This document describes the process behind applying for PhDs in astronomy and astrophysics. Currently it is very focused on US/EU based applications, but there is a lot of advice that is relevant for all applications. Definitely check it out:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mHZFVskJ8uEF5xdMnsq1LRMDaQtUVggPLWg5uUNSxD4/edit?usp=sharing
If you happen to be interested in applying for the US for a PhD program, definitely check out the following:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tz2r9tonturigk/Application_Advice.pdf?dl=0
AAS job register lists astr jobs from all around the world.
iNSPIRE HEP job register - focused on high energy physics but also includes a lot of others
AcademicJobsOnline - not just astro focused
Jobs in the UK - not just astro focused
European Astronomical Society job register
German Astronomical Society (astronomische gesellschaft) job register
Rumour mill for predominantly US based jobs. Note, these are mostly rumours and what is listed may not be true, so take with a grain of salt.
Thanks to the excellent Katja Poppenhager who summarised what is listed below (http://katjapoppenhaeger.com)
DECRA.
Max Planck Research Groups. 5-year scheme, lots of money, host institute needs to be a Max Planck Institute in Germany, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. Currently the astro-related Max Planck Institutes are Heidelberg (MPIA), Munich-Garching (MPE and MPA), Goettingen (MPS), Potsdam (MPGP), Bonn (MPIFR). The positions are announced each year in September or October, check out this website from time to time: http://www.mpg.de/career/max-planck-research-groups/applications. If you are female, you can also apply for the Minerva program (using the same application), which is the Max Planck Society’s extra-track program for female researchers in the natural sciences. The Minerva program is practically the same as the Max Planck Research Group program.
Emmy Noether program. 5-year scheme, lots of money, host institute needs to be in Germany, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. You need to apply before you have completed your 4rth year after you earned your PhD. They don’t have a fixed deadline, so you can hand in your stuff very shortly before that date. But the committees will meet only twice per year, so it may take a while until you hear back from them. Here’s the link: http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/programmes/individual/emmy_noether/.
ERC grant (you will most likely be applying for a Starting Grant, unless you are an academically senior astronomer, in which case you already have a faculty position and won’t be reading this list). 5 years, lots of money, host institute needs to be in Europe, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. The starting grants (maybe also the other ERC grants?) have a kind of built-in spam filter; if your application gets a bad ranking, you will be barred from applying again in the next one or two years (depending on how low your ranking was). So make sure to make this a good one (nothing to throw together over a weekend). Here’s the link: http://erc.europa.eu/starting-grants.
Branco-Weiss-Fellowship: http://www.society-in-science.org/how-to-apply.html. 5 years, only your own position is funded (no money for minions), host institute needs to be in Switzerland, no citizenships restrictions for applicants, your PhD degree was awarded less than 5 years ago, you are younger than 35 when you apply.
Freigeist-Fellowships: link. 5 years, only your own position is funded, max. 5 years after PhD was awarded, host institute needs to be in Germany, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. Deadline each year in October.
Lichtenberg Professorship: link. 5-8 years, I don’t know if funding is only for your own position or also for your minions. Host institute needs to be in Germany, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. Deadline each year on June 1.
University Research Fellowships: link. 5 years, plus 3 years extension possible, host institute in the UK, applicant 3-8 years after PhD, citizenship restriction: EU or Swiss.
Ernest Rutherford Fellowships: link. 5 years, applicants need to have at least 2 years of postdoc experience, host institute in the UK, no citizenship restrictions for applicants.
Veni Vidi Vici program: Funding program of the Netherlands. Somewhat similar to the ERC grant scheme, in that the three parts of the program are targeted at researchers with different numbers of years since PhD: Veni for 0-3 years after PhD, Vidi for 4-8 years after PhD, Vici for 9-15 years after PhD. Host institute needs to be in the Netherlands, no citizenship restrictions for applicants. Deadline for Veni: January, Vidi: October, Vici (preproposals): March. Here’s the link.
Additional list of international postdoc fellowships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vs11SgEQUr2Yr2gAtTjBgc1EDJgbGMBbodo5wJAhI0w/edit?usp=sharing
The Early Career Researcher chapter is a new chapter of the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) that will act to support the needs and development of Early Career Researchers in the Australian astronomy community.
There is an absolutely excellent resource guide for Early career scientists that was put together at the EAS 2021 meeting. This is crowd sourced information and useful links that were put together to help early career astronomers and their supporters. You can find the document here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PC52amSl-R-5KpYwAjUPu-iYDpnXD43PZgC_DOxOdec/edit?usp=sharing.
This document covers everything from academic writing/reading, making a personal website, mental health resources, applying to PhD/postdoc/summer sources, mentoring networks, advice about giving talks, and career advice. I highly recommend check it out. If you can't access the document you can always go to: http://www.broekgaarden.nl/floor/wordpress/resources-early-career-astronomers-their-supporters-eas21/ .
Beyond the various links listed below there is a wonderful collection of resources here: https://www.broekgaarden.nl/floor/wordpress/eca-resources-applying-for-phd-postdoc-faculty-and-more/
Presentation by Lisa Kewley “How to apply for Faculty jobs“: https://youtu.be/QEYqqyONGOU; Slides here [USA focused, but also general]
Really useful overview/advice for faculty applications by Katja Poppenhaeger, including advice on the Europe vs USA experience [EU focused, but also general]
Part I: application materials/applying, where to find jobs
Part II: interviewing for jobs/dealing with offers/rejections
Astrobetter Post: “Navigating the Faculty Job Search” [with advice about all aspects of the job from finding to negotiations]
Astrobites post: so you want to be a Professor of Astronomy?
Bryan Gaensler & Sarah Maddison: Applying for jobs in Astronomy presentation slides: https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/arc/assets/docs/BryanGaenslerJobsinAstronomy.pdf
Astrobites: “demystyfying the faculty hiring process” [very general advice]
CfA - Early Career Astronomers workshop - https://www.broekgaarden.nl/floor/wordpress/cfa-eca-workshop/. This has a lot of great resources that are US focused postdoc positions, but some of the advice can be applied more broadly.
https://twitter.com/toomanyspectra/status/1353726013151305731
https://twitter.com/astrobassball/status/1354535015317721089
Katja Poppenhager's Getting a Faculty Job in Astrophysics – My N=1 Advice. It is excellent - http://katjapoppenhaeger.com/?page_id=148
Excellent youtube series run by the ASA about managing your career in a pandemic but also includes discussion/topics related to different career pathways both in academia, data science, bio and health sciences, environmental science and policy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBTT5hBI8jpdEGWBTnyaoqRicIX5Gvwq2. Specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taUccEVzDQM&list=PLBTT5hBI8jpdEGWBTnyaoqRicIX5Gvwq2&index=4
https://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~komatsu/presentation/tips2020.pdf
https://career.ucsf.edu/phds/academic-careers/academic-samples#Samples
https://aibhleog.github.io/job-cycle - has a good overview
https://advance.fiu.edu/_assets/docs/fiu-guidelines-for-writing-a-diversity-statement.pdf
Super useful list of resources for writing your DEI statement by Carnegie Observatories: https://carnegiescience.edu/news/diversity-statements-academic-job-applications, including example of metrics, examples of DEI statements. Based on workshop by Johanna Teske and Sally June Tracy. From the workshop:
DEI statement Workshop slides: Diversity Statement Slides-2 (1)
DEI statement Workshop resources list: Diversity Statement Resource List (1)
UC Berkeley Guidelines for applicants writing DEI statements: https://ofew.berkeley.edu/guidelines-applicants-writing-statements – often used as metric for UC based hires.
6 examples of DEI statement from UC: https://physicalsciences.ucsd.edu/_files/examples-submitted-diversity-statements.pdf
Avoiding gender bias in reference letters: https://csw.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/avoiding_gender_bias_in_letter_of_reference_writing.pdf
A guide to writing recommendation letters: https://www.hhmi.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Materials/Lab%20Management/letter.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTc8_5B6zzU&ab_channel=HarvardAstronomyVideo and http://www.broekgaarden.nl/floor/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Charbonneau_how_to_apply_to_a_postdoc-1.pdf (this may also have general advice for non US positions as well)