(Originally posted: 10/24/2011)
In what should come as a surprise to no one at all, as the semester has heated up to midterm and beyond, my free time to think about this blog has dropped dramatically. In fact, my free time these days is mostly devoted to the job search in what might be one of the worst job markets ever. I don’t think it’s any secret that this website–primarily consisting of my CV–is a bit of self-promotion for potential employers. And as long as I’ve got you here reading this, I thought I might comment a bit on the academic job search.
While it really isn’t difficult to find part-time adjunct positions in anthropology and the social sciences (I currently have three), full-time positions are comparatively rare. Even harder is deciphering the unique language of job announcements. Of the literally hundreds that I’ve read in recent months, will fall into a few basic categories:
- The “we just want an anthropologist” posting:
Title: Assitant Professor
Duties: Design and deliver classroom instruction as directed by the department chair; advise students; serve on committees as requested
(etc.)
The problem here is that, if the posting weren’t listed under the anthropology section on the jobs website, no one would know what department, let alone what subject! These postings read like a cut-and-paste from the generic faculty job description. From the applicant’s point of view, there’s no real information on the job other than that there is one. Is it a department with a major? A graduate school component? Will I be teaching four-field anthropology, or will they ask me to focus on one subdiscipline–and will that be my subdiscipline, archaeology?
I usually explore these announcements by Googling the school name, then exploring the website. Usually (for reasons I can’t really understand), they turn out to be community colleges that offer only one or two anthropology courses. That’s perfectly fine–in fact, I enjoy community college settings–but then the question becomes, do I want to spend the rest of my career teaching the same four-field intro class over and over? Is the school hiring another anthropologist because they plan to expand the program, or did the last guy just retire?
- The “oddly specific” posting:
The Anthropology Department of Such-and-Such College invites applications for the position of Assitant Professor. Must be able to teach a course on the environmental impacts of global sea-level changes in the Pacific Northwest in the 19th century, and how those impacts affected the emergence of social complexity in the Pacific Northwest interior. Knowledge of GIS and multivariate spatial analysis a plus.
Since there’s probably only one archaeologist on Earth who really fits that job description–and he’s probably been an adjunct there for the last few years–there’s really no point in applying to this one. The school policy is clearly to publicly announce any open position, but the decision has really already been made. Again–no problem as far as I’m concerned. I just move on to the next posting, which may be…
- The “impossibly hard application for a simple job” posting:
The Anthropology Department of Such-and-Such College invites applications for the position of Assitant Professor, to begin more than a year from now. The successful applicant will be responsible for teaching introductory and lower-level classes. To apply, please send five signed letters of reference on official letterhead from professional references who are not former supervisors, a writing sample, a statement of teaching philosophy, a statement of research interests, sample syllabi, student course evaluations, official (sealed and signed) university transcripts from all universities attended, and two course proposals by next Tuesday. Electronic submissions will not be accepted.
The idea of this kind of posting, I think, is that only truly motivated applicants will apply, but probably the result is that no one will. I understand that a search committee needs more than a letter and a CV to really review an application, but sometimes they go overboard. Luckily, many of these items are things that I have put together already, due to other appications, so I may still be able to drop this application in the mail.
- The “how many buzzwords can we fit” posting:
The Anthropology Department of Such-and-Such College invites applications for the position of Assitant Professor. We seek an archaeologist trained in long-term anthropogenic climate and evironmental degradation, sustainability studies, geoarchaeology, geophysical survey, or transnational identity studies. The successful applicant will be responsible for teaching introductory and lower-level classes.
In this case, I think the job posting is more of a wish-list. The subjects listed are always those that are most likely to bring in big grants from funding agencies that typically don’t fund archaeology. Perhaps the college president has mandated that departments increase their external funding, or maybe the department is expanding and genuinely wants to add courses in those topics at some point down the road. But the truth is that much of what the junior member of the department will be teaching is the introductory stuff–with maybe one or two classes a year devoted to the higher-level stuff. If he or she brings that expertise, it may develop into a department strength years from now, but those topics probably aren’t really required for doing the job.
My response to these postings is just to move on. I reseach something that isn’t very sexy or headline-grabbing: how art and iconography are used to create ideologies and strengthen the ruling elite. The truth is, this is really relevant to the world today. We see it every night on the evening news–just using different vicabulary. But so few archaeologists really do what I do that most people can’t see how relevant it is, so there’ll never be a buzzword attached to it.
I suppose I could go on and on, but really I’ll just include one more:
- The “good” posting includes a statement of what classes the hire will teach, a list of comparatively broad topics the desired hire should research, and a reasonable application process.
For most academic jobs, any archaeologist with a degree can teach most of the classes needed. Some guidance to what kinds of topics are desired is good, but there’s no reason to artificically restrict your applicant pool!
Also, there’s no reason that more than three letters of reference should be required, and they shouldn’t even be necessary until after the initial review of applicants. The more letters are required, the more of them will be from people who really don’t know the applicant all that well, and consequently the more unhelpful letters the committee will have to read.
Deadlines should be at least a couple months out from the posting, especially if you request letters in the first round. The applicant is asking a favor of his references already–don’t make it an urgent, last-minute favor to boot! Even if letters aren’t requested right away, a good application takes time to pull together. A rush job helps no one–it makes the good applicants look no better than the one who always rush.
Well, having rambled on this long, I think I’ve made my point: there are some odd patterns in academic job announcements that make the process unnecessarily difficult. From the point of view of an applicant, I can see right away which applications are worth sending. Even if I’d be perfect for your department, I might not bother if the announcement implies otherwise! When all is said and done, employers want to hire somebody, and applicants want to be hired. Why not make the process of lining the two up as effortless as possible?