Fall Jobs Post 2022

In the fall I try to make my predictions on the faculty job market for the spring. The outlook this year is hazy as we have two forces pushing in opposite directions. 

Most of the largest tech companies are having layoffs and hiring freezes amidst a recession, higher expenses and a drop in revenue from cloud and advertising. Meanwhile computing has never had a more exciting (or scary) year of advances, particularly in generative AI. I can't remember such a dichotomy in the past. In the downturn after the 2008 financial crisis computing wasn't particularly exciting as the cloud, smart phones and machine learning were then just nascent technologies.

We'll probably have more competition in the academic job market as many new PhDs may decide to look at academic positions because of limited opportunities in large tech companies. We might even see a reverse migration from industry to academia from those who now might see universities as a safe haven.

What about the students? Will they still come in droves driven by the excitement in computing or get scared off by the downturn in the tech industry. They shouldn't worry--the market should turn around by the time they graduate and even today there are plenty of tech jobs in smaller and midsize tech companies as well as companies that deal with data, which is pretty much every company.

But perception matters more than reality. If students do stay away that might reduce pressure to grow CS departments.

Onto my usual advice. Give yourself a good virtual face. Have a well-designed web page with access to all your job materials and papers. Maintain your Google Scholar page. Add yourself to the CRA's CV database. Find a way to stand out, perhaps a short video describing your research. 

Best source for finding jobs are the ads from the CRA and the ACM. For theoretical computer science specific postdoc and faculty positions check out TCS Jobs and Theory Announcements. If you have jobs to announce, please post to the above and/or feel free to leave a comment on this post. Even if you don't see an ad for a specific school they may still be hiring, check out their website or email someone at the department. You'll never know if you don't ask.