Once again it is that time of the year when Abram spends many hours a week and a significant amount of money applying for jobs for the upcoming school year. This is the fourth year (in a row) that he has been on the market, and just as we do every year, we hope it will be his last. It costs time, money, and STRESS to look for a job year after year.
This year the job postings are few, and the locations are widespread. So far Abram has applied for 15 positions and plans to apply to 12 more. New lists come out twice a month so more positions may open up as time passes. If last year is any indicator, many position will also close before they are filled due to a lack of funding.
In July, Abram registered and payed for the
APA (American Philological Association) placement service.
Before Abram started applying in September, he asked several professors from UVA and two colleagues here to write recommendations or update their old ones from last year. These are sent to
Interfolio along with Abram's education transcripts. When Abram needs a letter of recommendation or a transcript sent to a college, he does this through Interfolio. This costs $6 for each position unless he needs it sent Priority Mail in which case, it costs $12. This allows his professors to send confidential letters of recommendation only once per year. He also prepared a teaching dossier with information about the courses he has taught and his student and professional evaluations.
For
each position, Abram does some research about the college and the courses he would likely teach. He writes a cover letter highlighting his interest and skills of particular note to that college. He arranges the Interfolio delivery of the appropriate recommendations and transcripts. He may print a teaching dossier or need to prepare similar materials to send with the application. He makes a trip to the post office (or sends me and Owen).
Then the affirmative action post cards start arriving so that he can confidentially disclose that he is a white man - or chose not to disclose this disqualifying information.
The applications are set to be reviewed by early December, and colleges send request to the APA to have interviews with chosen candidates. Generally, the colleges also notify the candidates that they will have an interview at the APA conference - sometimes they don't.
The APA conference is the first week in January. This is a really crappy time for a conference, but, hey, at least Abram doesn't teach a modern language, the MLA (Modern Language Association) meets the week between Christmas and New Year. This year the APA will meet in Anaheim. In the last few years, it has met in San Diego, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Abram will go. He will probably not see Disneyland. He will hopefully have some interviews.
After the interviews at the conference, schools invite a few top applicants for campus interviews where they meet all the department members, other college faculty, possibly teach a class, and usually give a lecture on a special topic.
Then colleges rank their candidates and offer positions by late February or there'bouts.
This causes a shake-up in the filled/unfilled positions throughout the nation, and a round of temporary positions opens around late February/early March. If you are unlucky enough to have been left without a position for whatever reason - say you are a white man and there was a less qualified woman who filled a position you would otherwise have been more qualified for (just speaking hypothetically), then you will hopefully get phone interview(s) that will lead to campus interviews and a job in the second round by the end of the semester in late April or early May.
If you were lucky enough to land a tenure track position, you can excuse yourself from the next cycle that begins again in July. If not, hold on, 'cause it ain't over yet.
Below is a list of positions for which Abram has applied or will be applying. Special thanks to Abram for sharing his list and editing this post for accuracy!
Univ. of Miami Oct. 1
ICCS Oct. 5 (1 year)
Macalester Oct. 15
MTSU Oct. 26 (Early European Literature)
Kenyon Nov. 1 (2 year) DONE
University of SC Nov. 1
Brown University Nov. 1
Loyola, Chicago Nov. 1
College of Charleston Nov. 6
Trinity Nov. 13
Bryn Mawr Nov. 15
Amherst Nov. 15
Carleton Nov. 15
Case Western Nov. 15
Grinell Nov. 15
-----------------------------------
Santa Clara Nov. 15
U. of Southern Ca. Nov. 15
Xavier Nov. 16
Elon,NC Nov. 20 (3 year)
Baylor Nov. 25 (Lecturer)
Pitzer Nov. 30
U. of Richmond Dec. 1
Colby (2 year) Dec. 1
St. Joseph's Dec. 1
Georgetown College Dec. 1
Davidson (1 year) Dec. 1
Ripon Dec. 1 (Fellowship)
I'm not sure what day, but he built a tower out of cans in the kitchen.
We have been working the whole week on a painting project for Christmas presents.
Wednesday we had our playgroup over to visit, and Thursday we finally went on a long-planned trip to Longwood gardens with Fin, Donna, Devon, and Melissa. The boys had fun running around the gardens with mommies in hot pursuit. It is next to impossible to get pictures of them these days; they're just too darned fast!
We visited a couple of the big treehouses, and the guys were tired enough that we got a few shots of them resting a bit.
Friday and Saturday, we did a few Halloween things to end the week.
