Placement Overview
You will produce some materials for your job search in the months and weeks before job applications are due; others, such as teaching experience, conference papers, and publications, you will work on and develop over a number of years. We provide useful information for both students at earlier stages in the program and for those currently seeking positions.
Applying for jobs is time-consuming, tiring, and difficult. It requires strong commitment over many months. Stress is inevitable even if you get a great job, so be prepared for ups and downs. It is therefore very important to remember that by the time you are applying for jobs, you are well qualified in regard to teaching and research. The University of Florida requires extensive and usually diverse teaching, and our degree structure encourages both significant course work across fields and a significant focus on independent and original research. Most of you have experience in delivering conference papers, have published in your field, and applied for fellowship and grants, such as the CLAS dissertation fellowship. In addition, most of you have had experience in planning conferences and running organizations through your involvement with the English Graduate Organization, the Marxist Reading Group, the Comics Conference, the Black Graduate Student Organization, The Graduate Assistants United, the Digital Assembly, and other organizations. This means that you have extensive preparation in the three components of traditional academic positions: teaching, research, and service. You are therefore well qualified to be the colleagues of the faculty who are evaluating your application and interviewing you. The most difficult aspect of the application process, but perhaps the most important, will be shifting your mindset from that of a graduate student to that of a colleague.
Please keep in mind that these same skills and experiences have also prepared you for other jobs in digital humanities, nonprofit organizations and foundations, course design, high school teaching, grant writing, and many other professions.
These pages provide:
- Placement Basics: Practical advice about the application process and documents, such as cover letters; CVs; teaching philosophy and portfolio; and research statements and dissertation abstracts.
- Placements: A list of positions held by alums from the PhD program is available.
The Graduate Studies program also offers MarketWise a series of workshops, lectures, and informal discussions. Some MarketWise events are geared to people currently on the market; others are for students at any stage in their careers, such presentations by UF alumni and Friends about their work experience in traditional and non-traditional (or Alt-AC) positions. Please check the department Events Calendar for placement events this semester.
Anastasia Ulanowicz is the current Placement Officer/Associate Graduate Coordinator. Please contact her with any questions at aulanow@ufl.edu.