0.5 Negotiating an academic job offer: what, when, how

Finding out what you need

Talk with your mentor, colleagues in your department who have just joined, those also interviewing, friends elsewhere…

• Ask about the size range of start-up packages and space
• Find out how they negotiated
• Practice your conversation with them
• Remember that doing this well will be important to getting started effectively
• Ask about teaching loads and salaries

Talking points

Think of this as the negotiating for something really important to you — who do you know who does this well? Talk with them about strategies.

What do you need for research?

Think carefully before your interview about what you need to do your work — the “start-up” package for research:

• Space/equipment
  • For your own laboratory/office
  • Available to you (shared equipment/core facilities)
• Materials and Supplies/Travel
• People (including you!)
  • Graduate students, postdocs, technical assistant
• Anything else that you need for your work

“but i’m not an experimentalist…”

You need a start-up to do your work

• Computer resources
• Office space (and potentially space or access for high-end computing)
• Access to remote facilities
• Teaching support
• Travel funds for you and for students
• Technical support
• Summary salary

Do your homework

• Ensure that the pricing you are quoting is current and accurate and for the specific item that you wish to acquire
• Make this process a research project and do it as thoroughly as you do your research — it will be with you a long time
• Have someone else “vet” your list and help to see if you have left out anything

Get a “reality check”

• Ask your mentor, the department chair, or a faculty member experienced in searches/start-ups to review your list
• Ask them to help categorize items:
  • Essential
  • Important
  • Helpful to the research effort
  • Would be nice
  • Not necessary

Use planning time well

• Start-up is the first experience of the “business-end” of the research enterprise
• Remember that this is your research program that you are planning
  • Use this as an opportunity to “hone” your own thinking about your research program
  • Gather as much information as possible in this process

Questions to ask

Are the funds flexible?

• Funds to support you may come from a variety of sources, some flexible, some not
  • Understand which funds are flexible, which are not
  • Understand the time-frame within which you must spend the funds
  • Some of this may be negotiable, some may not — ask the question
• Funds may be moved from one application to another — ask which funds are “fungible” and which are not.

Remember…

• Start-up packages can vary substantially between institutions
  • Try to target your requests to match what you know about the institutional context
  • Be realistic about what is possible for a given department
  • If you have questions, be sure to ask them up front
• Salary and start-up are almost always separate negotiations — and the funds often come from different “pots”