Recruitment practices and job search for academic positions in psychology

This paper describes the faculty hiring process, applicants' job search process, and unsuccessful applicants' current employment based on surveys of (a) hired faculty members, (b) successful applicants who had declined job offers, (c) unsuccessful applicants, and (d) Canadian psychology departments with respect to full-time junior faculty openings advertised in 1993-94. Applicants in the clinical/counselling area are most likely to be successful. Significant predictors of success are number of courses taught, having children, citizenship or permanent residency, internship completion, number of books and book chapters published, and number of research grants awarded. There was a perceptual gap between departments and applicants in the importance of several selection criteria. Applicants were most critical about departments' lack of communication with and consideration for applicants. Nevertheless, over 90% of unsuccessful applicants were currently fairly happily employed in their profession.