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[minorleaguer]

Around this time every year I try to remember to ask a simple question in this forum.  In light of your recent experience on the job market, is there anything you wish you had known earlier? 

My hope is that others will read these insights and take away a few valuable lessons. 

The same idea for a thread in 2007:
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,35100.0.html

[august_leo]

I wish I had known that a lot of search committees won't even look at ABD candidates if the market is tight.

[georgiaprof]

That my boss is a...

[joelp]

If there is one thing I wish I'd known back when I started grad school is that things that make for a wonderful grad student experience can actually hurt you in the job market.

To be more explicit, I wish I was more "strategic" in my decisions during grad school, as opposed to doing what I love. My department in grad school was very supportive as I dedicated myself to teaching and doing research in a cutting edge, brand new, interdisciplinary specialty. It was and has been wonderful to do what I really like. Unfortunately, what I didn't know then, but know now, is that cutting edge, new, interdisciplinary research can have severe draw backs when looking for a job.

For starters, very few departments advertise positions in most types of cutting edge research (no matter the field), and these departments are usually the ones getting 300 applicants per position. That is, the places who have positions dedicated to new specialties are generally the Harvards and other top r1s of the world. For every position in my specific subfield, there are at least 15 to 20 positions advertised looking for generalists who can teach methods, intro or theory. As such, I wish I had taught or done more research in the more general areas.

Second, while new research can lead to more publications (and publications with more impact) down the road, doing so actually takes longer initially. It is easier to publish quickly in a established subfield in a established subfield journal than it is in interdisciplinary journals where you have to satisfy people coming from very different places in terms of assumptions and back grounds.

Not that I wouldn't still focus on what I currently do, but I would have spent more time doing it in a way where it was easier to market myself as a generalist/methods guy too.

[shrubbery]

I wish I had published more, sooner.

I wish I had developed a much wider variety of syllabi way ahead of time. 

I wish I had forced my advisors to give me more feedback on my application materials instead of just accepting their "it looks fine" response.

I wish I had tailored my letters even more thoroughly.  Last fall, each application seemed to suck so much of my time but now that I have nothing to show for the time I DID spend, I wish I didn't have those nagging doubts of "what if I COULD have been more eye-catching and what if my application really didn't reflect everything I could have brought to those departments?"

I wish I had bitten the bullet and included a chapter on at least one more trendy topic in the field.  I didn't want to be hackneyed and my material is (I think) hot and up-and-coming but I wish I had included a bit more of the stuff that feels (to me) over-done.  Apparently, SCs still want that stuff and I felt like a lame duck without it.

[ann05]

I wish I had just gotten certified to teach high school during my undergraduate years. Teaching intro classes to freshmen is not terribly different, except high school teachers have health care and three times my wages.

[alleyoxenfree]

I wish I had just gotten certified to teach high school during my undergraduate years. Teaching intro classes to freshmen is not terribly different, except high school teachers have health care and three times my wages.

Sadly, too true!  I wish I had chosen a different double major, one with more practical application. I also wish I had chosen the first school on things like its maternity policy, access to a larger city, and union availability, as colleagues and administrators can leave and a department can change dramatically.

On modify: chime to joelp and shrubbery.  But at that time, the conventional thinking was just the opposite - one must find and choose the hot thing, not the old thing!  I wish Project Runway had existed then, so we could have hung around in the bar with a pitcher and had these similarities to fashion dawn on us.

[watermarkup]

I wish I had learned how to tailor cover letters a lot earlier in the game. People told me what to do, but I didn't understand how it really applied to me until recently.

I wish I had known that 50% of the faculty hired into Ph.D.-granting departments in my field come from just 5 programs.

I wish I had known how badly that one job would turn out, before I accepted it and withdrew from three other searches.

[minidonut]

If there is one thing I wish I'd known back when I started grad school is that things that make for a wonderful grad student experience can actually hurt you in the job market.

To be more explicit, I wish I was more "strategic" in my decisions during grad school, as opposed to doing what I love. My department in grad school was very supportive as I dedicated myself to teaching and doing research in a cutting edge, brand new, interdisciplinary specialty. It was and has been wonderful to do what I really like. Unfortunately, what I didn't know then, but know now, is that cutting edge, new, interdisciplinary research can have severe draw backs when looking for a job.

For starters, very few departments advertise positions in most types of cutting edge research (no matter the field), and these departments are usually the ones getting 300 applicants per position. That is, the places who have positions dedicated to new specialties are generally the Harvards and other top r1s of the world. For every position in my specific subfield, there are at least 15 to 20 positions advertised looking for generalists who can teach methods, intro or theory. As such, I wish I had taught or done more research in the more general areas.

Second, while new research can lead to more publications (and publications with more impact) down the road, doing so actually takes longer initially. It is easier to publish quickly in a established subfield in a established subfield journal than it is in interdisciplinary journals where you have to satisfy people coming from very different places in terms of assumptions and back grounds.

Not that I wouldn't still focus on what I currently do, but I would have spent more time doing it in a way where it was easier to market myself as a generalist/methods guy too.

Did I write this?  No, guess not.  But my experience is extremely close to yours (save for the fact that I've definitely done my share of intro classes).

Also:  Wish I had taken some part-time employment in an administrative office within the university, which would have made it much easier to get my foot in the door for administrative positions now.  But at that time, I wasn't even thinking of this as an option.

[msparticularity]

Not that I wouldn't still focus on what I currently do, but I would have spent more time doing it in a way where it was easier to market myself as a generalist/methods guy too.

Joelp, I think you raise an issue that is hugely important, and a shockingly small number of senior faculty who chair committees seem to be tuned into it. I was saved by my doctoral department chair; while my committee was encouraging me to follow my passion and do my best possible work on my diss (which I very much appreciate!), she did an amazing job of making sure I got graduate teaching assignments that would make me appealing on the market. In a "pay it forward" way, I'm trying to make sure I raise this issue for the doc students in my department now. 

And I didn't get to contribute to this at the time, but what I wish I had known when I was on the market is how costly and debilitating a cross-country move really would be--and how many gaps in paychecks and non-reimbursed costs there really are. I don't know whether we really could have done anything beforehand to cushion the financial blow or not, but I guess I keep thinking we should have been able to handle it a bit better.

[drpud]

Also:  Wish I had taken some part-time employment in an administrative office within the university, which would have made it much easier to get my foot in the door for administrative positions now.  But at that time, I wasn't even thinking of this as an option.

Chime. I wish I had done this over the past couple of years while trying to find a TT job as well as in grad school. Now I am only fit for entry level, low paid positions, if I even get an interview. 

[grasshopper]

Not that I wouldn't still focus on what I currently do, but I would have spent more time doing it in a way where it was easier to market myself as a generalist/methods guy too.

Joelp, I think you raise an issue that is hugely important, and a shockingly small number of senior faculty who chair committees seem to be tuned into it. I was saved by my doctoral department chair; while my committee was encouraging me to follow my passion and do my best possible work on my diss (which I very much appreciate!), she did an amazing job of making sure I got graduate teaching assignments that would make me appealing on the market. In a "pay it forward" way, I'm trying to make sure I raise this issue for the doc students in my department now. 

Ditto on that. My advisor is pretty hands-off, but this is one thing he really helped with. My diss topic is not one of those "you'll find a course on this in any department" specializations. But my advisor made sure to find me a course that was incredibly generic. Which gave me the necessary experience to pick up a few other generic courses. It all adds up to, "Yeah, I can teach outside my diss topic."

Now, if only that would translate into a tt job.

[shovelbum]

I wish I had known that the bottom would fall out of academia and that the really bad job market of the early 2000s would be seen as the good ol' days. I wish I had taken more time to become grounded on the professional/non-academic side of my field so that my career opportunities would be more open.

I wish I had known that "publish or perish" doesn't mean publish anything you can, anywhere you can, as often as you can. It actually means publish a few very well placed, very important contributions to the field.

I wish I had learned the difference between "colleagues" and "friends" while in grad school, since most other grad students actually fall into the first category.

[hobbit]

I wish I had known that the faculty who have been out of the job market for awhile cannot give reliable advice regarding the current demands of the market, since things have changed so much in only a few years.

I wish I had known that interdisciplinary research is very difficult to market, despite much lip service about its importance.

I wish I had known the importance of branding - even if you have skills that are performed regularly in a particular discipline, and even if your coursework and advisers come from that discipline, you don't have much chance of finding work in it unless your degree is in that specific discipline. Schools that advertise for someone with PhD in Brand X or a "closely related field" will almost always go for the person with a degree in Brand X, given the huge supply of job seekers.

[omgacademe]

I wish I had known that formerly-very-supportive-and-big-name-advisor would disappear from email for several months just when I needed a letter of rec.  What will probably be my last round of applications was submitted last week and *bam* got an email from hu on this Monday.  Arg.