Talk:Rhetoric/Composition 2012

Demographics
ABD (early):1
 * When you add yourself to one of the categories below, don't forget to add one to the Total number at the bottom!

ABD (will finish this academic year): 22

Ph.D. in hand (one-year, VAP, Lecturer, post-doc): 5

Ph.D. in hand (unable to find academic employment at the moment):

Assistant Professor: 8

Associate Professor: 1

Full Professor:

Lurker: 1

Search committee member: 3

Total: 41

Application Packet Advice:
It's probably too late for many, but I just wanted to offer a few quick thoughts from the perspective of a search committee member who has reviewed scores of applications for our current posting:
 * Read the job ad multiple times. It is not possible that the committee will forget that its ad specifies X, Y, or Z. I know that sounds harsh, but you should assume that the committee put some thought into its ad and is looking to fill defined needs. Please be strategic and smart with your choices about where you apply; it's in everyone's best interests. For instance, if the ad reads, "PhD in Rhetoric and Composition" and goes on to specify needs in Rhet/Comp and your PhD is in British Literature with teaching experience in Intro to Lit, Intro to Poetry, and FYC, the committee member who first reviews your file stops reading in five seconds and places the file in the "not qualified; no further review needed" pile. You cannot finesse a clear lack of specified qualifications, no matter how artful your letter is. Do not waste your time and money. 208.66.176.1 19:28, November 9, 2011 (UTC)
 * The above is obviously right: it's tough to pretend to be a rhet comp person if you are not, but my sense is that most people here are rhet comp people. It would be interesting to hear from faculty on committees. Do you still get a lot of applicants who are obviously not rhet comp? What I'm more interested is whether or not for a job where a preferred qualification is expertise in professional writing, and a candidate has not taught such a course, the rhet comp candidate will suffer the same fate as the posing lit scholar. From the job ads, it seems that there are now some high degrees of specialization within rhet comp.Jobz4uNme 06:08, December 11, 2011 (UTC)
 * Have at least two general templates for your cover letter. Writing 100% custom letters for each application is wildly inefficient, of course, and is not really expected. But sending basically the same letter to each university with zero tailoring to that particular university or program puts you much lower in the rankings, compared with those who make at least minimal effort to connect with the particular audience. The committee is looking for the best person for the particular job at the particular place, not the smartest person in general in the whole applicant pool. Having two templates might be as simple as flipping the order of your teaching and research discussions in your letter and then adding some course names from the particular program (websites have this information). A letter that is obviously generic and shows little to no effort to tailor it to the particular position reads, "I really can't be bothered to investigate your program for 20 minutes and tweak my mail merge a bit." You are applying for a position with a focus on rhetoric: basic context and audience considerations of rhetoric should apply to your letter. If the letter shows what our commmittee has come to call "tone-deafness," your application suffers.
 * Proofread your application. This ought to go without saying, but high-stakes documents need multiple layers of proofreading. Get someone else to scrutinize the apps before they go out--you will be too tired and anxious to be the best reader of them. 208.66.176.1 19:28, November 9, 2011 (UTC)
 * Break out your coursework in a clearly labeled section on your CV. You and your recommendation-letter writers can't talk about every course you took, and nobody expects that. However, we do like to see a complete list of your coursework to get a better sense of your overall fit with our position. Toward that end, please list your coursework in a specific section of your CV. It's nearly impossible to make sense of many transcripts, with cryptic listings printed on eyeball-raping security paper. The listings are doubly cryptic if you took multiple special topics courses, all of which are listed under unhelpful titles such as ENGL 834: Spec.Top. Rhet. Comp./Expl. What the hell does that mean? Your application packet is supposed to be your best case for fitting you to this job, and vice versa. Make it easier for us to see that fit, please.208.66.176.1 16:30, November 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * I find this advice surprising because every faculty member who reviewed my CV (advisor, the faculty placement coordinators, a faculty member at another institution) said to remove coursework from the CV. Why should coursework be included on a CV? And what type of institution are you at? Flutterby916 15:40, November 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * I received similar CV advice, i.e. that one should omit coursework taken, as well as lengthy descriptions of courses taught. My advisers said this is something a committee would ask for in a separate document, if they wanted the details. Azzypoo 05:34, November 23, 2011 (UTC)
 * I too have been given the advice from our placement director (who has chaired several searches at an R1 institution) that listing coursework gives the signal of "student" and not "colleague" to some search members - a really smart compromise (in my opinion)? This may be obvious, but create a cover sheet for your unofficial transcripts file that lists your courses taken all on one page and with specific course titles (to address the issue above when your transcript reads "Topics in Rhetoric and Composition).
 * I graduated from an R1 several years ago, and I was advised to include my relevant coursework in my CV. I think it only helped my application, given my double digit MLA and on-campus interviews (and several offers). I am now on a search committee, and we did not ask for transcripts (as many schools do not). Overall, the candidates who included their relevant coursework either in their letter or in their CV fared better in our ranking, as they took our information needs into consideration (as this typically demonstrated their training in the areas of expertise for which we are looking). I don't think it signals "studentness"; rather, it signifies a conscientious candidate who wants to ensure that their readers know they have the training required to meet our hiring needs.
 * Wow, double digit MLA and on-campus interviews sounds pretty busy. Nice work. The advice I received was that it varies and that some places are more concerned about erasing your student past while others appreciate the humility. roll the dice.

How many people will be applying for these jobs?
This looks great. 86 jobs and not even 20 people on the market...OK what do you think are actually the odds for those of us going on the market this year?Lorenzodow 15:21, September 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * These numbers aren't in any way representative, unfortunately. Most grad students I know have been warned to not visit the wiki (for fear of misinformation). And I think many who are visiting aren't coming over to the talk page. So far my take is that there are quite a few really good, research intensive jobs, but not a lot of the middle tier jobs, which worries me. I know that assistant and associate profs will be going back on the market for some of these jobs, like UIUC. Flutterby916 13:06, September 22, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, my post was tongue-in-cheek, but this is my first year on the market. Looks like there were over 200 jobs on last year's wiki..did those all come at once or were a lot of them outside of the JIL? Nobody warned me not visit the wiki, but maybe my department doesn't know about these dangerous waters.Lorenzodow 16:24, September 22, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think the reason to not visit the wiki is that later in the proces there may be misinformation (folks claiming a job has been filled when it hasn't or something like that). I think a lot of last year's jobs came later in the season. At this point I would speculate that we're set to have at least as good a year. Plus, if you're in rhet/comp there's not a lot to worry about. At least there are jobs. Flutterby916 00:18, September 23, 2011 (UTC)


 * This is a question that has been nagging me, as well. There should be a timestamp to note when each position was originally added to the wiki. That, or we should list positions chronologically, instead of alphabetically. Not only would it help us understand the timing of these ads, but it would also help visitors remember which ads they have already read and evaluated. (There are a couple of unsuitable job ads that I have read 5+ times because I notice they are not on my list of jobs to which I want to apply.)
 * Yes, now I notice there are 94 jobs, but it's tough to tell which ones are new. Edit: ah, I guess you just use the history feature. Now I can see which ones are new Lorenzodow 15:57, September 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * On a related note, how many R/C PhDs are awarded each year? I was looking around the net and couldn't find any recent information (i.e. newer than 2003).
 * I think that would be an known unknown. Too many candidates doing rhet comp are not getting their degrees in Rhet/Comp but in English or somethign similar (with or without an official emphasis). some will try for rhet/comp jobs based on their comp teaching, but with not as much actual comp theory background or research. correct me if I'm wrong.Lorenzodow 23:30, September 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * While that is true, I honestly don't think those of us with R/C degrees or emphases are really competing with the lit folks who happened to teach a couple of sections of FYC. Sure, they might snipe some of the really undesireable jobs, but I don't imagine Michigan Tech making an offer for Assistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communication to a Proust scholar, unless that individual is a complete and utter rock star who can also demonstrate competence in the desired field. Let's be realistic.


 * No, R/C jobs want R/C people, and there are enough of us now that a lit person would have to be a super rock star (truly have an interdisciplinary background) to be competitive. There's still this perception (I think) among some lit folks that R/C is still a 'fall back'--I'll get a comp job if I can't get a lit job. Sorry--those days are over. Just because you've taught FYW doesn't mean you're competitive in our field. You're not an R/C expert. Quit applying for our jobs.


 * As a member of a search committee, I will tell you that we are averaging over 100 applications for our rhet/comp asst prof positions. And most of those are "real" rhet/comp people. The non-r/c people are eliminated immediately, and really do not stand an even chance. It wouldn't matter if the lit person *were* a rock star. We have specific needs to fill, and a person whose training is in an entirely different field is not going to be able to do that work.


 * 100+ applicants actually sounds like a pretty good ratio, since there are close to 300 positions (counting multiple positions at one institution) on the wiki. Flutterby916 14:55, December 14, 2011 (UTC)

New media studies
I know that technical/professional communication jobs focus on an area of expertise that is not mine, an area that seems to have pretty well-defined expectations as far as experience and pedagogy goes. But my impression is that the New Media Studies or New Media composition positions are a little less well-defined. This may be because of my being an outsider. What I'm getting at is, if your research is not necesarily new media focused but your pedagogy is, does that automatically disqualify you from most of these New media studies or new media composition positions?


 * You'll be up against folks whose main area of scholarly expertise is digital media, but I don't think that disqualifies you. You may bring another area they really want and don't have. I'd also think this is a bit different at PhD granting schools and BA granting schools because PhD granting schools would want the person teaching their grad courses in digital media to have that as a scholarly area. Just a guess since this is my first time on the market. Flutterby916 14:27, September 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * ok that's what I figured. Where are those digital media folks coming from? certainly not my institution :-)
 * There are quite a few schools training folks in Digital Media--in fact, I'd say *most* of the PhD programs I'm familiar with have someone doing digital media: UIUC, Ohio State, Michigan State, Miami of Ohio, Utah, Texas, Michigan Tech. I know grad students who do digital media scholarship at Louisville, Pitt, U Iowa, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, even though I wouldn't say it's what those programs are known for. Flutterby916 22:43, September 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, I guess to be clear, what I mean was that my institution, for the most part, does not have graduate coursework in digital media (not so much that no one does digital media scholarship). So if you do things with new media, you have one or two professors interested in that but that it is not built in to the curriculum.

OCD English Majors Doing Math
All things being equal (which they never are), I am speculating the following (because I'm OCD and nothing new has been posted on the wiki in a while):


 * Let the projected number of jobs to be posted this year equal x.


 * Number of jobs posted at this time: 232


 * Number of jobs posted on this date one year ago: 139


 * Number of total jobs posted last year: 217


 * 232/x =139/217


 * 139x = 50344


 * X= 362.18…

Discussion: I see some problems with this projection, such as the fact that last year's r/c wiki was updated well into Fall 2011. This could throw the true number of jobs off considerably. However, it looks like very few 2012 jobs were posted on the 2011 board, and many that were have been removed by later editors. That said, having spoken to quite a few people on the market last year, jobs kept coming out well into the summer, as funding materialized. Could a 360 job season really be in the works? If so, what does that mean? Do we all get to eat and have roofs over our heads in 2012, or do a lot of searches start getting canceled when the first five batches of candidates all take better gigs?

O, math, how you elude me!

Azzypoo 08:15, November 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've been pondering similar questions. One thing about your 360 projection: as you say, there were a lot of late add jobs last year; given the influx of jobs at the beginning of the season, I doubt we'll see as many spring/summer positions open up. Flutterby916 15:17, November 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * That's a distinct possibility. I remain optimistic, though, since we have already surpassed last year's job total, and it's only the beginning of November. I would bet November and December still have quite a few new jobs to offer. Well, here's to hoping, anyway! Azzypoo 23:38, November 8, 2011 (UTC)

San Jose State

 * You're welcome to comment on the opinion expressed below, but please don't delete from the wiki.

Comment from 11/19/11 on San Jose State job: "The dept just decided (after 4 great years) to not tenure their current comp/rhet person because her pedagogical theories differ from some of the older faculty's methods for running the comp program. It's not a friendly place."

Paying the Piper
Having recently consulted my credit card bill, I realize now that I have sent dossiers to an absurd number of schools (some of them two times or more!). This leads me to wonder:

How Many Applications Do You Imagine You'll Send This Season?

Less than ten: 1

10-25: 2

26-50: 1

51-75: 4

76-100: 0

100-125: 1

More than 125: 0

Total Respondants: 9

Poll created by Azzypoo 10:50, November 24, 2011 (UTC) Whether you agree with that assessment or not, the truth is that change has to come from the top down. That is, graduate students have no power in this situation, so they can't do much except put out as many good applications as they can. (And, yes, some will have minor mistakes because they are done at 3am, after having taught all day and worked on the dissertation all evening -- and heaven forbid someone has children or aging parents to look after during this process!) Real change is in the hands of tenured faculty, who serve on the search committees, decide how many PhD students to accept, and write the job ads. Trust me -- not a single one of us prefers to crank out as many applications as we did. We would absolutely love to only have to apply to a couple of schools and know we would get a job. However, this is the situation we inherited from earlier generations of scholars, and right now we have to look out for number one. If that means being thought "ridiculous" or being your main source of "irritation," then so be it. Azzypoo 17:54, December 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * 100+ strikes me as just wild. I mean, I want a job too, but that is incredible. Hope it pays off for that soul, though. Jobz4uNme 08:59, November 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * It is wild. So is 50 or 75, when you consider some application packets can grow in excess of 120 pages (including student evals, writing samples, etc.). I guess, once these applications have damaged one's brain and broken one's spirit, there is nothing left to lose. haha In all seriousness, though, folks without geographic or institutional bias could probably have qualified for nearly 200 jobs on this list, so far, if they have solid experience in tech/pro or wpa/wac/wid. I would love to correlate this poll with end results to see if there is a quality/quantity issue at stake, or if a wider net really does catch the most fish. Azzypoo 02:48, November 30, 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'll be happy if I hit 30, but this is my first time on the market. I'd go pretty much anywhere, but I've been selective, mostly based on limitting myself to places where my work fits the best. I would love to have a sense of how many applications most jobs are receiving. Jobz4uNme 08:25, November 30, 2011 (UTC)
 * I feel pressure in my department (we are integrated with Creative Writing, Liteature, and Rhet/Comp) to apply for anything I'm baseline eligible for because for my lit peers that number is sometimes as low as 15 if they don't look at generalist positions. At the same time, I have friends who have approached the 100+ number in Rhet/Comp and, although incredibly flattered by the number of requests for more materials, were also overwhelmed handling as many requests (that can ask for very specific materials you have to create) they fell behind on some of them and felt overwhelmed. 98.212.148.220 23:45, December 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * Applying for 100 jobs is ridiculous. I have been on many search committees now, more than I want to remember, and my main irritation is the number of people who apply for jobs that have no relationship to the candidate's training or expertise. Do they think we won't notice? Or that we will just get desperate and hire them anyway? This is not even remotely possible. I think we may have hit a point as a field where we are close to overproducing candidates and we need to slow down. The point is, apply for jobs that are relevant and then spend more time putting together a good application and avoiding the mistakes I've seen too often, like leaving in the wrong chair's name, or the name of another school.
 * You've confused the diagnosis with the symptoms, here. The reason people feel pressure to put in 50, 75, or even 100+ applications is because the system is both unfair and inscrutable. Not only do schools overproduce PhDs, but search committees often write job ads that don't even indicate what it is they are really looking for. How else are people to beat the odds, other than to flood the market with applications? And, let's be fair, here: if one wanted to put out 150 applications that "fit," according to the vague text of the job ads, it would be no problem for one trained in tech/pro writing, digital/new media, or WPA/WAC/WID. The question is that if you want to see a reduction in applications, why are you chastising the people who have absolutely no control over the process, who are merely trying to beat the odds to stay out of the bread lines next year? Besides, a little industry is exactly what you should be looking for in your applicants!
 * Now this is the sort of angst I came here to see! Jobz4uNme 20:00, December 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * My point is simply this: if you apply for a hundred jobs, it will be harder to send a good application to each of them, and harder to get your dissertation done, both of which are going to keep you from getting a job.
 * I'm more inclined to agree with this, more moderate, point. Then again, not all ABDs are in the same boat. Some of us were on fellowship for our final years, some of us are single with no other commitments, and some of us have to work full-time jobs and take care of small children while dissertating. It's feasible that we have a cohort of new PhDs who took varying amounts of time to finish, too; it is not uncommon in my program to finish in 3, 4, 5, or even more years after the MA. Thus, I'm disinclined to make generalizations about what motivated individuals can or cannot achieve, if they put some elbow grease into it. At this level, we move at our own pace. Azzypoo 23:26, December 19, 2011 (UTC)

Hope College
Note relocated from main page:

Candidates should be wary. Hope College has doubled down on bigotry in recent years: see http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/hope-college-amends-sexuality-policy-after-pressure-from-alumni/30134 and http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/hope-college-blocks-sexuality-discussion-featuring-milk-screenplays-author/8604

Wiki Obsession
Just an observation: as a group, we seem less obsessed with the wiki than last year's job seekers. Also, seems like most interviews will be scheduled over the next couple weeks. I suppose we should get ready for the emotional rollercoaster. :)

Preparing for Interviews
More advice from a search committee member. If you have a phone or MLA interview scheduled, please be prepared to answer questions related to the rhetoric of the job posting. For example, if the job ad asks for a candidate with expertise (not just a list of potential interests, but the required primary interests) in new media and kitten rhetorics, expect that the committee will ask you questions about your research and teaching interests as it pertains to BOTH new media and kitten rhetorics. If you do new media but know nothing about kittens, you'll likely not be invited to campus (unless no other candidate does both, but it is likely that there will be at least 3 who know about lolcats and the digital and visual rhetoric therein). Thus, as you are preparing for your interview, if you really want the job, you should probably study up on kitten rhetorics. It's not too late now, but it will be after the interview.

Some additional advice from a search committee member: read the department's website. Do a basic review of the courses they offer, and what their FYC program looks like. Find out who their current faculty are. Be prepared to answer basic questions like "which of our courses would you like to teach?" and "why are you interested in teaching here?" And, although you may be given a list of questions you could ask the committee (by your placement service, for example), please don't ask the committee questions you should already know the answer to by doing a basic review of their website. Also, and this may seem ridiculous to you, but remember who you are talking to when you are in the interview. Don't confuse them with some other school kind of like them or in the same state. If one school is interviewing for multiple jobs and you apply for both of them, try to remember which one you are interviewing for at that moment. I know it is stressful, so keep notes in front of you, maybe even the website (if on the phone) or printouts if in person.

Interviews and odds
Hi all, just curious if anyone has a sense of how many interviews schools usually conduct for one position at the MLA convention. What are your odds once you've got the interview? And how many candidates do most schools fly out for a campus visit? And while we're at it, how many do you think is the maximum number of interviews most candidates can handle at the MLA? So far on this talk page, we've had Superstar Tenured Prof boast of having double-digit interviews AND double-digit campus visits AND multiple offers. But we've also had disagreement over how many jobs one could feasibly apply to and tips like "don't forget which school you are talking to" for the interview. Let's talk numbers.


 * Hopefully someone who is actually on a search committee will chime in, but here are the general guides I've been provided as a job seeker. Schools will do 8 or 10 MLA interviews and usually invite 3 (though perhaps 2 or 4) folks for campus visits. I've been advised that 10 MLA interviews is around the maximum number most people can handle, though I know someone who did over 20. Just my 2 cents. Flutterby916 18:16, December 15, 2011 (UTC)


 * That's exactly what I've heard as a standard. Our R1 school had 5 campus visits a couple years ago for a full professor position, but everyone talked about how unusual it was. I also have a professor who was on the market 3 years ago and had 18 MLA interviews, which he described as very unusual. 72.188.174.126 19:00, December 16, 2011 (UTC)

Jobz4uNme Now that I think about it, I think that Katherine Hume's book on the job market says you should cancel interviews if you get more than 12. 00:28, December 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * Speaking of which...Flutterby916, are you actually going to be able to schedule all the interviews you keep reporting?
 * Thanks for your concern, JobzruNme, but I've gotten a lot more phone interviews than MLA interviews personally. Not sure if this is because of a shift in the way the market is running or the types of jobs I've applied to. Flutterby916 04:05, December 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * ha ha, hard not to be jealous of course, but I was just giving you a hard time. I noticed bcause you got an interview with one of the schools I was particularly hoping for (for regional preference purposes), but I don't think I was a great fit for the department anyway. Anyway, I am certain you are well qualified, and I'm impressed with all your generosity in organizing this wiki, so I do very cordially wish you luck. Tje wolo has been really helpful to quickly refresh my mind on a lot of the positions. I think that's an intersting question about phone interviews. I've had all MLA interviews and no phone interviews so far, but there do seem to be a lot of phone interviews out there. I wonder how many are bypassing the MLA. My friend just got a job in another field from an Ivy league, and they bypassed the professional conference completely by doing phone interviews and then having campus visits in December instead! Hard not to be jealous of his Christmas season! Of course, I'm all about jobs for everyone. Jobz4uNme 06:14, December 17, 2011 (UTC)
 * Jobz, there were five schools in the region I wanted to be in to be close to family and I didn't make second round at ANY of them. Just figures, eh? In any case, thanks for appreciating my work on the wiki--it is a something I've genuinely enjoyed contributing to. Good coping mechanism for the stressors of the market. Flutterby916 03:08, December 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Interesting conversation. I was getting nervous about the small amount of MLA interviews I have lined up so far, but the requests for phone/Skype interviews keep trickling in, so I guess it's a wash. From the sounds of it, Skype is replacing MLA for a lot of departments. I can't say I blame them, when the department has to pay for 4-7 people to fly to Seattle for the better part of a week. Azzypoo 15:12, December 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think I'm in a similar boat to Azzypoo and Flutterby: generally more phone/video interviews than MLA interviews scheduled so far, which is annoying on one hand given the expense of attending MLA, but welcome in the sense that it gives me a slower, more doable interview schedule. (At home I can lay everything out, stay warm, etc.) But that leads me to my biggest question these days: when I haven't heard anything from a school but I see that others have been getting interviews there, does that imply A) that I'm out of the running, or B) that I'm a 2nd-tier candidate that is being hung onto just in case all the top-tier candidates don't work out? Or is it even possible to make general statements like that? Basementwall 14:55, December 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Great questions. For a few schools from which I have not heard, I have seen both interviews and rejections on the wiki, so I'm guessing that I'm somewhere in between. I wonder if most searches keep a bit of a safety net like that in case other candidates don't work out. I'm not holding out much hope on those positions though. For what it's worth, I have no phone interviews so far, only MLA interviews.


 * Yes, flying all those folks out there is not cheap. I wonder about the commenter below who mentioned that the current search hat a budget of $2500. If that includes the cost of getting faculty members to and from the conference as well, then you'd run out of money fairly quickly if you are far away. MLA makes some good money curating the JIL. Flutterby should get paid for her work on the wiki Jobz4uNme 01:16, December 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've been on about 7 or 8 search committees at three different universities over the last decade. It's a little hard to speak to these questions across the board since there are so many factors that weigh in, but the above post is pretty accurate: 6-10 MLA interviews is what a search committee usually conducts, though I do remember one year our committee did 15 just because the applicant pool was so strong. Generally speaking, committees will set a number of interviews based on the quality of the pool. It used to be pretty standard to invite 3 candidates for campus visits, but given budget issues these days, I think 2 is becoming more common and accepted. And, in fact, it is increasingly common to bring just 1 and move on to a second candidate if (a) the first turns out to be completely off the mark or (b) he/she rejects the offer. Budgets of course do play a pretty big factor. At many institutions each search has a budget ($2500 at my current institution). That money goes toward job ad costs (it's a couple hundred bucks to place an add on MLA JIL), airfare and hotel for candidates, meals, etc. Sometimes where the candidates are coming from can influence how many are brought to campus. For example, one year our SC's top 3 candidates were coming from relatively near locations, so we were able to bring in all 3 and stay within our budget. Another year two of our top three were coming from long distances away--much more expensive airfare--so we could only bring two to campus.


 * It seems to be making more and more sense to skip MLA. We do have smaller budgets, and that's part of the reason. And MLA is such an angst-ridden pit of misery. And the conference itself really doesn't hold a lot of appeal for rhet/comp folks. But also, if we do phone interviews we can speak to more people in a shorter period of time, and move ahead in a more efficient manner. As for campus visits, I think three is normal. Unlike the above commentator, we are not allowed to only bring one candidate to campus due to HR and other policies.


 * Re: "angst-riden pit of misery" . . . wow, can't wait.

Post-MLA Exhaustion
Anyone else ready to collapse? I thought we could share our impressions of MLA here, replacing my sorry attempt at an MLA poem. How did the interviews go? Who ate the most sushi? Is anyone extremely confident after this process, or are you (like me) still worried about whether you'll have a job, come August? Azzypoo 22:29, January 7, 2012 (UTC)

I'll definitely say this: of my 11 interviews (4 at MLA, 7 via skype or phone earlier), I enjoyed the face-to-face remarkably more. One of my professors said that interviewing is fun, and I though he was crazy, but the best ones really were, in a way that I never really felt long-distance. I also haven't gotten any of the crazy, off-the-wall, or illegal questions that I was trained so well to deflect; everything has been collegial and professional--and occasionally even fun. Of my 4, I would say that 1 went amazingly awesome, 2 went very well, and 1 was mediocre/poor (for various reasons: I clearly wasn't right for the school, as quickly became apparent, they seemed a bit tired and uncommunicative, and I was a bit tired too after talking so much in one day). Basementwall 00:29, January 8, 2012 (UTC)

biggest surprise: I didn't bomb my interviews! I was really worried that I would be probed about things I didn't know but should. Overall, yes it was fun. On the other hand, it's really hard to know how things are going to go. I may have felt like i did better than I did. Maybe some of them seemed nice but were not as impressed as they seemed. Maybe others were not as skeptical as they seemed...anyway, overall it was good, and I'm glad that I went on the market, even if I end up doing it over again. Talked to a lot of fellow grads, lecturers, assistant profs who were going into interviews. The only conversation that was at all awkward was from someone I met who was in a similar area (rhet/comp area but no overlapping jobs). This person probed about which schools I was interviewing with (I think this person knew individuals who had applied forthe same jobs). Anyway, just wasn't classy. Also, I felt pretty bad when I ran into friend for my current and former Univ's who had few or no prospects in other fields. Why don't they retool for rhet comp? I don't really share the feelings with the commenter some time ago who said "stop applying for our jobs!" I know a scholar who retooled after grad school in the 90s and is a well-known compositionist now. Anyway, this is turning, not into a rant but a ramble. Cheers to all. Hope you all get jobs, and I hope that all the top candidates don't take all the offers and leave unseccessful searches for the departments who put an extraoridnary amount of effort into the interview process. May their searches be fruitful as ours!

I echo what many have said above - I wasn't "grilled" or "tested" as I had imagined and everyone seemed interested in listening to what I had to say and were always respectful (even at a late afternoon interview where I was likely their last for the day). In some sense it can be a flattering process at the interview stage: this group of people listening to your every word and expressing interest in what matters so dearly to you! I suppose the less-flattering phase begins now... the waiting and realizing that they had a great group of interviewees and that for valid reasons I may not be the person they envision contributing best to their department's needs. It was also interesting to see the dynamic between individuals on a search committee and get an initial sense of how they may relate to each other within the department. A few new observations:
 * Sounds like the two of you had experiences similar to mine. I don't think I completely bombed any interviews. Moreover, I think I really nailed one of them, did pretty darn good on another, and then the rest could go either way -- kinda hard to judge. The nice thing was, as y'all suggested, the different feeling of these face-to-face interviews. I had what felt like pleasant conversations about my research and teaching, rather than ticking off a list of questions and answers over the phone or skype. Azzypoo 02:24, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * 1) If I went in with a loose ranking of positions I was being interviewed for (based on job description, institutional reputation, location, etc), I left with an entirely different one and was pleasantly surprised about that. In other words, don't judge a job by its sometimes inscrutable description or a department by its web presence!
 * 2) I was amazed by the range of questions - assumptions about what type of school may want to know about research, teaching, and service were just that: assumptions.  For example, a position with a doctoral program asked two questions about my dissertation (what it's about and where do you see publishing it) and a range of great questions for the rest of the interview focused on my abilities and practices as a teacher.  Conversely a small liberal-arts institution with a department of far less than ten faculty where I potentially would teach literature, business writing, first year composition, and bascially everything they offer (!) asked a lot of questions about my dissertation research.
 * 3) I still have no idea what will happen! I don't think I can base it on an impression of how an interview went simply because of all of the other factors involved (and the suspicion that a genuinely nice and enthusiastic search committee was probably that way to more folks than just me!).  Some committees seemed to have more leeway with how quickly they will move (saying they will contact folks as early as this week) whereas others had to return to search committees to share notes and discuss or had to submit their rankings to various offices on campus (like human resources for EOE vetting) and warned that bureaucracies may delay the next steps slightly.  And I imagine I'll be surprised what happens next... as I have been at every stage of this process.  24.19.133.199 18:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)FraggleRocker