I am looking to starting my
career in India by next summer as a faculty member in some institute,
preferably in the April-July window. So I would like to pen down very briefly, my
experience in this process so far.
I finished my PhD quite recently (August 2013)
and started looking for faculty positions in India a couple of months before
graduation. So I decided not to work in the USA, a very bold move indeed. As of
now, I am working as a post-doc in the same group where I did my PhD, finishing
some pending work and trying to get some papers published before I heed back to India
next year. I decided not to go for industry in USA because I believe I am not
made for industry. Working during some fixed schedule such as 9 am-6 pm from Monday to
Friday with a week’s vacation in a year, staying too far from family – doesn’t
work for me. I love my independence, and freedom to work on my own, and the ability
to buy groceries together with my dad in Golaghat (Assam) or to go and hug my
sister in Guwahati anytime of the year without taking those 16-24 hour long tedious
flights and standing in queue for immigration and customs. Faculty position in
India hence naturally fits it better than other jobs. A 2 to 3 year post doc in
USA would have perhaps helped, but I didn’t want to do that either for multiple
reasons.
The first thing I learnt
about faculty application process in India is that, it takes some amount of
time, just like in almost any other job. So joining as a faculty immediately
after PhD is not very feasible, at least if one wishes to get a few offers in
hand before deciding. Some institutes wouldn’t want to process the application
until I received my PhD.
Since I am an
experimentalist and require fairly expensive equipments and cleanroom space
to do research, the range of institutes I could apply to in India were limited.
When I say ‘apply’, I mean writing to the concerned department chairs/heads
expressing my interest for a faculty position. I applied to five institutes whose
names I will not reveal to be politically correct. All these five institutes
are some of the best and most prestigious in India, and known world-wide. As my
advisor puts it – I would not be able to
rank one above the other. Each of these five has its own strengths.
One institute rejected my
application straightaway, and of the remaining four, I visited each of them for
face-to-face interview with faculty members and to give presentation on my work,
typical in any faculty interview. The responding of my emails by all the
institutes was very prompt, fast, and courteous and welcoming except for the
department of one particular institute where I had emailed to repeatedly and
yet I had failed to get any reply. Hence I decided to apply to a different
department in the same institute, and surprisingly got very prompt, warm and
efficient replies. When I visited, I was given very nice treatment at each of
these places. I was totally overwhelmed and humbled by the hospitality of the
faculty of each place. The respect and warmth of reception I received from the
faculty really made me a fan of all the four places. They had all assured me of
all support they can afford, start-up grants, and help me open a research
center in my area of expertise. I must stress that the attitude of the people at
each of these places was extremely welcoming, and except for one institute (say
X), expressed their keen interest in having me in their department. However, a
few faculty members X were somewhat cold to me – I felt, and one of them even
tried to belittle my work openly. But that is an exception. Nonetheless, the
overall experience from all the institutes was one of high level of satisfaction,
sheer joy and a re-affirmation of my own belief that I had indeed taken a right
choice by deciding to relocate to India for faculty position. The vibes were so
feel-good and positive and the promise was so strong, that I felt like starting
right away instead of waiting till next summer!
Thus is the story so far. To
be politically correct, I shall not comment on the current status of my
application in each one of these institutes. I have been very pleased (and
fortunate) and happy at the way the application process turned out to be, in a
relatively short period of time. I am very glad at the pace of the process, at
the overall experience I had achieved in the process corresponding to each one
of these institutes. And I am eagerly looking forward to joining one of these
four prestigious institutes next summer
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