Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college, primarily undergraduate, but offers a Master's program in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department.

I have a BA from University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from Yale University. After Yale, I spent one year at the University of Sheffield (UK) and three years at Penn State before landing my current position at Wesleyan.

Wesleyan is somewhat unusual in that its roots are as a typical small New England liberal arts school, but beginning in the 60's they added graduate programs in the sciences (and music). Although most science departments have small PhD programs, my department (Earth and Environmental Sciences) does not--we have a small Master's program.

With that preamble for context, during the academic year my typical day is split ~50/50 between research and teaching. The teaching load is not heavy (2/1, with labs counting as full courses), but because teaching is taken seriously (think small New England liberal arts school) we spend a lot of time with students.

If I can share three things, I would say:

1. The balance between teaching and research. Neither dominates the other, and they feed back on one another.
2. The quality of the undergraduate students. They keep me honest.
3. The congenial, positive atmosphere among the faculty in my department. This makes a huge quality-of-life difference.

Wesleyan has a fairly open curriculum, so there can be a striking gradient in general preparedness even in our upper-level courses. As a result, it is challenging to keep the advanced students engaged without overwhelming the less-prepared students. I have not found a silver-bullet solution to this problem. I spend a lot of time outside the classroom with less-prepared students. My department also initiated a "Sophomore Colloquium," a required course for recently-declared majors that helps bring all students to a level playing field.

1. Research accomplishments;
2. Knowledge of the department (the internet is your friend here) and the ability to make the case that I belong in the departments in which I applied for jobs;
3. Teaching. My last year as a post-doc at Penn State, I volunteered to teach a large introductory course. It was trial-by-fire for sure, but it demonstrated to liberal arts schools that I considered teaching important;
4. Luck :) I hit the job market for three years, had interviews in the last two, and offers only in the final year. Part of this improvement with time was no doubt experience, but luck was important too. It's difficult to know ahead of time exactly what a department is looking for in a new hire.

I have a wife and two kids, and my wife is the principal care-giver.

Remain flexible and persistent (these are not mutually exclusive). The job market is getting tougher, with more PhD's and fewer tenure-track positions. Establish your priorities before hitting the job market (location, institution type, etc.).