We created this blog for those of us (Mid East History PhD’s and ABD’s) who are on the academic job market, in an attempt to formalize the informal rumor mill through which most job applicants find out whether they've been accepted or rejected.
-It is up to you to contribute to this site with information about jobs and to spread the word to other friends and acquaintances who are in the job market (in 2007/2008). You can email me at History_PhD@yahoo.com
Friday, August 11, 2006
The 2007 Job Market
Please comment here if you wish to discuss (or, most likely, complain about) the (2007) job market.
14 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Lets start a discussion going:
What are your job preferences so far? Does Geography matter? are you looking for a teaching college or a research University?
At the risk of being off-topic, I had a question: Is it inadvisable to take a instructor position within a university's history department knowing they'll create a tenure-track position a couple years hence? I ask this after hearing that some departments simply won't consider an in-house instructor for assistant professor positions. Thanks in advance for your insights.
I don’t necessarily agree with that view. If during your tenure as instructor you are publishing and seen as a good citizen, than you are a know commodity and that should help your case. Also you can develop relationships with faculty members within the department which can’t hurt either. On the other hand some hiring committees believe that it is always greener on the other side of the fence. But if your qualifications match the other candidates and you are a good citizen, etc. than you should have an edge. Anyone else would like to weigh in on this?
I'm a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education and I'd like to talk to people about this blog -- both the people who set it up and those who use it. I'm writing an article about academic rumor mills in a variety of fields. Please e-mail me if you're interested at: robin.wilson@chronicle.com Comments can remain anonymous. thanks
Boys and girls, I read the CHE article, and as usual, they just smelled a bit of blood in the water and wrote in way that makes us all look bad.
I was where you were just a couple years ago and now am tenured with a tenured spouse at a big old div-1 state school West of the Rockies. I even have a book and another on the way. If you're plugged in, you probably could figure out who this is.
SO: I KNOW WHEREOF I SPEAK
I've been on at least 25 campus visits and chaired 3 others. Over half the searches I've participated in failed, collapsed, whatever, another half were filled and of those a good third of those are now empty again due to folks moving on or having been denied tenure (our field has a very high incidence of that, by the by).
This kind of behavior (rumor mill blog) is an utter waste of your time and energy and helps only those with whom you are competing. It is not healthy and will do harm.
In the old days (5 years ago) we had our own mill and virtually none of the information was every remotely accurate. We even thought an opening at a school was caused by the death of an older colleague (heavy drinker, smoker) - but he was living large at that next year's MESA. There is just a great deal of shit you just don't want to know, if you knew would do no good and if you had it would make no difference to you. Some departments will not be just that into you for various reasons that rarely resemble the rational.
Control what you can:
Just keep your noses to the grind stone; finish the dissertation, don't write book reviews, write arcticles (as long as they are chapters in your dissertation) exercise, pay attention to your significant other, be nice to us old geezers and be your own best friend - 'cause in grad school nobody else will be.
Don't turn your nose up at a job because of its location or its not where you pictured yourself - you can always move or quite or be happy.
The Smith job was posted in July so it is in the archive column to the right. I will try to find a way to have all of the jobs on the same page…to make it less confusing. -If anyone knows of other job that I have missed please inform me and I will add them as soon as I can.
Thanks for posting your advice for us newbies…we need all the help we can get…though you can’t underestimate the human need for information…even not so accurate information…so I hope this site works out. We will find out after MESA, once people post about the first round of interviews.
If you are looking for an online teaching job check out FacultyFinder.com. There is no cost for faculty to create a searchable profile. About 40 colleges and universities search the database when looking for online faculty.
Smith college will be conducting phone interviews soon...they are almost done with their short list... so it seems like they will not have conference interviews.
It was a strange job market this year. A lot of places conducted phone interviews. I preferred this. I was able to skip the conference meat markets! huge relief ;-) Got 2 campus interviews and 2 offers. Final choice was extremely difficult.
Cheers & Good Luck to Others.
Best advice: RELAX & MAKE SURE THEY LIKE YOU!!! If you made it to a campus interview, you no longer need to prove your credentials. You just need to make sure that they like you!!! RTFM AHA manual on how to get a job. Very very useful tips in that little book!
14 comments:
Lets start a discussion going:
What are your job preferences so far?
Does Geography matter? are you looking for a teaching college or a research University?
How do you rank the schools so far?
At the risk of being off-topic, I had a question: Is it inadvisable to take a instructor position within a university's history department knowing they'll create a tenure-track position a couple years hence? I ask this after hearing that some departments simply won't consider an in-house instructor for assistant professor positions. Thanks in advance for your insights.
I don’t necessarily agree with that view.
If during your tenure as instructor you are publishing and seen as a good citizen, than you are a know commodity and that should help your case. Also you can develop relationships with faculty members within the department which can’t hurt either. On the other hand some hiring committees believe that it is always greener on the other side of the fence. But if your qualifications match the other candidates and you are a good citizen, etc. than you should have an edge.
Anyone else would like to weigh in on this?
I'm a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education and I'd like to talk to people about this blog -- both the people who set it up and those who use it. I'm writing an article about academic rumor mills in a variety of fields.
Please e-mail me if you're interested at: robin.wilson@chronicle.com
Comments can remain anonymous.
thanks
Boys and girls, I read the CHE article, and as usual, they just smelled a bit of blood in the water and wrote in way that makes us all look bad.
I was where you were just a couple years ago and now am tenured with a tenured spouse at a big old div-1 state school West of the Rockies. I even have a book and another on the way. If you're plugged in, you probably could figure out who this is.
SO: I KNOW WHEREOF I SPEAK
I've been on at least 25 campus visits and chaired 3 others. Over half the searches I've participated in failed, collapsed, whatever, another half were filled and of those a good third of those are now empty again due to folks moving on or having been denied tenure (our field has a very high incidence of that, by the by).
This kind of behavior (rumor mill blog) is an utter waste of your time and energy and helps only those with whom you are competing. It is not healthy and will do harm.
In the old days (5 years ago) we had our own mill and virtually none of the information was every remotely accurate. We even thought an opening at a school was caused by the death of an older colleague (heavy drinker, smoker) - but he was living large at that next year's MESA. There is just a great deal of shit you just don't want to know, if you knew would do no good and if you had it would make no difference to you. Some departments will not be just that into you for various reasons that rarely resemble the rational.
Control what you can:
Just keep your noses to the grind stone; finish the dissertation, don't write book reviews, write arcticles (as long as they are chapters in your dissertation) exercise, pay attention to your significant other, be nice to us old geezers and be your own best friend - 'cause in grad school nobody else will be.
Don't turn your nose up at a job because of its location or its not where you pictured yourself - you can always move or quite or be happy.
Peace out and best of luck.
There is also a job in Middle East history at Smith College that is not listed on this site. You can find the full job ad at:
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/display_job.php?jobID=31697
The Smith job was posted in July so it is in the archive column to the right. I will try to find a way to have all of the jobs on the same page…to make it less confusing.
-If anyone knows of other job that I have missed please inform me and I will add them as soon as I can.
Thanks for posting your advice for us newbies…we need all the help we can get…though you can’t underestimate the human need for information…even not so accurate information…so I hope this site works out. We will find out after MESA, once people post about the first round of interviews.
If you are looking for an online teaching job check out FacultyFinder.com. There is no cost for faculty to create a searchable profile. About 40 colleges and universities search the database when looking for online faculty.
Smith college will be conducting phone interviews soon...they are almost done with their short list... so it seems like they will not have conference interviews.
Hmmm... Looks like Smith wants to lock somebody in before the AHA.
Yep... just found out from the Wiki
Smith has their short list and will be doing phone interviews shortly
-Also Central florida has short listed for MESA
http://wikihost.org/wikis/academe/wiki/middle_east_history
It was a strange job market this year. A lot of places conducted phone interviews. I preferred this. I was able to skip the conference meat markets! huge relief ;-)
Got 2 campus interviews and 2 offers.
Final choice was extremely difficult.
Cheers & Good Luck to Others.
Best advice: RELAX & MAKE SURE THEY LIKE YOU!!! If you made it to a campus interview, you no longer need to prove your credentials. You just need to make sure that they like you!!! RTFM AHA manual on how to get a job. Very very useful tips in that little book!
Hey folks,
Just trying to see whether it would make sense to aggregate all the Middle East job stuff...
Contributions very welcome!
http://mideastrumourmill.blogspot.com/
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