Job Tracking - Week 2

In the office on the weekend to work on more job applications. Joy, oh, joy!

For those of you keeping up, here is the last job tracking entry so you can compare. I would have had three done yesterday but for the 4 pm faculty meeting that was, to its credit, both useful and mercifully short. But it did get in the way of my usual job prep time, keeping me from getting any new applications out in the mail though I did identify several new job possibilities and get one e-submission completed.

Some of the more observant will note that my cost has risen even though this week's only submission was an electronic one. This is explained by the need for supplies, particularly envelopes and some sort of folder to keep things organized in. The folder moment is a weird one, because my experience looking at job applications is that the extra stuff never gets seen (and is likely thrown away). I've never seen an application in a folder, for example. Still, I like to send my applications in an organized way, and keeping them in a folder helps me to make sure, particularly during those times I'm putting out several applications at once.

I also prefer to use my own supplies as much as possible to avoid any perceived conflict of interest. Some disciplines seem more inclined to this than others (remember there was some small to-do about the use of letterhead over at Tenured Radical awhile back). I do use a version of letterhead, though only because I have a scanned .JPEG of ours that I can simply put at the top of any document I print: same effect, no guilt. I've never used letterhead before, so it'll be interesting to see whether somehow my interest rate goes up any (obviously, though I won't be able to say for sure whether it's the letterhead or not, but still, fuel for the internets). After some discussion around here and reading posts hither and yon, I also added a couple of new tracking categories: paper vs. e-submissions.

The whole e-submission process leaves me with mixed feelings. First, how do you actually sign something? I could do the scan of my signature the way I do with letterhead, but what a pain that was. And while I approve of not having to print a ton of paperwork out myself, I'm not fooled into thinking this is paperless. After all, when I review applications, I always want my own copy to write on. I don't imagine it's much difference anywhere else. One of the good things about the e-submission process is that it does allow the school, if done correctly, to gather all that pesky demographic data as part of the process. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume confirmation with e-submissions that include some sort of reference number or that collect demographic data; if they don't, no counting until they send me something.

With those thoughts in mind, here are this week's numbers.

Total # of academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified: 3/15
Total # of non-academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified 0/0
COST OF THE SEARCH
Total spent in U.S. dollars on applications: $37.28
Average cost in U.S. dollars per applications: $12.43
Total spent in U.S. dollars on travel, etc: $0
Total amount in U.S. dollars reimbursed: $0
WHERE THE CALL CAME FROM:
The Chronicle of Higher Ed: 2
HigherEdJobs.com: 0
Other online service (listserv, etc): 12
Friend/Colleague: 0
Personal Research: 1
THE JOB IS IN THE DETAILS
Total number of paper submissions: 2
Total number of e-submissions: 1
Total weight in pounds of application packets: 3.1
Total number of recommendation letters requested: 3
Total number of requests for references: 2
Total number of "proof of teaching excellence" packs : 0
Total number of requests for Teaching Philosophy 0
Total number of research packs: 1
Total number of transcripts requested: 0
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
Total number of acknowledgments of receipt: 3
Total number of confirmed reference contacts: 0
Total number of phone interviews: 0
Total number of conference interviews: 0
Total number of on-campus interviews: 0
Total number of offers: 0
Total number of rejection letters: 0

I realize now, I should probably track how much time this is taking, but the number would be fudged at best. I've got a pretty good system for these things now, and it can still take me ages because of the need to look at departmental information and such.