119
votes
Accepted
How do I deal with a candidate mentioning God twelve times in their application?
Regardless of my own faith, referring to god a dozen times in an application is highly unusual and rather unprofessional. Prospective PhD students, however, should have some understanding of the ...
73
votes
Accepted
How to recruit PhD students when industry pays so much more?
The person who wants to go into industry is a different sort of person than one who wants a PhD. That isn't a universal, as some people want to do one to enable or enhance the other, but it is pretty ...
- 399k
66
votes
Accepted
Writing ads to attract female PhD candidates
It is believed that the use of "gendered" language in job ads can make ads appeal more to men or women [1]. See no reason that this should not also apply to ads for PhD students.
There are several ...
- 43.2k
66
votes
How do I deal with a candidate mentioning God twelve times in their application?
People in some Middle Eastern countries use the name of god so frequently that these words are becoming familiar even in the west:. Inshallah, wallah, ilhamdulillah, mashallah, yallah (i think) and ...
- 1,954
63
votes
Postdoc application: professor verbally committed to hire me, but now says that regulations have changed and keeps delaying the process
Is this normal in post doc recruitment?
No, this is obviously not normal. There is something going on, and your guess is as good as mine as to what that is exactly. Maybe there is indeed some sort of ...
- 138k
55
votes
Writing ads to attract female PhD candidates
This is an indirect answer from my experience hiring software developers.
TL;DR
Stop focusing on the ad itself and instead focus on where people see the ad, in particular get small groups of people ...
- 705
52
votes
Can someone interview their sibling?
Interviewing a family member is not permitted. Yes, you should raise a complaint. Do it politely, of course. But in the end, you have to ask yourself whether or not a work group that would even try to ...
- 1,168
46
votes
How often do professors regret accepting particular graduate students (i.e., "bad hires")?
I've discussed this with a few line managers, I've hired a few people, and I've checked with headhunters. We all come to very similar numbers**.
Once you're doing the recruiting well, you can expect ...
- 25.9k
38
votes
How to recruit PhD students when industry pays so much more?
Remember that a PhD is intended to be a training position, not a job. Unfortunately, too many supervisors see PhD students as workers rather than as trainees in education. To get excellent PhD ...
- 1,082
38
votes
How to find PhD students interested in 6-months paid exchange visits to work on a supervised project?
Your post has hit on the problem: you want some PhD students to come work with you for six months. This is a bit too long for a summer internship-like posting, but not really long enough to justify ...
- 175k
31
votes
How often do professors regret accepting particular graduate students (i.e., "bad hires")?
I've only had a handful of PhD students and postdocs. Of these, only one turned out to be a "bad hire" -- he did almost nothing in his year of candidature, and I caught him lying to me and to others ...
- 11.9k
31
votes
How to deal with systematic rigging of academic position job postings?
I have seen this in situations where giving tenure track positions was not possible either because that institution was not available or because the financial situation of the department was too ...
- 46.7k
30
votes
How do UK universities retain academic staff?
I think the answer to this very much depends on the sorts of role you are referring to.
If you are talking about positions such as Research Software Engineers, Scientific programmers, or Scientific ...
- 43.2k
29
votes
Accepted
Should I mention an achievement without a proof on my CV?
Like many other things in life, academia also works on the honor system. Many things that show up on CVs are not verifiable (being a reviewer for this or that journal, a panelist for NSF, having ...
- 105k
28
votes
Writing ads to attract female PhD candidates
It may seem against some ideologies out there, but as a husband, a father, and a colleague of numerous women in academia I can approximately tell you what women considering career in academia want to ...
- 6,577
27
votes
Accepted
Are tenure-track positions in Sweden exclusively assigned to internal fellows?
My personal experience tells me that your statement, in general, is false.
I was interviewed for a (permanent) Senior Lecturer position in a university in Sweden. I was not an internal candidate by ...
- 56.7k
24
votes
Good PhD ended with a very bad relationship with a famous supervisor: what consequences for future academic recruitements
If you had no trouble finding a postdoc, then I wouldn't worry. Your relationship with your advisor is certainly going to have less of an influence the further along you are in your career. It's a bit ...
- 33.2k
23
votes
How do I deal with a candidate mentioning God twelve times in their application?
There are several questions here.
First, most people consider their religious beliefs to be a private matter, though that is not true for all cultures. If someone is applying to a school that shares a ...
- 399k
22
votes
How to deal with systematic rigging of academic position job postings?
There are countries where institutions are forced, by law, to advertise positions before hiring someone. I think the idea behind such laws is that this will ensure they get the best person for the job ...
- 706
21
votes
Where to advertise a postdoctoral position to widen the diversity of applicants?
The typical advise is that men tend to apply even if they are not a perfect fit for the position, while women tend to only apply if they feel they satisfy all the conditions. Thus, do not exaggerate ...
- 8,973
18
votes
Accepted
How to find PhD students interested in 6-months paid exchange visits to work on a supervised project?
This is a bit of an expansion on aeismail's answer, which already covers what I expect to be the central issue - a 6-month internship with a "junior research fellow" is just not particularly ...
- 138k
18
votes
How to find PhD students interested in 6-months paid exchange visits to work on a supervised project?
I've been on both ends of the table.
As a Phd Student what would attract me:
assistance with accommodation (not just $$, but that would be very helpful, but have that sorted out would be a plus, ...
- 709
18
votes
Postdoc application: professor verbally committed to hire me, but now says that regulations have changed and keeps delaying the process
If it starts like this already, before you get a real chance, this will likely not end well. Independent of what position it might be. This is not normal for any kind of position. It's disrespectful ...
- 181
18
votes
How to deal with systematic rigging of academic position job postings?
Indeed, I believe you are mostly correct in your arguments. In my opinion, as someone with quite a rich experience in academia, rigging or tailoring job postings, as is done a lot in Europe at least, ...
- 13.5k
17
votes
How often do professors regret accepting particular graduate students (i.e., "bad hires")?
From the people I have talked to (i'm a postdoc myself) it happens and it seriously sucks. Firing postdocs or throwing out students is very difficult and even if you succeed it will likely take so ...
- 1,337
17
votes
Are tenure-track positions in Sweden exclusively assigned to internal fellows?
I worked in Sweden, so I can answer that question. It turns out that I also know some people who were involved in such a process.
While it is true that they may have an applicant in mind, they have ...
- 443
17
votes
How do UK universities retain academic staff?
Partly it's because universities in the UK tend to have quite generous employee benefits. Annual leave is typically greater than average (40+ days in total for long serving staff isn't uncommon). ...
- 779
15
votes
How to deal with systematic rigging of academic position job postings?
I am going to respond to a part of the premise of the question, highlighted by the following statements from the question and comments:
in many cases external candidates with better credentials were ...
- 18.6k
14
votes
Writing ads to attract female PhD candidates
tl;dr- Apparently Carnegie Mellon University recently got an incoming first-year undergraduate class that was 48% female for Computer Science. They seem light on the details, but their press release ...
- 6,275
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible