Thread by @jboerckel

It’s faculty recruiting season at many universities.

One of the most opaque and intimidating parts of this process for applicants is the chalk talk.

A thread:

One of my greatest privileges this year has been to sit down with a number of @McKayLaboratory and @pennbioeng postdocs who are on the market to give my meager advice on their chalk talks.

Thought I’d collect some of my thoughts here.

First of all: if these folks are at all representative of the next generation, the future is *bright*, y’all.
They are brilliant, thoughtful, careful, & accomplished - and they’re tackling truly important and elegant questions.
They’re also light years ahead of me at their stage.

Which brings me to my caveat:
I’m the proud giver of the *worst* chalk talk in the history of chalk talks (story for another day).

So take my advice with a generous helping of salt.

(instert survivor-bias warning here)

To begin:

Your goal in a chalk talk is to communicate the following:

What is your program’s overall goal?

(Hiring committees love the word “Program”. Use it.)

Why would meeting this goal be transformative? (Why should it be worth $$$ to your hiring committee?)

What is the first key question you need to solve to kick off this program (ie what problem is your first R01/NSF/VA/etc. going to solve?

Why is this problem so important? (How will solving this problem change your field/move you toward your overall program’s goal?)

NB: most folks jump to specific aims too quickly and fail to communicate significance. This is bad. If they don’t care about your problem, they won’t care about what you’ll do about it.

Why are you the only/best person in the world who can solve it?

Why is this place (and your potential collaborators in the room) the best possible to make it happen.

Lastly, how are you going to solve this problem? (Specific aims, approach)

Anything you can map out on the board prior to your talk starting is good.

This helps clarify your communication & simplify complex concepts, but also helps you to focus the discussion and keep your committee taking about the things you want to talk about, at your pace.

You want to present the 1st part w/ such a narrative that it makes the expmts you’re going to do almost obvious to your clever committee.

You want them on the edge of their seat hoping that you’ll propose X. Then when you say “we’ll solve this by X”, the payoff is priceless.

Learning to control the room is the #2 thing i spend time on when I give chalk talk advice

You will have a spectrum of people in the room, with two extremes

There will be one person who loves everything you do and wants you hired.

There will be one dude who feels insecure in his position in the department and who uses chalk talks as his chance to show off/be aggressive.

(dont worry, everyone in the dept understands what’s going on here)

When person 1 asks you a question, swing for the fences. When person 2 asks, bunt.

Answer the curmudgeon quickly, but gracefully, and move on.

If they persist, tell them you’ll get to it in aim 3 and point to your diagram where you have aim 3 (even if you won’t).

If they keep pushing, give them a saccharine invitation to discuss at length after the chalk talk. There won’t be time. So it goes.

When your friend asks you questions, this is your chance to show you can play jazz.

But keep it close and come back to your diagram so you stay on track.

A chalk board gives you this unique ability to both go with the flow and also lay out an objective outline that can keep everyone on track.

If you have to use slides, try to keep it dynamic. Don’t just give another seminar.

Above all, try your best to see the chalk talk as an awesome opportunity to get a room full of brilliant people together to think exclusively about the ideas that you’re most excited about for an hour.

Find some local faculty to give you mock chalk talk.

Have fun!

You’re going to do great!