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[sugaree]

I agree with losemygrip that your advisor needs to grow a spine. I'm not sure if this is something the Director of Grad Studies might consider getting involved in? Maybe not, but perhaps you could discuss with your advisor your options (short of the nuclear one of not defending before next year).

But in more pragmatic terms (and until modern medicine catches up in terms of spinal growth), is External Ego Examiner suggesting something that can be dealt with in a way that looks like it takes more effort than it does? I recently had a friend who encountered a similar problem in that a committee member (out of nowhere, really) decided that her project was not in line with his research (shocking, I know. She was conducting her own research) and was not willing to see the project in its current state proceed to a defence. My advice to her - and to you - was to sincerely nod and smile and take notes at Ego's ramblings, and then add a long footnote (we're in History so apply whatever citation/lit review stylings as you do) reviewing literature from Ego's field and how it relates to your project. This apparently made her crazy committee member happy (she successfully defended) and when you revise your dissertation for future publication, those long footnotes and extensive literature reviews get slashed anyway.

Basically, you need to placate External Ego Examiner in such as way as to not unduly delay your progress. And (as others have mentioned) do not discuss this issue at your interview. Don't lie, but be confident that you will complete and defend the work by the summer, in time to get on the TT.

[imawakenow]

OP: First, the usual caveats about differences by department, discipline, YMMV, etc.

Anyway, my experience interviewing last year as an ABD was that on every campus interview (three) one or more people asked about my dissertation progress and one asked about a defense date. That said, they all seemed most interested in whether I was making progress and whether I would realistically have degree in hand by the fall.

So, nothing you've written so far gives any indication that you won't be able to make the common "degree in hand" deadline.

When (not if) someone asks about your dissertation, focus on what is done. Do you have a completed draft? Yes. Has the committee seen the draft? Yes. Are you making revisions in order to prepare for your defense? Yes.

If you mentioned the April defense date in your letter, I'd probably wait for someone to mention that date.

I'll leave aside whether the changes by rogue committee member are warranted or not, but here is where you and your adviser need to get on the same page quickly: what is a realistic timeframe for defense? Because it is not uncommon to verify dissertation progress with an adviser, and it would be helpful if you could say something like, "My adviser and I have tentatively moved the defense date to May (June, whatever)."

Think about this as a minor and temporary setback, and do not allow yourself to dwell on worst-case scenarios.

Good luck on your interview.

[firstgeneration]

Something similar happened to me this year.  I won't provide the details, because I don't know who is lurking.  Suffice to say that everyone's telling you the truth.  Departments have much more of an incentive not to hold up the defense over trivial matters or personality quirks when there is a tenure-track offer at stake.

[icicles]

Something similar happened to me this year.  I won't provide the details, because I don't know who is lurking.  Suffice to say that everyone's telling you the truth.  Departments have much more of an incentive not to hold up the defense over trivial matters or personality quirks when there is a tenure-track offer at stake.

I'm not going to provide my own details either, but I faced a similar situation last year, and I know what a horrible blow this can be. I feel like in situations like these, the candidate is trying to do everything possible to finish successfully and secure a job, and others think it's "no big deal" to postpone your filing, and that another job will "just come along." They don't seem to understand the extent to which their decisions about a footnote for a chapter affect people's personal lives and priorities. A friend of mine had a nervous breakdown because right before her filing her adviser raised a stink about a source he had found, written in a language neither of them spoke, that apparently needed to be incorporated into the dissertation.

In terms of what to say during the interview, I think you should tell everyone your dissertation is completely drafted and in the process of undergoing a few revisions (which it sounds like it is), that you are rescheduling your defense date due to a time conflict, and that you will contact them as soon as you have the new date. You will defend; it's just a question of when. If there is extensive discussion of this, you can make conversation by talking about how great it feels to be nearly done. Which you are.

Hang in there.

[john_proctor]

Go to your interview.  Expect to be asked about completion date.  Answer that you have submitted your defense draft and scheduled the defense date.  Do not elaborate.  The scenario of a rescheduled defense date is not a reality that exists at this moment (even if you feel it is inevitable.  It isn't.  Damned likely maybe, but nothing is inevitable save death - and that can often be postponed).  

Tell your adviser that this is what you will answer to any questions posed.

Do not lie.  If I'm on your sc, I most certainly will ask you if you have your defense date.  I will also ask you if I may contact your adviser.  If you don't have a l.o.r. from your adviser stating the same date, I will contact her, and I will ask if you have a defense date.  I most likely will also ask to see your dissertation draft.  Sometimes, in this business, you can equivocate, but in this scenario, you absolutely can not lie.

I will, if I'm on the sc, follow up.  If you lie, I will know.  I would be completely willing to hire someone who was ABD.  I would not, however, hire someone who could reasonably be foreseen as not likely to finish.  It is actually for the candidate's benefit.  As traumatic as it is to not get a job, it's worse to get one and not be able to keep it.

Go to the interview.  Present your best work.  Don't bring it up.  When it's brought up, don't elaborate.  When you answer their questions, contact your adviser the day you return home and tell her exactly what you've told them.  Let things go as they do and realize you did all you could.

I hope that this isn't a factor (though, you're right to worry it could be).  Much can happen.  The defense could go as planned.  Your adviser might grow up and do good work.  You might finish a month later (btw - I strongly recommend you simply decide now that you will have that degree by September and that you will do whatever it takes to get that done.  Time to chew off your foot to get free of the trap if need be).

[mended_drum]

Actually, this doesn't sound as dramatic as your first post, OP.  If your original date was April, most scs already expect that to mean August.  You can certainly tell those interviewing you that you are committed to finishing by late summer.  Your contract, should you be offered one, will be contingent on filing for the degree before you start in the fall.

Heck, the last two years we've had new profs missing from fall orientation specifically to defend; everyone took that in good humor.

[offthemarket]

So, your advisor thinks you're ready.  He was all set for you to finish.  But then the outside person says that you're not, and he folds.  hmm.

I can think of two possibilities, given the scant facts available to me.  One is that your advisor has no spine and is a bozo for letting someone else do this to you.  Another one is that your advisor has no spine and is a bozo because he might secretly think that you're not ready and is using this as an excuse.  I have known people who have had students who really did have problems, but they felt they couldn't confront them directly about it so they simply let the rest of the committee squash them.  You might want to be sure that your advisor really stands behind the quality of your thesis.

[john_proctor]

There's also the occasional advisor who doesn't really read carefully.

I sidestepped the actual "is the dissertation good-to-go but being held up by Dr. Crazy" question. 

But it could be that the chapter in question does, indeed, merit revision, but that advisor X didn't read it carefully and was going to let it get through (but now is using "well s/he's major to the field so..." as a cya excuse).

I'd actually bet a pair of boots that that's what happened (but, I digress...).

[poppeasabina]

However much I dislike all of this diagnosing of the source of my problem, you have hit the nail on the head. I would say that, at this point, my advisor likes me and supports me. So, he tends to not read my work too closely, leaving the "bad cop" job to others. He also has a different style than the remainder of the committee and, admittedly (despite his successful career), much of my discipline.

This, however, does not explain why this chapter had been through the hands of three committee members, revisions made, only to be torpedoed by Dr. Crazy. I say Outside Reader because he is in an allied department with its own historical differences with my field in general. Thus, it is both political and specific to my work. I can do better and will do, immediately.

So, suffice it to say, there are a lot of factors here. There will be no defense in April, I will work myself into a frenzy so that, when I tell the SC I am submitting in August, I actually mean it.

Thank you for all of the sage advice and for letting me see this situation through your eyes.

[quoog]

I think you're taking the right attitude poppeasabina... make every effort to get done by August, and act under the assumption that you will succeed. As others have said it's pretty common for people to defend right before their new job starts. And you even hear of cases where they go back during their first year to defend, so sometimes even if they don't get done in time they can negotiate something.

I personally defended like Aug 25 of my graduating year, then flew out to my new job the next week. No one at my postdoc institution found this problematic. In my case I was holding out to get a better result for my thesis, but in the end I graduated with what I had done several months before and no one in my grad school objected. The better result took until the following June for me to get done I believe. The only downside is that I had one petty rival who would whisper that I was "still working on my thesis" like 2 years after I graduated. But people like that don't matter ;)

[ruralguy]

Never tell them!

On the other end, your thesis adviser needs to threaten to beat this reader to a bloody pulp if
he prevents you from getting a job. I am only being slightly snarky. Your adviser need to defend you big time..

[webzooey]

I am late to the discussion, but wanted to add my $.02 based on my recent experience.

I defended my thesis on Tuesday, October 20, 2009.  I submitted the final draft to my committee members a full six weeks prior to my defense date.  Each committee member had also seen prior drafts.  On the morning of my defense (literally four hours before the meeting), the committee member from outside my department called my adviser and expressed "concerns" over a section of one of my chapters.  My adviser was horrified, and the committee member admitted that he had not read my dissertation until the morning of my defense, but still wasn't sure he'd be able to pass me. 

My defense was awful, purely because of this committee member.  He was completely unprepared and kept flipping through my dissertation rapidly, clearly flustered.  He interrupted me less than five minutes into my presentation to ask his questions, and kept asking questions that I was embarrassed to answer (but fortunately could) by saying "Oh, that's covered in the table on p. 119, let's flip to that."  The entire defense was focused on him, I could not regain the floor for his repeated interruptions, and--though my defense went on for more than two hours--I never had a chance to present my results.  The students who attended my defense had to get the results from me afterward because everyone wanted to know what had happened.  Fortunately, everyone else on my committee had read my dissertation and was comfortable with the results.

I passed, but later learned from my adviser that, during the post-defense deliberations, this committee member had not wanted to pass me.  Fortunately, my adviser did not hesitate to point out his unpreparedness, lack of awareness of my work, and claims that lacked substance.  This committee member had not taken issue with my methodology, statistics, or anything substantive; he was asking for things that were presented as tables to be presented as graphs, for example, and pointed out a few typos (during my defense and afterward, these were the things he held to).

My adviser also pointed out that the entire committee did not need to pass me; that agreement by everyone else would override his refusal.  He signed the paper to pass me but, without a strong adviser willing to go to bat for me, I don't know what would have happened.

This is all a long way of saying: Don't tell the search committee anything just yet.  Many things can change, some of them in the space of a few hours.  You may not be held up, but you will need to circle some wagons in your favor through your adviser and more supportive committee members.

[mirada]

Keep in mind there is a difference between being a finalist for a job and getting the job.  The logic of your advisor pushing you through and deflecting the other reader really only comes into play once you succeed in getting the job. Otherwise the question is moot.  Focus on performing at your best for the interview.

[skaking]

god i hate this. but remember, it's only a dissertation, your first real project and not your last and certainly not your best. the best comes later.  the sc's obviously like you, and i imagine you must have publications. so suck it up and do exactly what outside reader wants, no matter how distasteful it may be. then when it's time to write your book (if you're in a book writing field) you discard what you did that was just to please him. think of it as an intellectual exercise rather than a royal waste of time. it may well be a waste, but if you think of it that way you won't get it done, or done to his liking. you're going to have to do this again and again; i didn't have to do it for the diss, but have done it for journal articles on a smaller scale.

[sagit]

Someone said that search committees never ask you your defense date.  That is definitely untrue.  I was specifically asked by multiple SCs what my defense date was.  And for one job interview, the search chair told me that I was their top candidate and that they were sending my name to the Dean.  The dean refused the hire because I had not yet defended.  I did defend that August, which would have been before the start date for that position.  But fortunately I got another job offer that I liked better anyway.

OP - like other people said, just be honest (but POSITIVE) to the search committee.