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[grendels_mother]

My spouse (who is in a different discipline) and I are both on the market this year, and, amazingly, we may be in the position where both of us have conference interviews with 3-4 of the same schools.  Would it be appropriate to bring this up at those interviews, and if so, how?  Is it better to wait until either of us were to secure a campus interview?  I know a lot of folks on the fora generally advise one to say nothing without an offer in hand, but in this specific scenario it seems that waiting until an offer is made would be counterproductive.   Thanks for any thoughts.

[canadia]

Ugh.

You're going to get different schools of thought about this imprecise science. I would suggest taking a look at the Deans/Dept. Chair forum for different perspectives. Look at my posting history for a specific thread. (I think I started one there...)

Basically, deans and chairs resent the notion that they can just snap their fingers and create a TT line.

I think the prevailing attitude is to bring it up at the campus interview stage, but there are perils to this as there are with everything.

I'll write more at a later date.

[spectacle]

Everyone I've ever spoken to on this subject has told me not to bring up the SO until the school has made an offer.

I'll be interested to see what kinds of responses you get, though, since my SO and I will be applying for jobs at several of the same schools this year.  Good luck.

[grendels_mother]

Here's the thing: 
If my spouse and I are both qualified enough to get conference interviews at the same university, is there really any harm in mentioning this (casually, not as an ultimatum)?  This isn't a situation in which I'd be asking a university to magically come up with a position for my spouse-- an open position already exists, and my spouse is already a semi-finalist for it.

And this:  If one of us were to get a campus visit, would mentioning the spouse at all help the other to get one?

And another thing:
Where we decide to go (if we get offers) depends so much on timing:  say I were to receive a campus visit in the X department of a college where both my spouse and I had preliminary interviews.   If department Y (where my spouse applied) isn't planning on scheduling ITS campus visits until a couple weeks' later, I'd say negotiating would be much more difficult as department Y will probably want to see each of their top few candidates, too.   If I were to got an offer, I'd probably need to give a decision within 2 weeks, which could be weeks before dept. Y is able to make a decision about who IT wants to hire....  I'm thinking that mentioning spouse might at least allow the 2 depts. to coordinate their search schedules just in case...

[jackit]

Definitely no -- do not give them a reason to think you may be interested in the position because your SO might get a job there.

[systeme_d_]

I would strongly advise NOT to mention this at your conference interviews.  As jackit mentioned, it would be crazy to open yourself up to the impression that you're interested in them only because your spouse is.

And please don't count on departments coordinating on-campus interviews for the two of you.  Each department has its own timetable and set of concerns.

If both of you get on-campus interviews, then I think it would be very good to mention that your spouse has one, too.  At that point, the chairs might want to get in touch with one another.  But not before then.

[polly_mer]

I think the question is what do you want to gamble on and how important is it that you both get jobs in the same place?

If you only come as a set, you have to mention that upfront.  Doing that will turn a lot of people off and make you less attractive than either of you would be alone because you will be a pain.  However, if that's the only acceptable deal, you will be shooting yourself in the foot not to mention it.  Nearly all the people I know who ended up at the same school and everyone was happy about the situation was because all cards were on the table from the beginning so that the necessary negotiations with both departments could take place.

If you are perfectly happy to each take the best job this time around even if that means living apart, don't mention your spouse.  As others have said, this is a much less annoying path for the search committees and will raise fewer red flags at the initial stage.