This is one of those scenes too amusing to keep to myself: me, the “dignified” PhD, frantically searching About.com for job advice. My students would be so pleased to see me adopting modern research methods. (Of course I never used Wikipedia to prep for lectures, and anyone who says otherwise is a dirty liar.)
The academic application process sucked, but at least I knew what to expect: NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING interview-if-you’re- lucky NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING campus-interview-if-you’re-even-more-lucky NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING anonymous-snail-mail-rejection-letter-six-months-after-the-hire-has-been-made-and-you’ve-forgotten-you-even-applied.
Very straightforward.
The worst part about being a grownup: you've finally figured out it's not worth waiting for boys to call, and now you're stuck waiting for interviewers to call.
Real-world job hunting is something new. There are online applications and phone interviews and hiring managers and people using phrases like “corporate culture” un-ironically. What I’m looking up is usually basic stuff: how long do I wait to send an followup email? Should I call? How am I supposed to phrase this thing, anyway?! This last one isn’t too bad, at least. Years of writing thank-you notes (thanks Mom) have given me a lot of experience in putting a personal spin on a generic form.
And, a question that has plagued job-hunters since primitive times: What should I do if I don’t hear back?
The answer, according to this helpful Virginia Tech site, is “inquire politely about the status of their decision making process.”
Oh, and FYI for those on the other end of the search: “Before your interview ended, your interviewer should have informed you of the organization’s follow-up procedures — from whom (same person who interviewed you, someone else), by what means (phone, e-mail, etc.), and when you would hear again from the organization.”
(DO YOU HEAR THAT, JOB SEARCH COMMITTEES? YOU TOO ARE BOUND BY THE %$#@! SOCIAL CONTRACT!)
One possible approach.
The site continues: “If the interviewer did not tell you, and you did not ask, use your follow-up / thank-you letter to ask.”
This give mes an idea. The academic job market is ridiculously competitive, sure, but that’s become an excuse for unforgivable rudeness. “Oh, we can’t possibly respond to every candidate individually — it would take too long.”
Actually, it wouldn’t with modern email management techniques. A skeptic might deem this a lame excuse for people too damned cowardly to deliver bad news. Or observe that the searchers think, naively, that they’re keep their options open by not telling people what’s going on. A mean person might even suggest they’re reveling in their petty power. (Thank goodness for job wikis — a brilliant technological riposte to institutional stonewalling.)
So for those of you still looking for academic jobs, I suggest you indulge in some minorly subversive behavior by following the Virginia Tech advice to the letter. Write insistent yet faultlessly polite inquiries at every turn of the process, showing your eagerness and concern by diplomatically asking about the interviewers’ progress. If everybody started doing this, I bet the administrative assistants (who are doing most of the dirty work) would get fed up right quick, and this might, ahem, encourage the searchers to invest in some list-management options.
It’s always stressful to wait for calls, compose careful followup emails, etc., but I have been shocked to see that in the corporate world, when you inquire someone usually responds. (To be fair, I gather this wouldn’t be the case if I were applying to jobs at major corporations like say, Goldman Sachs, but luckily I’ve lost all interest in anything that calls itself “high powered”.)
Normal-person job hunting process 1, academic job hunting process 0.
Ain't that always the way...
I thought it was only my local school district that followed the hiring process that you described. Arrogance on the part of the employers amazes me to no end. I’ve responded to advertised opening via fax, email, and hand delivered resumes and I have not received even a “thanks for playing” rejection letter. These have been for “real” professional teaching jobs. I’ve had two interviews this fall and upon the conclusion of the interview, I’ve received the standard parting comment: “We’ll be making a decision soon…we will call you one way or the other.” Of course I received nothing. No letter, no call no e-mail.
I did apply for an evening library job a Belmont Abbey College via e-mail. They did have the professionalism to send me a typed letter thanking me for a position that had already been filled. So there is at least one college with the respect and common courtesy one would expect.
So I am with you on the respect aspect of the job search.
Nope, this approach is pretty standard. In five years I’ve heard of one department that did the right thing by its applicants. And sadly I hear it’s becoming more and more standard in the business world at large. But this is why I think people need to fight back a bit.
Send your resume around even if there is no job opening posted. Some employers love the intiative, others hate it, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Seek out former students and friends – anyone you had a lunch with in your former life – and ask them if they know of someone looking for a person with your qualifgications. Don’t forget to mention you’re a quick learner (but phrase it carefully and obliquely). Also, have you signed up with a recruiting agency? I am not a big fan of those, but they do sometimes land you a job.
Eh, not yet, I’m just starting out and I’m not even in my ultimate location yet. But all good advice for kicking the search into higher gear.
Yes! This is the chief benefit of the Hamster World. I can’t say that communication is always as easy once you get the job, but the hiring process tends to be an orderly affair complete with timelines. Even if an interviewer took a long time to get back to me, they still told me when I should expect to hear from them.
If this thrills you, wait until you enjoy the free coffee provided by most workplaces, even in the lame economy. (It thrilled me, I must admit.)
Yeah, it’s a nice change, isn’t it? And I’d be geeked about free coffee. It’s the least anyone can do.
Two trends I noticed over the past three years: 1.) the increasing number of institutions using Human Resources depts as the primary point of contact and 2.) the increasing number of HR depts using the same application system (think UG/grad application-style sites but for jobs). Still, the number of jobs requiring the use of such systems (as opposed to the more old-fashioned practice of sending a stack of materials directly to a chair) is relatively small (I’d guess about 15-20%, which is up from about 5% three years ago).
I wonder if this represents a response to the managerial/professional incompetency commonly found on the level of an academic dept? Or does it reflect the increasing corporatization of academia? Good thing? Bad thing? Pointless either way?
And then there are the jobs that ask you to submit the same set of materials twice: to both the dept and the HR site….
My advice: quit drinking only *after* you have sent off all the applications.
Back for more, Kotaku? Still waiting on that gaming/education guest blog…pessimistically, I think universities are getting the worst of both worlds when they use HR. It puts yet another barrier between the cowardly search committee and the applicant, but HR is going to be dependent on the incompetent dept. admin for information about the process, so it won’t actually speed things up in any way. Also pessimistically, HR isn’t there to look out for the applicants, it’s there to cover the company’s ass.
And as for drinking, I think we both know that the Airplane Conundrum (“I guess it was a bad week to quit…”) applies right up through getting to be Full Professor.
I am job hunting myself and I am specifically looking for an international company (because I do appreciate some “law and order” rather than the anarchical italian way of doing things that drives me crazy)…I have a five years experience in IT sales so it’s not exactly rocket science but you wouldn’t believe the things I am doing: a 1 hour logic test, 160 questions to evaluate my personality…at least three or four interviews but there are company that easily arrive up to then. Good Luck
Wow, I can almost see a logic test, but if someone tried to give me a personality test I think it would probably bring out my worst, uh, personality. Like I’ve said before, they should just hire teachers on the lam to evaluate potential candidates. We don’t need no stinking test! But good luck to you too!
Yesterday I was informed “We will call you within a week if you are eligible for a formal interview with the HR Chair”… we’ll see if they hold to that. I’d submitted my resume nearly 3 weeks ago, I got a call on Monday, tested on Tuesday, and hope to hear from them by next week.
I’m to the point where I assume if I don’t hear anything, I haven’t got the job. Only one or two places have ever bothered to send me rejection letters or *gasp* called to reject me.
But generally, once I get to the interview, I get the job (three jobs have followed that rule, zero haven’t)
And… I meant for this to be a more direct response to your “people don’t bother to call and it’s rude and we should be subversive” and I’m totally with you on that, but my brain is going a million directions today. Whoops.
Yeah, it’s fair to assume, but it really is the principle that bugs me — these days, at least most online applications are clear on the “we’ll contact you only if we’re interested” and they at least send an auto “Yes, we did get your application” email. This is more than what happens in most academic job searches. And what is it with this “job test” crap? But good luck!