So, I’m waiting to hear back from various universities as to whether they will be interviewing me at MLA in Chicago (very far from here) in two weeks. So far, 81% have not responded at all.
MLA: I understand why this conference is scheduled between Christmas and New Year’s. I understand why it moves around the country. But surely the Powers That Be understand that the attendees have families, and that job applicants have limited incomes? Holiday travel ain’t cheap; winter in Chicago ain’t fun; leaving your rarely-seen family to fly off to a strange city where you’ll be dining on Ramen in a fleabag hotel while wearing your best suit, no fun either.
Universities: I get that you don’t want to say “no” to me, just in case your top choices don’t pan out. I get that it’s a buyers’ market. And believe me, I understand that you’re busy. But if you could make that weensy effort to make your decisions quickly and communicate them effectively, that would be great. You know we’ve got to go anyway, you know our tickets are bought. Just say “we don’t plan on interviewing you at this time, can we contact you at XXX XXX XXXX if we change our minds?”
Administration: You want to hire the Best of the Best. Great. But you know what? You’re hiring for a specialized skill set, not a unique one. You don’t actually need THE superstar celebrity scholar to teach undergraduates to read poetry. Perhaps you might want to rethink the model of “let’s do a national search for every single position, drawing it out over six months or so.” Perhaps if you have seen someone working for you who is capable, good at their job, not insane, and friendly, you could just hire them? I’ve seen this work both ways, where the national search edges out the inside candidate only to have the hotshot turn out to be a bad choice; meanwhile, the known quantity has left for greener pastures. Conversely, I’ve known folks who had the campus visit and put a lot of time and effort into a position that was all for form’s sake because the insider candidate was earmarked for the position. If the departments could just do a straight hire that would save a lot of grief on everyone’s part.
Thanks for letting me rant. Watch for another thread in a few months asking for help on beginning a second career.
Best of luck…one of my really good friends is on a second go-round this year for MLA. She got so many interviews last year but nothing panned out (she ended up as a post-doc fortunately). I hope both of you get tenure track positions this year
I’m with you. This is my fourth year on the market looking for something TT-- aiagh! I thought about starting this thread but didn’t have the heart to do it again. On the other hand, I’m one of two finalists going to campus one place, and I think I have at least one interview at my discipline’s meat market in February, and there are many openings this year. It does seem to take some paying of dues and perseverance these days. I hate hearing how my advisors got their first jobs. . . it was a different time.
Hear, hear. I’m going through the job search process in an MLA field for the third year straight, and it sucks. (On the bright side, I get to be the dreaded inside candidate this year.)
I’m kind of reluctant to direct people to this site, because it does tend to feed one’s stress and obsessiveness, but the academic careers wiki will often let you know whether you’re still in the running for a particular position or not. (I’ve linked to the English Literature page since the main page seems to have been vandalized – apologies if you’re in foreign languages.)
OMG, Fretful, that opens up whole new avenues of being obsessive! Actually, that’s pretty cool, thanks. Not much has transpired yet in my discipline, but that will be great to know what to forget about already (I never loved you, anyway, Lehigh!) and very very helpful in the case one gets an offer and wants to know if there’s anything to hold out for.
Dr Drake-- is this your first year in the meat grinder? If so, don’t fret, because there’s generally a second round of craziness in the early spring, at least in my discipline, as the results of the conference musical chairs pan out and the schools that didn’t get into the fray in time make their announcements.
Thanks, Capybara. This is actually year #4, so I’m an old hand by now. I am just so tired of it all… there’s no shortage of work, and I’m good at the actual JOB (teaching, research, writing), but those tenure-track grapes are starting to look sour, anyway…
Ah, you’re in MY boat! (except that I am short of work, so I am, ahem, “taking the year off of teaching to focus on the book manuscript and a couple of articles.”) Let’s have a drink! I’m going for a rum-laden egg nog.
The more I hear about the search process with MLA, the more respect I have for folks who go through the experience. I did a search in my field (education) last year, and it was a good year for my subspeciality. I went on the market in January, did job talks in February, and got a TT position by March. It was a very humane experience.
I don’t think most folks in ed research use our annual meeting for interviews - it’s too late, generally. I could see a SC conducting a final interview there, but most SCs want you on campus to see if you freak out, bite the department chair, wear inappropriate clothing, etc. It seems we’re more or less immune from this madness you describe.
Is there an alternative route besides this stupid process? (I know, probably not.)
I am soooooo glad not to have to watch my husband hoe that row anymore. And, no, they don’t understand that you might have a family. Lives of any kind are reserved for tenured males over forty.
And I don’t understand why they do it over the holidays. Why do it at the conference at all?
So they can pre-screen: run 25 people through the gauntlet and it’s not very much on their dime, rather than paying through the nose to only get 3 people to campus to find that some of them are clearly insane.
I suppose, although being clearly insane was not a deal-breaker in most academic departments I’ve seen. For certain given values of insane, anyway.
Have they not heard of the telephone?
Just as an aside: Back when we first started graduate school there wasn’t any such thing as a post-doc in English. It’s a tough market out there. The Great Die Off we were promised back in the 80’s never materialized.
When I started my doc program, my advisor warned me that he’d been promised the Great Boomer Die-Off for some time as well. It’s become a sort of religious millennial belief for grad students, no? I suspect it will never happen-- they’re all hanging in there and just departing bit by bit, or the positions are being liquidated and given to part time adjuncts, I fear.
Slightly off of English, but still in the humanities - my department supposedly received over 100 applications for a TT position. Doesn’t make me feel great for job prospects!
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