Tips for academic job applications
Alex Halavais has posted a very useful set of Tips for academic job applications which, if you're even thinking about heading in that direction, you should read. All the points are worth thinking about, but I thought I'd highlight two. Firstly:
Teach. Even for Research I universities, the committee usually wants some indication that you are not a total disaster in the classroom. If you are a graduate student, do whatever you can to get your own class. At universities where this is impossible—or if you are mid-career—get a class at a local college. You won’t earn much money, but you will demonstrate that you are capable of leading a course. Naturally, if you are applying to a liberal arts college or another institution that emphasizes teaching, this becomes much more important, but no one wants to hire a full-time faculty member for a position where they will be having their first substantial teaching experience. This represents too great a risk.
UWA offers postgraduates a lot of opportunities to teach during candidature. Many disciplines employ postgrads as tutors, demonstrators and, at times, lecturers or course coordinators. Sure, these opportunities often slow the progress on your research, and should be balanced carefully, but if you're looking to become an academic, it's certain you'll be teaching and thus need to show you can teach in an interview process. Beyond casual teaching in your discipline, there is also the Postgraduate Teaching Internship Scheme and the Introduction to University Teaching programme, both of which are specifically about guiding postgrads through their first teaching experiences in a meaningful way which is directly linked to professional development. If you don't have time for either of these (the Internship lasts a full teaching year, while the Intro to Uni Teaching programme runs over a single semester), at least consider giving yourself a good primer on teaching basics by taking one of the 4-hour Seminars, Tutorials and Laboratories workshops offered at the beginning of each semester. Mixing professional development opportunities with your early teaching experiences isn't just good for your CV, it'll make teaching a lot more fun, and probably less stressful, too.
The other point from Halavais I wanted to mention is this:
Watch your web image. We’re hiring for an interactive communication position, and for something so closely related to the internet, you should expect that we are going to Google you. What do we find? Well, in some cases, we find a set of well-crafted websites by the applicant, as well as their appearance on other sites that are related, which gives us more to go on. In some cases, we only find references to their publications and presentations, which is fine; a solid second-place. Then there are applicants whose web designs leave something substantial to be desired. If you are applying for a job in interactive media, you shouldn’t have web pages that look like they were done by our least able undergraduates. They shouldn’t work only in Internet Explorer. They shouldn’t—if at all possible—be broken. (I realize, I’m throwing stones from a fairly glassy house here, but there it is.)
While Halavais is talking about a position that is related to digital culture, I'd argue that your web image will be increasingly important for all academic job applications in the coming years. Do you have your own web presence? That is, after all, what these blogs on MyResearchSpace are all about. If you're not got a web presence and you're thinking of working in academia, perhaps it's worth your while establishing your own online profile and identity!