Your Last Year...

In an attempt to ease the burden of finishing a thesis at the University of Washington in the Astronomy Dept., the following useful comments and documents have been compiled from those who have gone through the process ahead of us. May our professional careers be as succesful as those who provided this information...

Steps for finishing your thesis (As of 2006)

Basics: You have both a supervisory committee (at least four people, includes GSR), and a reading committee (at least three people, no GSR needed). The supervisory committee attends your defense and signs off, the reading committe actually reads the thesis. See http://www.grad.washington.edu/stsv/doccommittees.htm for more information. The committees can be easily changed using by someone in the front office (Sarah Sterrs, currently).

The thesis as a document

You gotta do the research yourself. But once the research is done, you also gotta make an honest-to-god thesis, as I hear they don't actually let you staple the journal articles together [as an aside, if you are going to include material previously published in the ApJ or AJ in your thesis, you need to include a copyright notice and notify the AAS]. To make this easier, check out the following official UW thesis information: And last, but certainly not least, for a real life astro example look at the thesis template of Rory Barnes ('04).

Post-docs & Jobs

Word has it that after grad school they don't just pay you to do research for indeterminate periods (though word also has it this doesn't happen in grad school quite as much as it should). So to find one of these so-called 'jobs', we've assembled resources below to help you find a good post doc, put together a CV, cover letter, and research plan, as well as find out the scuttlebutt on who got what job, and how to negotiate that Escalade and a signing bonus once you get an offer. It should be noted that Marcel Agüeros ('06) and Kevin Covey ('06) also assembled a green binder with a lot of resources that aren't electronic in nature, so hopefully that hasn't completely vanished.

Finding a Non-Academic Job

Though it may not be the central focus of your job search, it might be good to consider job possibilities outside of academia; if nothing else, it doesn't hurt to know what your options are. To learn more, check out the UW Career Center's Beyond Academia: Job Search Skills for Graduate Students.

Finding a post doc

There are a lot of places to look for postdocs, and we've tried to link to a lot of the most popular resources below. However, it should be noted that there are two methods for finding jobs that we haven't been able to link for reasons that will become clear.
Now, onto the list of postdoc links!

CVs

Resources for planning your CV
CVs from previous Grad Students
From the archives of Vandana Desai ('04) come the following goodies: As Vandana says, 'You'll notice that there is not a section for publications in this example. That's because most applications specified that those be listed in a separate document. I think most grad students have no problem at all making a simple list of publications, so I have not included an example.'

We also have LaTeX of Rory Barnes' ('04) CV for your perusal.

Andrew West ('05) took Vandana's template, modified it to use a style file instead of a class file, and tweaked the look a little. Check it out: Kevin Covey ('06) used Andrew's setup, turned it back into a version that depends on a class file, and tweaked the look a tiny bit more. It's all below.

Cover letters

Tips for writing a good cover letter are discussed in the UW Academic Job Search: Preparing Application Materials packet, as well as in a recent Science article, Writing A Winning Cover Letter.

We have a template file provided by Vandana Desai ('04) for a cover letter, as well as a shell script which processes it into pdf or postscript format.

Kevin Covey ('06) tweaked things slightly to make his own Tex-based letterhead. A basic template is available in Tex format; this produces a postscript version which includes a digital signature.

Research Plans

For general advice, remember to check out the UW Academic Job Search: Preparing Application Materials packet. You can also find help from a couple Science articles: Writing A Research Plan and Developing Your Research Plan.

We also have an example research plan (postscript or pdf) provided by Vandana Desai ('04). These documents came from the original LaTeX document plan.tex, and features a number of nifty features -- most noticably, page numbers which have been increased to mesh with the rest of the application, and references which look totally tiny so you stay under the page count. To get the tex file to work, make sure you copy over the following files:

We've also rustled up a couple other examples of research plans and fellowship applications for your enjoyment:

Interviews

To find out if you'll even be getting an interview, keep an eye on the Astrophysics Jobs Rumor Wiki

Once you do learn you'll be having an interview, you might want to read the Ph.D. Interview Preperation Guide For Positions In Academia or the Academic Job Search: Interviewing and Negotiating Guide put together by the UW career center.

If you are asked to give a job talk (more common in faculty searches than post-doc searches), review the UW Career Center's Job Talk Guide.

Negotiations

Before signing anything, read the UW Academic Job Search: Interviewing and Negotiating Guide and After the Offer, Before the Deal.

Post-doc Resources

Now that you've landed a position, Marcel Agüeros ('06) provides the following resources from the National Postdoctoral Association, an organization dedicated to enhancing the postdoctoral research experience across all fields. These reports provide information on how to manage your postdoctoral career, as well as providing best practices you might need to suggest to your host institution.

Recommendations for Postdoctoral Policies and Practices (pdf)
An excellent resource for institutional leaders, postdoc office administrators, principal investigators and postdoc association leaders, these recommendations reflect the best current thinking on those policies and practices that every institution should consider for enhancing the postdoctoral training experience.

Postdoc Association Toolkit
Postdoctoral Associations (PDAs) are a vibrant and dynamic source of support for postdoctoral scholars at their home institutions and nationally. The NPA's PDA Toolkit is intended to serve as a resource guide to assist postdocs and their allies in starting and sustaining an effective PDA. In this toolkit, NPA members will find a wealth of information, including best practices shared from PDAs nationwide, suggestions on how to gain support from key institute administrators, strategies for conducting surveys and methods for affecting institutional policies. The PDA Toolkit is a member benefit of the NPA.

International Postdoc Survival Guide
The Survival Guide is intended to help international postdocs navigate life and work in the United States. It includes information on how the postdoctoral training experience in the U.S. differs from other countries, tips on how to cope with personal and professional challenges as an international postdoc, guidance on the various types of visas, questions to ask prospective mentors and institutions before accepting a position in the U.S., illuminating personal stories from international postdocs from various countries, and a comprehensive database of web resources for postdocs in other countries.

Last modified: Wednesday, 7-June-2006 10:51 PST
by: K. R. Covey