This page should help academic job-seekers to negotiate once they are in the lucky position of having received an offer from a college or university. The points are relatively generic, but are probably most applicable to the social sciences and not to "big lab" science.
1. What is the salary? Is that a 9 month or a 12 month number?
A. What is the official start date? July 1, Sept 1, the beginning of the fall term?
B. If you finish in May, could you start in June, if you wished?
C. If you are not finished your dissertation, does your title change? Is this accompanied by a reduction in salary?2. Summer support? How many ninths and for how long is it guaranteed?
3. Can you receive summer support for the summer after you graduate?A. Is receiving summer support for your first summer contingent on degree completion in May? In August?
B. Is summer support contingent on your "being" at the university at a certain time during the summer?4. What other mechanisms are in place to earn summer support?
A. Summer teaching?
B. Competitive grants? (how competitive? -- rubber stamp, or a serious competition?)5. Can you spread your 9-month salary over 12 months (or 11)? (Particularly important if summer support is less than wonderful.)
6. How much per year?
7. What happens if you go over that amount?
8. Are there other sources of research funding that are easy to get, or must you write grants?
9. What about travel money for conferences?A. What about funds for your students to travel?
B. Do you have to be presenting at the conference to be reimbursed?
C. Are travel grants competitive? How competitive?10. Research assistants
A. Will they be graduate or undergraduate students?
B. Will they be assigned, or will you select them?
C. What responsibilities do the RA's have?11. Grants
A. Whether or not grants are the norm at your institution, will you be supported in seeking and managing them? How?
B. Will you be allowed (or encouraged) to buy out teaching with grant funds? Is support available for undergraduate research?12. Space
A. What kind of space will you be given? Do you have special requirements for space?
B. Are there different types of offices? What about different buildings, or floors?
C. Can you be assured an office near your colleagues, or in the more modern building?
D. Is there a close-by parking area? Do you automatically get that parking area, or do you have to wait? Negotiate for things that make you more productive.
12. Moving expenses: institutions can pay all, some, or none of your moving expenses. Determine the cost of moving yourself.
13. HousingA. Will the institution pay for a second visit (with spouse or S/O) to go house/apartment hunting?
1. Is there a contact/office for faculty relocation
B. Does the school have any special mortgage arrangements to help (new, junior, or all) faculty purchase a house? (especially important in high-cost areas).
14. Appointments and job search for spouses or partners
A. Aid with dual-academic career couples
B. Career-placement service for spouse or partner15. Other family related benefits
A. College tuition support for your children?
B. Can your family take classes or enroll in degree-granting programs at low or no cost?
C. Will family have access to school facilities, including recreation and day-care?
D. What about domestic partners for #'s 1-3?
E. Family leave policies1. How long is the tenure clock stopped for pregnancy and childbirth?
2. Will you be relieved from teaching?
3. Does the family leave apply to men?
4. Does the family leave cover adoption or parent care?16. Other benefits
A. Do retirement and life insurance benefits begin immediately, or do you have to work for a certain amount of time before they kick-in?
B. Retirement1. How are retirement plans structured? (State universities are often under state plans, which may not follow you if you leave the state.)
2. What about TIAA/CREF?C. Are there tax-deferred savings plans for health or child-care costs?
D. If necessary, can you get an advance on your first paycheck? (Furnishing and buying a house or apartment, moving, etc. is a big financial drain.)17. Health care
A. Does the plan cover high-cost items such as orthodontia, eye care, or physical/psychological therapy?
B. What about prescription drugs?
C. How much is the insurance premium?
D. When does the plan take effect? – with your first paycheck, on your first day of work, or six months after you start work?
E. Will the plan cover your partner or dependents?
F. Is it possible to arrange for health-care coverage beginning in the summer before you arrive?
G. How good is the dental plan? – many are lousy.
18. Teaching
A. How many courses will you teach?
1. Is there a reduction for the first year, or first term?
2. What about a reduction the two semesters before tenure, or the year before tenure?B. Can you lump all of your teaching into one term?
C. How many course preparations will you have in the first several years? Is the number guaranteed?
D. How much freedom do you have to develop your own courses? Are you expected to teach in the core (service courses)?1. Is there a dominant teaching paradigm (e.g., case based) that you must follow?
E. Approximately how many students per class?
F. Are you permitted to hire TA's?1. If so, who pays for them?
2. Who hires them, you or the department?
3. Must TA's be Ph.D. students, or can masters students also TA?G. Under what other circumstances is teaching reduced?
H. How is teaching evaluated?
I. Does the campus have resources to improve teaching?
J. What are the department norms for meeting with students outside of class?1. How many office hours do faculty hold each week?
2. How many undergraduate honors theses, master's projects or theses, and doctoral dissertations are you expected to supervise?
3. What about undergraduate clubs, etc.19. Advising
A. How much, to whom, and when?
20. Service to the school (committees)
A. How much?
B. Can you be exempted for your first several years?
C. Is service counted toward (deferring) teaching, or formally counted in the tenure review process?
21. Will there be an orientation for new faculty?
22. What mechanisms exist for learning about the school and the department?
23. Will you have a formal mentor? If so, whom?
24. Will you have secretarial support? If so, what kind of tasks will the secretary perform?
25. Do you need special pieces of equipment, space, or computers?
26. What kinds of office supplies are provided?
Suggestions, additions, comments, or profundities: email me - eme23@cornell.edu
This page is copyright Eric M. Eisenstein, 2001. You may link to this page at will, but not mirror or reproduce it without permission.
Jonathan Dantzig has a great site on the entire process of negotiating an academic job.
Chris Golde wrote: After the Offer, Before the Deal -- how to negotiate once you have an offer.
Leigh Thompson, at Kellogg, has another site on how to negotiate an academic job.