While participating in the 2022-23 economics job market in search of a teaching-focused position, I found that the internet was lacking resources for my job market search: small liberal arts colleges and teaching (clinical) positions at larger universities. On this page, I hope to provide some job market advice and link to my documents with the goal of helping other individuals on the teaching market. While the information on this page reflects upon my own experience, I believe I had a successful market with 59 applications, 24 interview requests (18 completed), 9 flyout requests (5 completed), and 4 offers.

Cover Letters

For many teaching positions, the cover letter is the first document read by a search committee; they want to know that you actually want a teaching-focused position (as opposed to viewing their position as a “back-up”) or that you actually want to be at that college.

I wrote my cover letter with the intent of providing highlights from the other application documents, as if the search committee were to make a decision having only read my cover letter. I had a template cover letter for small liberal arts colleges and one for teaching positions at large public universities. Both templates included my enthusiasm for the position/school and the three key points of my teaching statement. The key difference is that the small liberal arts college cover letter included information on how I could include undergraduate students in my research, while the large university cover letter discussed how I would apply my experience as a TA for large classes to my own large courses.

Teaching Statement

When thinking about how to craft your teaching statement, ruminate on why you want a teaching position and what you do in your courses to find a common thread that will make you memorable in a stack of applications. In my mock interview for a teaching position, I received the sage advice of determining what my brand is; most search committees have a master spreadsheet on candidates with only a small space for details about who you are. Create the opportunity to stand out via your own brand or style of teaching.

For example, I utilize a lot of active learning in my classroom, but I wanted my “brand” to focus on a specific type of active learning: peer-to-peer teaching. By creating this my central focal point for my teaching statement (and later interviews), I was able to connect my past experiences (working as a peer tutor in undergrad) to my current style (creating opportunities for cooperative learning activities so that students teach each other the material). I was able to emphasize my knowledge of pedagogical research (learning is social and students retain information better when they teach it) and discuss how peer-to-peer teaching could be implemented in small or large courses.

If possible, give examples of how you have applied your teaching philosophy in your own classes. In many of my conversations with interviewers, I would be asked to elaborate on a specific activity discussed in my teaching statement.

Research Statement

For a small liberal arts college, a professorship position requires research along two dimension: scholarly work (publications) and creating opportunities for students. For many small liberal arts college, the position expects encouragement and mentorship of student research experiences, either independently or as an undergraduate research assistant. In addition to discussing my research, I highlight opportunities to include undergraduate students in my research process and teach them relevant skills for various career paths post-graduation.

Job Market Timing

The teaching-focused market is bimodal: either it will be over early or it will feel like it’s dragging behind your industry and/or research focused peers.

Small liberal art college interviews, campus visits, and offers are very early. I received two offers prior to Christmas with deadlines close to the AEA meetings. One school was willing to delay their offer deadline until after the decision of an already-scheduled flyout; one school wanted a decision before the New Year.

Teaching positions at large (public) universities were interviewing after my small liberal arts college flyouts and expecting to give flyouts in late January or early February. Many of the universities are also hiring for tenure-track (research) positions along the typical timeline, and push teaching positions to after the traditional timeline.

When entering the teaching-focused job market, I suggest that you have a strong idea of what your preferences are for location, salary, and type of position. Some of the offers I knew were unlikely to convert to an acceptance due to the three considerations above. However, it was to my advantage to give these interview and flyout opportunities my best effort to either push the timelines or increase offers at schools that I was more interested in working at.

Interviews

For each interview, I dedicated a page in my job market notebook with the general information about the posting and pre-written questions that I wanted answers to with space for those answers (see below for some of the questions I asked). The notebook provided a centralized location for the information that interviewers gave me as well as my impressions of the interview. (These information sheets became especially useful for reference if I was asked to do a flyout.)

A useful piece of advice I received during the process was to not ask questions easily answerable by the website and/or posting. Before each interview, I would take notes about the posting, explore the departmental website, and check out your interviewers’ webpages. Some things to look for:

  • Is there a single introductory course or is it broken up into micro and macro?
  • What clubs and/or societies exist for economics students? (Prepare to answer how you could provide support to these clubs and/or provide a service to the department by sponsoring something new)
  • Are your interviewers in the same field as you? Are they tenure-track or teaching professors?

This should go without saying, but smile in your interviews and be excited about your interaction with your interviewers! As my advisor told me, the search committee is looking for a colleague: someone with whom they can collaborate and would enjoy hanging out with at departmental events. While interviews can seem daunting, especially for jobs you’re really interested in, be sure to smile and be relaxed! And if anything goes wrong (faulty internet, cat walks across your desk, noisy lawn-care or neighbors), quickly acknowledge it and move on.

Interview questions I was asked

General Teaching

  1. Of the courses listed as necessary in the job posting, what do you want to teach and what would you not want to teach? (Note: it is okay to not want to teach a course! However, if it’s a posting for a macroeconomist and you state that you never want to teach intermediate macro, the interview will not go well!)
  2. What are courses on and not on the course catalog that you would want to teach?
  3. How do you structure my classes on a day-to-day basis? What do you require in your class?
  4. What are some pedagogical techniques you have tried, and some that you want to try?
  5. This school attracts students of all abilities - how would you ensure that you reach everyone?
  6. What books (other than textbooks) would you want students to read to enrich courses?
  7. Which economists do you want students to know about?
  8. What do you want students to remember 5-10 years later after your course?
  9. What is your ability to move to (insert town here)?
  10. What is your ability to finish the PhD this year?

I almost received a question about how I would contribute to service, but it was forestalled by the listed service on my materials.

By Small Liberal Arts Colleges

  1. Why did you apply for this position at this school? (This was asked in at least four different interviews!)
  2. How do you plan to balance scholarly work/professional productivity and teaching excellence?
  3. In 5 minutes, how would you explain my job market paper to undeclared students?
  4. Which influential economists have impacted your research?
  5. What paper are you envious of (i.e., what do you wish you had thought of and/or written first)?

By Large Universities

  1. Why are you interested in teaching at a large school?
  2. What is your willingness to teach pre-developed asynchronous courses?

Questions I asked in interviews

To Everyone

  1. How would you describe the economics students at your school? How does this differ from the general population of students? What traits/qualities do they share?
  2. What is the collaboration like in the department regarding teaching similar classes? Is there a shared syllabus in the introductory/intermediate courses?
  3. What is the ideal timing of second interviews and making offers? (Note: most schools provided this without asking, but it is definitely worth asking if they don’t!)

To Small Liberal Arts Colleges

  1. How do students find out about this school? What makes them choose this school?
  2. What role does economics play in the general education requirements?
  3. What is the tenure timeline and requirements?
  4. What mentoring and support do you provide for faculty on the tenure track?

To Large Universities

  1. Why do students take (introductory/intermediate) economics classes?
  2. What resources are there for me as an instructor (i.e., undergraduate learning assistants, graduate assistants)?
  3. How do you measure teaching excellence?

Flyouts

Flyouts for teaching focused positions varied based on the type of school, but they always included a teaching demonstration. The teaching demonstration at each type of institution was a mixed bag of either a “mock” class to search committee with some students or guest teaching a real class.

Small liberal arts institutions will also expect for you to give a research talk. The research talks I gave were only one hour long, and the audience included the search committee, other members of the department, and advanced students. There was not an expectation to adjust the job market talk to the undergraduate level. However, students were interested in my research, so it is important to be prepared to explain it to an undergraduate audience.

At a small liberal arts college, you will meet with students, and it’s very important for them to like you! It was not given that I would meet with students at a larger university. In some cases, this was due to the timing of the flyout and the end of the fall semester. I believe it’s a good gauge of the culture of the department as to whether students are included or not. I have included some questions below that I think are smart to ask students while interacting with them.

Questions to ask students during the flyout

  1. What is your favorite (and least favorite) part about living in this town/area? What is there to do off-campus?
  2. Why did you choose this school? Has it met your expectations?
  3. What are your favorite things about the school/department? What would you change?
  4. How does mentoring/advising work here?

Questions to ask professors during the flyout

  1. What are your favorite things about this institution?
  2. Do you feel like you get adequate support in your teaching and your scholarship?
  3. How much latitude do you have in creating new courses?

I hope this information can be useful to some! If you have any further questions about my experience on the teaching-focused academic job market in economics, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I love helping fellow educators in any way I can.