I’m in the same boat, but our meat-market conference isn’t until mid-February, so I’m in the waiting on pins and needles phase still. This will be my third year on the market (been “paying my dues” with non t-track lecturing)-- I am hoping to God that now that I have that magical 2-years-full-time-teaching-experience that I can get something more stable. It’s an abject, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, infuriating process. In how many careers do you put in an application in October and only get a rejection letter in May? Or you go for a campus interview and nail it down really well and then never hear from them again until you ask. It’s like getting dumped by a new lover: “Oh, we were going to call you. . . we’re seeing someone else. . . We really like you and you’re a really neat person, but. . . it’s not you, it’s us. . .”
Let’s use this thread as a support group, ok? I keep almost posting something like this myself. I’m this close to throwing in the towel and opening a pub.
I second the motion for the thread as a support group! I’m glad I followed through on my impulse to complain on the SD, as all the replies have helped alleviate the abject humiliation I’ve been heaping upon myself. I also think of the process as analogous to dating and lovers: conference interviews are like first dates, where you might leave exhilirated by how well it went and the SC never calls back; or, worse, being “dumped” after a campus interview (after you’ve slept together).
I was telling a friend who is outside academia about the application and interview process and she was dumbfounded that a) it takes so frickin’ long; and b) these ain’t $100k or even $50k jobs we’re all scrounging for.
I third the support group–except that with the lengths of time we are all waiting, there won’t be very many posts…
And I’d like to suggest that we tar & feather Angua.
Whu? Huh? What’ve I done now?
In my defence (I do have one!), the job is only a postdoc, its only for two years, its certainly not tenure track, and probably not renewable after the two years are up, and means that I’m 4 hours (door to door) away from Bonzer.
Nah. Postdocs don’t count. I didn’t even have to interview for my postdoc.
See. 
I can look forward to at least one, probably two more postdocs before I can even be considered for tenure or tenure track.
To add to my trouble (pity party!) since I’m in Canada right now a priority mail envelope for an application to the states costs 14 bucks! 14 bucks to get rejected! It’s started to feel like buying lottery tickets.
But I did really well with the frequent flier miles I got from campus interviews last year. And I got to see beautiful parts of the country! Rural Kentucky! Duluth! This year I hope to visit Buffalo and Manhattan (Kansas).
Meanwhile, I am PRAYING for a job offer somewhere in the Midwest–somewhere affordable–anywhere affordable. If I can buy a house, I can mail-order the rest.
Unfortunately, almost everything is on East Coast, West Coast, or big cities in Texas. Yuck.
I’ll trade you for the East and West Coast ones (you can keep the Texas ones).
It’s important to me and Mr. Neville to live somewhere with a sizeable Jewish community, which pretty much means a major city, most of which are on the coasts. You can quite literally count the number of US cities with large (more than 50,000) Jewish populations that are not in coastal states on your fingers.
My sympathies. I’ve had one post-MLA rejection so far, and resounding silence on all other fronts, and in general it’s starting to look like a complete repeat of last year, when I had plenty of first-round interviews but no campus visits. (For some reason rejections always feel worse after the interview than before. Sigh.)
Best of luck to all fellow job-seekers on the Dope.
Woo, phone interview with a place next week.
Any hints for phone interviews?
Phone interviews tend to be dead awkward, no matter what, but there are a few things you can do to help them go smoothly. If possible, get a friend to help you test your phone beforehand to make sure people can hear clearly on both ends. Speak slowly, clearly, and with emphasis (I always fail at this part), and keep a glass of water on hand in case your throat gets dry. One of the few perks of phone interviewing is that you can have all your application materials and notes about the school in front of you, so take full advantage of this.
Oh, and if the school is in a different time zone, make sure you confirm whether the interview is scheduled for 2 p.m. your time or their time.
Of course, I’ve had five phone interviews this year alone, and it seems clear that at least four of them aren’t going to turn into campus visits, so you may not want to listen to me. Sigh.
I’ve looked at phone interviews from both sides now, from win and lose, and I’ve gotta say, it’s mainly lose. Never offered a job myself, never offered one to a phone interview candidate. Good suggestion about having your notes in front of you, though. Good luck.
BTW, if anyone else besides Jennshark feels remotely qualified to run a Writing Center, please feel free to e-mail me for more details.
Alas, I’m an art historian. Thanks for the community heads-up, though, PRR.
The good news is that everyone else is stuck with a phone interview for this first round with this school, too, so it’s all equal.