It’s campus visit season for job seekers, so I’ve been busy with travel, writing and presenting job talks, and attempting to be dazzling for nine hours at a stretch. I got turned down for my dream job, which is a disappointment, but it was a bit of a reach for someone in my situation. Still, I really, really like the institutions with which I’ve been lucky enough to have visits – each, in their way, nationally known – but for very different reasons. Everybody always says the visits are grueling, which I guess they are, but there’s also something genuinely pleasant about talking to a bunch of super-intelligent people about the dissertation upon which you’ve been chipping away in solitude for so long.
(He says, crossing his fingers, knocking on wood, hoping they liked him.)
spencer ·
Congratulations on just getting through the crazy process – and I like the way you describe the visits as “genuinely pleasant.” That means, I think, they liked you. No surprise there!
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mike (author) ·
Thanks, Spencer. In some ways, I’m thinking your Nine Interviews project could be a useful preventative heuristic, kind of like the question about which Beatle one identifies most with – only you’d ask potential MLAers, “Which of the nine do you identify most with” and then use that answer to say: OK, here’s what NOT to do in the interview/campus visit.
(Behavior I’d most want to avoid: Mr. Peanut.)
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spencer ·
Ha! I like that idea – funny! In email I’ve received about the project and random blog chatter, the characters people seem to like most (not sure that’s the same as identifying) are: the singer, the comedian, and then maybe the trauma scholar.
I’m working on a script for the sequel: “Campus Visit.” :)
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The Happy Tutor ·
When you get a fancy job, don’t forget those of us in the Dumpster. Remember where you come from.
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Steve Krause ·
If it makes you feel any better, I had a sort of similar experience my first time out on the job market. However, I am very glad ultimately that I didn’t get the job in question. It was apparently something less than “dreamy” at this school.
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