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[scheherazade]

By the way, I suspect meat is free in Chicago. People there consume meat of any kind as if it were free.

Chicago is the former home of the stockyards.  Meat is a Chicagoan's lifeblood.

[rosemarysbaby]

A little post-MLA humor to ease the blues...

http://www.mlade.org/

This is fun, fun, fun.

So the Medievalists are drowning in the sea (oops, the lake).
I am not in the Medieval studies but I am in the lake too.

[newyorker]

I should not be ashamed of my ignorance (repeating this as I write): What do the acronyms - MLA, R1,2- stand for? I guess CC is community college, SLAC is to with liberal arts college..
thanks.

Anybody has post-MLA blues?
Or post-MLA depression?

I find the cattle call area interesting. It is not as terrifying as imagined. Once I got in, I find myself and the SC comfortably nest in an invisible bubble.

Not as crazy as a stock market. This makes me a bit disappointed.

Now I miss the cattle call area.



By the way, I suspect meat is free in Chicago. People there consume meat of any kind as if it were free.

[a_fuzzy_lurker]

What do the acronyms - MLA, R1,2- stand for?

MLA = Modern Language Association

But more commonly used to refer to the convention of same, at which persons associated with education in any of the modern languages and literatures gather together simultaneously to preen and to depress each other.

There are also, it is rumored, jobs to be had if one speaks to the right people while preening and being depressed.

[eternalirony]

Has anyone else had problems with post-MLA blues (in the ABSENCE of callbacks, I mean). Blues? Depression? Think tears, inexplicable fatigue, waves of anxiety and regret....It's my first time on job market, I had 1 skype and some good interviews, thought they went okay-to-well (with exception of a few rumination- and anxiety-inducing flubs) - then silence. Now it's back to teaching and trying to finish the dissertation (which was put on hold for 2 months due to job market preparation), but now it feels much harder. For several reasons:

1) seeming loss/absence of motivation (or is it absence of adrenaline?)
2) job market rejection revealed that I was (a) an impostor and (b) terminally unhirable, so what's the point?
3) fact that I am now so much further behind on dissertation, it feels much more overwhelming
4) it's my last year (semester) of financial support in my program, so I need to finish the diss. NOW (but 1.5 chapters and revisions left). And then....?
5) any further job applications (including for adjuncting locally) will meet with the same fate (failure)
6) Confusion and worry about what the future holds. I have a household to move, so feel very reluctant to uproot us all for a one-year VAP somewhere...but at the same time I know that I SHOULD apply and do it if I get the opportunity (and it's not that easy to get 1-year VAPs)

I know that I'm not the only one with these (or similar) problems. Also, I realize that all this victim-talk won't get me far. That I must pull myself up by my proverbial bootstraps and move on. That I can't figure out exactly what I did wrong, so the best I can do is work on self-improvement in all areas of my life (dissertation, teaching, research, healthy living, foreign language competency). That waiting for intellectual inspiration to reanimate me is a fool's game and I must instead draw inspiration from the feeling of accomplishment I hope will come back once I FORCE myself to spend real work hours (facebook- and worry-free) on my research and writing.

I guess I'd just like to know others' thoughts / experience / advice on the subject. What worked for you?

[pink_]

I guess I'd just like to know others' thoughts / experience / advice on the subject. What worked for you?

Wine, whiskey, and yoga.
;)

But seriously, what you describe is why it can be so terrible to be on the market before being finished or at least with firm defense date in hand. The market not only is incredibly time-consuming, but it also is a fantastic reason to put off other things, like the dissertation.

The best thing I did after having a first time out very much like the one you describe above was to force myself to not obsess the next time around. I was only allowed to check the wiki once a day, whether first thing in the AM or late at night, and then I had to get busy with the rest of my responsibilities. I also made it a point to exercise daily--running, yoga, trips to the gym, and I had writing deadlines that definitely helped to keep me on track.

In a sense, that terrible first year was a gift, because when I went back on the market, the worst that could happen--total radio silence--already had, and I was still there.

[lottie]

Everyone is burnt out post-MLA as all the pre-conference jitters turns into disappointment at job market silence. This job market sucks, it's not you. Do whatever you have to do to remember that. Distract yourself with friends and work.

[ambassadress]

All those interviews, pre-defense, are a sign that you ARE hireable. The SC probably doesn't want to pull the trigger on an ABD because it's a risk. It's probably got nothing to do with your interview performance. I'm sure you'll get more responses next year. Meanwhile, apply to the spring market jobs. Good luck.

[academic_cog]

All those interviews, pre-defense, are a sign that you ARE hireable.

Or not. I have gotten MLA interviews while ABD and after, with PhD in hand ... and, years later, I still have not managed to land anything more permanent than a postdoc.

The poster is in an MLA field. This might be in a desirable subset, but for most of us, you can be good and get interest in your work and still not translate it to a permanent position. The market is just that bad.

Hopeful, do whatever will get you rested and energized again --- take a little rest or exercise, read your absolute favorite book related to your research, and try to get yourself pumped up about your dissertation. If it means doing Stuart Smiley affirmations or "show me the money!" performances in the bathroom mirror, so be it.

I tried turning to finish my dissertation while beginning the search for nonacademic jobs and the combination of both of them and the post-MLA blues just meant I couldn't get *anything* done. Try to just focus down as much as possible on that diss right now, for the next couple months. Visualize yourself finishing. Visualize yourself writing up a storm. Visualize yourself running Rocky-style up the courthouse steps.

*Then* once you are back on your game and have dissertation momentum again, go back to the job ads and the brainstorming for a Plan B. But you are so close to being done, you want to make sure you finish.

[harrapsempire]

All those interviews, pre-defense, are a sign that you ARE hireable.

Or not. I have gotten MLA interviews while ABD and after, with PhD in hand ... and, years later, I still have not managed to land anything more permanent than a postdoc.

Much more emphasis should be put on that. Most PhDs in an MLA field will never get a TT position. That's the reality of the market.

And ditto to everything else academic_cog says.

[sugaree]

You also need to get out of the 'it's-pointless-to-move-just-for-a-temporary-VAP-position' right quick. In hugely competitive humanities fields, a TT job out of the gate is almost unheard of and has been for awhile now. Ask me how I know this? Because I flung myself about thousands of miles, with 3 moves in 4 years, before (luckily) finding a TT job. And the experience from those VAP appointments make you a much more attractive candidate for future job searches.

The humanities job market is not a one-year thing, but goes on for at least a few years, typically. Of course, one should also limit how long one tries before coming up with Plan B, but your next move will NOT be your last. The quicker you can adopt that mindset the better off you will be. Don't think about about a temporary move as uprooting your household for a limited time, think about it as a great opportunity to live somewhere you never expected. And if you hate it, so what? It's only temporary.

[peppergal]

You also need to get out of the 'it's-pointless-to-move-just-for-a-temporary-VAP-position' right quick. In hugely competitive humanities fields, a TT job out of the gate is almost unheard of and has been for awhile now. Ask me how I know this? Because I flung myself about thousands of miles, with 3 moves in 4 years, before (luckily) finding a TT job. And the experience from those VAP appointments make you a much more attractive candidate for future job searches.

The humanities job market is not a one-year thing, but goes on for at least a few years, typically. Of course, one should also limit how long one tries before coming up with Plan B, but your next move will NOT be your last. The quicker you can adopt that mindset the better off you will be. Don't think about about a temporary move as uprooting your household for a limited time, think about it as a great opportunity to live somewhere you never expected. And if you hate it, so what? It's only temporary.

+1

It is even possible (as in my case) that the 1 year position will be in another country.  The key thing is to find something, anything, that will pay the bills and keep your name out there (publishing, conferences, etc.).

[eternalirony]

Thanks, everyone...your replies helped me think differently about the directions I could/should now take. As a result, I'm now back at my desk revising an article.

[academic_cog]

Thanks, everyone...your replies helped me think differently about the directions I could/should now take. As a result, I'm now back at my desk revising an article.

Whoo-hoo! You can revise my article while you're at it! ;)

[watermarkup]

Good luck, Hopeful. I was in a similar position some years ago - ABD, on the market, funding running out, trying to finish and defend in an MLA field - and it was one of the most difficult periods of my life. That was the year that I had no MLA interviews despite applying widely, and none of my applications after MLA got any response at all.

Except one. In June. A phone interview turned into a quick job offer for a visiting position. And instead of developing a plan B, I kept going with plan A instead.

Some facts that you need to be aware of:

• A large chunk of the people hired into TT positions will have VAP experience first. Keep applying for those 1-year positions. Often they'll turn into 2-year positions.
• The best way to help yourself is to finish your dissertation. The second-best way is to have publications on your CV. Write, revise, repeat.
• Your best year on the market won't be when you're ABD, but when you've just defended. Position yourself for this coming fall and/or the next one.

Some time soon, you need to have a discussion with your advisor. Is there a chance that you can keep teaching in your department as a lecturer in the fall once you graduate? The teaching load will be higher, but the money might be better than you're making now as a grad student.

You mentioned your household. If you have a family, force yourself to be extra patient for the next six months. You may be depressed and unhappy for a lot of that time, and under a lot of stress as you prepare to defend and move. Don't take it out on them.

And talk to them about mobility. You may have several more moves in store. Since defending, I've never come close to living in one place as long as I did while a grad student. My career would be in much better shape if I had already found a tenure-track job, but I don't regret any of the places I've lived. It's been a pretty interesting ride.

Good luck.