Like many English Departments, mine is doing some hiring. (I've been obsessively looking through the Chronicle's forums and the wiki trying to find out what people are saying about "us," but no luck so far.) We have a candidate in town today, and I met with her after teaching my class.
She is very cool! Which is the following correct response to a job candidate's visit to your institution?
a) This person can be my friend
b) I can't wait to have reading groups with this cool person
c) She is hot and I want her to be my girlfriend
d) She will be a great teacher
e) Yuck! Don't hire her!
Of course I'm only using the pronoun "she" as a place-holder, and I'm not saying that today's candidate is actually a "she." Of course he might be! I'm just trying to keep things anonymous here.
My own answer, based on the teaching interviews and a coffee I had with her/him today would be: b) and d). She/he isn't hot, although quite charming, and anyway I think that might be an inappropriate reaction in any case. And I don't really see him/her as a friend, although that might come. (I'm quick on the draw with potential romantic partners, but somehow friendship takes a bit longer with me.)
Anyway, good luck to all the job candidates out there. It's a tough market, but I can tell you from my vantage point of having been highly successful on the job market that it's worth the effort. I love my job! Yay me!
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2 comments:
Does no one blog anymore?
You don't mention anything about scholarship, really. How do you think a publication record should figure into the hiring decision? Like, if someone had a book coming out in the next few months, wouldn't that make her more desirable than candidates who only had an article?
Oh, well, I don't really believe in scholarship in the traditional sense. I think we need to pay attention to non-traditional forms of engagement in the profession--such as blogging! I mean, seriously, I wouldn't bank my career on keeping a blog (especially an anonymous one like this one), but we need to recognize that making an impact on our audiences is not limited to the traditional scholarly monograph. I read more academic blogs than I do books, and even if there are world-changing books out there, there are also a lot of duds.
But back to your question. Given the state of affairs that exists in the world of scholarship, someone with a book would seem generally to be more attractive as a candidate than someone without a book.
Did you see that Dr. V's book is now on Amazon? I won't "out" her, but it looks really cool!!!
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