It's time to sort through the mail again. We get a lot of letters from readers, and while we try to answer specific questions, rarely can we reply in any depth. But periodically, as we do this month, we use this space to share some of our responses.
To those who send their C.V.'s, Web sites, and other job-hunting materials our way, unfortunately, time constraints prevent us from providing you with critiques. For such help, it's best to look close to home. Try your department, your campus career center, career centers at institutions where you have received other degrees, and services offered by your professional or scholarly association. Seek the advice of colleagues whose opinions you respect. Also be sure to check the Career Talk archives where you can find tips on many basic aspects of an academic job search.
Question: What behaviors are appropriate following an interview for a tenured position that you are really interested in? I always send thank-you letters within 48 hours to the faculty members who interviewed me, but is there anything else I should be doing if I am particularly interested in the job?
Answer: We think you've covered the bases. Doing nothing is difficult, but in this case it's probably the best approach. However, if you get another offer, by all means get in touch with your preferred department and let them know this new information. Whether you name the institution that has offered you a job is up to you.
Question: I recently was shortlisted for a tenure-track position at a community college with a strong reputation. I went for an interview and a short sample lecture in front of the committee and was notified about a week later that I was one of three finalists. The next and final step was another interview, this time with the president (and with the committee in attendance).
Although it went well, I received a rejection letter about two weeks later. It was short and sweet ("thank you for your interest," etc.) but failed to mention who had been chosen for the job. Is this typical? I remember grad-school colleagues who got rejection letters that named the successful candidate. It seems only decent, especially if you made it all the way through the finals.
I e-mailed a short note to the dean (who headed the committee and sent the rejection letter) thanking her and saying how I enjoyed meeting them all and, by the way, who got chosen? No reply.
Am I wrong or naïve to expect an answer? Is there any way I can find out the answer before having to wait for the college's fall course listing to be printed?
Answer: We believe it's somewhat unusual for colleges to tell other candidates the name of the academic who got the job. Outside of higher education, providing rejected applicants with the name of the chosen candidate would never be done except, of course, at the level of a position so senior that it is reported in a press release. At that very senior level, universities also announce the results. We'd say it's better not to ask if a hiring committee doesn't volunteer the information. And it's information that actually isn't particularly useful to have. If you know who was hired, you might think you therefore knew why, but it wouldn't necessarily be the case. Just moving on to the next application is usually the best thing to do.
Addendum: We received such an interesting and persuasive response to our answer that we decided to include it here as well. With its author's permission, it's been slightly edited to condense and preserve anonymity:
Answer: I should have asked for your advice before I sent my note to the dean! But one of your points -- on the usefulness of the information about who got the job -- is debatable, I think. In this particular case the position advertised was for an instructor in a specialized field of musicology, a field in which I have considerable experience. When I did some research into the college and its courses I found that the current instructor of this curriculum was an adjunct teacher of music performance with no specific background in musicology. This didn't particularly register with me until I got the instructions for the sample lecture I was to present. Amazingly, the instructions said, "Using your instrument of expertise, present a sample lecture for a course on Intro to [field deleted] Music." Suddenly instrument proficiency was the top priority, and knowledge in the area of specialization was not even a requirement! This, of course, led me to suspect the search was tailored toward their internal candidate.
The reason this type of thing concerns me is that, as a woman and a racial minority, I am aware of being used to superficially comply with some internal or external diversity statistics. This has happened to me throughout my life in subtle and blatant forms -- everything from organizations pursuing grants wanting suddenly (and temporarily) to include me in their roster, to schools wanting a photo for their latest brochure or public-relations project. My mother, a racial minority and immigrant, and a Ph.D./academic since the late 1950's has faced, in my opinion, even more of this kind of exploitation. She has probably been shortlisted dozens of times with few offers. I imagine nearly all academic job-seekers face multiple rejections, yet the constant "runner-up" status resulting from this racial/gender tokenism -- taken together with some vocal white factions decrying all the "special treatment" women of color receive -- is particularly wearying and disheartening. I've seen it take its toll on my mother and, though I am seriously pursuing an academic career, I will pursue another if I find myself similarly exploited.
So, while I do very much appreciate your advice on moving on without dwelling on the who's and why's of that last job opportunity, this was my very long-winded way of saying, actually, it does matter to me who got that job.
Question: Do you recommend any good books or articles for those who have been hired in tenure-track positions and want to achieve tenure? This would be for a small, liberal-arts college that values teaching.
Answer: We know of several good books that include discussions about earning tenure. Try Survival in the Academy: A Guide for Beginning Academics (Hampton, 1994), Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), and the second edition of The Academic's Handbook (Duke University Press, 1995).
You might also review the articles on tenure available on this Web site.
We think talking with people at your institution is the best way to figure out how to achieve tenure. Find out who has won tenure in your department, and who hasn't, in recent years. Look at yourself and answer the following questions: What were the respective strengths and weaknesses of those coming up for tenure? What are you doing in both teaching and research that is going well, and what could use some improvement? How do students evaluate your courses? Are you publishing at an appropriate rate? Is there a mentor in the department who can advise you? How do you get along with your colleagues? Have you made any enemies along the way? Who do you think will argue vigorously for your promotion? Whose advice do you trust?
Question: I am close to finishing my Ph.D. in the humanities, and I have two questions on the writing of a cover letter for job applications: First, how long should it be, and what type size do you recommend? And second, how personal should it be? In my case, I have a bilingual and bicultural background. In addition, I have a couple of professional degrees and sizable professional experience outside academe, some of which dovetails with my research. On the one hand, this might make me different from other applicants; on the other, do search committees really care? In a nutshell, how much of this, if anything, ought to be mentioned?
Answer: In the humanities, cover letters are often one to two single-spaced pages. Type size might range from 10 to 12 point, although 12 looks awfully large in many fonts.
As for your second question, most of your cover letter should stress your teaching and research to date, and your future research plans. For many positions in your field, your bilingual/bicultural background would be a definite asset, so mention that, although fairly briefly. You might include a few sentences about your prior professional experience and its relationship to your current work. Make sure, though, that your letter emphasizes your interest in a future academic career.
Question: I recently applied for a teaching position at a major university. Unfortunately, I did not get the job. For future reference, I would like to contact the institution and find out specifically why I was not considered.
Is requesting this type of information within my right as a candidate? Is the university or academic institution required to reveal how this process went on? If it is, how much information is the institution required to reveal? Are there any laws governing the requesting of this information, such as the Freedom of Information Act?
Answer: As far as we know, candidates have no right to be told why they were not selected. If someone feels discriminated against in the hiring process, and sues, then evidence about the process might need to be produced in a trial, but that's not the routine situation.
Hiring decisions often come down to a matter of priorities and fit. Candidates have different strengths, and a decision is made on the basis of who the department believes, on balance, will best meet its needs.
We would advise you never to ask why you weren't selected for an initial interview. Even if you did ask, you would have no way of knowing whether the answer you were given was true or just tactful. In most cases the person you asked would have no idea beyond the fact that you simply didn't come up as one of the committee's top choices. In selecting candidates for interviews, committees rank applicants relative to each other rather than abstractly evaluating each one. It's true that a search committee may initially make a "first cut" in which the applications of some candidates who don't appear fully qualified are set aside. Usually, however, a large number of highly qualified individuals remain in the pool. Then committee members usually ask, "Which of these outstanding candidates will best suit our needs?" not "Can this person do the job?"
In many fields, searches are competitive enough that even outstanding candidates will land interviews at only a small proportion of the institutions where they've applied. However, if you feel you are never invited for interviews for jobs for which you believe you're one of the most highly qualified candidates, seek advice about whether you're correctly estimating how competitive your credentials are and about whether your job-hunting materials are presenting you as well as possible. A previous column suggests good sources of advice on these topics.
