Thursday, November 6, 2008
JFP, Round Two
In just 24 hours many of you will received yet another dose of humiliation. All the hard work, stress, sacrifice, and fretting over your wardrobe will prove to have been for naught. This year, there are almost no worthwhile jobs in Philosophy for people new to the profession; the few decent jobs will go to the new Ph. D.'s from four or five fancy departments, the rest is mostly grunt work for insulting wages. Things won't get better next year, either. Have you considered Law School?
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10 comments:
Wow! That "fretting over your wardrobe" thread is pretty astonishing. Such hopeless argument over how to look relatively presentable! How can one reach adulthood and not know how to do that? Especially telling, not a single note about haircuts. (Arguably, the single thing that anyone job-seeking should invest any serious energy and some cash in, if one wants to make a good impression quietly and effectively.) I guess fretting about attire is more fun than fretting over the situation.
729:
What was interesting for me was to see that I'd committed so many "fashion don'ts" (as identified by the posters on that blog) when I was on the market. I didn't wear a suit. I wore white socks. I forgot to shave. I looked pretty bad, I'm sure. Your point about the haircut is interesting and probably true, too.
For what it's worth: I've been on a few search committees, and I've seen my share of APA candidates. I can't remember what anyone was wearing. What did make an impression was how comfortable the person seemed. My advice: wear what's comfortable. If that's a suit, fine. If it's "academic casual," fine. The situtaion is crappy enough as it is w/o adding to the crapness by wearing an uncomfortable outfit.
The haircut thing comes from a fantastic source. I think you'll appreciate the simplicity of this truth. When I had been on the market and preparing for interviews I had two sets of advisors. My mentor advised me on what to say, while I got advice on how to say it from professional actors and directors. I figured that if I was going to put any effort into the "how" in terms of "auditioning" and getting a "call back," I had better ask some real experts.
So, one of my friends, a successful, working character actor, asked what the conditions of the interview would be like. I explained that I'd be sitting at a table or in a hotel suite sitting room area answering a battery of questions for around 30 minutes per interview. "That's an easy one," he responded. "When you're sitting and speaking for a half-hour, people will pretty much be looking at your head the whole time. Get a great haircut."
Jesus fucking Christ can we be done with the elitist "grunt work" shit?? Of course there is rampant and widespread exploitation of lecturers out there--and that really really sucks--and maybe someone who is so self-deluded as to believe that his/her work will be remembered in a century or so will wring hands over insufficient "star" positions--but believe it or not there are people who can actually teach a tenure-track 4/4 schedule (and even very well) and still manage the very occasional tier-one pub. And actually be happy to be a teaching philosopher! Epiphany!! For fuck's sake people TRY to think there there is more to the profession than masturbating with one's rolled-up offprints!!
(Of course I am back-handedly--or is that open-handedly?--affecting my very best spiros imitation!)
I agree, a haircut is probably a good idea. I've been growing my hair over the last 18 months and last year, while I was on the market, it had got a bit untidy. After a few unsuccessful interviews, one member of faculty at my college (who didn't have much to do with me personally) suggested that I might want to think about a haircut. Since I had a few more interviews lined up, I took her advice and landed a pretty great temporary teaching job after the second interview.
Darlin' don't you go and cut your hair --
Do you think it's going to make him change?
I'm just a boy with a new haircut --
and it's a pretty nice haircut!
Anon @ 7:15:
Nicely done.
Philosophers in law will not be happy, which is, as Aristotle said, the self-evident goal. Better to teach high school than to go to law.
For those of you who wish to get a paying gig, here's another possibility if you don't land that tenure track position:
www.change.gov
The second round has to be one of the most comprehensive job app's I have ever seen. On the upside, it could make a cool addition to your CV if you land a nice post.
From Anon 7:15--
Spiros--Respect back to you. Thanks.
27 years of 4/4: 7000+ students, including lots of lawyers (one of whom did my divorce), a couple of philosophers, and one co-author of "Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O'Reilly":
http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Jesus-Hate-Bill-OReilly/dp/1560258810
as featured on Olbermann.
I sleep in peace, especially after the election.
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