Research proposal for faculty interviews

I find myself very motivated to blog about something (hopefully) useful now that I have an additional non-anonymous blog follower. (Hello Possible Scientist- are you "possible" because you are trying to choose an academic major or a career?) After some contention, I decided to write about something I'm currently working on - my research proposal for faculty interviews. (Other contenders for today's topic were "What draws me to academia" and "Why I chose to come back to academia," which I think are still worth musing about another day.) This is one of the components (in addition to your teaching statement, CV, and letters of rec) of a faculty job application. From my experience, grad students don't receive much training from their MRU/advisor on how to construct one, so I've been learning about it on the fly.

I am still a novice trying to hack out my ideas, but I'll share what I've learned so far about the process (primarily via a conversation with a recent assistant prof, and my wonderfully helpful postdoctoral advisor - not being sarcastic here):

1. Keep it short
Somewhere between 5-15 pages (sorry for the range, but people have had very different opinions of this). 5 pages is the most anyone is likely to read. Some people do a more extensive review of the current body of knowledge in their proposed field- hence, the 15 pages. In general, people will read your intro and then skip to your pictures. (Because unfortunately they have many other candidates to consider too!)

2. Make it (visually) edible
Specifically, this means lots of headings that make things easier to read, and a picture on either every or every other page (again people's tastes differ)

3. Name names
Your audience will want to know that you've done your homework and can reference every major player in your field or related to your field. God forbid one of those players be in the department you're applying to, and then gets to your list of references only to find their work has been omitted. Kiss of death!

4. Don't be diffuse
It's great to be excited. It's not great to be excited about 50 different directions. Show that you have a vision and a plan, and that your specific background is perfect for this research.

My experience with writing my proposal has been a bit of a RolLeR cOaStEr. It was so choppy and horrible at first. Then I went back and filled in some gaps and included some much needed linkages and structure. I reread the next day and was quite happy with this early draft. (It was more like - "wait, who wrote this? it doesn't sound horrible!" - surprise followed by pat on the back.)

Current status: Much work to be done, especially since I only addressed 1 out of 3 of my proposed research areas. My advisor says I need to emphasize why I think this field is going to keep growing (see earlier post about over-crowded field), and highlight my specific place in it. To be continued!