs, what the process looks like, and what the positions entail.

Consider applying for industry internships 1.5 years before your market starts.