Postdoctoral Application Guidelines

Employers are welcome to link directly to this page in their job listings. The AAS Employment Committee recommends the following application guidelines for institutions seeking to hire postdoctoral fellows:

CV

• Not to exceed two pages, excluding list of publications
• Required elements:
• Contact Information: don't forget your email address, mailing address, and phone number
• Education: include undergraduate institution and major; graduate institution, thesis title, and, if not yet awarded, the month and year it is expected
• Employment History (if appropriate)
• Grants, Fellowships, and/or Telescope Time Awarded (if appropriate)
• List of Publications and Products 
• Separate under "refereed", "conference proceedings/abstracts", and "software" categories
• For multi-author refereed papers, include one-line summary of applicant's contributions
• Limit "conference proceedings/abstracts" to about five highest-impact contributions
• Seminars & Conference Presentations
• Limit to about five highest-visibility talks
• Awards (if appropriate; i.e., society or institutional prizes and achievement awards)
• Optional elements (for research-based postdoc applications):
• Education & Outreach Experience
• Include teaching and mentoring experience, outreach activities, and other services to the profession
• Skills (programming, etc)

Research Statement

• Not to exceed three pages total including text, figures, and references cited
• Required elements:
• Summaries of two to three completed/published studies that are most relevant to advertised position (~one page)
• Summary(ies) of ongoing work that is most relevant to advertised position (~one page)
• Summary of proposed research that is directly relevant to advertised position (~one page)
• Recommended elements:
• If position is an institutional Fellowship, balance should be ~⅓ prior/current work and ~⅔ proposed research
• If a separate research proposal is requested, omit or condense summary of proposed research
• Intermingle a few self-explanatory figures with short captions

List of References

• One page with contact information for three to five people from whom letters of reference may be requested

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• First version published, October 2017