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[Paul]

I have received job email alerts from The Chronicle for the past three years.  I also receive alerts from other organizations such as Science, Nature and jobs.ac.uk. Needless to say, I continue to receive these alerts, since I have not been fortunate enough to land any substantial job. Finding this forum today has greatly brightened my day. While it does not make me happy to read about so many unemployed people, it is good to know that I am not alone.

I have read topics here ranging from possible racial discrimination to strange interviews. Since I am black and African, I am aware that there is racism out there, but I personally have always held the view that merit works in the world. I have not played the race-discrimination card. After all, I reason, I have been educated on three different continents.

After I obtained my  first degree (in animal science), graduating at the top of the class, I still considered myself lucky to be offered a graduate assistantship (a trial position of some sorts) by another university on the recommendation of our external examiner at the time.

 With an urge to see the rest of the world and to broaden my mind, I headed to the United Kingdom to do my M.Sc. (in animal production). That opportunity afforded me the opportunity to learn about temperate agricultural systems. I also realised then that the world was fast going into systemic and cellular research, different from what I was used to at B.Sc. level. The need to learn more about this new trend of research was what led me to do my Ph.D. (in animal physiology) in Australia.  I graduated three-and-half years ago.  

I have lost count of  the number of applications I sent out for a tenured position, or at least for a position that would support me financially. The first respite I got was a postdoctoral fellowship in South Africa, which paid less than $8,000 per annum.  I worked in a department that seriously needed extra faculty members and I even supervised (all unofficially) about three M.Sc. students.  During two-and-half years on this fellowship, I applied to so many institutions in South Africa, Australia, the U.K., the United States, and Canada, etc., but all to no avail.

I have not been too choosy -- I have applied for fellowships as well as regular non-tenured positions.  Just to give me some respite, to have my family with me again, with a job that can support us. There is a great shortage of academic staff in South Africa. In spite of this, I have moved, but only to another fellowship, on still less than $8,000 per annum. I just wonder why I have been this unlucky but, no, I am not going to play the race song.

I have a reasonable publication record  -- six major papers from my Ph.D. thesis and many more from my periods of fellowship, plus pre-Ph.D. publications for a total of about 32 journal publications. I have some teaching experience and extensive skills in the laboratory. I have reviewed so many manuscripts for journals; I am even an external examiner and a member of the editorial board of an international journal. I was listed (without soliciting for it) in the biographical work, 2000 Scientists of the 21st Century, published by the Biographical Centre, Cambridge, U.K.  Why, then, am I not qualified to get a job?

I am extremely depressed, but I will never give up.

Paul

[South side]

I know you don't want to play the race song, even after reading the posts on discrimination. But here is the flip side.

I too have an outstanding publication record. My adviser was considered to be among the top five most influential people in my field. My colleagues all said I would never have a hard time finding a job.

I made sure on my CV, with my ethnic-sounding name, to include my American place of birth and the community awards I had received. I collected all the affirmative-action cards that came with my job applications. I thought I would get somewhere.

And I did. Eventually I got a job offer at a solid insititution. I went through five or six horrible job-search experiences, but I was grateful that I got hired at a reasonable place. I am now being welcomed into the club with comments like, "You are going to be the poster girl of the department with you being in science" (and they could have added, "and brown, and female"). Or, this comment from a future colleague, "I am just a white woman in literature. That's boring."  

I have also gotten looks of incredulity when I have indicated that I negotiated an offer, with added comments such as, "What!? You didn't kiss the ground and say, 'I'll take it'? I am sure your national origin was a factor in the job."  

The point of this story is to offer the flip side. If you do eventually get the job you deserve, they will play the race song.

[Anon]

I am a comparative animal physiologist in the United States who has taught at a state university with a college of agriculture, so I can tell you about the animal-science job market in North America. Generally speaking, we hire faculty members who are already in North America, and it would be extremely rare to hire a professor from outside the region, unless he or she was a very senior scientist with top research credentials.  

On the other hand, we have a lot of foreign postdocs here in the biological and agricultural sciences, and postdoctoral resident aliens are considered for jobs here if they have a work history in North America. I suggest that you investigate postdoctoral positions at state land-grant universities like Nebraska, Auburn, Wyoming, Texas A&M, and so forth. Postdoc salaries here are high enough to live on, and can open up opportunities for teaching jobs in North America. Many rural states in the U.S. have smaller regional universities with colleges of agriculture, and they are hiring faculty members in animal science.

[Paul]

Thanks, Anon, for your suggestions.  As I indicated in my posting, I have searched for postdoc fellowships.  Maybe I haven't searched in the right places yet -- the Internet job market is quite large. I have been made to understand that even employers of fellows need to demonstrate that they cannot find citizens before the Immigration and Naturalization Service will issue visas.  I will target the instituitons you listed and see what comes up.

To South side, let's hope that things will improve for the next generation. Even as a postdoc in South Africa, I have encountered such attitudes and misperceptions. Coming out of apartheid, blacks here are not supposed to be Ph.D.'s, and it is odd to be one. I don't feel annoyed with the man on the street, but professors who are supposed to educate others are most times not any different in their attitudes. How sad would you be to be in the same department with somebody who was hired because s/he is a citizen and then end up having to supervise his/her students?

Paul

[Anon]

Do some research on a historically black university and land-grant institution -- the University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff.  Their School of Agriculture is at the forefront in terms of student recruitment and retention, job placements for graduates,  program delivery, program planning and the like.  

Hang in there!

[Paul]

Thanks for the information, Anon. I won't give up.

Paul

[joejakarta]

I read with great interest the experience exchange.

Anon, it seems like you are kind of an insider with information about job searching. I am a senior lecturer in the Swiss and German University in Jakarta and I'm looking for a faculty position in management-related subjects in the United States or Canada. Could you suggest some international Web sites for academic job searching? It would be absolutely great!

Many thanks

Joe