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[amador]

Can anyone that has gone on the academic job market without a reference letter of his/her advisor or who knows of such a case share some information on the best strategies to go about it?

A grad student colleague's relationship with his advisor has sorely deteriorated over the years.  Although I'm trying to convince him not to divest his advisor from his job search process, he's quite determined. 

[larryc]

Is he ABD? If so, the lack of a letter from his advisor testifying that the dissertation will be defended by X date is fatal. At least we wouldn't give him any serious consideration.

If he has his degree in hand it is still pretty serious. The other letters need to be really strong, and one in particular should be from a committee member and should speak to the quality of the dissertation and the expected publications. If there is a letter that fills that role. and the other letters are glowing, he might be OK.

Does your friend have difficulty getting along with people?

[helpful]

You can always get a letter from a grad program director or a supportive member of the committee to indicate a defense date.

[mended_drum]

This is going to sound a little manipulative, but if it were me, I'd ask for the letter if the advisor were expecting me to do so, having him or her submit it to Interfolio (or the equivalent).   Then, before sending out dossiers, once someone else had read the whole file, I'd quietly have it removed if I were convinced that it would be detrimental to my candidacy.  The advisor need not know.  Of course, there is the risk that an sc would contact him or her, either about the lack of a letter or simply in reaching out to the dissertation director, but that risk would have to be balanced against a truly damaging letter.  In other words, I would not burn bridges or further damage the relationship if I could avoid it.

[galactic_hedgehog]

I've known some grad students who had big falling-outs with their advisors prior to the defense and I don't think they used them as references.  Some of them ahve gone on to do quite well, so it wasn't a problem.  In all the cases, if I recall correctly, they did have another faculty member who championed them, both through the defense and during job searches.

[slacwriter]

I did not have a letter from my advisor, with whom I had a major falling out.  Degree was in hand, however.    And I had a very strong file, including terrific letters from other committee members and colleagues. 

I was scheduled for several interviews and received multiple offers.  But I should say that every search committee asked about the missing letter.  Most of them must have been fairly satisfied with my answer.  At the same time, I'm convinced that the lack of a letter from my advisor got my application tossed by several committees.  That's the price I paid.  In my case, it was worth it.

[heronhouse]

I am in a similar situation and doing whatever I can to keep the relationship's heart beating until I secure a book contract.  Then, I feel I will finally be able to give up the fight, finally dropping the letter from my dossier because I will have additional proof of my research abilities.  I have a degree and am currently on the t-t in an MLA field.

Some mentors told me that I could go out without the advisor letter, but all concurred with the advice here.  There would need to be other, very strong letters about research in the dossier, and be prepared to (1) have your application thrown out by some places and (2) answer questions about it from those who do decide to interview you.

I also agree that if the colleague does decide to get a letter from the advisor, it is essential to have someone vet the letters--not to tell your colleague the specific contents of the letter, but to make sure it is not explicitly or implicitly damaging.

This is a terrible situation to be honest, which has caused me tremendous anxiety.  My sympathies to your colleague.

[merce]

OP

I've posted about my troubles with a dossier service that failed to send my advisor's letter to some schools (amongst other problems).

My last update to that thread tells that a school that received a fax of my advisor's letter wrote to ask for an interview 50 minutes later.

This to me suggests a letter from advisor is extremely important.
Perhaps I'd been out of the running because his letter wasn't there in my file.
Of course I didn't address this deficiency since it wasn't mine but my dossier service's error.

So, figure something out because it might be the case that this letter was enough to sway the committee one way and then the other.

good luck

[mended_drum]

OP

I've posted about my troubles with a dossier service that failed to send my advisor's letter to some schools (amongst other problems).

My last update to that thread tells that a school that received a fax of my advisor's letter wrote to ask for an interview 50 minutes later.

This to me suggests a letter from advisor is extremely important.
Perhaps I'd been out of the running because his letter wasn't there in my file.
Of course I didn't address this deficiency since it wasn't mine but my dossier service's error.

So, figure something out because it might be the case that this letter was enough to sway the committee one way and then the other.

good luck

merce, it sounds to me as if the sc had already decided to interview you and were just waiting to be able to mark the file "complete"; congrats. on the interview.

[litdawg]

This is going to sound a little manipulative, but if it were me, I'd ask for the letter if the advisor were expecting me to do so, having him or her submit it to Interfolio (or the equivalent).   Then, before sending out dossiers, once someone else had read the whole file, I'd quietly have it removed if I were convinced that it would be detrimental to my candidacy.  The advisor need not know.  Of course, there is the risk that an sc would contact him or her, either about the lack of a letter or simply in reaching out to the dissertation director, but that risk would have to be balanced against a truly damaging letter.  In other words, I would not burn bridges or further damage the relationship if I could avoid it.

I did this with a member of my committee (not the chair).  We fell on different sides of a major political dust-up on campus (I was president of the graduate student assembly).  Though we've remained professional and cordial, I didn't trust him enough to send his letter out unexamined, nor did I feel it would be ethical to use the letter if I had someone read it and give me the all clear.  So, I asked him for the letter and never used it.

[seniorscholar]

Is he ABD? If so, the lack of a letter from his advisor testifying that the dissertation will be defended by X date is fatal. At least we wouldn't give him any serious consideration.

And indeed, whether or not you have a letter from your adviser, if you're ABD a letter alone won't satisfy us that your defense is really very near: we would telephone your adviser in any case to hear someone say it out loud. (One candidate wrote that the defense was "scheduled" and when I called the adviser to ask when it would be held, adviser said "by the end of next year." "Do you mean the end of this academic year?" I asked. "No, next year -- summer [2009]")

Why not telephone the other strong supporter, if you've given us the name? Because at most schools it is the *adviser* who controls whether or not the defense can be held.

[trabb]

Despite litdawg's ethical concerns, I would recommend asking for the letter from the advisor and then having a third party look it over to see if it's appropriate to send.  That is, of course, assuming that the advisor is willing to write at all.

Regarding the ethical question, I would point out that my grad school's dossier service actually asked us to indicate one faculty member who would be coming over to read the letters so that he/she could advise us which to send.  If you're not comfortable asking "can you read this and tell me if I should send it," you could always ask a colleague to read your letters and advise you which would be best for a SLAC and which would be good for a research university.  Presumably that colleague wouldn't recommend sending a negative letter to either.

[amador]

Hi, thanks to all for your insightful replies.  My colleague is ABD, which puts him in serious trouble, though the rest of his committee is very supportive.  I, too, advised him to request a support letter from his advisor and have the dossier service staff (which is very supportive of students) look at it and toss it if it was somewhat damaging.  Unless he makes some kind of effort to rekindle the relationship (I think I would understand him if he did not).  He'll have to confront the fact that he's going to be questioned about the missing letter.

[slacwriter]

... He'll have to confront the fact that he's going to be questioned about the missing letter.

I hate to say it, but if he's ABD, he'll likely have to confront more than that.  My first year on the market, I was ABD, and my relationship with my committee chair/advisor had not yet deteriorated.  I applied for more than 30 jobs.  I got several phone interviews, a few campus interviews, and no offers.  One year later, I was finished and the relationship had completely broken down.  I applied for fewer than 20 positions, had several campus interviews, and received more than one offer.  I can't imagine coupling the missing letter with being on the market ABD.

Something to consider: If one of his other references is familiar with the situation with the advisor AND believes that your friend has been wronged, the other references might consider a brief mention of the falling out, also saying that the advisor has always otherwise held your friend in the highest regard, and volunteering to talk with the chair of the search committee if they have any questions.  I know that one of my references did this in some (but not all) of his letters, and it seemed to work in my favor.  The only drawback seems to be in calling attention to the missing letter from the advisor.  But I don't think that will get by many committees, anyway.

[geonerd]

I think advisees are more sensitized to advisors' moods, body language, choice of words, etc. than vice versa. I've had advisees read too much into my body language, assuming I'm unhappy with their work, when in truth I'm annoyed at the 2 hours I just wasted at an Outcomes Assessment meeting. Certainly strained relationships do develop, but don't assume your advisor has written you off, or is unwilling to support you, unless they've said directly that they will not do it. As an SC member, I would definitely notice the absence of an advisor's letter if the candidate were a recent PhD.