How to get a faculty job

Your path to becoming a faculty member will be a long and hard one, but when you finally get there, the rewards are great. Use our point by point guide to help you all the way to getting a faculty job.

1. Get through your compulsory education. This means finishing getting your high school diploma or your General Equivalency Diploma, preferably with the highest grades possible. From this position you will be able to pick a great quality university at which to study.

2. Choose a subject. For your bachelors degree you need to choose a subject which you would not only like to teach as a faculty member, but also one which is most likely to reward you with a career. Think carefully about the subject in order to both match it to your skills, and the number of jobs it will eventually qualify you for.

3. Do a Ph. D. A masters degree is the very least you will need to teach at a decent College, but most will demand a Ph. D. If you are hoping to work at a full university then a PhD is going to be all but essential to you.

4. Postdoctoral research. This stage depends on how far you want to take your teaching, but if you want to teach to the highest level in Ph.D. giving Universities then you will need to have done post doctoral research. It will be important for you to publish plenty of papers in the journals of your chosen subject, in order to make a name for yourself. It would also behove you to develop an independent research plan that is good enough to be funded by federal bureaus and will tempt students to your group.

5. Apply across the board. Although it may mean moving across the country, you really need to apply everywhere if your ambitions are high. Opportunities for faculty at the highest level are few and far between, and frankly, your desire to work for the top Universities has to be a higher priority than where you live.

Good luck in your mission to earn yourself a faculty job. You have a long road ahead of you, but by following these recommendations, you give yourself every chance of succeeding.