Job Tracking - Week 18

I just realized I almost forgot about this post. I must've been so busy dozing off during the season finale for "Lost, Season 4." Honestly, they made three seasons of people on an island fly by, and the season finale feels like six hours in a life raft with Ben Stein?

Anyway, job stuff: more rejections this week but not much else. Committee members, let me say this about rejections: if you demand everything and the kitchen sink be sent to you, including copies of undergraduate transcripts, then pony up the first class stamp for a written rejection letter. As the kids on Fat Albert would've have said: "E-mail rejection letters? NC. NO CLASS!"

And applicants, since we're doing a search here, let me offer you a piece of advice, too. If the call for applications asks for documents to be sent to a particular person, send the documents to that person. And whatever you do, don't just copy and paste all the information in those documents into the a single e-mail and then send them to the wrong person. And if you're going to copy and paste it into one e-mail and send it to the wrong person, at least write the person a note rather than just sending an e-mail with all your documents cut and pasted. Stop and say hi. Or explain why you shouldn't have to follow instructions. Give me a salutation or something.

I'm at that point in the job market where silly things are making me superstitious. Yesterday, I had to renew my car registration, good for another two years. As I drove away from the DMV, I thought to myself, "Well, that should guarantee me a job so that I'll have to pay multiple expensive fees to register my car this year." And then, of course, I immediately thought, "Oh crap. I just jinxed myself." So if I don't get a new gig this year, now we'll know why.

Anyway, as I said, not much change from last week:

Total # of academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified: 23/25
Total # of non-academic jobs applied for/# of jobs identified 0/0
COST OF THE SEARCH
Total spent in U.S. dollars on applications: $192.90
Average cost in U.S. dollars per applications: $14.95
Total spent in U.S. dollars on travel, etc: $150.99
Total amount in U.S. dollars reimbursed: $0
WHERE THE CALL CAME FROM:
The Chronicle of Higher Ed: 9
HigherEdJobs.com: 0
Other online service (listserv, etc): 14
Friend/Colleague: 2
Personal Research: 1
THE JOB IS IN THE DETAILS
Total number of paper submissions: 19
Total number of e-submissions: 4
Total weight in pounds of application packets: 22.13
Total number of recommendation letters requested: 48
Total number of requests for references: 5
Total number of "proof of teaching excellence" packs : 9
Total number of requests for Teaching Philosophy :11
Total number of research packs: 13
Total number of transcripts requested: 3
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
Total number of acknowledgments of receipt: 21
Total number of confirmed reference contacts: 0
Total number of phone interviews: 2
Total number of conference interviews: 0
Total number of on-campus interviews: 2
Total number of offers: 0
Total number of rejection letters: 9
Total number of canceled or unhired positions: 1

There are still a few job announcements trickling in - actually more than I recall from the search last year. But a lot more of them are listed as visiting now. Last year, it didn't feel like the visiting and one-year positions started to hit until around the end of March.

More later!