It’s happening. 

Your inbox registers an email from the chair of a faculty-hiring committee. With trembling fingers, you click on the message. “We were very impressed…we’re delighted to offer…” Months of labor, soul-searching, strain, and anxiety give way to jubilation. You hug your partner/roommate/mom/dog; throw an impromptu dance party; and forward the email, prefaced with five exclamation points, to your mentor.¹ 

As your heart rate returns to a level less likely to alarm a cardiologist, a new source of uncertainty puckers your brow. You’ve received an offer of a faculty position. What happens now? How should you proceed?

This article will address those questions. It follows my guide to faculty interviews, which follows my guide to writing research statements. Like the former guide, this one pertains most to theoretical physicists seeking assistant professorships at R1-level North American universities. Yet all the advice pertains to candidates outside this pool.

The institution will bring you (and, if relevant, your partner) over for a visit. Yes, you visited to interview; but you’re now visiting for another purpose. Assess whether you and your family could flourish if you accepted the offer. Which neighborhoods might you like to live in? Could you tolerate the commute to campus? Vide infra for more questions to keep in mind.

Politely notify the other hiring committees that interviewed you and that are still considering your application. You’ll do the other committees a kindness: their chances of hiring you have narrowed. If they wish to lure you, they’ll need to act quickly. The notice may bump you up in their priority lists. Did the first institution request that you decide about its offer by some deadline? If so, notify the other institutions.

Gather all the information you need. The department may offer to put you in touch with faculty members, deans, and more. Request more connections if necessary. Approach each conversation with a list of questions, and take notes. How will the tenure process unfold? How do early-career faculty members characterize their experiences with it? To what extent does the department shield early-career faculty from administrative duties (serving on committees)? How do the institutions’ policies address parental leave and elder care? If you have a child as an assistant professor, will your tenure clock pause for a year (will you be able to build your credentials for an extra year before applying for tenure)? In which neighborhoods should you search for a house?  

List your priorities. Rank them. Measure each offer against each criterion. Here are example priorities that you might wish to include:

Identify everything you’ll need in a startup package. A startup package helps cover your research program’s costs until you’ve won your first grants. Multiple organizations within a university might contribute to a startup package—for example, a department and an institute that cuts across departments. The hiring committee might propose a startup package to you, or the committee might ask you what you need. Either way, you can (and should) negotiate the package. 

View the negotiation in terms of the question “What do I need to succeed?” List every item, and estimate its cost. Don’t skimp on rigor: estimate prices to the single-dollar level of precision. Such precision helps demonstrate the thoroughness of the research behind your list—helps demonstrate that you need every dollar you seek. 

Request more funding than you believe you’ll need, because you will need more than you believe. Build the breathing room into your estimates. For example, assume that your academic visitors will fly from across the country or across the world. Assume that you’ll fly such distances to present talks. Estimating how much you’ll pay a student or postdoc throughout the next few years? Don’t forget that the university might raise salaries and benefits under a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) every year. COLAs fluctuate across years, so assume you’ll face steep ones. 

Here are examples of items that a startup package can include:

• Summer salary: Your institution won’t pay your salary during the summer; you’ll need to fund yourself through grants. A startup package can cover the initial summers.
• Lab equipment
• Computers and tablets for you and your group members: Don’t forget protective cases, AppleCare or a non-Apple equivalent, implements for writing on tablets, external mice, and external monitors. Check whether your department or institute has spare mice or monitors that you can requisition.
• Other computational resources: Does the department have a computational cluster that you intend to use? Do you need to access a national lab’s supercomputer or a quantum computer available on the cloud? How much will you pay per unit time and memory?
• Postdoc costs: These costs include a salary, benefits, and the cost of moving to your institution. The salary will increase from year to year if the institution implements a COLA. The benefits include healthcare, dental care, and the like. Administrators might call benefits “fringe,” as I discovered after considerable confusion. 
• Graduate-student costs: These costs include a research assistantship, benefits, and possibly tuition. The salary might increase as a student progresses through the stages of their PhD, particularly once they achieve candidacy. Their need for tuition might change, too. Check whether domestic students cost more than international students, and budget for international students.
• Undergraduate researchers: Do you plan to employ an undergraduate during the summer? Throughout the academic year?² 
• Travel for yourself: Budget several trips per year for yourself. You’ll need to spread the word about your research and to grow your network en route to tenure.
• Travel for your postdocs and students: A mentor shared that she covers one conference per year per group member. You might want to budget also for a seminar or two per group member per year.
• Visitors: Visitors can boost your research program. Budget for week-long visits if your institution can accommodate them.

Negotiate. Even if your dream school has offered you your dream job. Even if you receive only one offer. You might still garner resources that can help your research program and family to thrive. Don’t feel shy, sheepish, or ashamed to negotiate. If you remain polite and considerate, you won’t offend anyone. Besides, the hiring committee, department chair, and dean expect you to negotiate. The department chair might even hope that you do so; vide infra. 

When I was a PhD student, Caltech offered a workshop about negotiation to women grad students. The workshop helped participants build skills, knowledge, and self-assurance that would benefit us when we negotiated contracts. I recommend attending a workshop, taking a course, reading a book, or watching videos about negotiation. Contact your institution’s professional-development office about opportunities and suggestions. If you’re reading this blog post before applying for jobs—any jobs—start now.

What can you negotiate for? Many of the items on your list of priorities. Certain institutions might lack the freedom to negotiate certain items, though. For example, a union might determine salaries. Don’t let such a discovery discourage you; explore the options thoroughly.

View the department chair as an ally. The department chair negotiates on your behalf with administrators higher up in the university hierarchy, such as deans. The chair aims to garner as many resources as possible for you—and, by extension, for their department. Explain to the department chair (or to the committee chair who might explain to the department chair) what you need and why you need it, to help strengthen their argument.

As soon as you know you’ll decline an offer, decline it politely. Your notification will free the committee to attract another candidate. Imagine you’re Candidate #2 on the priority list. Wouldn’t you want the current offer recipient to decline their offer as soon as their conscience allows? Now, imagine you’re the hiring-committee chair. You’re worried that Candidate #1 will decline—and, by the time they decline, other institutions will have snapped up the other top candidates. As Candidate #1, demonstrate toward the committee chair and toward Candidate #2 the consideration that you’d value if in their shoes.

Savor the moment. You’ve just survived the faculty-application process, one of the most stressful periods of your life. The faculty life is no walk in the park, either. Nor will you necessarily sleep soundly between the receipt of your first offer and your signing of a contract. The prospect of more offers could leave you in limbo. If you receive multiple offers, choosing between them—choosing the course of your and your family’s life—may stress you as much as applying did. So remember to feel grateful for the source of your anxiety. Give yourself credit for your accomplishment. 

Congratulations!

¹Please do! They’ll want to celebrate with you.

²I recommend targeting undergrads who’ll work with you for more than a summer. Training an undergrad takes nearly a summer; you and the student will benefit from having time to take advantage of that training.