I have a Ph.D. and can build on this in the other direction. As this article accepts in its own statistics, it is entirely possible to move up university ranki

I have a Ph.D. and can build on this in the other direction. As this article accepts in its own statistics, it is entirely possible to move up university rankings, as long as you don't simply rely on the weight of your degree. I started in a non-US university, world rank >250 in CWUR (CWUR [1]). I applied for several post-docs in several universities, getting three offers, and taking one at a US R1 ranked in top 30 in CWUR. After the post-doc, my boss said that I would have been able to go to just about any of the top-top-ranked R1s in my field, but I wanted to look for opportunities outside the USA. Now I have a tenure-track offer at a leading Australian Go8 university (top 120 on CWUR). What you need to remember if you're pursing a career in this area that you need to be _visible_ - this means publishing in the best venues, collaborating with renowned academics, and networking outside your sphere. If you are only pressing for the top 10 unis in America, sure, they can be _very_ selective and can afford to choose from candidates amongst themselves. But there are a lot of universities in the world, and many that are extremely well-regarded. Also: rankings aren't everything. At the tenure-track search level of your career, you should be considering the complete package (work/life balance, salary, students, political climate, proximity to friends and family....) Also as cwoolfe says, there is actually a lot of incentive for universities to hire outside for the diversity of opinions and backgrounds, and as clcaev also said, you almost don't want to stay at the same university as your advisor for political reasons (you should be able to show you can operate outside their direct sphere of influence). [1] https://cwur.org/ https://cwur.org/