Sigh MLA has come and gone and I haven’t heard from any search committees . . . I’m officially giving up hope this Wednesday. I know other candidates have been invited to campuses I interviewed with and I wish that SCs would just send an email to confirm my rejection.
Now I need to get it up and get out some post-MLA applications, but it’s the last thing on earth I want to do.
Off to pout.
I’m sorry Jennshark. 
Hopefully, things will get better for you.
Best of luck!
Is this your first year on the market? If so, I wouldn’t worry. Wait until the sabbatical replacement one-year and other non-tenure-track appointments come out and apply for those. My first year on the market I had a few interviews, one campus visit, but no job offers except for a non-tenure track instructorship. The offer for this instructorship came very late in the job search season (maybe even in the summer, I’m thinking). So I hung out there for a year, got some more teaching experience under my belt, published an article, and voila! The next year I got an offer for a job I wanted. Such is the way of academia–you often have to pay your dues for a year or two in non-tenure-track, exploitative jobs before you land somewhere you like. But it is far from unusual to have to settle for the former kind of job your first year or two on the market.
Hi S & I: I’m in the second year of a tenure-track job (after seven years of TAing and adjuncting) at a place that has turned into a snakepit due to fiscal problems propagated by nearly criminal leadership. I do have three articles out for review and some small things published, but know that I’m competing against people who are well-published. I’ve had what I thought were some great interviews but, alas, there has been resounding silence on the part of search committees. Even a rejection email would be a relief!
Thanks for the reminders about the after-market MLA. I know there are still some good jobs coming up, I’m just feeling exhausted and bashed-in. It’s one of those days that I have to remind myself what wonderful students I have.
I feel your pain. Do I ever feel your pain.
Mr. Neville is applying for academic jobs in astronomy. It seems he’s got another application due every few days. He’s spending a lot of time working on them, and his normal workload is just as bad as always. Then we go through the emotional turmoil of waiting to find out if he’s short-listed somewhere, and he has to go and visit wherever it is. Last year, he went through all this, got short-listed at quite a few places, but got no offers. I know he’s worried about the same thing happening this year. I’m stressed, because it’s likely that we’ll end up moving if he gets a job (not many of them are around here), and I loathe and dread the prospect of looking for a new job. And I’m unhappy because he’s worried and tired and unhappy
The funding for his current posdoc runs out in May, and we’ve decided that he won’t look for another postdoc (we’re not going to move and go through all this again in a couple of years)- only faculty jobs. If he doesn’t find one this year, he’s going to look for jobs outside of astronomy. I know that prospect terrifies him, too, because the last non-astronomy job he held was probably working at TJ Maxx in high school. I left astronomy to find a job, but I’m pretty sure I only got one because I was looking at the end of the dot-com boom when there weren’t many people looking, and I have no useful general insights about leaving academia and finding another job.
Oh, that really sucks. I’m sorry to hear it.
The job market in academia is a horrible and demeaning process. I remember how stressed I was at my first campus visit because I thought “Everything depends on this!” (which of course it didn’t).
But don’t give up hope. If you have three things under review, I’m guessing you’ll get one (and maybe two) accepted this year, in case you have to do it all again next year. (Not, I’m sure, a prospect you are looking forward too.) Hang in there; we are all rooting for you!
What’s your field, Jennshark? I’m doing a little post-MLA hiring.
What does MLA mean?
Modern Language Association–basically the annual convention of the literature profession.
Hi Pseudo: Comp-rhet specialist with many teaching capabilities in lit. J’shark
I’m sorry about the stress you’re experiencing and the prospect of Mr. N. having to leave his field. I’m fortunate enough to have a TT job, even if it’s not perfect, and your post reminds me of that. Having to move for a job (I moved across the country from California for mine) is really stressful and I hope that if you do move it’s for a TT job. Does your husband have a supportive academic community to chat with?
Not really, AFAIK, and he’s not really the sort to try to find someone to talk to about things like this. He definitely talks to people he knows about things like what the astronomy departments at various places are like, but I don’t think he talks much about the emotional/stress side of job hunting.
Hi S & I: what a sweet post! Thank you for the ecouragement. I’ve been experiencing a lot of feelings of humiliation and shame and it’s good to be reminded that this process is a verrrry long and demeaning one and there’s only one “winner” of each search.
I also remember my first campus visit. It felt as if the entire world, nay, universe depended on my success. I actually had cold sweat pouring down my back during my job talk. Following campus visits were much more relaxed and one of them yielded the job I have now (which was a wonderful place when I started).
That might work. Any experience in tutoring, particularly in running a writing center? It’s probably not wise to do this on the SD, but if you want to drop me a line via my linked e-mail, I’ll fill you in a little more and answer some questions, if you like. We’re looking for a humanities Ph. D., w/some interdisciplinary abilities–it’s a non-tenure track position but I had the hardest imaginable time firing the woman who used to run the Writing Center, so unless you have sex with someone you shouldn’t and it’s out in public, it’s a pretty permanent gig.
Thanks, Pseudo. I sent you a note via your gmail account. Would it be okay to have sex with someone I should in public? 
I feel your pain Jennshark, having been there and done that and sent out more applications than I can count.
Anne Neville, give my sympathies to Mr Neville, as I can certainly symnpathise there! I am so not looking forward to trying to find another postdoc after this one, and that scenario is a year away at least.
Well, your ass will probably catch a little breeze, but I think you should be able to hang onto your job ok, from what I’ve experienced in getting someone fired.
I’m applying for academic jobs too. There have been a whopping eleven of them so far this year that I can, in good conscience, say are in my field. Oh, GOOD. GOOD odds there!
Which reminds me that I need to go see if there are new jobs posted for January.
However: I know for a fact that one of the search committees isn’t even looking at the applications until this month. I also know that, last year, I was on somebody’s “short list” and the position wasn’t filled until the end of May. So really–hope springs eternal. Or at least until June.
You know, this isn’t from academia, but I’ve been many times in the position of getting a phone call from some company whose name I don’t recognize at all. Turns out it’s about a resume I sent, oh, 9 months before.
I go to my pile of old ads I’ve responded to, ehrm, I mean, to my archives and the ad didn’t even include the company’s name, nor could it be deduced from the email provided (if any).
Seems like that shit about people collecting resumes and then not looking at them until a time when the senders may all have obtained new jobs already happens in many sectors.
On the other hand, I’ve known search committees to have essentially a 2 week turnaround: I applied for a job with a 1st August deadline, was called for interview within two weeks, offered the job two days after attending the interview, and started at the beginning of November. Maybe I was just lucky though.