Background Historically, graduating head and neck (HN) fellows outpace available academic HN positions, resulting in a highly competitive job market. We identified factors that associate with full‐time academic HN positions post‐HN fellowship. Methods Graduates of American Head and Neck Society (AHNS)‐accredited fellowships from 2005 to 2017 (n = 356) were extracted from the AHNS website. Results From 2015 to 2017, the supply–demand mismatch for academic HN jobs improved. Of the 57.3% (n = 204) of graduating HN fellows who entered academia, 64% (n = 130) trained at just 10 fellowship institutions, 47% (n = 94) attended OHNS residency at an NIH top 40 funded institution, and 54% (n = 111) attended OHNS residency at an AHNS‐accredited institution offering HN fellowship. After multivariate regression, number of manuscripts (OR = 1.14; p = 0.01) was significantly associated with initial academic job post‐fellowship. Conclusion The recent improvement in supply–demand mismatch for academic jobs is promising for future HN fellows interested in academia.