The hiring process consists of a series of decisions made sequentially by an academic department and job applicants. A department is authorized to search to fill a faculty position. The search may be for a senior faculty member who will be offered a tenured position; for a tenure-track position, which has the potential to become a tenured position, but does not provide tenure at the time of hire; or for both. This chapter separately considers tenure-track positions and tenured positions for which the six science and engineering departments in Research I institutions surveyed completed searches in the period 2002-2004. This report does not report on positions off the tenure track because no data were collected on these openings.
This section briefly outlines the steps in the hiring process as follows:
• the department’s actions in advertising the availability of a position;
• the individual’s decision on whether to apply for the position;
• the department’s choice of individuals to interview and to make the first offer to; and
• the individual’s choice of whether to accept the offer.
Each of these steps is described below.