Reflections on an Extended Academic Job Market Run (For Those Newly Entering the Market)
I realized earlier today that this is the first time in 4.5 years that I have NOT been in search of a job: I did 5 fully-funded years of doctoral study before being given the old "get your own money" letter, so mid-way through my 5th year of doc study I had to start looking for full-time and part-time jobs that would allow me to actually finish school since I was 100% sure I did not want to leave without completing the degree and was 100% sure that the pros of finishing vastly outweighed the cons of leaving school. I had no choice but to lock down a handful of on-campus part-time jobs (academic coaching, teaching 10th grade English for Upward Bound's summer program, managing the office and events programming for the graduate student association) in addition to freelance tutoring in applied statistics to avoid being too overwhelmed with my paid employment to get burnt out and end up quitting school. I continued two of my part-time campus jobs and tutoring during Year 6, and entered the academic job market as soon as the summer began to wrap up. I had 2 on-campus interviews that year, one for which I did not get an offer and the other which became my first tenure-track faculty role. Recently, I resigned from that first position and accepted my second (and aiming to be final) tenure-track faculty role. Here are 3 points that I'm either glad I knew, wish I knew, or was surprised to have learned that I think those new to the academic job market may find useful.
1. You Can't (REALLY) "Wing It" for Academic Jobs as a Noob
If you've applied for entry-level non-academic jobs, you probably already understand the value of preparing for job interviews. The part that I didn't know until my faculty advisor/mentor told me, though, is that the academic job market means searching for and applying for jobs long before you actually have graduated or will graduate.
When you're quite a bit out from graduating, this means setting up automated job searches that will automatically funnel relevant job postings to your inbox, reading those postings to get a feel for what kinds of jobs you'll even be eligible for, watching how the timeline seems to play out (including which types of universities post jobs at what time of the school year), and asking a trusted senior mentor who knows your area's job market well enough to help you decide what kinds of positions you should look into. It means looking for opportunities to present your best work in the most prestigious venues available to you and getting practice talking about research you've been working on and using the rigorous feedback you receive to refine that work and get it into print.
When you're in your final academic year as a doc candidate, it means having asked your intended reference writers whether they can write you a good recommendation by June or July so you both have enough time, having a detailed spreadsheet ready to share with your references so they can know when to expect letters to be due (since total noobs almost always have to submit letters with the application), having a rough draft of your job talk written up ASAP so you can get feedback (again from a trusted mentor who is already tenured or tenure-track faculty), and scheduling an opportunity to practice that job talk in front of an actual academic audience of peers and more senior folks. It means having a draft of the inevitable cover letter, research statement, and teaching statement to share with a trusted senior faculty member for a pre-screen before you apply for a single job (Note: I made the mistake of not getting the pre-screen when submitting the first application that was due my first time on the market and I learned immediately upon receiving feedback that my non-academic job type of cover letter was a complete joke...don't be like me here).
No need to panic if you haven't done some piece of this, but do not under any circumstances willfully try to do your preparation at the very last minute because. That being said, you can't REALLY wing it, but there are some "wingy" times that may come up intentionally or unintentionally. For example, I unintentionally ended up applying for jobs that popped up later on and one of those was a job I ended up taking for my first gig. I also committed the cardinal sin of actually not practicing my teaching demonstration or job talk because I was dealing with serious anxiety and also was feeling depressed because I was really ambivalent about taking a job in that particular location. Nonetheless, I got rave reviews during my interview and still got the job offer. I wouldn't recommend this approach at all, but I do think I ONLY survived that "wingy" moment because I had so much practice a month or two earlier with the job talk, I was pretty steeped in writing up the results still, and I had plenty of practice with teaching by that point. It's important to be forgiving of yourself, but also not to self-sabotage. There is absolutely a learning curve to applying for jobs (I think this is also true for the non-academic job market).
2. Applying for Jobs Is a Heavy-Duty Part-time Job
In my first go-round, I applied for 16 faculty positions (all tenure-track) and a single post-doctoral fellowship. On the face of it, that doesn't seem too crazy, but in reality it means I had to track deadlines for 17 different jobs, write 17 different two-page cover letters (based off the same core elements), and manage getting reference letters in for all of those applications (either at the application due date or occasionally at the first-round weed out)...all of this is in addition to the any ongoing commitments I had at between my two part-time jobs (total of 30 hr/week before commute time), my tutoring gigs (~5 hr/week before commute), any volunteer/service work (~10 hr/week before commute), and any home obligations I had (no kids, but I was married and was pretty involved with my extended family from afar partially due to one of my parents having a chronic illness). Oh, and let's not forget you're probably still actually tying up dissertation loose ends or more.
In sum, applying for jobs is mad time consuming and you will be thankful for any and all supportive people in your life during this annoying-ass time. I survived that first go-round because the kids I worked with in my off-time made me super-happy, because I didn't punish myself by cutting out fun times with friends, and because I kept healthy relationships with my extended family. The other obvious support was a therapist so I didn't get completely swamped by depression and anxiety issues. That being said, again the job market has a learning curve. Do the work your first run if you're even remotely serious about pursuing a faculty job. All of the up front prep will be the best gift you can give yourself if you either (a) don't get a job the first go-round or (b) take a job that ends up not being a good fit and are willing/able to do a second or third go-round. This leads me to my third reflection...
3. The Job Market Is Not What You Think and It Is Absolutely Petty AF
It is easy to end up tying your self-worth to your grad student status and whether you get a tenure-track R1 job. I can unequivocally and pretty straightforwardly say that I don't believe anyone's worth hinges on a job or where they fit inside an oppressive society's social hierarchy (one in which social class absolutely plays a crucial role in shaping access to opportunities). Yet, when it comes to the academic job market, we often make the mistake of assuming it is somehow immune to all of the highly unmeritocratic operations that we see in literally every other field. Why do we give academe a pass when it comes to examining how institutions reproduce the current social order? As a grad student, I served on one faculty search committee and as a faculty member I served on one search and chaired another search (Note: these were two different types of institutions, too).
As a general rule, if you don't get a job your first go-round, under no circumstances can you safely assume that it's because you're just a bad candidate and will never get a job. No, not even publication quantities can ensure where you land. Further, under no circumstances can you safely assume that decisions about hires are 100% meritocratic, free from any form of bias. To the picture even more blurry, those of us who serve on search committees are typically legally bound to not disclose the committee's findings and activities to those outside the committee who are not directly involved in hiring. In other words, even the most involved mentor can't actually tell you the full scoop about how jobs get doled out seeing as it would most likely involve giving up legally protected information. That being said, you will have to do your own homework to know as much about the process as possible and part of that is keeping an eye on what job market outcomes are for people with similar situations to your own.
As you can see from my own background, yes, there are people with tenure-track jobs already who absolutely may end up in the same pool as you for your first go at the job market. As you can infer from my background, as well, yes, there are absolutely people who don't have a massive number of peer reviewed publications who get tenure-track jobs and, yes, there are absolutely people who already have tenure-track jobs applying for jobs at even (*gasp*) jobs that aren't at an R1 institution. I don't in any way believe my job (or lack thereof) dictates my value, nor do I believe I'm somehow unqualified. I wanted to do research, so yes I had to look for positions that fit my own expectations of an ideal work day, but the job itself does not define me, nor do I believe it is the chief avenue for my own contributions to struggle toward radical social change. For me, that is a really freeing feeling, knowing that I can pursue goals of liberation regardless of what a fickle and unmeritocratic market has to say, knowing that technically I can absolutely go do something else and it wouldn't be useless. Shout out to the supposedly benevolent forces of the market, y'all!
That's all for this post. I'll be posting a similar reflections entry targeted more at those who are already faculty. Hopefully this will help someone else make informed decisions about how to engage one of our more lovely mechanisms for social reproduction so it isn't a lost cause for those of us who are sure we want to be professors and make a job of writing all the damn time. If you have questions/feedback regarding this post, absolutely feel free to use the feedback form on the home page.