system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Realistic chance of an academic job?

I know very few people that have a successful academic career track, and everything that you find online indicates that it's damned near impossible to land a tenure track job. So, AskAcademia, can you provide an honest assessment or any pointers?

Background: Current postdoc, fairly recent PhD. PhD adviser was an assistant professor, who has since gotten tenure and is (AFAIK) well-regarded in the field. Current (postdoc) adviser is only a little further along the career track. I have a handful of publications so far - all first author, none in very top-tier (CNS) journals but rather upper/mid-tier chemistry journals. None from postdoc, yet - though at least one or two should be forthcoming this year (likely not first author for me). A few presentations (a couple of posters, one talk) at national conferences, several posters at local/regional events. There will definitely be more of these before I go on the job market.

Ultimately I'm more interested in a smaller research position or even liberal arts college - I enjoy teaching (have continued to do so as a postdoc) and would like that to be a major component of my job. I also sincerely doubt I have/will have the credentials for a major, top-tier TT job - though I'm trying. I know there's a lot that goes into the job search for academics - including luck and department fit with your research area/expertise and personality. But do I have a shot based on the intentionally vague credentials above?
gpt
I know people with worse credentials who got academic jobs, and people with better credentials who did not get academic jobs.  Whether you will be successful in getting an academic job is just something that can't really be predicted.