Project Proposal: Academic Job Market and Application Tracker Website

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Project Proposal Academic Job Market and
Application Tracker Website

• Project designed by Cengiz Gunay
• Client Cengiz Gunay
• Audience PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows

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Project Summary

• Applying for academic tenure-track positions
• There is no place like Monster.com
• Announcements all over the internet, in ad-hoc
  format
• Low success rate more applications
• Need to research each position and customize
  application
• Need tracking and reminders during long
  application process
• Solution community website with public private
  sections
• Can be a successful business if satisfy many
  academic disciplines

3
Problem research burden

• Need research and communication to customize
  application package
• Find needs of search committee
• Find needs of department
• Send emails to colleagues/acquaintances
• If a good fit, then start applying for the job

4
Research burden existing tools

• Repetitive process with non-standard formats, but
  there is some help
• Job announcement websites have announcements and
  allow filtered searching and email alerts
• General Science Careers, Nature Jobs,
  HigherEdJobs
• Domain specific Computing Research Associations
  Job Service, IEEE Job Site, ACM Career Job
  Center, NeuroJobs
• Specialized application websites (e.g.,
  AcademicJobsOnline) have few positions posted
  by few employers
• Online forums (e.g., Chronicle of Higher
  Education website forum), not connected to
  position postings
• Wikis (e.g., Academic Jobs Wiki) no automation,
  too much manual work

5
Research burden shotcomings

• None of the existing tools are standardized and
  can compare positions in one place
• Many don't allow user comments
• Wikis and forums are detached from job postings

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Problem 2 tracking application

• Application has multi-stages with deadlines
• Submit materials
• Ask referees to send recommendation letters
• Track receipt of materials and letters
• Schedule interview and visits
• Track communications
• Need to do this for each application
• May need to apply to many!
• Can use a special reminder system

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Proposed solution a community-driven website

• Crowd sourcing for
• Creating new position entries in standard form
• Link to school, university, department
• Can comment on all of them
• Other users can edit and improve
• Tagging helps categorizing
• Caution must control crowd!

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Solution private user section

• List of positions is public, but application
  process tracked privately
• User selects and follows positions
• Can add private notes
• Can start applying and tracking deadlines
• Reminder system would be useful
• Personal tags can help customize application

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Solution but will it fly?

• Provides functionality not provided elsewhere
• But will the community adopt it?
• Need to use feedback from client and focus group
• Target audience from PhD candidates and postdocs
• If successful, can make money from ads and
  sponsored accounts

10
Plan of action

• Can only complete proof-of-concept version in
  class
• Target one or few academic subdisciplines
• Use existing SQL database structure positions,
  applications, communications
• Still need multiple user information, comments,
  department info

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Components

• A main website user interface that allows
  accessing the following components
• A component to enter job position announcements
  and link them to academic units.
• A component to search and browse existing
  positions recorded on the website.
• Ability for other users to improve the details of
  the position and academic units, and to comment
  on them.
• Select positions to be applied for in a users
  private section on the website.
• A component to list saved positions by deadline,
  and set reminders.
• Allow adding additional private comments and tags
  to these positions before starting an application
  (research phase).
• Allow annotating private communications related
  to a position.
• A component to enter application tracking
  information connected to a selected position.
• A component to see status of applications, update
  them and get reminders about their status and
  related communications.

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Platforms

• Google App Engine A very high level service
  that uses Python or Java.
• Pros
• It is easy and simple to program and deploy (see
  demo).
• Python has a wide library and is known by most
  team members.
• Hosting this project will be free because of its
  size.
• There is an existing forum software, Fofou, that
  can be modified. It is based on the forum
  software FruitShow, which is written by the
  software engineering guru and our class reading
  author, Joel Spolsky.
• Cons
• By default it does not use SQL.
• Apache-MySQL-PHP (AMP) Free, open source
  industry standard for developing web
  applications.
• Pros
• Lots of existing AMP code for web apps.
• Lots of existing online tutorials, examples and
  information.
• Can use existing partial MySQL database schema
  developed for this purpose.
• Cons
• Hard to install and maintain runtime environment.
  
• Hard to learn, develop and modify existing code.
• None of the team members have experience in
  components of AMP, and especially the programming
  language, PHP.

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Project team roles

• Software architect To define how multiple
  components of the software interact and how the
  control flows between them.
• Data modeler For display and internal storage,
  by taking advantage of existing database
  structures.
• User interface designer Easy finding of existing
  information, and allow flexible editing and user
  comments, similar to that of social media sites.
• Software developer To devise algorithms and
  integrate other components together.
• Testing lead To design and apply a testing
  strategy
• Documentation lead To make sure the project and
  the code is properly annotated sufficiently to be
  transferred to another software team at the end
  of the semester.