David and mystery grad student(s) I might be able to provide a bit of input as I am a current postdoc with career aims at a teaching college. I defended my PhD in 2014 and last year I was employed as a visiting prof at a liberal arts school, so I've seen both sides of the current job market. From my POV, the market is crowded with highly qualified folks with both a fair amount of teaching and research experience. Just because you want to focus on teaching doesn't mean you can neglect the research side of your CV. If either side of your CV is neglected, you aren't going to be getting many interviews anyway.
While doing research, use the postdoc to work with undergrads. Get that work published in a timely fashion and take undergrad students to conferences with you. Having a few papers on your CV with undergrads as first authors will be a huge plus. Add a sector to your CV listing undergrad students mentored. Many job applications will ask for demonstrated abilities to mentor undergrads, so prove that now with RUE's. Work on career research plans that will fit into three summer months and isn't going to rely on advanced, can-work-independently, PhD students. Show you can work without a huge startup budget. A good post-doc advisor can also help advance your teaching skills as well. Look for co-teaching experience, learn pedagogy from others, go on field trips with classes, and offer to fill on when the primary instructor out of town for travel. Volunteer to teach the course the second time. If you haven't had the chance to be a primary instructor for a class, make sure you check that box soon, hopefully before applying to teaching positions. Help your advisor re-develop a course with new pedagogy, as this will show you can do the same when handed an outdated class to teach on your own. Focus on what skills you'll need at a tenure-track teaching position (spoiler alert, it's nearly the same skills you'll need at a R1 position, just a different priority placed on each skill). Make a plan and work on those skills. If a potential postdoc PI doesn't want to help you while you are doing good research AND teaching, they maybe aren't going to be a great advisor for you anyway. Finally, the visiting prof route was an awesome experience for me. You will still be expected to do research as a visiting prof if you want to get interviews for tenture-track positions, but don't overlook jumping right into a teaching school if you really feel that would be best. Note, there is a massive differences between a full-time visiting prof and a part-time adjunct position. david On Sun, Aug 16, 2015 at 7:55 PM, David Inouye <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm posting this on behalf of a grad student I met at the ESA meeting last > week, who will read responses on the list (or you can send them to me to > forward). > > David Inouye > > For an outgoing graduate student applying for research post-docs, are > there advantages/disadvantages to sharing with your potential PI that your > ultimate career goal is to work at a teaching university? Would a potential > PI prefer a post-doc who has more research-oriented career goals? >
