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Kulkarni Group Handbook

Career Goals

Table of contents

  1. Career Goals
    1. Ambar’s perspective on getting academic job in the US after a UC Davis PhD

Ambar’s perspective on getting academic job in the US after a UC Davis PhD

  1. Finding jobs in academia is hard. The major challenge is that there are too few positions (tenure-track) available compared to the number of eligible candidates. This is especially true in “old” fields such as catalysis, where every university (top 50) will have some presence in this field.
  2. Another (unfortunate) aspect is that academic-lineage matters quite a bit. Thus, it is common that top schools (top 10) will tend to hire applicants who did their UG, PhD and/or post doc from top research groups (this tends to correlate with top “ranked” institutions). Indeed, a candidate with MIT/Stanford/Caltech in their resume will have an inherent advantage in interviews, especially at top 10 universities. This is unavoidable, so make peace with it. This is not true to the same extent for 10 - 50 ranked universities.
  3. If the goal is to obtain an academic position in the US, then you need:
    • A productive PhD at UC Davis (i.e., a good number of first or co-first author publications in top journals, new science insights, or developing new tools)
    • A strong postdoc at a top 10 school and/ or a highly renowned research group
    • Strong communication skills (i.e., write a strong research proposal, give engaging research talks, and interview well in-person)
    • Creativity, originality and/or depth in a specific topic.
  4. Although the above discussion may seem a bit depressing, it’s actually not that bad. This is because we know exactly what the schools are looking for when they hire a new faculty member. They/we want someone who is excellent at research and reasonably good teaching. Being successful at research requires that the candidate is able to:
    • Generate extramural funding to support the students
    • Hire and manage a cohort of students to do the research
    • Write some high impact papers etc.
    • “Fit” within the department in terms of their long term vision, department culture and research needs.

  5. Before proceeding further, it is useful to go over the numbers. Let’s say UC Davis chemical engineering has an opening for a tenure-track faculty member. We will likely get a few hundred applications. Of those, 40 - 50 will be evaluated .. ahem .. more carefully. Then, we will request recommendation letters for maybe 10, and invite 5 for interviews. Of those 3 - 5 in-person interviews, we will make offers to the top candidate. If the top candidate declines, we’ll move down the list and so on. At each stage of the down selection process, different aspects are being evaluated. With a PhD from this group and a reasonable list of publications, you will most likely be competing for 50 → 10 cut. Some schools may want a hardcore microscopist, you won’t have the necessary skillset and won’t make the cut. However, if the school is looking for a theorist or a modeler, then the decision to request letters will be made based on your research proposal and your resume. At this stage, your ability to interview/ chalk talk etc does not matter. Thus, your research proposal and AICHE meet the faculty candidate poster and talks are very important to make the 50 → 10 cut.

  6. So, the question is then how to write a good research proposal and give excellent talks/ posters. While it is great that all of this is entirely within your control, this is also the downside.

  7. How to have good content for a strong research proposal? The advice depends on who you ask. Two broad schools of thought. (1) Be “better” than everyone else in a specific field, or (2) have a unique training/ perspective/ skill set that anyone else.

    • Use the PhD to learn as many skills as you can. This is the central advantage of our group. Multiple levels of theory, different applications, many experimental collaborations. Thus, I recommend aiming for option #2.
    • Publish! This is a whole section by itself.
    • Write the paper as you are doing the work.
    • Read as much of the relevant literature as possible. This allows you to find what is interesting and write papers that have a broad appeal.
    • Attend talks from different areas of research.
    • Find a post doc that is sufficiently different. Think about (PhD from UC Davis) + (training in post doc) == X-factor. For each possible postdoc mentor, think about what X-factor will make you special. Iterate. Discuss.
    • Network with other students within and outside. These are your support group. They’ll probably remain friends for future decades.
    • Network with other professors. They will remain your mentors for decades.