which ASA employers have you heard back from?

[anon]

I requested a bunch of interviews but have only heard back from one place. I was wondering if we could start a running list of which schools have gotten back to people/when they got back to them, so I can stop freaking myself out that this is an indication of my chances on the job market.

I have heard back from:
Wayne State (Heard back around 7/21)

I have requested interviews but have not heard back from:
Mathmatica
Grinnel
Concordia
Boston University
Iona
Census
St. Louis U.
Case Western

[anon]

I have heard back from:
Wayne State (7/22)

I have requested interviews but have not heard back from:
Mathematica
Case Western
UIC

[socbaker]

I have a friend who is helping with the Mathematica interviews. When I talked to him last weekend, it didn't sound like they'd set anything up yet. They have several interviewers, so they'll probably be talking with a lot of people.

[anon]

here are people have i not heard back from:

western illinois
st. louis
case
st. michael's
roosevelt
boston university
univ of il @ chicago

[anonymouse]

Some of these names appeared last year, so some general observations:

1. Case seems to be interested in building a bigger department.
2. St. Louis is interesting. The chair wanted to make SLU into a modern version of the Chicago School of Sociology
3. Mathmatica is selective. They want someone who will eventually be able to be self-supporting in grants.
4. WIU is a 4/4 with large classes. I would not expect much research to be done there.

[thedodo]

I've heard from
WIU
Indiana


But don't freak out. ASA employment service is generally useless in terms of getting a job. It's good practice, and gives you insight into different universities and what they are looking for (which can be helpful if you end up applying there), but it wont land you a job.

[macy]

I interviewed with WIU in the past. Unless something has changed since then, they're 3/3. Their publishing requirements for tenure are very low. Nice department, nice people, very remote location.

[anon]

anon who started the post here...i'm not freaked out because i think these interviews will lead to jobs, I'm freaked out because I think this may be indicative of my chances on the 'real' job market....that I will apply to a bunch of jobs and not get any interviews...

I heard back from Grinnell yesterday though, so slightly less freaked out now.

[buddymama]

I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not you've heard back from ES schools. There was some glitch in the system and employers didn't have access to it until very recently. Also, employers treat the process differently, with respect to how often they check the ES bank to set up interviews, how many faculty members' schedules they have to juggle at ASA, giving time to reading materials, etc.

[thedodo]

Jul 30, 2009 7:20:42 GMT -5 anon said:

anon who started the post here...i'm not freaked out because i think these interviews will lead to jobs, I'm freaked out because I think this may be indicative of my chances on the 'real' job market....that I will apply to a bunch of jobs and not get any interviews...

I heard back from Grinnell yesterday though, so slightly less freaked out now.

Given sheer volume of applications and short turn around, it is not rare for schools to just look at areas of interest and school you are in when scheduling these interviews, so dont take it personally.

[ABD All But Disillusioned]

You mean employers are not glued to their computer monitors, feverishly clicking the refresh button on their web browser in the hope that one of the 400+ candidates might, by some miraculous turn of events, be interested in becoming a colleague? Don't they read a candidate's interview request with great interest, carefully parsing out the nuances of the candidate's CV as they giddily imagine what life would be like if she joined the faculty? Surely they convene the search committee and the university's sage to read the entrails of some pitiful creature in order to arrive at the most auspicious time on the employment service schedule at which to interview god's gift to sociology! And I'm certain employers compose at least three or four drafts of their email response and run it past a focus group of colleagues and significant others before, with quivering finger, they click the send button only to pine away at the computer again, desperately awaiting the candidate's reply.

[noname]

To anon who wrote the original post...

First, many employers will not respond until right before the conference, so don't worry. Many are very busy and simply have too much other stuff on their plates to think about the conference until right beforehand.

Second, the truth is, you will have to get over your fear of applying for lots of jobs and not getting any interviews--and I'm not talking about the ES. That's because that's what is likely to happen. The reality is that the vast majority of jobs for which you apply will send you nothing but a rejection letter (if you're lucky, many will send you nothing at all, and some will not even acknowledge receipt of your application materials). You don't have to take my word for it; just look at statistics provided by ASA on the ratio of applications to offers for job candidates. Take it from me--I did the job market twice before finding a job. The first time I applied to only about 10 schools and got one interview. The second time I applied to about 30 and got two interviews. Every case is different, but I consider myself quite lucky. Based on experiences of others who went to my program and others, these statistics are the norm. I tell you this because in some ways, rejection and learning how to deal with it is what this process is all about. It has nothing to do with any individual and you must not take it personally; hundreds of applicants could apply for any given job, particularly ones at well-known schools is metro areas in the northeast, where many academics want to live. Schools can only choose one. The sooner you get in the mindset that the rejections are coming, the easier this will be. The silver lining in the cloud is you don't need every job to call you back--you only need one. And then the other rejections don't matter.

[damastes]

Jul 30, 2009 19:13:03 GMT -5 @noname said:

To anon who wrote the original post...

First, many employers will not respond until right before the conference, so don't worry. Many are very busy and simply have too much other stuff on their plates to think about the conference until right beforehand.

Second, the truth is, you will have to get over your fear of applying for lots of jobs and not getting any interviews--and I'm not talking about the ES. That's because that's what is likely to happen. The reality is that the vast majority of jobs for which you apply will send you nothing but a rejection letter (if you're lucky, many will send you nothing at all, and some will not even acknowledge receipt of your application materials). You don't have to take my word for it; just look at statistics provided by ASA on the ratio of applications to offers for job candidates. Take it from me--I did the job market twice before finding a job. The first time I applied to only about 10 schools and got one interview. The second time I applied to about 30 and got two interviews. Every case is different, but I consider myself quite lucky. Based on experiences of others who went to my program and others, these statistics are the norm. I tell you this because in some ways, rejection and learning how to deal with it is what this process is all about. It has nothing to do with any individual and you must not take it personally; hundreds of applicants could apply for any given job, particularly ones at well-known schools is metro areas in the northeast, where many academics want to live. Schools can only choose one. The sooner you get in the mindset that the rejections are coming, the easier this will be. The silver lining in the cloud is you don't need every job to call you back--you only need one. And then the other rejections don't matter.

I'll second that advice! I am trying to treat the process like I would when playing a lottery game or rolling dice. If I apply N times, I will get k interviews and p offers. By default, that's going to lead to N-p rejections. For the person above, that becomes something along the lines of 30-2-1, with 29 rejections. Not fun, but its the nature of the game we must unfortunately play.

[anon]

I have heard from

Pacific Lutheran U
Lewis & Clark
Saint Louis U

I have requested but not heard from
Mathematica
Case Western
St. Michael's
Iona
Boston U
Grinnell

To the poster who knows about Saint Louis U--I looked on their web site today when working on my application, and all I could find was a posting for a one-year lecturer starting fall 2009. I looked back at the ES posting carefully and it has no info on start date or t-t status. Could they be interviewing just for a one-year adjunct? Guess this will be a question for my interview!

[coda]

I originally posted this in the ASA ES thread, then realized after the fact that it was the wrong thread. I apologize for the re-post:

I requested and received interview confirmations with Wayne State and Mathematica.