For early-career academics, there’s nothing quite like the nervous excitement of being invited to a distant campus for the first time to interview for a full-time position. That’s the point at which you feel that all your years of sacrifice and hard work are finally starting to pay off.
Applying for an assistant professor or lecturer position typically requires submitting dozens of applications, which will likely result in several interview invitations. And while initial phone or Zoom screenings appear to have become more common since the pandemic, in-person campus visits remain a core part of the process. In addition to interviews, visits may include research and teaching talks, meetings with existing faculty and students, tours of facilities, and dinner with the research committee.
All of this is very valuable and will not only help the department decide if it wants to hire you, but also help the candidate decide if the place is where they want to work. However, most people applying for such positions are postdoctoral or doctoral students. We typically live paycheck to paycheck and have little savings to cover unexpected expenses. However, in most cases you will be required to cover the costs upfront.
If you receive multiple interview invitations (if you’re lucky), such costs can add up quickly (if you’re not so lucky). As the employment base for postdocs is primarily international (for example, 61 per cent of postdocs in the UK are from overseas), travel costs can be high, with additional costs such as visas, embassy visits and extended stays in your home country. Expenses add stress and financial strain. . The total cost of each visit can easily run into the thousands of pounds and is unlikely to be immediately reimbursed.
I recently traveled from my current institution in California to attend an interview at a prestigious university in the north of England. The travel costs were high, but the invitations arrived early in the recruitment cycle and the advertised refund period was his 4-6 weeks, so it was a good idea to get your money back before any other invitations arrived. I was confident. But after six weeks, I still hadn’t received my payment, so I started chasing down university administrators.
After eight weeks, I contacted the department head, told him about the challenges I was facing as a result of the delay, and hoped that he might be able to help move things along faster. However, I received no response, no updated schedule for a refund, and no apology for my experience. I finally got paid three months later, but by then I had to decline all future in-person invitations for this cycle. No, I didn’t get the job.
My experience is not isolated. In preparing this article, I spoke with countless academics who have experienced financial hardship in the academic job market. If you’re like me, most people have found the repayment process extremely slow and unclear about what costs will or won’t be covered, all of which has led to increased credit card debt and interest. . Many also said they had to decline some interviews due to lack of funds.
A large number of postdocs reported having to take time off (paid or unpaid) to attend interviews. This is standard practice in other industries, as is the need to pay for interviews upfront, but postdoc periods are often advertised as training positions (so you can argue that the pay is justifiably lower). It has been). If this is true, participating in interviews and other career advancement activities should be accepted and supported as elements of this position, especially as it involves sharing laboratory research results with the wider community. is.
However, despite the low wages they pay postdocs, candidates’ current institutions never offer assistance with interview costs. And even when job seekers communicate financial hardship, potential permanent employers rarely offer to make travel arrangements on their behalf. Instead, the most frequent response is to switch to an online format, which immediately puts candidates at a disadvantage compared to those who can attend in person. And, of course, these disadvantaged candidates are more likely to be from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, including first-generation academics, or to have additional financial responsibilities such as caregiving or child rearing. .
A 2020 US study found that only 42 per cent of interviewees did not receive an offer letter and only 26 per cent received more than one letter, making success in the job market dependent on opportunities at every stage. It depends on whether you can maximize it. Having to decline an interview due to the costs involved can significantly reduce a candidate’s chances of success and can make the difference between a successful cycle and a failed one.
The typical time frame for receiving a refund in other industries is two weeks, but I see no logical reason for it to take longer in academia. Even better, some universities now employ travel agents to make advance reservations for job seekers, eliminating the need for refunds in the first place. This should be the standard.
The stated desire to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education needs to be backed up by removing real barriers to the participation of underrepresented groups. At this point, our hiring practices appear to be designed to squeeze out the most financially capable, rather than the best suited for the role.
Eleanor Palser is a professional research assistant at the University of California, San Francisco.