Monday, November 20, 2006

Dr. Crazy's Job Search

Positions to which Crazy applied: 9.
Schools that have received application: 9.
Schools that have rejected Crazy thus far: 0. (And School Way out of My League? Yeah, you TOTALLY should have rejected me by now. Please get on that.)
Schools that have requested additional materials: 2.

What does any of this mean? Well, not a whole lot. But I did make it past the first cut at a couple of places, which is good. So I feel like whatever happens from this point I've made a respectable showing. I would have felt really, totally lame had I been rejected outright by every committee. However much I told myself that I wouldn't feel really, totally lame if that were to happen.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Auspicious results thus far. How many, if any, of the 9 asked for writing samples up front?

Addy N. said...

Hey Crazy: That's great news. It sounds like your discipline must do things a little differently than mine. At the most- we usually have two cuts- if they don't request letters of recommendation up front, then that will be the first cut (if they ask for them). Otherwise, you might not hear anything until they call you for an interview! I sent out two applications (I may send one or two more). I am secretly applying, so I can't even blog about it. They both asked for letters up front, and I included pubs and syllabi, too. I got a call from one place for an interview, but it isn't until February! I haven't heard anything from the other one yet, so we'll see. Do you have a sense of the timetable for your searches? I know what you mean about feeling lame if you get nothing. I was feeling confident when I sent them out, but things changed when I saw what we got for a search in my current department. We got a lot of apps and lots of people are good, so I thought- "oh no- maybe I won't hear anything!" I was relieved to get that phone call, but realize that getting an offer is still not a given! Good luck with yours- I look forward to reading more (and wish I could blog about my experiences, too!)

Dr. Crazy said...

As for those who asked for writing samples up front, there were 3. So that means that five of the nine actually have writing samples, and I'm not sure what that means either! But yes, I'm feeling ok about things right now. It'll be interesting to see what comes (if anything) of all of this.

Dr. Crazy said...

Addy,
Well, here's the usual in English:

If a department sends out the initial ad only for a cv and a letter, the likelihood is that they will have a first cut of no more than 50, and they will ask those to send a cv/dossier. (Obviously, some places ask for dossiers without writing samples, or whatever, but if you get a contact between interview requests, it will be for cv/dossier/evidence of teaching excellence, etc.) Then, from there, there may be an intermediate stage of phone interviews, though in my last full-on search that only happened with one position. From there, the conference interview, which usually means about 10-15 people. After that, the campus visit, which is usually 3.

At least that is my sense of things.

And Addy: send me an email because we are (I think) in very close geographic proximity to one another. I'd hoped you were one of the one's who knew where I was :)

Dr. Crazy said...

correction: a WRITING SAMPLE or dossier. Woops!

itinerarium said...

Yay! Go, Crazy, go! Or, more accurately, just keep sitting there, doing nothing. You're doing a fab job of nothing. Keep that up...

Anonymous said...

Just out of curiousity, is it standard practice to get a letter of rejection in the middle of the search? As in, after the first or second cut? Or do a lot of places not send the letter until they've decided, if they send one at all?

I'm curious because I was on a search committee but this administrative aspect was never discussed; I'm just curious about what I should expect in a couple of years when I'm on the market.

Dr. Crazy said...

Kristiface,
The short answer to your question is that it very much depends on the search committee. That said, my first time around on the market, I got a number of quick rejections. My sense is that in a huge applicant pool, it's possible to eliminate half of the applicants right off the bat and still have 75 or so from which to choose. It may be that the reason that I got more of these early rejections my first time out was that I was ABD - that now I'm in the running longer because I'm actually done. Or it may be that I'm dealing with search committees who aren't rejecting until after they have a signed contract from somebody. That said, I got another request for materials today, so maybe things are going well?

This also may be a field-specific thing - I don't remember what field you're in, but if you check out the job search progress wiki in your field, you can get a sense of the timetable of when people hear things.

Anonymous said...

Ah, thanks for the thoughts-- I imagine history is not that different in terms of process from your field. I wish you much luck with the job search! It sounds like things are going really well!