Application For A Graduate Student Instructor Position: Fill & Download for Free

Pretty much all of them. One of my colleagues, Sheldon Jacobson, just e-mailed me a link to a recent Inside Higher Ed article that students are enrolling in CS in record numbers which is driving up the demand for CS professors everywhere and we’re not able to graduate enough Ph.D.’s to fill the demand. I think that demand is broader than tenure-track professors at top universities, and in fact we see applicants to our masters programs that are looking for teaching positions, or in some case already hold an instructor position. In general there is huge demand for computing professionals, in academia, industry and other sectors, and some areas of CS have stronger demand than others, but all are growing so you really can’t go wrong.

This was a while ago, and I don't remember all the details. I was a graduate TA for a CS class at MIT (6.170) in Spring 2007, and later on become the Head TA in Fall 2007.ApplicationI remember reading this MIT Teaching Assistant memo (http://www.eecs.mit.edu/grad/tamemo.html) in detail and realizing that I had to apply really early if I wanted to even consider being a TA. To be a Spring term TA, you had to apply within 1.5 months of the start of the Fall term. I wasn't sure if I would even get any other source of funding for my graduate studies then, so I applied anyway.I had to fill out a paper application form [1] with my preferences for classes that I wanted to TA for in descending order. The department pulls your transcript automatically so you don't have to submit anything beyond that. I don't remember having to submit a CV or any recommendation letters then, so I think the decision for TA appointments was mostly based on past academic performance (and probably not very high).Some relevant parts of the memo about the selection process is included here:Some idea of the process by which teaching assistants will be appointed and assigned may help you in your planning. As noted on page 2, the normal deadline for application is MARCH 22 for fall term and OCTOBER 22 for spring term. Most of next term's TAs will be chosen during the first part of May for fall term assignments and December for spring term assignments. This selection will be made on the basis of past performance (in the case of current or former TAs), faculty recommendations, and departmental needs. Those to whom offers are made at this time will normally be given approximately ten days to accept or decline.Some students may want to consult with instructors in charge of subjects to which they wish to be assigned as TAs.Such students should remember that individual faculty members are not in a position to promise appointments as TAs.It is probably harder for students who weren't undergrads at MIT to be TAs as a 1st year graduate student, and there are additional requirements for such applicants according to the memo.Decision MakingI think I got my offer at the end of the term, just before the December break. I had to make a hard decision then. I had not gotten my top choice to be a 6.001 TA, and so it might have been in too high a demand, or maybe I was one of the few who actually put 6.170 as a choice.The decision was hard for me because:6.170 was a huge time commitment. It was hard enough for students as a 15 unit lab class, and TAing it would be worse with the equivalent teaching, grading, planning problem sets, setting final projects, and 2 midterms, etc. Not all TAships are "equal".I had to decide whether I wanted to end my undergraduate status. This was an irreversible process at MIT, and I wouldn't be able to take more than 2 classes a term from then onwards, if I wanted to continue being a TA or RA with funding from the university.I wasn't sure if I would get an RAship until later, and I needed to decide on the TAship before that.I ended up accepting the TAship and learning a ton from that, that term.Becoming Head TAAfter being a TA for one term, I didn't think I could have time to TA again while still completing research and finishing up my graduate requirements. However, I was emailed by the next term's 6.170 lecturer when I was doing my summer internship, inviting me to TA again for 6.170 in the Fall. I declined politely because of those reasons.But the professor tried his best to persuade me otherwise. Apparently, I was the only past TA (if I recall correctly) who didn't graduate that Spring, and was still around to help with the class in the Fall. I would be head TA, and be able to help him with my past experience as he hadn't taught the class in a while. I would be able to choose my own team of TAs from the pool of all candidates, including reviewing their resumes and interviewing them. I would be able to decide on the curriculum and final projects, and make the term as fun as I wanted for the students. He agreed with my decision to get rid of both midterms and later my request for 32-core supercomputers for students to use in their final project. It would be the final term 6.170 was ever taught at MIT.It sounded exciting and I was convinced. I signed right up.There were more TA candidates given from the department than we had positions for. (Anecdotally, it may mean that it is harder to be a TA in Fall, because most graduate students start in Fall, and probably start out with TAships before securing RAships in the Spring.) As such, we had additional selection criteria for the TAs. I selected our team of TAs over that summer, with a look through the resumes and some basic phone interviews. It was my first time interviewing anyone for a job. :)And it was an awesome time doing it a second time round, all over again.ConclusionIt's probably mostly past academic performance; no, it didn't seem political at all; and no, the process is probably not the same for other colleges.[1] The application form seems to be electronic now and only accessible if you have MIT certificates.

NASA doesn't need to recruit. They get most of their new hires via their co-op program (NASA Pathways). Students apply for co-op placement via the co-op office at their university. Co-ops receive semester long positions at a NASA center, either in the summer or during the fall or spring semesters. They usually do two or three of these rotations, and then, if they performed well, they receive a full time placement after graduation.I didn't even know there was such a program, while I was in university, so that's not how I got to NASA.During my final semester, one of my design team members disappeared for a few days. When he returned, he told me he'd been at NASA applying for a contractor position as an astronaut instructor for the ISS program. I wasn't aware such a thing existed, but it sounded like the ideal job for me. So, I visited the website of the new contractor that had been formed to provide operations for the STS and ISS programs, a company called United Space Alliance (USA). I submitted an application. They called me at my office in the Humanities Tutoring Center, the next morning and asked me to fly out for an interview and said they'd arrange a flight, hotel, and rental car.A week later, I was sitting in a huge room with 600 other applicants. There was a line of small booths set up and in each was a manager for a group. From the list of 600 names, they'd call out the ones they were interested in talking to. You'd go to that booth and be interviewed and then return to your seat and wait to see if another group called out your name or if an HR person would call your name to make an offer. I interviewed for the robotics group and for the avionics group and then accepted the offer from the avionics group.Eight years later, I was able to take advantage of the other way NASA hires. Operations for Shuttle was almost exclusively done by USA and they provided most of the people for ISS, too. Each group might have 10 USA employees, 2 NASA employees, and a NASA group lead. Those two NASA positions were usually filled via the co-op program, but once in a while, NASA would get permission from the government to open a position for an experienced person. Experienced contractors would apply, and if one was selected that person would undergo a badge conversion. I was fortunate enough to be one of those people. I swapped my USA badge for a NASA badge, but little else changed. I kept the same desk, the same phone number, and the same tasks, I just filled out a different timecard system and no longer had a contractor boss.