Moving out of the US?

[E-P]

I'm a baby PhD student - I just started.  But there's no time like the present to start planning.

For a variety of reasons, Spouse and I are both in agreement that our futures will probably take us out of the US.  Fortunately, his job is pretty flexible (he can be a fire sprinkler engineer anywhere, evidently), so my future career will be the deciding factor.  We're both US citizens, and will probably have 1-2 children by the end of the program.  We only speak English, but we do have 4 years to become conversant in another language.

 

What can I do now (or over the course of the next four years) to best position myself for a faculty position at a university?  Ideally, Canada, Western Europe, or Australia.  Do the universities in those places typically look at the same things US universities do (e.g., publications, dissertation/research)?

My research is in computer-mediated communication (how we form relationships online, specifically), but there seem to be a decent number of schools internationally that have researchers in those areas, so I don't think it's particularly US-centric.

[maxhgns]

The first thing to know is that the direction of the brain drain is from these other countries to the US, not the other way around. That means it's going to be an uphill struggle for you--especially, I suspect, coming from a program that isn't much of an international name-brand (unless it is in comms?). 

The other thing to know is the number of jobs in your field in those countries every year. For English Canada and Australasia, it's going to be a couple. Maybe one or two more if we count French Canada, but you'll obviously need French for those. For western Europe, it'll probably be a handful or two in the UK, and a trickle in France, Germany, Spain, etc. (almost all of which will require knowledge of the local language). It's also worth noting that many of these places have preferential hiring for their own citizens, graduates, or holders of work permits, just as the US does.

Having said these things, the thing to do is to start looking at job ads in these countries to figure out what they're generally looking for, and to start looking at the CVs of new American hires in these countries, to see what their profiles are like. You'll need the PhD, of course, but also as many pubs as you can get, a solid portfolio of courses under your belt, perhaps even a large set of conference presentations, the best letters of rec you can find, etc.. These things will vary a little by discipline, and I'm not in comms, so I may be a little off. But those are the general pre-reqs for academic jobs.

[ExponentialDecay]

The thing with humanities degrees is that they're neither very portable nor very much in demand. Maybe you can hustle and beat the odds, but I woulnd't count on that as my immigration strategy. It may actually be easier for you guys to immigrate via your husband's job, if he can convert fire sprinkler engineering into something that is on a given occupation shortage list. You should also consider teaching at international schools.

If you want to try the academic route, your best bet is to make professional contacts in your field in those countries. They will be able to answer questions like what their universities look for and what your prospects are.