Saturday, August 1, 2009

Have I got a package for you!

Because one can never be too careful

Questions, answers and such regarding the assembly of dossiers, mailing practices, letters of application, interviews, job-talks, etc.

A sometimes useful, and oftentimes entertaining, site to check out is the Chronicle of Higher Education's Discussion Forum. Two particularly relevant examples are here:

The Job Seeking Experience

The Interview Process

The threads are often not apposite, but they can be a treasure-trove of laughs and morale boosts. And don't forget to check the archives on this site for the past few years.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

So when the placement service schedules interviews, do they schedule them right up to the end of the last day of the conference? Do you get any say in when they schedule your interviews? What if there's one day of the meeting you can't make?

Anonymous said...

The placement service will presumably follow the practice of years passed: you will be sent a schedule on which you can indicate the times you are not available. So, if you only have one day, you can indicate as much.

However, if you're lucky enough to have a full dance card (so to speak), this will probably mean that some interviews can't be scheduled--there's only so much flexibility. Have others had this problem in the past?

Anonymous said...

Generally, interviews will be scheduled up to the morning of the last day. It's unusual (but not impossible) to have an interview in the last hours of the conference, but remember that SC folks want to go home as well.

As for full dance cards…I have met very few people who have ever had that problem. It's not something most people really have to worry about. But they do their best to work all of them in, and I've known people who have done about 6 interviews on one day, and 4 or more on a second day. Of course, they were also zombies by the end, so in some ways it's better not to have that many in one go.

Anonymous said...

What are people's experiences with including CVs in the APA placement book? How many interviews actually come out of institutions rifling through the book in a last-ditch attempt to find extra candidates to interview?

Anonymous said...

I've never benefited personally from it, but I've heard of it actually happening at the APA. SCs might add on one or two extra interviews after looking through the book, if they weren't all that impressed with the people they interviewed on the first day.

So people should go ahead and send it in. It's one of those "nothing to lose" propositions. But don't think of it as a guarantee that anything is going to happen either.

Anonymous said...

As we're on APA CVs... would you recommend one page or two for the first-time grad on the market, if said grad has enough to justify a second page?

Anonymous said...

One page or two?

I have always been told make it two pages if at all possible. This way you are guaranteed to have at least one page of your CV on the right-hand page --- where eyeballs tend to go first.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Definitely go for two pages. Eagerness to advertise your accomplishments is usually taken positively.

Anonymous said...

I know for a fact a school that picked three people out of the Placement Service book and that was how they chose their 3 candidates to bring to campus. No lie. It's pretty important school, too, and it happened ca. 9 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to check out the Classics Wiki and update the job market counters so we can get an idea about how many people are on the market this year! Seeing only two people on there is getting my hopes up that some lucky person and I are going to get 30 offers each.

Anonymous said...

This is my second year on the market and first time getting an interview at the AHA. I've done
APA interviews. Are AHA interviews pretty much the same? i.e. 15 minutes, in a suite or conference room, questions, etc.

Anonymous said...

15 minutes? Isn't that short? I thought the APA interviews ran from 30 - 45 minutes.

Anonymous said...

I think the AHA interviews run 15 minutes.

Anonymous said...

The "Three-Letter Waking Nightmare" links on the right sidebar above discuss the AHA. Sounds like the format can also be like the MLA - everyone in one giant room at card tables.

Anonymous said...

can't do too much damage in 15 minutes, right?

Anonymous said...

"Sounds like the format can also be like the MLA - everyone in one giant room at card tables.”

Sounds like a scrabble tournament!

Snark snark said...

15 minutes is all the silverbacks can manage any more.

SNARK SNARK!

Anonymous said...

This is my first time at APA and I'm wondering how many candidates a school will interview for a position. Does anyone have an estimate? I'm thinking around 10-15 perhaps.

CLM said...

Re: # of candidates interviewed

It really depends on the depth of the pool, not the size. They can have 150 applicants, but only 6 catch the SC's interest enough to be considered worth interviewing. Conversely, they could only have 40 applicants, but 12 of them are close to what they are looking for, so they might interview all 12 at the APA.

From second-hand knowledge (I've never sat on a SC, but I know many, many people who have), I think I've heard of as few as about 6 or 7, but as many as 18 being interviewed, though that latter was very unusual. Normally, SCs will not interview such a large number as that at the APA.

10-12 would be about normal for many searches, from what I've heard over the years.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, CLM.