Job Search

An integral part of the Ph.D. program and indeed the ultimate objective of obtaining a Ph.D. is to find a tenure-track position at an academic institution. Fortunately for students in finance, the job search process is well organized.

The process is centered around two organizations, the Financial Management Association, or FMA, and the American Finance Association, or AFA. In the late summer, the FMA publishes two books, one containing advertisements of position openings and another containing resumés of available candidates. The student's dissertation chairperson and possibly other faculty members may write letters to faculty at other schools to advertise the candidate. Schools then contact candidates they are interested in and schedule interviews that take place at either the FMA convention which occurs in October, or the AFA convention which occurs in January. After these interviews, if a school is interested in pursuing a candidate, it invites the candidate for an on-campus interview, which usually occurs in February and March. The interview normally consists of meetings with faculty members and the student's seminar, which is an approximately one and a half hour presentation of his or her dissertation research.

Students should be aware that the most critical factors in obtaining a job offer are the likelihood of a completed dissertation before the student begins the job, the prospects for publication of high quality articles out of the dissertation as well as the potential for effective classroom teaching.