In the last six years I have chaired over 25 selection committee meetings for selecting faculty for our Institute, IIIT-Delhi. I have also participated as expert in many selection committees in different IITs. It is clear that there are a few key factors that research-focused institutions like IITs, IISc, some IIITs like IIIT-Delhi emphasize during their deliberations. I am sharing some these here in an attempt to share with potential faculty candidates about what is important for their career. Clearly this note is not a comprehensive list of factors that are considered; nor is it some kind of formula for doing well in selections. The aim is primarily to help candidates realize what is important for academic career, and hopefully they will take suitable actions during their PhD to strengthen these, if they want to pursue academic careers.
First, let us understand some broad ideas governing selection (and promotion) of faculty members in research-focused institutes. First, as the main roles of a faculty member are to do high quality research and high quality teaching, the focus of assessment is on these parameters. (Service, the third important role of a faculty member, is often not assessed during selections.) For assessing these, the quality of the past record, and the future potential of the candidate are both considered. The importance of these two differ at different levels – for Assistant Professor the quality of past record is important, but an assessment of future potential plays a very important role. For selection/promotion to Associate Professor, record becomes more important, and by the time promotion for Full Professor comes, record is the main factor.
This note is primarily about selection at the entry level (Assistant Professor). Main inputs during the selection process are: (i) research record as demonstrated by publications, (ii) pedigree, education record, and projects (iii) reference letters (which gives views about the record and potential of the candidate from senior academics and researchers), (iv) clarity, depth, understanding, and vision displayed during the technical seminar and interaction with faculty and selection committee (and in research statements required by some Institutes like IIIT-Delhi.)
The research record is mostly assessed by the quality of venues where the papers have been published, as it is expected that the impact, as measured by citation etc, may not yet be known. Here, a candidate with a few publications in top quality journals and conferences (and others in decent places) is likely to be strongly preferred over one who has a larger number of publications but all in average venues. In fact many average venue publications with no top venue publication can be a source of serious concern. I am aware of cases where candidate with very few publications have been selected unanimously, while those with large number of publications has been rejected unanimously. Research statement, where asked, is an additional input – a crisp statement which indicates some good understanding of the context, and the types of problems the person wants to work on in the coming few years is likely to be viewed positively.
Pedigree and education record is assessed by the quality of course work, including the projects one may have done. Projects are important to demonstrate that the person is able to apply theory to engineer and build systems – a capability that is very useful when one is teaching courses. Teaching statement is another input – it is important to clearly specify the type of courses one would like to teach – both at core level as well as advanced level, along with the approach. A teaching statement saying that the person can teach a whole range of diverse topics is not a good statement.
Reference letters provide support for the above as well as the last factor. Here I can provide useful input more as a letter writer. A graduating student is likely to get strong letter from professors if he/she has, of course, done good research work. But the letter is likely to be stronger if the scholar has displayed rigor, responsibility, innovation, and initiative during the years he/she has worked with the professor.
The last factor is extremely important and heavily relied upon and is very important for PhD students and those aspiring for academic careers to understand. While publications are clearly important and necessary to show your research capability, a good understanding of the area and problems, what is important and what is not, how the area is evolving and where is it going, etc is very important. This capability comes from deep scholarship, critical evaluation of the works in the field, and clarity of thought and communication. It is given importance as only with it can a person do impactful work or insightful teaching. In other words this capability reflects the potential for doing good research and teaching. Hence, besides building a good publication record, a PhD student aspiring for an academic career, should also focus on deep scholarship and understanding, clarity of thought and communication, vision, etc. It should be added that the area of expertise is also an important factor in assessment, but its importance depends on the needs of the institution.
Finally, let me mention a small point that can help candidates in their own decision making as well as during selections. When a candidate visits an Institute, it will help to have done some homework about the Institution prior to visiting – this understanding can even be reflected in small ways by suitably enhancing the research plan and the teaching plan. This not only will create a better impression during interactions in the visit and selection committee, it can also help the candidate better understand the Institute and his/her fitment in it.
Though the note focused on selections for academic positions, all these factors will clearly play an important role during recruitment by research labs (other sought after career by PhDs) also, though they are more likely to give a higher weight to the nature of the research area and its applicability.
Dr. Asheesh Shah
Jun 14, 2015 @ 04:17:27
Good that someone has take the pains to write fhis all.important mail..i hope as many graduates and research candidates get to read this…
Anil chauhan
Jul 29, 2015 @ 06:38:43
Thanks a lot………..
Krish
Oct 13, 2015 @ 07:32:25
Have gone through this blog recently. Very well written however couldnt resist to ask the counter questions:
Many infact all of the points mentioned here are of international standard and appreciate the Director efforts or dream of bringing up the Institute.
But the intuition asking me, whether it is too much of drill, exercise, pain and trouble for the too little the institute offers in return?.
While we comfortably asking for international quality from candidate we conveniently forgetting what facility/eco system we gonna offer him/her once he/she is on-board.
For example the kind of qualities expected here for IIIT Delhi with that i am sure one can make into one of the middle or top institute in developed countries like US or UK.
Lets check some facts:
(1) Students: In US if you are in middle or top universities, you will be getting highly motivated international students and most of the time they dont need any guidance itself. You will automatically get invite to be part of several top panels, editorial boards, etc. Ofcourse one need to work, but the same kind of work you put in India and do the same in US universities, the return you get is much better. You get exposed to top quality talented colleagues, and problem finding, collaboration is easier and publishing is much easier (which i myself observed and experienced). The inter university collaborations are quite normal infact i was part of CTA project were literally 50 to 70 universities participated worked together. NSF or Army lab encourages such research proposals of inter university collaborations.
A. But the situation in India is highly reverse. First of all the PhDs we get is nowhere closer to what we get in US. Those who couldnt get US admissions or couldnt get better jobs will end up doing PhDs. Most of the time you will be compelled to take QIPs, College Teachers who have no motivation to do PhD but will be doing PhD for promotions. And you have certain obligations from HRD to get these many number of PhDs of QIPs etc. Ofcourse some are good in that but majority are really difficult to guide and manage. I dont know how many editorial or TPC chair invite you get if you are in India. The international trust factor here is very less. I dont see any inter university collaborations happening in India.
(2) Facilities: The health facility US universities offer is enormous. Most of the public universities are spread over 1000s of acres. It gives you breathing space. Amazing health clubs, pools, various forums. Our university GYM had indoor running track and indoor warm water swimming pool, etc etc.
B. But here with 25 acres, students and faculties cramped in, and with poor infrastructure outside, how fair is that to demand of international quality of faculty hires?
(3) Salary: The salary of US professors are highly performance dependent. There are faculties whose salary matches with CTOs salary.The more you publish an project bringing in the more you get and the more negotiation power you equipped with. The tenure track makes sense here.
(C) The salary we get in IIT/IIT is how little everyone knows. Though the seventh pay commision brings some cheer, still there is no connection between performance and salary. There is this Prof Giridhar Blog from IISc says even if an Assistant Professor doesnt get promotion, still his salary will be matched with Associate professor after 6 years. How fair this is? What value you give for research projects, publications etc etc, though there is promotion, but still its too little isnt? How can you impose tenure thing here?
(4) The close interactions between industry and academia is amazing in US. You get plenty of opportunities to be CTO or be in advisory board etc etc or the eco system of startup is so enormous in US.
(d) But here, despite you hire top mind, on the process you put them through with so little return they slog, drag, pull along and become a good teacher at the end realising the ultimate truth of life and lose all motivation for research.
Sir, dont you think we have crossed the time line for retrospection long back?
There should be a fair deal of of what you ask and what you give. When we are handicapped in giving same return what they get international level and i believe we cann’t demand the same quality.
My humble opinion sir.
Prospective Faculty
Dec 22, 2015 @ 23:23:56
Thank you very much for this detailed advice for prospective faculty. I am a prospective faculty and I am reading this many times to prepare for my upcoming interview at an IIT.
I am also forwarding it to other friends of mine for whom this advice can be beneficial.
Jothi
Nov 23, 2016 @ 02:00:28
Respected Sir,
Thank you so much for the valuable information which is really useful for fresh Phd candidates looking for jobs in reputed institutes.
Broto Bhardwaj
Dec 20, 2016 @ 00:26:14
Great article!
Mayank Ramnani
Jun 12, 2017 @ 10:34:08
Respected Sir,
Very Informative Read!
I aspire to pursue higher academics and research and I would love to see myself as a computer scientist and a lecturer/faculty in an IIT/IISc/IIIT, in the future. This is the best and indeed a very comprehensive article I have come across, with all the inputs and attributes that are expected from the prospective candidates.
I humbly request you for suggestions to my query. I have done BE in IT. I have got selected and would be pursuing MS(Research) from IIIT Bangalore from August 2017. My research area is Software Engineering, Testing, and Automation.After that, I intend to follow it up with a Ph.D. and post-doctoral research and lecturership. Does pursuing a Ph.D. from overseas gives an edge over Ph.D. from India, in terms of career prospects as a professor? Apart from the quality of research publications, i.e. does the alma mater of the candidate plays a role in the selection of the candidate or the evaluation of education record and research output/projects or only quality of work is judged irrespective of the Institute. only on the basis of academic record?
Thanks and regards,
Mayank Ramnani
Kevin Alex Mathews
Jul 09, 2017 @ 09:38:11
Very helpful post sir.
Nik smith
Aug 14, 2018 @ 17:11:43
Lol…go thru tenure track process like US univs and get paid IIT salary…Pay me ISB salary and then I will consider