Any tips for academic job talks?

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I have a job talk coming up - does anyone have any tips for how to give a brilliant one? I haven’t given one for years, and the ones I’ve seen recently have all been on Zoom, whereas mine will be in person, so any thoughts as to what makes or breaks a job talk would be wonderful. The discipline is social sciences.

Thank you!

I just got offered a job!

in my talk I gave an overview of my research but not mega detailed. I linked to papers I’d written and finding won, shamelessly (as in ‘this project was funded by the ahrc in 2018 and resulted in these papers’)

I said things like ‘in line with your department’s focus on … I will develop this into … and would like to collaborate with x and y. I would hope to submit this to … in 2024.

I put in loads of images and made it look beautiful, it took me ages

have they given you a clear spec? some places want a strong research focus with just one or two slides of future plans / teaching etc.

others want something more like a CV / sales pitch.

I much prefer the research version - give a clear but short account of the most important bits of research you've done and spell out how this will move forward at the new institution and will bring in grants / students etc.

Thanks very much - some useful ideas here! The talk is to be fully research focused (first my overall research agenda, and then one current project).

Research the department, make connections between what you do and the work of faculty there. Make it clear what your USP is. Even if its a research talk they will be assessing your ability to teach si make sure that you explain something

I'm a teaching fellow so I won't go near the content on research, but: when we interview, as well as content we are looking to see if we could credibly put that person in front of a classroom. So, engaging style, don't use notes for a short presentation, interesting but also clear and unfussy slides. Stick absolutely to the time limit - there is nothing more cringeworthy than someone being given a couple of warnings and then cut off mid sentence. If there's anything more the panel want to know they can ask you about it.

You would think there are the basics, but since I moved to academia I've been appalled at some of the presentations given by supposedly intelligent people!

They will be looking to see what you can bring to the department. So

Kudos
Networks
Money
Publications
Research skills & ideas (for this you need to make it clear that the research of others in the department will be better because you are there)

Make sure you have something in your presentation that speaks to as many of these as possible.

The best talks I’ve seen really engage with & explain the research you’re doing. The worst ones have tended to be just a rehearsal of the CV. I think you do need to slip in elements of the latter (funding etc) but if they’ve asked you to focus on research, then think about how you can draw listeners into what you do & why it’s important. I’m a historian & often a good way to do that is through showing primary sources for example, though that probably wouldn’t apply to SS in the same way!

This is excellent. Aimed at online talks but principles apply. Helped get me a job.