Fuck you Search Committees. Fuck you. Fuck you for asking for twenty things for a one year position. (Seriously, do you want my blood type too???) Fuck you for asking for them in mid October. Not even the (few) tenure track jobs are asking for the kitchen sink in the first round. What does half of the stuff you want mean? What happens if I miss the deadline when you start reviewing applications? Can I queue up late and still be considered? Why, why didn't you put your closing date in the actual job announcement? Why did you make me click and search through your crappy website to find the closing date? Why is that closing date today? Why Search Committees, why?
Why, Search Committees, don't you have a single date to turn in job applications, like tax day? It would at least get my letter writers to TURN THE DAMN LETTERS IN if they knew when the closing dates were.
I've already had to pass on four jobs because my letters won't be done until next week. Yes, it's my fault for not watching like a hawk and not harping on them every few days, but I'm on the bleary job market this year! You KNEW this. I told you in AUGUST.
Ooooh, I LOVE the idea of a Jobmageddon deadline before which all search committees must kowtow. Would never, ever go over with anyone with actual power, but we can all dream of something sensible actually taking hold when it comes to employment.
ReplyDeleteMuch sympathy for your job misery. If you hold out another two months or so, the unis in my host country will finally get their act together enough to post their jobs, too!
It is ridiculous, especially when you're applying for a lot of jobs. One particularly crazy October and November I applied for -- I think (and this is a bit blurred since I've tried to repress the memory of such times) -- upwards of thirty positions, every one of which had some unique requirement. To boot, I was coming from a university culture where one has to deal with one's own letters of recommendation etc. (that is, ask for them: there is no centralized reference system of reference packages). Then most of the places were interviewing at a major conference, so one had to go to that at one's own expense.... What really galls me is now that I'm a proffie I can see just how little attention is paid to most applications regardless of what special statements, life plans, research programs etc. etc. are required. So you have my sympathy, too.
ReplyDeleteFor my next job search, I'm going to put deadlines by which I must hear back from the committees in my packet, and include forms which they need to complete, including an inventory of their department's janitorial closet, their philosophy on snowflakes, and recommendations from other colleagues. I'd also like them to send me an answer that THEY would use as a model diversity-question essay that they always want me to answer.
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