There are a multitude of resources available for CV formats, interview tips, and fashion advice. Saving strategy sessions for those more qualified, I am concerned with your sanity. The academic job market takes an immense emotional, mental, economic, and physical toll on everyone. Many times, especially as an ABD, you feel powerless. You have the right to guard your emotional well-being. There are ways to manage the isolating and often unspoken struggles being on “the market.” Here are seven (not exclusive) ideas to start the conversation.

1) Find a support system:
Talk to your partner, friends, family, therapist, etc. Communicate with your advisers and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Spend time with people who care about you. Create a support group in your cohort and complain about the market over happy hour or coffee dates. I had a weekly date with a close friend from my program. We drank cava and encouraged each other to keep going. Make friends with people outside of your department at conferences and check in frequently. These are the people who understand the rollercoaster you are riding. Don’t be embarrassed to reveal your insecurities. We have all been in your position and want to see you succeed.

Family and friends outside of academia will not get it. Best scenario: they are super encouraging but still confused. Worst scenario: they don’t understand why you can’t get a job and are living on student loans. My amazingly supportive husband and I practiced canned answers for family functions. He graciously fielded “Why can’t you get a job in Texas?” “Can’t you just apply anywhere?” In turn, I reassured people (and myself) I am okay and it will take time.

2) Don’t worry about anyone else:
Brazilians have a wonderful expression that loosely translates to “Every monkey on their own branch.” The job market is an individualized process. Focus on your materials, progress, and worries inside your head (then tell them to shut up). My lovely friend Kristen Warner always said: “Run your own race.” If this is a marathon, concentrate on your pace and ignore others. Trust me, you don’t want to go down that road. Don’t get caught up in who is applying where or landed interviews. If you start comparing yourself to others, you will go crazy. Also, ignore anyone who is braggadocious about their application process (and be sensitive when blasting your success everywhere). To quote my dear friend Racquel Gates: “In the long run, collegiality is better for your soul than competitiveness.”

3) Step away from the AcaWiki!:
This is a toxic space. Trust me, this is for you own good.

4) Don’t take it personally:
I know. This is so much easier said then done. If you don’t move forward, this is not about you nor a reflection of your scholarly potential. Instead, know the quirks of a search committee are driving this train. Don’t try to read their minds. Every department has a different idiosyncratic dynamic. They are looking for a particular research, teaching, and personality “fit.” Be careful hanging all of your self-esteem on whether or not Southern College requests more materials. Many of you have spent money and at least a decade in school to obtain the PhD. This is a hard one. As Conan O’Brien reminds us: “No specific job or career defines me and it should not define you.” Remember you are multi-dimensional person and be careful defining your worth solely through academia.

5) Find your release:
Leave your office and do something you enjoy. This will be different for everyone. For many in my cohort, yoga and running helped us relax and get grounded. Living in Austin, I went to live shows. Music became a therapeutic release resulting in my own ATX-themed playlists (see: here, here, and here). Not only did this take my mind off the uncertainty, it helped me stay present and enjoy my current city (and worry about where you will be next year). For you, it might be baking, gaming, shopping, playing with your kiddo, cleaning, etc.

6) Give yourself a break:
This is a universally stressful process. You may be tired or emotional all of the time. You may cry at inappropriate moments (raises hand). You may be grumpy with your roommate or partner. You may sit around and watch multiple seasons of Misfits or Vampire Diaries (raises hand again). This is a normal side effect of the market and that is okay. You don’t have to be strong all of the time or pretend you are not struggling. Own your emotions and be kind to yourself.

7) Keep a routine and then let it go:
A friend told me he only worked on job materials one day a week. After starting this routine, I found myself able to relax and focus on finishing my dissertation, conference papers, etc. Checking your email 30 times a day will not make a committee’s email magically appear (goodness knows, I tried). My parents have a motto (thanks, Teddy Roosevelt): “Do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are.” Know what you can control on your end and then let it go. You will be a happier person for it.

A huge thanks to Racquel Gates, Hollis Griffin, Kevin Sanson, and Kristen Warner for their sharing their experiences with me for this post.

Search committees need advice too. So I submit this letter to search committees in the US and Canada. It probably doesn’t apply to committees in Europe and elsewhere, since the expectations and protocols are different.

~~

3 August 2012

Dear Search Committees,

Soon, I’ll be writing you letters. Right now, I’m writing with some requests.

1. Consider requesting less from people in their initial applications. How much of an initial dossier do you really need? When I go through a set of applications, it’s usually obvious to me from a letter and CV that a good proportion of the applicants in a pile aren’t a good fit for the job. Sure, there are still many people left over after that, but couldn’t you ask for additional information then? Do the student evaluations and statement of research philosophy really matter if you advertised a transnational media studies position and someone writes in with an organizational communication CV (but they took a postcolonial seminar once)?

2. Consider accepting as much of the dossier as possible in electronic form. As someone who writes dozens and sometimes hundreds of letters in a year, it makes a huge difference to me and to my printer when letters can be sent electronically. If your HR department requires paper recommendations to make an offer, request them for finalists only. But imagine how convenient it would be to have electronic dossiers for candidates: no more running around trying to figure out who has that file you need.

3. At every stage, consider telling candidates as much as possible about what you want. Do you want them to design new courses or to teach ones already on the books? Do you hope they’ll build a new lab or bridge two areas of the program? Unsure of what you want? Why not tell the candidates and let them make their best pitch possible? Let them know what’s important in the letter or interview.

4. A Skype interview is a phone interview with video, nothing more. Every Skype interview I hear about from applicants has a bizarre or wacky component to it. No two are remotely similar.  Phone interviews and campus interviews are genres and have predictable protocols. Skype interviews are about as predictable as an LSD-enhanced disc jockey on a 1970s freeform FM radio station.

Skype interviews are not substitutes for on-campus interviews where candidates give research presentations and have lengthy discussions with committees. They are also not occasions to submit candidates to surprising challenges. Keep them short and to the point, and treat them like phone interviews: you’re getting a sense of the person at the other end, and they’re getting a sense of you. That’s it. If you want to get to know the candidate better, invite them to campus. Please don’t add tech support, camera, mic work and troubleshooting bad connections to candidates’ stress.

5. Send out rejection letters as soon as you can. Sure, you’ve got to hold onto your finalists and maybe a few others as you’re sorting out who will actually be offered the job—and whether they will accept—but most of the people in the pile could get their letters right away. A swift and kind letter is one of the most humane things you can do for your candidates who aren’t going to be hired.

6. For on-campus interviews, consider having a formal interview with the entire committee, or even the entire department. The formal interview is a great place for everyone to ask their questions of the candidate, and for the candidate to respond once, in front of the group, so that everyone hears the same thing. It makes deliberations easier, and it also helps clarify which questions are really important.

7. Also, consider keeping the on-campus interviews to about a day in length (plus meals).  Are all the meetings really necessary to decide if the person will be hired or to properly recruit them?

8. Be good hosts on the interview. Sure, it’s nice to go out to dinner on your school’s dime, but make it a place where the candidate can actually eat something, and make an effort to include them in the conversation. And I don’t mean by firing more interview questions at them about how they will deal with late student papers. Also, if there are unexpected things that go against conventional interview wisdom, please tell all candidates up front. For instance, when I was running searches here in Montreal, I made a point of telling candidates not to wear nice shoes, or to bring indoor and outdoor shoes, since they’d be walking through snow banks and slush pools.

9. Don’t ask candidates to front the costs of the interview. For instance: don’t make them buy their plane ticket. Ideally, the only reimbursements they should have to submit at the end would be cab fare if you live in that kind of place. Unless you’re making a senior hire, odds are that your candidates are broke, and while your school may be as well, if you’re interviewing them, you’re probably acting like you’re not broke. So why not keep up the act? It’s the decent thing to do.

To sum up: try and be a little kinder to your candidates this year. Ask them all the difficult questions you can think of; challenge them as part of the job talks or the interview. That’s all fair, and good for everyone. But try to make the rest of the process as humane as possible. Not only will they appreciate it, you’ll feel better about the process and do your department’s reputation a service at the same time.

Sincerely,
–Jonathan

One of the aspects of hiring in the UK and Ireland that is quite different to the US is the way that all finalists are brought in at the same time – they may meet each other at shared information sessions, go to dinner with faculty together or run into each other at the hotel where they are all staying. For most American academics this scenario strikes us as discomfiting but it carries a huge benefit to the hiring committee for it concentrates its work and enables members to get an immediate comparative perspective on candidates.  It isn’t nearly as awkward as might be imagined and in fact as a candidate myself in the past I have enjoyed the process of meeting some of the other finalists, learning more about their work and having an opportunity to chat I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

This way of interviewing also standardizes the hiring process and it is important to know if you interview for a job in the UK or Irish system that the job description is operationalized into precise categories and both shortlisting and the ranking of finalists is carried out on a numerical basis.  (This is one reason to scrutinize a job description very closely and to be sure that the case you are making for yourself responds directly and clearly to it).  In principle, the selection of an appointee should be a straightforward matter of finding the person with the highest score, though of course a lot of discussion accompanies this process.

The interviewing process in the UK and Ireland will strike many American applicants as highly codified and streamlined.  Less documentation is required in general; letters of reference may be slightly less important to the process than would be the case in the US and they are normally only taken up for finalists. Shortlisting is usually done quickly and arrangements for interview carried out with dispatch. Finalists’ obligations may seem minimal in comparison to the US as you will be expected to give a short research talk (for senior posts this often entails sketching your “vision” for the department) and then to appear for a formal interview.  It is possible that you will spend less than two hours in total with the members of the search committee.  One “plus” of this way of working is that you don’t start to sound like a broken record to yourself, avoiding the situation of meeting individually with faculty over a few days and explaining over and over what you do and how you go about it.

There may be a surprisingly high level of involvement in the search by faculty members who have little to no connection with media studies.  In my own institution we are obligated to give a slot on the search committee from someone outside of our college. At my previous institution the chair of the search committee was a senior faculty member from some other part of the university who I never met again although I was offered the post, accepted it and went on to work there for six years. It is not uncommon to ask colleagues from other institutions to serve on the panel; in Ireland full professorial appointments regularly entail one or more members of the hiring committee being brought in from other countries.

Institutional hospitality is generally greatly reduced in comparison to the US, with candidates often making their own travel and even accommodation arrangements and spending no “informal” time with those involved in the hiring process. About a decade ago I interviewed for a post at a well-known East Coast liberal arts college.  When I arrived in icy midwinter around eleven o’clock at night, the search committee chair collected me at the airport and although of course not openly stated, my interview really began in a dark car during an hour’s drive from the airport to campus.  By contrast, when I interviewed for my current post I had no contact of any kind with any members of the department – all of my communication went through HR. There was no meal for candidates and no “walk-through” of facilities; the five finalists for the job were simply given a campus map and told where and when to appear.

For all the differences in how hiring is carried out, it is unfortunately the case that the UK and Ireland share with the US many of the same intensifications of neoliberal institutional environments and attendant austerity regimes.  Interview slots are precious and monies to bring candidates to campus are growing scarcer. Relocation money (if any) is likely to reflect a set of negotiations between a department chair and a dean. Limited term posts are becoming the norm and so candidates face a tough set of choices when contemplating international relocation for a job that may last just a few years.  Traditional “perks” like start-up packages are almost unknown now.

That is not to say that there aren’t many rich rewards that come with working overseas nor is it to suggest that the ability to adjust to functioning in a very different system isn’t in many ways now a requirement for all kinds of successful twenty-first century workers.  My own career has certainly benefited from such experiences and adjustments. I think the media studies academy can only be enriched by a more internationalist mindset and way of working.

I haven’t mentioned yet how rapidly decisions are made in the UK and Ireland where customarily the search committee makes an offer by the end of the day and you can expect to be asked to supply a phone number at the end of the interview at which you can be immediately reached. Finally if you are offered the job you may be surprised at how quick an answer is expected of you. Arrangements are usually pinned down within days, a little longer at most.

I wish the very best of luck to all who are making applications.

1. In honor of Veterans Days (or Remembrance Day as the rest of the world knows it), a wonderful set of videos of dogs welcoming their owners back from military service. Get those tissues ready and enjoy.

2. The Daily Show skewered Sean Hannity for using footage from Glenn Beck’s “9/12” rally in DC to depict Michelle Bachmann’s much smaller rally. As departing White House Communications Director Anita Dunn pointed out, “Well that is where you are getting fact-checking and investigative journalism these days folks. It is a different media environment.” Nice to see the rest of the press prove their utter fecklessness once more. For his part, Hannity mustered the most pathetic of apologies, saying it was “inadvertent,” which led to this wonderful response from Stewart and his staffperson forced to watch Hannity daily:

3. Our own Liz Ellcessor offers two excellent posts on television’s encounters with people with disabilities, one a follow-up to her Antenna post on the Glee episode “Wheels,” and another on Brothers. Let’s hope it’s not another 300 years till American television offers us two shows with people with disabilities. Adding to Liz’s own links to other commentators on the episode, I’ll also note Myles McNutt’s piece at Cultural Learnings.

4. MediaCommons unveiled its new profile system, which is exciting and well worth reading about.

5. Jason Mittell continues his admirable process of discussing the job search at his department at Middlebury in as open terms as he’s probably allowed to. The job market scares people more than anything other than the tenure process, so it’s great to see someone opening up about it in something other than woefully vague terms.

6. In honor of Seth McFarlane’s bad week (Family Guy had its worst week in the ratings this year by 0.5 points, Cleveland Show by 0.6 points, and American Dad by a full point, while his Family Guy Presents Seth and Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show received poor reviews), here comes this explanation of how his shows get put together:

7. In the world of odd adaptations, it seems that Justin Halpern’s Twitter account, ShitMyDadSays, is being made into a sitcom by the Will and Grace creators and Warner Bros. TV. See here for more commentary, though I suspect I’ll discuss this soon over at The Extratextuals, cause it’s so wonderfully paratextual. Update: I’ve now done so here.

8. Annie Peterson talks about web traffic and star talk. I’m going to be very obtuse with details, since Antenna’s supposed to be under the radar right now, so we’re not ready to play with the fire she offers the kindling to build. But to see the evidence of her assertions, see her earlier post here too.

9. Timothy Burke discusses using Power Point in the classroom (though all PP haters should, as we learned at MCS colloquium on Thursday at Wisconsin, consult Kurt Squire for tips. Kurt, to be fair, credits Henry Jenkins with leading the way, a shout out that I’d echo).

10. Finally, in the blast from the past category, it’s old, but if you’ve never treated yourself to Real Ultimate Power and the wonders of all things ninja, do go here and enjoy.

Also, note that the new issue of Flow is out, and that it was Human Rights week on In Media Res