Are they back to work yet? Did I make the second cut? Will I get a campus interview
? Did I do enough to impress? Did that weasel in the Marriott hallway get my spot instead because his suit was so much nicer? Why is my stomach churning? Why can't I sleep?WHY WON'T THEY LET ME KNOW? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Share your own job misery below!
I was very fortunate to get 2 campus visits, but they are back to back, hundreds and hundreds of miles apart, more than a thousand miles away from home, and I teach 4 days a week. The paperwork I have to do to get substitutes in place at my very strict CC is killing me. But I am GRATEFUL to get to try and move along. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
ReplyDeleteI have three flybacks this year. This is my first year on the market. Two of them are at schools I probably wouldn't go to in a better economy.
ReplyDeleteI got a great big zero this year. There were very few decent jobs in my subfield this year and I had one phone interview which went poorly.
ReplyDeleteI have some conference interviews (4) coming up in February. I'm very excited about the prospect of moving on as I've been in the same location for college and grad school for 6 years. I can't wait to stretch and fly.
ReplyDeleteI know the market is bad, but I've worked really hard and think I'm ready.
We're running a search this year, and I got so frustrated with candidates who didn't follow the directions.
ReplyDeleteOne of them - despite my protestations - got a campus interview because the folks we did get were uniformly uninteresting. And I get to pick this person up at the airport.
All I want to ask is, "What, are you so special that you can ignore our request for syllabi? You're happy to include a 5 page teaching philosophy because that should "suffice" instead?"
I hate him already, and I know I shouldn't.
That's not so bad. I once had a phone interview in December but didn't hear a word from the potential employer until a campus visit invitation arrived in March.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting to hear from 6 schools, one from before the conference and 5 from at. Between the wiki and friends who also had interviews at them we've determined they've contacted no one.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest bitch, though, would be the person I know who got interviews I wanted.
My program, despite its problems, has steered me to be an independent researcher and scholar. I have publications--on my own. I have books in the works--with co-authors at other institutions.
And yet, Candidate A whose committee wrote her job letters and who has no independent publications, got a shit ton of campus visits because her committee also either knew someone or called the search comm right after every one of her interviews. How do I know? Well, in one case I was stuck out in the hall listening to one side of this conversation after she called them and said "Okay I'm done," as she walked out of the room. I didn't get that visit, she did.
It creams my corn because I just don't know that she'll make a great faculty member. I know I might be able to make at least some contribution to our field because I already have.
I try not to be jealous of her faculty's involvement, but if that's what it takes these days maybe my committee should be doing that too. They don't think I need the help, and I totally appreciate their respect, but their respect doesn't keep me from freaking out at night that I'm going to die untenured and alone! :)
It takes three things to get a job:
ReplyDeletea. personal ability
b. opportunity
c. networking
Everyone forgets the networking part. Some people look down on it as though it's evil. But ultimately there are 7 billion people on this planet. Jobs are not a lottery. You make connections, the connections put you in for the job.
People who cut themselves off are just punishing themselves.
Networking? Yes, it's important and helped me get several interviews and at least one campus visit. I don't think it's evil at all, and I've really appreciated people saying "yeah I know somebody at that school, I'll put in a good word!"
ReplyDeleteBut I do think it's a little bit much when your committee, mentors, or friends have helped produce your materials and call right after interviews to fix your mistakes. At some point, they won't be there for you. And then if you haven't done some things on your own? You're fucked.
I always thought that unless you were quite famous, the most you could do was ask a friend to take a close look at your student's file. And I still think it's bad form for famous people to call or e-mail unfamous people they don't know and blab on and on about their great student, even if people do it. But as I understand it, if you get your student's file read a bit more carefully, you've done your work -- the rest is up to the candidate. You can't fix a bad interview or campus visit after the fact; that's just embarrassing. And nobody can single-handedly get anyone a job anymore.
ReplyDeleteOr am I just naive?
In general maybe a contact can get your dossier a closer look, and maybe even an interview at MLA (or whatever hiring conference you attend), but it absolutely will NOT get you a job.
ReplyDeleteThe only people that get hired to do someone a favor are spousal hires, and that's only if there's a job for them and they're qualified. And in that case it's doing the department a favor. It makes sense to try to keep good people by giving a leg up to their family members, if you can. It does NOT make sense to hire someone to do the bidding of some bigwig you don't actually have to work with every day.
Savvy hiring committees immediately recognize gumdrop unicorns that need their butts wiped for them, as well as applicants that have the whiff of applying for a job that ordinarily would be "beneath them" but for the bad job market.
This doesn't mean that everyone that deserves to will get a job, but it does mean that connections are pretty worthless after you get in the door. No one wants to clean up your shit, or put up with your shit, or watch you apply for another job six months after you arrive, even if your advisor is "teh awesum".
"Did I make the second cut? Will I get a campus interview? Did I do enough to impress?"
ReplyDeleteNo.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.