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[trabb]

I have not gone back and read every thread, but I have a question: As an ABD in humanities, how has everyone found the job market?  From anecdotal evidence I have found that SCs usually treat us as, at best, third class citizens, and, at worst, the plague.  Despite my committees promises before God and country that I am on pace to finish a year or two ahead of the average for my field, I am finding that jobs are going to people with PhDs and not us lowly ABDs.  Do I just need to suck it up and deal, finish up and hope to be on the other end next year?

Perceptions of ABDs vary highly from place to place.  I've been at three different schools in the past decade, either as a faculty member or as a graduate student.  Here's how I'd describe the attitude at those places:

• Big Research School:  We won't hire ABDs.  Unless they're from Berkeley or Harvard.  Or have letters from Very Important People.
• Very Good Private University:  We won't hire anyone who has graduated unless he/she is moving from another TT job and has a book or two published.  We want to indoctrinate our candidates to our way of doing things; anyone who has moved beyond grad school will know that our way isn't the only way and will ask questions.  (This, by the way, is presented as "We prefer to hire someone with lots of potential.")
  
• Small Liberal Arts College:  (After selecting candidates for interviews) Oh, by the way, these people have finished or will finish this year, right?

So no, being ABD will not prevent you from getting a job.  It makes sense, though, that being completely finished will probably open up more options for you.
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[seniorscholar]

MLA department, big public university. University administration will not issue a contract to anyone who does not have PhD in hand (i.e., dissertation defended and filed, though graduation ceremony may be later) by July 1, when the fiscal year begins. If we hire someone who does not finish by July 1, that person *may* be offered a non-tt one-year lectureship (but that's not guaranteed) and we can not "convert" it to a tt line when the defense happens in October: we have to do a full national search again, and the person who's been around for a year may not look so good (particularly since we're annoyed that this person who promised to finish, didn't: thus made all this trouble for us).

This is "imposed" from outside, but not really objectionable, since back 20 years ago when we did hire ABD we found that we lost about half of those people: it then took too long to finish a dissertation while teaching at a new place with demanding responsibilities, and they couldn't make the publication standards by the time the tenure decision came along.

So we will sometimes interview a person who is "ABD" at MLA in December as long as there are (1) several dissertation chapters completed if we ask to see them and (2) a firm dissertation defense date and (3) a satisfactory conversation with the dissertation director, who will be contacted by telephone to confirm that the dissertation will be completed and the defense held by May. (We need a little wiggle room there, since it has to be filed in June.)

[mended_drum]

grinnellns, how would your school view a candidate who is getting his/her PhD in a foreign country where the defense (which is actually the graduation) cannot be set until the committee has approved the dissertation?  Where I am, once the committee has approved your dissertation, you are done, but you won't get the actual degree until you defend.  You just have to get your dissertation printed and then later defend/graduate.  The defense for us is really a formality: it only lasts 45 minutes, and you receive your degree afterwards.  In that sense, it is more like a personal graduation ceremony than a defense.  So, how would ABD candidates going through this type of system be viewed by a North American SC?

I've not personally encountered this situation, but I suspect that it doesn't make any difference whether or not the defense is a mere formality.  What matters is having the degree--literally having been awarded it from the university--by the time your contract begins.  Certainly, if the dean were convinced that you were essentially finished, you would stand a strong chance of being hired, but I think that you would still recieve a limited contract--one year, probably--rather than a tt line until the degree was complete.  Unlike the previous post, it is possible to convert to a tt line if the degree is awarded during the first year.  However, various details of benefits and the tenure clock--not to mention salary--are likely to be lower until you have the degree.  We would not be required to conduct another national search.

No doubt the administration would be pleased not to be concerned about your being able to complete the dissertation while teaching full time, which is the primary difficulty the school has had with ABDs.  However, we are a strong school, trying to climb in the (I hate to even refer to them) rankings, and "number of faculty with terminal degrees / highest degrees in their field" is a category in which we do not want to slip.  At a SLAC, the size of the faculty means that even one or two ABDs could have that effect.

[miraceli]

Being ABD is not a curse. Many -- in fact, most -- of my grad school friends from my dept. and others got offers as ABDs. This actually seemed like the norm to me when I went to the job market.

It is also true that most of those could not finish their dissertations before taking the job and lived in hell for the first year on the TT.

I myself got hired as an ABD last year, but I am aware that had I gone to the MLA with degree in hand (or even a set date for defense, which I did not have) I would have had much more options.

[satanicmechanic]

 I was hired ABD, but the job was contingent on me having "degree in hand" by Sept. However, my graduate school gives degrees only in Oct. and May. So I simply got a letter from my advisor and the grad school saying that I defended the diss. The Dean at my job was fine with it.

I found it much harder to get an interview as ABD. When I went on the market last year as ABD, I received one interview out of 20 or so applications. This year I sent out four applications and received three interviews.

No  news of an on campus yet, though.

[trabb]

Being ABD is not a curse. Many -- in fact, most -- of my grad school friends from my dept. and others got offers as ABDs. This actually seemed like the norm to me when I went to the job market.

This was true at my grad school as well.  I can't help but think, however, that the constant lament of "we place really outstanding people in decent jobs, but never in really, really good ones" was directly related to the fact that there was almost no support for grad students in the year or two following completion of the degree.  Students thus went all out as ABDs applying for anything and everything that might yield a paycheck.  Might they have been able to land some of the best jobs had they been able to go on the market with degree in hand?  Maybe.

[iomhaigh]

It also depends on the kinds of schools who are hiring.  We (4/4 load) do not hire very many ABDs for TT jobs unless they are clearly going to defend in the late spring/summer because once you get here, you won't have time to write for the first couple of years.  If we do hire an ABD person, the school issues special contracts to ABD hire that state that you must be done by X date in the fall semester or you'll not be asked back for year two. 

We've had too many people in years past go up for midtenure without having finished. 

[aristof_ns]

MLA field, applying for LACs, with a dissertation-completion grant that requires me to graduate by August -- so I have to get a job for the fall term or I'll be at Barnes&Noble....

29 applications sent out last semester; 1 (one) interview so far; no further requests for material.

And so far no new job announcements in my area....

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