Pre-Hire Connections & Recruiting
- Be pro-active in recruiting high-quality candidates. Start thinking more like an athletic coach. Coaches go out and find the talent they need. They do not just put ads in the paper and then sit back and wait.
- Make contact with the professional organizations — APS, NSBP, NSHP and possibly NSBE (Black Engineers), SACNAS, MAES, depending upon what fields are of interest for the new hire.
- Browse through the APS Minorities Speakers List for senior persons in the field of hire. Invite them to speak to the department and have a discussion about potential minority candidates while they are visiting.
- Actively recruit minority PhD candidates among the HBCU's that have PhD programs in physics — Howard, Hampton, Alabama A&M, and Florida A&M. NSF publishes a list of those universities that graduate the largest number of minority PhD's in physics. AIP also has these statistics (see aip.org/statistics). Make these contacts 12 - 18 months prior to the actual search.
- Always be in a recruitment mode — do not wait for searches to announce vacancies. This mode means keeping an eye out, inside and outside of the University, for potential staff members of color and women. Establish friendly relationships with them so that if you call and ask them to be a candidate for an open position they’ll be likely to agree. Seize the opportunity to recruit and network at national meetings.
- Treat every vacancy as if it is the only shot you will ever get to find and hire a candidate who will increase your department’s diversity. This means that if you do not get good candidates of color in the initial pool, repost and consider outside advertising.
- Diversity needs to be framed as an essential component of excellence without which the University cannot hope to achieve greatness. That message should be clearly understood and each committee member should be comfortable articulating the University’s commitment to diversity.
