Delivering Academic Job Talks as an Early Career Researcher

Job applications and interviews for academic positions contain many components. More broadly, as an early career researcher builds a scholarly record, the research program that arises from that record originates from a considerable body of material, and surely much more than can be described in a single job talk. That said, this chapter focuses on job talks because this one component of the application teaches the early career researcher about the principles of research programs. These principles generalize to other means for disseminating scholarly work, including conference presentations and scholarly manuscripts. Indeed, during an academic job talk, the speaker seeks the singular objective of describing their research program―a coherent, compelling narrative or story about their work. This objective necessitates connecting multiple pieces of work to tell a story that effectively communicates the speaker’s research program. As a practical matter, these talks weigh heavily in selecting candidates for faculty positions, and they play an integral role in launching a scholar’s career. Although Chap. 10 primarily focuses on applying principles of storytelling to job talks, these principles generalize to multiple contexts for communicating one’s research program to their colleagues.