Doctoral students in political science are understandably concerned
with job placement. Most students enter graduate school with an eye
to academia and want to know what they must do to secure their ideal
academic position. Faculty members readily offer guidance on how to
increase students' likelihood of obtaining an academic job. And
PS has published many articles that focus on
this topic, ranging from empirical descriptions of the job market to
personal accounts of job-hunting experiences. Unfortunately,
graduate students often receive anecdotal or contradictory advice.
To help rectify this, we undertook a more systematic examination of
the qualities department hiring committees seek when granting
interviews to job applicants.The
authors would like to thank John Coleman, Katherine Cramer
Walsh, Charles Franklin, the anonymous reviewers at
PS, and the survey respondents.