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[spectacle]

I'll be leaving for Spouse City shortly, and will be staying all summer.  As more and more last-minute Spouse City job ads hit the Chronicle, I'm not entirely sure how (or whether) to deal with my temporary relocation in my cover letter.  

Spouse says keep my actual address as schools will see an out-of-state applicant as more desirable. He says to keep the current line in my cover letter that says something like, "I plan to be in Spouse City from May-August and would be available to meet at your convenience" or something like that.

Because I've been unlucky in this search so far, I was thinking that I'd change my address to Spouse's (since I'll be there soon anyway), in the hopes that someone might think, "hey - let's call her in for an interview; she's ten minutes away."  

But then I don't know how (or whether I even need to) explain the fact that my home address is nearly 2000 miles away from the address of my current employer in my cover letter...  

What would you do?

[tuxedo_cat]

Is there any way to verify this assumption for the dept. you're applying to?

schools will see an out-of-state applicant as more desirable

This notion obviously runs contrary to your sensible expectation that a department that is trying to hire adjuncts for next fall (is that the sort of position you're applying for?) is likely going to ignore anyone who seems to be based 2,000 miles away.  It means that they might not even read the letter carefully enough to see the "but really, I'm just down the street!  It would be super-easy to interview me!" line at the end of your letter.

I guess we're dealing with a lot of hypotheticals, but if you're applying for a job for next fall, give your summer address.

[spectacle]

Is there any way to verify this assumption for the dept. you're applying to?

schools will see an out-of-state applicant as more desirable

This notion obviously runs contrary to your sensible expectation that a department that is trying to hire adjuncts for next fall (is that the sort of position you're applying for?) is likely going to ignore anyone who seems to be based 2,000 miles away.  It means that they might not even read the letter carefully enough to see the "but really, I'm just down the street!  It would be super-easy to interview me!" line at the end of your letter.

I guess we're dealing with a lot of hypotheticals, but if you're applying for a job for next fall, give your summer address.

This position is TT; I guess I'm feeling gunshy because none of my other TT apps in the area have worked out, and several of them ended up being local hires (I have a pretty solid grapevine in the city through Spouse). 

I'm starting to wonder if some of the schools are sticking to local interviews because of financial reasons - but it is all hypothetical/speculation on my part.

[tuxedo_cat]

Oh!  Well for tenure-track, I would expect that where you are actually living would *not* be an issue in comparison to all the regular stuff on your c.v.  Are they doing this search over the summer months?  That's unusual.

I think you should just keep it simple and list your summer address.   It is in fact where you will be living.  I have only rarely heard rumors (and rumors only) that a department might discriminate *against* a locally based candidate.  And I think in those cases it was more about a small college trying not to hire too many faculty from the same R1-PhD granting institution just across town.  But that's not your situation.

[spectacle]

Oh!  Well for tenure-track, I would expect that where you are actually living would *not* be an issue in comparison to all the regular stuff on your c.v.  Are they doing this search over the summer months?  That's unusual.

I think you should just keep it simple and list your summer address.   It is in fact where you will be living.  I have only rarely heard rumors (and rumors only) that a department might discriminate *against* a locally based candidate.  And I think in those cases it was more about a small college trying not to hire too many faculty from the same R1-PhD granting institution just across town.  But that's not your situation.

It's bonkers - the ad just dropped recently.  Must be a late retirement announcement or something.  Thank you much for the suggestion.  I'm feeling much better about the application now.