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[marta]

Hi there,

I am finishing my PhD in management sciences and started to apply for jobs in schools in different states.

It seems that the academic world has different rules and rationales, so I am trying to put it all together to improve my chances of landing a good job.

Here are specific questions:

1. How many of  these job postings are real or just formality? This happens in the corporate world too -- they post an ad but, in reality, there is a contractor already working in that position, so the posting is just to make the job opening official and for paperwork purposes, I think...

2. I noticed there are a lot of small colleges that are sponsored by specific religions (Catholic, Baptist, etc). Has any of you been hired by one of them without being a member of their church? How did it work?

3. How does the relocation process work? It probably depends on the school, right? I am also wondering about finding a place to live - lots of schools are in small towns whose population is mostly students....

4. Has anybody here started in corporations and moved to academia? How did it work? What are the pros and cons?

Thanks!

Marta

[Pecos]

About point 4, academia moves much more slowly than business, and often relies on committees to do the work that a single manager would do in a business.  Also, managers in academia -- called "administrators" -- typically have little or no management training.  So you get more nitpicking, politics, and a good dose of "amature hour" behavior that a profit making business would tolerate.  Finally, there is not a generally accepted way to measure results for a non-profit institution, making it harder to compare one school to another, or how one school have improved or declined over time.

PS: I moved from corporate America to academia.

[marta]

I have been reading some of the postings here from faculty either looking for a job for years or just quitting... Some never had benefits and having been on the road for years - with books and articles published and all... I got a bit depressed...

Oh well...

thanks again...

m

[Mahoo]

Don't be discouraged. The humanities are the worst. Other markets are not as bad.

However, I do not think you could afford to skip all the announcement that askes for recommendation letters up front.

[marta]

Thanks Mahoo -- yes, I know what you mean... 99% of the schools are asking for these references up front... But I'm really struggling with that, not for me - I can give any info about myself even my ss # any time - but I really feel uncomfortable in giving personal information like address and phone # of my references (some of them are curently working as online instructors so I'd need to divulge their personal contact info as they work from home...:-().

I sent a few resumes to technical schools which actually look more like a better fit for me - like, their job descriptions mentioned preference for management experience in addition to academics etc... And they only asked for resume and cover letter for their initial screening -- my kind of folks! ;-))

Cheers,

Marta