Do they really mean "in all areas" and "will continue to be accepted until..." in Computer Science faculty opening ads in the US?

Question

The following is an extension of the question Job applications reviewed "until the position is filled" (i.e. soft deadline): What does that really mean?.

In most US job announcements of faculty openings (of any rank) in computer science I've seen no hard deadlines for applications and no hard subdiscipline designations. (In Europe, this is different: the deadlines and the subdiciplines are typically hard restictions.) Most of the time, we see sentences such as

The search will focus on candidates in the areas X1, X2, and X3. However, outstanding candidates in all research areas will be considered.

and

Preference will be given to applications submitted before Date Y, but we will continue accepting applications until the positions are filled.

Wee see such phrases way too often and may consider them boilerplate in the meantime.

1. Does the search team actually sometimes look at applications outside of the mentioned areas (X1, X2, and X3) and at the applications submitted after the deadline? Or are the above phrases introduced for some other reasons (legal, politics, ...), and the search team never looks at anything beyond the mentioned subdisciplines or anything past the deadline?

2. Has anyone already been hired despite being outside of areas X1-X3 or beyond the date Y?

3. In practical terms, if the applicant is a normal scientist but has missed the deadline, how long after that he/she should apply?

4. In practical terms, if the applicant is a normal scientist, is on time, but the subdiscipline is slightly off, should he/she still apply?

5. In practical terms, if the applicant is a normal scientist but the subdiscipline is slightly off and the deadline has passed, how long after that he/she should apply?

(An aside: Assume that the applicant cannot get this information directly by asking, e.g., due to the absense of contact data, and that the applicants network, including that of the supporting advisors if there are any, does not cover the location.)

This question seeks answers from folks who have participated in search committees, have supervised their work, or have received feedback as applicants. If it is the case for you, say so.

Answer 1

As to the research area, whether they really mean that any research area will be considered is impossible to know from the ad. Sometimes the search committee really is open to a broad range of areas; other times, there is really so strong a preference for one particular area that people from outside area have essentially no chance. I have served on search committees of both types; although the relevant verbiage in the ad was the same in either case, in one case, a majority of the committee was committed to hiring somebody from a very narrow area.

As to the deadline statement, I think that is pretty much always meant seriously. The statements is there so that the committee does not have any possible obligation to not consider applications that are not completed until after the deadline. There's no practical reason for the committee not to consider applications that come in a little late, and in my experience, slightly late applications have always been given full consideration.

By "slightly late," I mean a couple weeks. Actual review of the applications by the committee typically doesn't start until that long after the due date. (That's particularly true if the due date is early, falling during the winter break or earlier.) The latest application that I can recall getting full consideration was completed about a month late, but at that point things are probably getting dicey. And (just like in graduate admissions) committee members are likely to be more flexible about the dates of recommendation letters than the package put together by the job applicant.

Answer 2

It makes sense to approach this question by thinking of the job ad as a contract. The department is making certain promises about the way the search will be conducted. For both legal and ethical reasons, you should interpret those promises in the most literal way possible: every word that is included matters and is included for a reason, and every word that is not included is also not included for a reason. Your prospects of being able to second-guess some sort of hidden meaning behind those words are therefore not very good: if the department wanted to let you know its precise intentions, it would have already done so by including that information in the job ad. None of us reading the ad from the outside can know any more than you do.

To put what I said above into practice, let’s see what the ad actually said and what we can read into it:

outstanding candidates in all research areas will be considered

Well, it means exactly what it says: the department will consider all outstanding candidates. If you apply and your area is not exactly what they said, and if you are outstanding, they will at least consider you. There are obvious advantages to the department leaving such options open for itself. For example, if a Turing Prize winner or some other famous computer scientist applies and they are not in the desired areas, the department may still prefer to hire them.

What if a normal computer scientist applies? Well, normal people can still be outstanding. We can’t say if you should apply, and can’t give any insight about what the department considers outstanding or why they inserted that language into the job ad. But it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with legalities or politics - it could simply make good sense as a recruiting strategy.

Preference will be given to applications submitted before Date Y, but we will continue accepting applications until the positions are filled.

Again, this means exactly what it says: the department will continue to accept applications. If the reincarnation of Alan Turing applied three months after date Y and the position is unfilled, you can rest assured that there is a good chance they will be hired. And as for a normal, non-famous person, again none of us can say what your chances are if you apply two weeks, or one month, or three months, after the deadline. It depends how attractive you look compared to other candidates currently being considered.

As others have said, from a practical point of view the best thing is to apply and hope for the best. Good luck!

Answer 3

I'm a department chair (in physics, not CS) and have been involved in multiple searches. The job market is very competitive (for you, the applicant), but second-tier schools are ALSO very interested in getting the best people we can get. We absolutely prefer the areas we listed in the job advert, but we would be fools to reject an application from someone outstanding, and we leave you to define that; we'll know it when we see it. (Also, discipline boundaries are fluid. You might not be in area X1, but you might make a case in your application letter that X4 (your area) is very similar to X1. Smart search committees know that they can get too focused and that what they really need might NOT be what they asked for)

As far as being late goes, I agree with the other answers. The search committee often takes a couple weeks to have a meeting, and if you are under a month late and you ARE in a desired area, then we definitely want to see your app, because we may have gotten a lot of speculative apps from folks who are NOT in the prescribed area. So yes, it feels tough to you, but search committees also worry. A ''failed search'' (where you didn't find an applicant who fits, or your top choices turned you down) is a nightmare for a department.

Finally, as far as "chutzpah" goes ... we expect it in our applicants. Definitely don't be too chicken to call up and ask, even if it's a cold call. Harvard/Stanford/Berkeley can turn up their noses at you, but smaller schools will take your call. It can't hurt you to try to get more info. That's good advice for ANY job-hunting situation.