next »

[frenchgirl]

I'm a postdoc in a MLA field. It is nearly September and there are hardly any TT job openings for me to apply for this year--anywhere in the world. My AHA-field friends assure me things are looking the same in their neck of the woods as well. All of us are feeling pretty depressed at present. Some of us are on our 2nd or 3rd postdoc, others are on the 2nd or 3rd VAP position, and still others are cobbling together multiple teaching assignments in various locations in order to "stay in the game," minus health insurance, of course.

Let's face it, my fellow non-TT friends; the writing is on the wall. Either we'll get out of our own free will or find ourselves pushed out of academe soon enough. One way or the other it looks like the long, bumpy road to TT employment is coming to a dead end for quite a few of us, despite our publication records, fellowships, teaching experience, obvious commitment to our respective fields, etc.

Its sucks, but there it is; time to face facts. Just wish I could muster up some enthusiasm about the non-academic job market, but the ongoing recession has pretty much put a stop to the so-called "smooth" transition process too.

[watermarkup]

On the one hand, I think you might want to chill out for a bit. The MLA job list doesn't open for another four weeks. I promise you that there will be plenty to be depressed about when that day comes, but until then we're only seeing the random early announcements whose appearance or lack thereof don't correlate with the health of the upcoming year's market at all.

On the other hand, you don't have to be clairvoyant to see where this is heading.

[fedscholar]

Isn't it a bit early in the year to get depressed? I wait until at least November before hitting the bottle.  It's summer for chrissake! Go hiking, canoeing, peoplewatching, to the beach, to the frozen yogurt shop. Being depressed in summer is not allowed!

[shiraz]

The Job List comes out September 16th, so no depression (yet) allowed! :)

[janewales]

My MLA-field department has permission to hire this year, but our ad won't appear until mid-September. It's a bit early to panic, I think.

[bluezebracat]

You're jumping the gun, though I'm not sure the market will prove you wrong. 

'Secular';) job market is starting to pick up in some big cities--NYC, DC, for instance.  Why not go on the market for both this year?  What do you have to lose?

[compdoc]

I'm with watermark, shiraz, and janewales. MLA doesn't post until 9/16, so the jobs out there now are actually amazingly early. And they're not all low levels... Chair for Auburn, for example.

My CC, which is obviously not where you want to work since we don't research, just announced they'll have 2 ft positions starting in January. My home university has 4 ft tt openings in English for next year already posted. So there are openings.

On the other hand, I agree with you that the job market will not ever be what it was in the 70s when people could walk in off the street and get a job in academia, which is what happened with my current chair.

It may be that you have to decide if it's worth staying in to do something you love at a lousy salary forever or if you can move on to something different and hopefully better. Before I got this position, I had started the process for an application in advising and jobs in tech writing.

Definitely take bluezebracat's recommendation and go after both kinds of jobs. Just remember industry's hiring cycle is much shorter than academia's.

[msparticularity]

I think we'll know a lot about this year's market for all fields once we see the listings for the first two weeks of September. Until then, we're just guessing.

[fedscholar]

Since everyone seems to agree mid August is too early to get down, when is the time when we should see the real flavor of the 2010-11 market?  I recall that last year peaked by about Nov. 1. , but there were still a few things popping up here and there until March.

For those of us in the western US, it was pretty grim last year, and I noted it at the Ecological Society in August. This year was pretty similar by that yardstick, but I am seeing things start to ramp up this week.

Yet I repeat for the OP, now is the time to dream, innovate, recreate, fornicate, kill a few brain cells, and just savor life. The hard winter of reality can wait...

[wild_rose]

The hard winter of reality can wait...

It officially arrives here in November, but its effects last year-round.

[watermarkup]

Since everyone seems to agree mid August is too early to get down, when is the time when we should see the real flavor of the 2010-11 market?  I recall that last year peaked by about Nov. 1. , but there were still a few things popping up here and there until March.

It may not work the same way in the sciences, but in my MLA field, we'll know quite precisely how bad things will be on September 16. For tenure-track positions, right around half of all the jobs that will ever be advertised during the year will appear on the first day. Going back several years, the correlation is pretty good. VAPs trickle in at a steady rate from beginning to end so it's harder to predict how things will turn out for them, but TTs are pretty predictable. There was some thought last year that the poor opening-day numbers were merely a slower than normal start, but in fact things turned out to be just as dismal as the first day suggested.

[lyndonparker]

It is still early. I would wait at least a month to worry.

[arizona]

Actually, I've been quite surprised at how many jobs have already been posted, given that the job list doesn't come out for another few weeks. I have friends who already have 4 or 5 listings in their MLA fields--that seems like a ton for August!

[fedscholar]

Agreed. Judging from my usual web outlets, this year in ecology is starting off better than last. Anyone else agree, disagree?

[red_jasper]

History is looking very bad indeed . . . and, yes, it is only August 22nd.