Purdue graduate students, postdocs gain tips, insights on becoming faculty members

More than 200 master’s and doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars spent their fall break gaining crucial insights and tips on taking the essential steps to advance their academic journey to become the next generation of leading professors, teachers and researchers.

Through the fall semester’s Future Faculty Boot Camp, the group heard 10 different presentations from leading Purdue faculty and staff over the course of two days, focused on demystifying the faculty job search, preparing hiring documents and acing the interview.

“The response to our Future Faculty Boot Camps has been phenomenal — we essentially were sold out for this semester’s event,” says Haley Oliver, Purdue vice provost for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. “As home to one of the nation’s largest graduate programs and producers of PhDs, we have made it a top priority to ensure our students prepare for the long runway and land the gig they’ve dreamed about.”

The workshop drew 214 graduate students and postdocs Monday and Tuesday at Wilmeth Active Learning Center’s Hiler Theater for a comprehensive program that highlighted the tools, insights and strategies needed to begin their academic career search. Offered every semester, the boot camp is led by Purdue’s Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars (OGSPS).

Aya Saied Hussain, a postdoctoral scholar in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, was back for her third boot camp, absorbing all she could to be in the best position possible for a tenured faculty position — whether at Purdue or another leading institution in her chosen field. Hussain, working with her advisor, professor Paul Brown, was specifically interested in the boot camp session on using AI tools in the faculty search process.

“Yes, Purdue is on my list. We’d like to stay here — it’s a great school and a great community,” Hussain says. At Purdue as a postdoc for 2 1/2 years, Hussain is advancing her research in the area of aquaponics on the Blue is Green (BiG) project. “I’m here at the boot camp to take it all in, to stay current and to tailor my package for the right faculty position I’d like to pursue.”

For Michael Luongo, a self-described nontraditional PhD student at Purdue in hospitality and tourism management, the two-day boot camp was the perfect opportunity to refine his CV and future plans while networking with fellow graduate students, key faculty members and campus administrators in an informal setting.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rutgers University, Luongo has been a university instructor over the years, sparking a passion and driving a desire for impactful immersive, experiential learning. “I believe the longer time you spend in teaching, in experiences of learning and research, the more there is for me to know and to want to keep learning,” Luongo says of his reasons for attending the boot camp.

At age 57, Luongo looks to advance his studies that are focused on tourism redevelopment in the context of conflict. He hopes to establish a yearlong curriculum of classroom instruction combined with a postwar tourism study abroad experience that he would lead as a faculty member. He will spend the spring semester living in Rwanda as part of the Boren Language Fellowship  to continue his research and doctoral studies, focused on tourism to sites related to the country’s 1994 genocide while studying Swahili. 

“I’ve been on this career journey for several years. These types of programs are very beneficial for gaining what’s needed to ensure you stand out in your search to become a faculty member at Purdue or elsewhere,” Luongo says.

David Rollock, assistant vice provost, offered his expertise on the application process, highlighting the key steps and strategies for successfully securing a position in academia, either as a professor or a faculty researcher. From work samples and cover letters to curriculum vitae and letters of recommendation, the application materials are designed “to tell your story,” to provide examples of how graduate students and postdocs demonstrate “evidence of intellectual independence and leadership,” he says.

“Use the application process to find out whether you’re a good fit for what you want in your career and what the hiring institution might be able to offer,” says Rollock, who also is a professor of psychological sciences. “Show you’re on a trajectory of excellence, that it’s your desire to continue to grow in your scholarship, to be productive as a faculty member. Emphasize what makes you a good candidate now and well into the future.”

The boot camp, part of the more than 300 workshops offered each semester by the Office of the Provost, included sessions and tips from Purdue experts on the application process for academic jobs, letters of application and CVs, in-person and online interviews, using AI tools in job searches, research statements, negotiations, mentoring, and visa status in the job market.

The 2025 edition of the two-day workshop was its third since the program was revamped by OGSPS and renamed the Future Faculty Boot Camp in the fall 2024 semester.

In preparing her message to the group, Oliver says, she was reminded of what sparked her interest to attend graduate school as an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming, to pursue a PhD at Cornell, and eventually become a faculty member and leading researcher at Purdue, studying food safety in developing economies.

“I wouldn’t have even pursued graduate school if I hadn’t been asked by one of my professors whether I had thought about it,” she says. “That’s why we’re here: to help our graduate students get to where they want to go in higher ed. Every graduate student who is here today is among the nation’s best; they’re more than qualified to take that next step in their careers.”