Thursday, November 22, 2007

And If That Phone Don't Ring One More Time, I'm Going To Lose What's Left of My Mind

Last year I didn't hear from any of the places that interviewed me until the second or third week of December. So there's no reason to start freaking out about not getting interviews for at least a few weeks, right?

True. But the philosophy job wiki says a couple of schools have contacted people about interviews already, and that's not helping me keep my shit together. Is it already time to start checking the wiki every fifteen minutes, every hour of every god damned day?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, definitely not. Tilburg doesn't count for APA interviews -- like all European schools, it's just on a completely different schedule. Expect 99 per cent of calls to come between Dec. 7 and Dec. 17.

Anonymous said...

... and under no circumstances expect the phone to ring over the Thanksgiving weekend.

I would actually say that most calls would come between Dec 7-21. And also note that some schools just do not interview at the APA.

Anonymous said...

I agree -- it's too early to reasonably expect anyone to have contacted you (many deadlines haven't even passed yet).

That said, I'm checking the wiki about every half hour -- can I rig it so I'll get an email every time it gets updated? That way, my dissertation will surely get done faster...

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, our hiring committee (in the history of philosophy) will likely not be contacting people until Dec. 14.

Anonymous said...

I think that there might be some way to get an rss feed of the changes.

There hasn't been any activity lately, but this might work.

http://wikihost.org/wikis/academe/programm/rss.prg
?name=philosophy

It will only be useful if people leave a log entry when they update the page.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Then we'll be checking the wiki regularly to make sure our RSS feed is working.

Anonymous said...

If someone could collect the data, it would be interesting to see if schools that get their shit together and contact interviewees sooner have a higher acceptance rate when they make offers: you know, candidates are more happy and impressed from the beginning.

re: get their shit together. We all know profs let papers pile up until the last minute. I'm sure they do the same thing with applications: they don't start in on the them the day after the deadline, but probably let them sit for a few weeks before digging in.

Sisyphus said...

Yeah, hit the turkey and the beer (or wine, or whatever gets you through) today, cause there's no way we're getting any calls/emails until after the hols are over.

I think that since thanksgiving is relatively early this year, search committees'll probably do some contacting of people next week ---- but that most contact will be early to mid- dec.

Not that this is making me feel any calmer or letting my work on the diss though.

Himself said...

You know how you left it till the last possible moment to put in your application? That's how SCs work with deciding who to interview.

Anonymous said...

We won't look at the applications until after the last day of class, and so won't contact conference interviewees until mid-December, for what it is worth.

Love the Old 97s reference, btw.

Anonymous said...

I am checking the wiki regularly now, not because I expect people to be interviewing, but because I think it's exciting just to watch the updates! I am a bit compulsive, but that's good in this business! In fact, this whole process is rather exciting. I keep thinking of the Forrest Gump line "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get." I mean being on the job market is so like that, don't you think? Who knows where I'll be next time this year! Well, back to the dissertation, folks!

Anonymous said...

In some schools departments also must have their interview list approved of by the dean or some other administrator. That can add a few days to when the department is allowed to contact the interviewees after the department or search committee has decided on the interview list. So, yes, calls can easily be coming until Dec. 21st. I think that's going to be the case with my department's search. (We won't be interviewing at the APA, though; the calls will be for campus fly outs.)

Anonymous said...

Yes, I am also checking the Wiki page all the time too. It is a negative affirmation in the sense that when I check it during the holidays and see that there is no updates, it reaffirms to me that I didn't miss out on a possible interview call.

Anyway, I have a question: realistically, is it more likely that you'll get more interviews and generate more interest in you when you have a term position with Ph.D. in hand as opposed to being fresh out of graduate school? If so, how much more appealing is it for interviewers at teaching schools?

Anonymous said...

Well how is this for bad... I received my first phone call for a job interview last week, and I managed to blow the phone call. They called on my cell while I was fighting rush hour traffic, so I was at the craziest part of my day. I definately sounded distracted and wasn't smart enough to ask if I could call back in 15 minutes when I'm not in traffic. When he asked if I had any questions about the job, I was honest and said I didn't remember the details of the position off the top of my head since I applied to over 80 jobs. He said, I guess we're not on your short list. UGGGH. Nobody told me how to field the phone call. I would have thought that I'd be smart enough not to mess it up. But apparently, too much time in graduate school erodes your common sense. And I am actually interested in the job.