In this edition of “Landing a faculty position,” Caroline West from the Early Career Scientist Career Development Subcommittee interviewed Jazlyn Mooney, assistant professor at the University of Southern California (USC).

On job applications

Caroline: What is your current role?

Jazlyn: I am currently an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. I started my lab here in January 2022. Prior to being at USC, I was at Stanford for my postdoc, and I graduated with my PhD in human genetics in September 2020 from USC. I did my undergrad at the University of New Mexico with a double major in biology and anthropology. I do computational biology, mostly focused on human genetics and evolution with some conservation genomics. This was the first job I applied to. 

Caroline: How long did it take you to start preparing application material to land an academic faculty position?

Jazlyn: Two weeks, but formally a month. I sent my application materials to people to look at and then revised from there. I think the key was that I told people once I started the process that I would get these materials to them on x date, and asked them to get back to me on a set date. If you do that, people are pretty receptive. Also, I viewed the interview process as a learning situation: trying to figure out how the process worked instead of a high stress situation. That helped bring my stress level down, but it’s not always possible for everyone to take it that way. 

Caroline: Were there any resources that were especially helpful in preparing your materials?

Jazlyn: I asked people who recently got hired and people who are really good at their jobs for their application materials to review. 

Caroline: Are there any particular organizations, listservs, or websites you would recommend for finding job openings?

Jazlyn: I actually didn’t find out about this job online. A former student from my postdoc advisor’s lab was at USC and he said I should apply because I was a good fit. There are job boards out there, but they can get depressing. They are good for finding positions, but bad for the psyche. 

Caroline: What advice would you give applicants regarding the first-round (remote) interviews?

Jazlyn: Prepare in the sense that you know roughly what the person interviewing you does. But also figure out if that thing does or doesn’t relate to what you do, and let the conversation evolve naturally. A lot of people who interviewed me didn’t just care about my research, but also who I was as a person, and how I fit in with the department. Know what the people interviewing you are doing, but don’t feel like you have to read all their papers. They are interviewing you, but you are also interviewing them, and you can ask them questions about their work. 

Caroline: What helped you prepare for your job talk and chalk talk?

Jazlyn: Practice. I practiced and prepared for a couple of weeks. I gave three practice talks, revised, and gave a final one to my postdoc advisor. You have to have a clear narrative—clear enough in your head that you can get derailed by questions and still communicate your ideas. Explain your goals and how they are tied together with enough detail that people understand what is happening, but not so much that you don’t get to finish the talk. You should have three goals that are basically the components of your first grant, and a general idea of all the grants you will apply for once you start your lab. 

Caroline: Were there any common questions during the interviews that you wished you had prepared for differently?

Jazlyn: Not really. You need to have a clear vision of what your lab’s goals are. It becomes obvious when you haven’t thought past publishing some paper. Figure out what makes you different from your advisor. How will you build your research that is distinct and new? Also highlight how your work fits in with the department. Being faculty means you need to be a team player. 

Caroline: Were you asked about your personal life (especially as a woman). If yes, how did you tackle that question?

Jazlyn: No. In fact, my department was trying every which way to let me know they support family and work-life balance without asking directly whether I had a family.

Caroline: What does a “day in your life” in your current role look like?

Jazlyn: A typical day for me is: I wake up at 6:00 a.m., work out, and am in the lab by 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. In the morning, I usually prep for teaching, read papers, and write if I can get that time, or take meetings with my students. The best mornings are when I’m reading, writing, and helping students. In the afternoons I try to check on people in the lab and see how they are doing. If they are working, I leave them alone. Then I work on all the administrative tasks I need to complete. 

Sometimes, it’s difficult to balance all of the responsibilities of teaching. It’s hard to read papers, mentor, and do the research you were trained for. Often, I don’t have time to read unless I’m working outside of the nine to five. But also, it’s important to remember that this is my job, it is not me, and it’s not my personality. I really restrict myself as a faculty to nine to five because my work is on the computer, and I could work anytime I want. 

Caroline: What has been the most surprising thing about starting your faculty position?

Jazlyn: I’m surprised that I’m not as active a researcher as I anticipated. In other words, it’s hard for me to not do the work. This also means being okay with a different timeline. I might suggest an analysis I could do quickly, but my students likely will not be able to turn things around that quickly. And that is okay. It might take them a couple of weeks or a month, but you have to let them learn. Then, they get faster. It’s a good reminder for myself that I need to give them the space and encouragement that I received myself, to learn and improve.

Caroline: What skills do you wish you had developed earlier that would have made the transition smoother?

Jazlyn: Grant writing. I wrote the classic National Science Foundation grants, for grads and postdocs, and I was very happy with them—they were successful. Those were the only times I really tried grant writing. During my postdoc, my advisor let me help him. I got my first grant this year, after four tries on the same project, and it was really hard. 

Caroline: How long did it take you to hire your lab members, and what is your strategy for hiring? How did you find the right fit?

Jazlyn: For postdocs, I co-advised almost immediately. Afterwards, we met through email. One amazing postdoc just cold emailed me. I haven’t tried to employ a strategy for graduate student recruitment, since our program is rotation based. For my first grad student, I was her TA when I was a grad student. Conversely, my newest grad student did her undergrad with me. 

Caroline: Any additional tips?

Jazlyn: Don’t get discouraged when jobs don’t happen. It’s not a reflection on you as a scientist. There’s a lot of good scientists that struggle to get jobs. Despite all of them being excellent, sometimes it’s luck, how you fit in the department, and when that job advertisement goes up. 

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