Over the last several decades, the percentage of permanent faculty positions at universities has declined significantly. Increasingly, courses are taught by adjunct instructors, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows rather than by permanent faculty members. This creates intense competition for permanent positions. Data summarizing the general qualifications of newly hired first-time professors in permanent jobs are valuable for students contemplating graduate school and academic careers. These data should also help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows set goals that will enable them to be competitive for permanent academic jobs. Here we present data collected in a survey from 181 newly hired faculty members in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology from around the world. We report the average number of publications, courses taught, years as postdoctoral fellows, and research grants received for successful job applicants. Our results indicate an extremely competitive environment for permanent academic jobs in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology.