I'm home. Looks like I made it out of Baltimore alive. And, I'm somewhat shocked to report, I think some of my interviews went really well. Like, far better than I'd dared to hope they would. Turns out people think my project is kind of interesting. Turns out I'm capable of performing under pressure. Who knew? Certainly not me. I'm kind of stunned. In what world am I one of those freaks who actually enjoys herself in interviews? It's sick and unnatural. But there it is.
I'm droolingly exhausted. Bed, please. Maybe when I wake up, a good three days from now, there'll be some fly-back requests waiting for me in my inbox. That'd complete this insane series of events rather well, I think.
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14 comments:
I didn't have any APA interviews, but I did enjoy my recent dissertation defense. Is that the same?
Cool. Congratulations. But a caution. Probably of 12-14 interviewees, 3 or 4 fuck up. The rest have good interviews, and leave thinking that they did well and that the committee likes them. Maybe 2 stand out.
Obviously these numbers can move around a bit, but the general point is that the mere fact an interview went well and that one has left with a good reason probably means nothing more than that one hasn't fucked it up (yet). It's good news, but only in the sense of not being bad news.
So much fear on this site. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Try not; do, or do not. Urm.
With all due respect, I hope your success means you'll all stop whining a bit now.
You know what they say--only a philosopher could have invented the concept of "ressentiment."
Good for you PGOAT--toi toi toi!
I'll be posting my thoughts shortly
Congrats to all. Good luck on the next phase. Lots of anxiety and anticipation associated with this phase as well. Give it a few weeks. SCs are painfully sluggish sometimes. Occasionally they'll give you a call within a week of the APA, or may even signal at the smoker that they'll definitely be contacting you for a fly-out, but just try to keep your wits about you and remember when you don't hear immediately that there are still others back at the ranch who have to give their approval. This can take some time.
Echoing Anon 7:11pm, nailing an interview (or at least thinking you nailed it) means nothing. Seriously. Thinking that your awesome interview performance somehow substantially increases your chances will only lead to heartbreak. Again, most of this stuff is either decided well beforehand, and unless immediately after the interview, the committee hands you a contract, your chances have most likely gone neither up nor down.
disturbingly fascinating horrorshow blog - like watching a car crash in very slow motion. I am mixed both with sympathy (grotesque job market) and amusement (fear, the dark side, pretend 'ressentiment' as style). Interviews and job talks matter in the UK market, and we decide fairly quickly after reading candidates' work, hearing them give a talk, and interrogation/water-boarding (though we do not have a philosophy department at my place), so in some ways I can relate to all this but my 35 applications and seven interviews for one offer (of a dream job seems easy by comparison. And all this to be paid up ideologues in the teaching factory. the mysteries of the US scene bug me out - why it takes so long, why its such a meat market (yet without the fun nights out). Reading all this, I really hope this market-circus does not catch on here anymore than it already has...
JH
Trinketization: education
Anon 8:18: bite me.
That said, I'm feeling oddly calmed post-APA. I didn't have a lot of interviews, though what I had went well. I slept for nearly 12 hours when I got back, then watched football until my eyes bled (mostly meaningless, but hard-fought nonetheless, like my life right now). I did ask the final question "when I can expect to hear from you" and was told January, hopefully sooner rather than later. So when February comes, if I've got nothing brewing, I know that I'm down the spring cycle and trying to figure out how to pay for Chicago, or even worse Pasadena.
But, 8:18, you'll be happy to know that I plan on bitching less through the next couple of months, at least publicly.
Oh, and I got good and useful feedback and sincere interest in my obscure research, so I've gotten a useful morning of writing underway already, which I hope will continue through the upcoming anxiety (ja, ångest är min arvedel).
At the risk of diverting the discussion from the ever-pressing question of what city PGS eats with his hands in, let me say that I don't think that candidates can tell how an interview went -- or that, if they can, how an interview went has little bearing on whether they'll get a fly-out.
When I was first on the market, I thought I blew my first interview. (They asked me how I would teach a course in the one AOC listed in the ad, and my answer sucked.) But, I later found out from someone on the committee, that was their best interview. Did I get a fly-out? No, because the department, which already had two people working on my dissertation topic, decided that they didn't need a third. Or, after another blown interview (in which someone on the committee made a joke about one of my bad answers to the rest of the committee), I got a fly-out. And a job offer. Why? Because, as one of the committee members reassured me at the smoker, they read candidates' work carefully and took it seriously.
As for sluggishness, remember that some schools start the semester later than others and that more than one meeting might be required: if the full search committee wasn't at the APA, the full search committee might need to meet before the department meets, if the department is deciding who to fly out.
Inside man,
If that's the case, what are the interviews for anyway? If a school isn't going to hire you 'cause they already have two people working on your topic (say), why did they bother with the interview? Were they really that hard up to find 12-ish people to look at?
same here
"droolingly exhausted". I like that. (The phrase, not the condition!)
I recall that I came out of job interviews the tiredest I had ever been. It was the only time I have ever had serious fears that I would fall asleep while walking through the airport.
My advice to future job-seekers: get a private room, try to go to bed early, don't drink if it ever interferes with your sleep, eat lots of protein, exercise if you can. And try not to replay interviews in your mind any more than you can avoid.
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