Friday, September 14, 2007

To Market, To Market

Well, today was the big day for those of us in MLA fields. The list is now searchable (albeit very slowly, for apparently everybody chose to lie in wait and to attempt to access the thing at the first possible moment), the ads are now up, and the job searching season is officially underway.

I've decided I'm going to apply for three jobs. I don't feel confident that I'll get any of them, or even that I have much chance of making cuts for interviews given the fact that the odds with applying for only three seem not to be in my favor, but since I'm not so much looking to leave my current job as looking to remain open to the possibility for positive change, I'm not applying for anything that I don't feel sure I'd want. And so, there are three. I suppose I may add one or two more as more ads appear in the coming weeks, but that, again, is only if I'm particularly entranced by what I see.

So, what distinguishes the big three?

One would mean moving closer to my family and hometown friends; one would mean moving closer to my fake boyfriend; one would mean moving back to the east coast. All would mean more time for research but all would also allow me to continue to care about teaching. So I've sent off my requests to people to get letters of recommendations updated, and I'm looking over my own letter now. We shall see!

1 comment:

Earnest English said...

Dr. Crazy, I was wondering how you (anyone) handles having a job and going on the market. I too have a job and don't really want my current department to know I'm planning to leave. (The job is fine, but like the girly girl I've become, I want to go home to my boyfriend and have a chance at playing Suzy Homemaker at least part time. Isn't that disgusting? I can't believe I'm saying this -- in public!) So how do you handle it? For example, my chair has come from Department X, where they are hiring this year in my field, but if they see where I'm at now, then they'll surely get in touch with said chair and then said chair will know I'm on the market. So I figure I won't apply, even though it's a potentially good job in a location Boyfriend and I both like. Crazy, please advise. What do you do? Does it ever seem like a problem?