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Mário J. Franca
Professor für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft
Job in academy
When what they want is what you need
3rd IAHR YPN Congress –pre-event "How to get a good job“
online, 28th November 2022
in Marcos L.H. (2003) Água Com Humor, Asa Editores, Porto
Salary
Family/social conciliation
Schedule and vacations days
Working hours
Values
Low-carbon
Diverse environment
Nice colleagues
Benefits (pension, health care, etc.)
Purpose
Recognition
Growth and progression
Exposure
Security
…
good job
Ain't enough hours in the day
There's got to be a better way
Uhlenbrock & Ramone (1992)
in The job that ate my brain
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you'll find
You get what you need
Richards & Jagger (1969)
in You Can't Always Get What You Want
Be realistic
Have alternatives
Establish boundaries
Don’t sacrifice your personal life for a job
(social and family structure, where you
want to live, which pet you have)
Jobs can be steps or final goals
Never forget your values
Career goals are short- to mid-term
Personal goals are all the time goals
A career in the academy
Science (publications and relevance, conferences, invitations)
Education (experience and innovation, link between background
and teaching)
Practice (understanding real problems and transfer)
Funding (acquired funding, potential for attract funding, private
and public)
Network (publication and projects with colleagues from other
institutions and countries)
Management (positions held, human resources, budget and
infrastructure
Academic duties (juries, commissions, editorial/reviewing work,
conference organization)
Outreach (social media, news, interviews, invited talks, activity in
scientific and professional associations)
Gather experience in all!!!
(try to progressively tick all the boxes)
Experience is relative to
professional age
Science (publications and relevance, conferences, invitations)
Education (experience and innovation, link between background
and teaching)
Practice (understanding real problems and transfer)
Funding (acquired funding, potential for attract funding, private
and public)
Network (publication and projects with colleagues from other
institutions and countries)
Management (positions held, human resources, budget and
infrastructure
Academic duties (juries, commissions, editorial/reviewing work,
conference organization)
Outreach (social media, news, interviews, invited talks, activity in
scientific and professional associations)
A career in the academy
- Know what you need to get what you want
- Know to what you may aspire (again, be realistic)
- Show that you are available (don’t overdo it,
overcommunication does not help)
- Use your supervisors and your contacts
- Conferences and contacts
- Coffee breaks of events
- Social media, newsletters
- Professional and scientific journals
- Take care of what you say and do along the career,
your opinions and actions may be used against you
(the world is small)
Prospection
Steps of a hiring process for an early stage academic *
in Marcos L.H. (2003) Água Com Humor, Asa Editores, Porto
-Description of the employer (general
and specifically of the group)
- Name/Title of the position
-Responsibilities (education, research,
acquisition, preferentially establishing the
limits and framework for each activity)
-Requirements (degree required, scientific
area, criteria for choice, skills, availability,
schedule flexibility, etc)
-Terms of contract (status, permanent or
limited, tenure track, %FTE, type of
contract, etc)
-How to apply
-Contacts of future head, responsible for
hiring and HR or other for further
information
Announcement
-Description of the employer (general
and specifically of the group)
- Name/Title of the position
-Responsibilities (education, research,
acquisition, preferentially establishing the
limits and framework for each activity)
-Requirements (degree required, scientific
area, criteria for choice, skills, availability,
schedule flexibility, etc)
-Terms of contract (status, permanent or
limited, tenure track, %FTE, type of
contract, etc)
-How to apply
-Contacts of future head, responsible for
hiring and HR or other for further
information
Announcement
- Inform yourself about the potential employer, strategy and values
(read equally and diversity and sustainability statements), dimensions,
organization, and check if this is compatible with your objectives
-Talk with them before, show interest and collect information which is
useful to the application procedure
-Know (and talk with) people who work in similar places
-Talk with people who hold similar positions and with potential managers
- Understand where does the position lead and how demanding is it
- Understand levels of frustration within potential colleagues
- Think well to whom ask for a referee letter
- Always respect schedules and formalities
- Do not assume anything, respect who is hiring you
- You may be asked for Teaching statement, Research statement, Career
statement, Professional statement: find examples, but make your own.
Application
Example of evaluation of an application
Candidate
Total 0.00 none marginally good excellent weak medium good excellent
01230123
Peer-reviewed journal papers
Conference papers
Leading/writing proposals/funding acquired
Participation in projects
Book chapters
Oral presentations
Keynotes
Invited seminars
Refereeing
International projection
Participation in undergrad teaching
Supervisions (MSc and PhD)
Engineering experience
Faculty duties
Commissions
Organization of meetings
Member of juries
Member of panels
Languages Min. two, English + other
Outreach activities
Working and teaching in multi-cultural environment
Awards
Affinity to SDG's
Relevance of background/proposal
Mobility
Past positions
Cover letter Quality and style
Research
Relevance for the position
Quality of indicator
Qualification
per item
Weight
per item
Q*W
Teaching
Practial
experience
Others
- Understand the level of formality
-Polite and respecting schedules
- Respect attributed boundaries (time, themes, etc)
- Make a sober and pleasant presentation
-Don’t be funny! You may be humorous but not
comical
- Committees members usually come from different
fields, the presentation should have a good balance
between information which is relevant and
understandable by non-experts, and information which
show you are an expert and people can be
comfortable with your work
Rehearse rehearse rehearse…
Show without showing
Presentation
- Present yourself, your work, your future plans in terms of
topics and methods of research and education (and more if
appropriated), and show how you fit the employer
- Show who you are and that you are expert and know the
relevance of your work (prepare special moments)
- Use own experience and examples as much as possible
-Don’t overdo it, and only talk about what you are solid
- You may speculate and be out of your comfort zone, but
not too much and admitting it
- You must be ready to be out of the comfort zone
(questions)
- Do not base a presentation only about hearsay and
wannabe/wannado statements
- Prepare out of the box questions
- Defend ahead weakest points in profile (turn them around)
-The interview is for both sides
- Use neutral treatment, understand the level of formality and adapt quick
- Be natural, educated, smile and look in the eyes
- Never confront nobody, accept (not necessarily agree with) other opinions *
- Accept that you don’t know
- Use your own experience and examples as much as possible
-Avoid talk about colleagues (good and especially bad) and never show
criticism towards them
- Never talk negatively about past job
- Bring well prepared the question why do you want to leave your former job
- Prepare in the presentation questions for now, leave unanswered topics
-Do not bring any negative message, regarding anything (past job, colleagues,
etc, you may prefer not to talk about some topics)
- Prepare your own questions
* to the limit of your values and beliefs!
Interview
Candidate Date Time
time class. Average Q1 Q2 Other Average Q1 Q2 Other Average Q1 Q2 Other Average Q1 Q2 Other Average maturity respons other Average
(0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3) (0-3)
TOTAL
Presentation
Research
Education
Outreach and relevance
General questions
Candidate's questions
Example of evaluation of presentation + interview
Personal experience
Application process
Scientific seminar
+
Short demo lecture
Each first slide took
more than one hour!
Personal experience
Negotiation phase
Personal experience
It’s time consuming!
went through more than 100 papers (research and education), took vacations, talked with more than six colleagues from water
sciences in the potential employer, head of hiring committee, head of department, head of faculty, seniors from the institute, head of
department in local federal research institute, engineering companies, union, several high ranked senior colleagues in the field,
visited twice the institute including the lab and talked to the workers I met, trained presentations in front of critical friends, asked
critical friends to read the application process, saw a lot of youtube videos, read the university strategy and framework documents,
informed thoroughly about the institute and others similar institute in the university (strategy, publications, etc), studied the potential
candidates/colleagues in the faculty, university and country/region, read about the city and region, looked for cost of living, proximity
to cultural events, proximity to rivers and mountains, proximity to international airports, health costs, transportation costs, etc etc
Mário J. Franca
mario.franca@kit.edu
@Mario_J_Franca
https://wb.iwg.kit.edu/
International MSc
Water Sciences
and Engineering