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[Worried]

I have written to these forums before about my situation, and I have gotten some very good responses. However, I am still not sure about a couple things about dual searches.

My spouse and I will need to apply for jobs this coming job season. Currently we are postdoctoral researchers at the same school. We are very lucky to be together for the time being, but the next stage is very unclear and hence my name...

Both my spouse and I have gotten our degrees from a top school, and are doing well in our postdocs. Of course our dream is to be able to get two jobs at the same department, but we have been getting somewhat conflicting advice. The more dominant side claims that we should not mention at all our relationship, it can never be of any help and it may only hurt our chances. We would like to be open and honest with our potential colleagues, but jobs in our area are not that easy to get, and if honesty will hurt us in any way we could hold out on it for a while. The other side believes that if we do not speak out at some point or another, then we are doomed to live apart for a long time. That is not a very attractive thought at all. However, neither is unemployment.

The way we see it  is that if a school can offer jobs to both of us, then that would be a huge plus, but we do not wish to imply to any particular place that an offer to one of us without an offer for the other will never be accepted.

I guess if I try to summarize all this into a single question, it would be as follows:

Do we make our relationship clear at any stage of our application?

We have different last names, but there may be some hints if one looks closely at our applications: We have got our PhDs from the same department, and clearly our home addresses agree.

And I would appreciate it if those who think that we should somehow mention our situation could also comment on when the appropriate time would be for this. On the cover letter? (eg. "By the way, please note that Dr. Spouse, my spouse, is also applying for a position at your department") If one of us gets a phone interview? (eg. "By the way, my spouse has also applied to your department, do you think there is any chance they will get an interview as well?")  During an on-campus interview? (Obviously at this stage, it should come out somehow, if it has been hidden till then, how would one clarify the situation?)

Sorry for the terribly long message. It was even longer, but I trimmed it down...

[%sig%]

[helpful]

What are the chances of there being two jobs open in the same department? That is the best case scenario.

A friend had a job interview proposed to her; she told the university to look at her spouse's application as well. The university never got back to her (this university had two jobs in the same department).

Have you thought of working in the same city or general area so there is a minimum of commuting; alternatively is there any way one of you can work in a slightly different field from the other.

In terms of telling them, my best advice given to me has been to wait until you get an interview.

I am assuming you are in the exact same field...or is there slight differences?

[Worried]

Thank you for sharing thar story about your friend. It is good to be more wary I suppose.

We are in the same field, so we would be hired by the same department, but our subfields are quite different. For whatever it is worth (not much I guess), our teaching philosophies, our general approaches to our discipline are also as varied as possible.

There are in fact a few depts with multiple openings this year. We will definitely try our chances with any such place.

We would be perfectly happy with two different schools in the same area, but such possibilities are mainly limited to big cities, or at least places with some sort of public transportation.  One of us cannot drive, (I know this came up before, but the situation is unchangeable), but at least has no problem with up to two hours, one way, of public transportation commuting (train, bus, whatever).

[%sig%]

[Anton]

I have done this twice while on the market, and each time I have waited until I had an offer in hand before broaching the subject of a spousal hire. Both times this strategy has worked, and both department chairs seemed to feel that that was the appropriate time to bring up the issue.  I'm not sure what to do when there are two jobs in the same department, but I have always felt in general that it would hurt my chances to push the spousal hire issue before they had decided on me.  Let them make an unbiased choice to hire me, and then let me see what they will be able to do given my spousal situation.

Good luck!

[anon]

The advice I got was not to tell in big cities, but to tell smaller rural/regional schools that didn't think they would have a shot at me otherwise.

Sadly my husband didn't look attractive enough to the 2nd department (we're in different fields) ABD, so I'd get the conference interview and then an email asking if I wanted a flyout without my husband being able to get a job.  However, this approach worked very well for graduate students who had met and fallen in love in my department, as these smaller schools jumped at the chance at getting 2 phds from the top department in the country if they could convince the dean to hire a second.

[Marlene]

Spousal hires are a tricky subject with a lot of baggage. You may find yourself in a place that is thrilled to get a second expert as well, so it would be a plus. You may find that they don't want to have to take two people and that the spousal hire is a negative. There are many issues here. My institution has had many spousal hires that get divorced later, couples that are both t-t but only one gets tenure, and people who are upset that they didn't get a coveted job that went to a spousal hire. We also have many spousal hires that we feel lucky to have - excellent people we might not have gotten otherwise. So you do need to tread carefully here.

My advice is for both of you to apply to anything promising and not to bring this up until one of you has an offer or at least is at the interview stage. Having been in this situation on hiring committees, I can tell you that the first thing I want to know is - what is being asked of me. A second tenure-track appointmen? Help finding jobs at other schools in the area? Anything? You and your spouse need to consider what options you are willing to take (e.g., what if only one of you is t-t?) before you bring this up to the committee.

Good luck!

[five]

One suggestion:  If you do not want to tip them off early, you should remove your (shared) home address from your materials (my CV has my professional address only).

[%sig%]

[Worried]

Thank you all for your responses. It really seems to be the consensus here that we should not mention anything in our cover letters, and perhaps even until any one of us gets an offer.

Also the idea about taking off the home addresses from our CVs is definitely a good one if we are trying to get rid of any clear proof of our relationship.

Here is a slight variation on this theme: One of us definitely will need to find another job next year, but the second one has at least one more year at our current institution.  We were thinking of applying at the same time because we were told that this was the right thing to do and this was the only way to find an optimal solution, but if we are not going to present ourselves as a couple anywhere, does it make any sense at all for the one who can to wait for the next year and make a very directed search concentrating on the area where the first one ends up this year?

Perhaps the prudent thing to do is to apply this year, and see what happens to both of us, with no reference to one another anywhere in our applications, and not a word till at least one of us has an offer, and if things do not work out too well, the one, who can wait, goes ahead and applies one more time the next year. Do you think this sounds reasonable?

[readymade]

Your searches should be completely separate until the interview stage.

At some appropriate moment then you could mention it.