Thank you so much for all your support regarding my rejection letter, I really appreciate it, more than you can know. I tried to respond to the first commenters in the previous post. Several people who commented after the first seven apparently didn't read that post, so I'm attempting a third one on the topic.
First, this was not my first rejection letter, it was just the latest one, and final, in this round of three meager applications. I last year I applied to one single post, was surprised by an email considering a phone interview and got a rejection letter (which did hurt a bit). This year I got one pre-MLA rejection letter, silence from the second university, and the post-interview rejection letter. (too many links already, I'm skipping the interview news and interview post :)
Second, I was much more upset with the application that fell through (because of a rec. letter that never got sent), than with this one. Yesterday I opened the letter, filed it away and never gave it a second thought. I decided to write a post about it because I knew many of my readers were interested in the job search and I wanted to give them (and myself) closure on the process.
Third, I am not considering leaving academia just yet. If you've read some of my writings from a while back (while I was struggling with feedback from the dissertation writing) -- I have many many problems with Academia to begin with. Some have to do with my personal history of being a foreign student, shaped by another, fairly different, academic atmosphere, and others yet have to do with my own insecurity, etc... (early posts (2005), dissertation rant and following response).
So, some of the things that you readers commented on have been on my mind for years now. As I wrote yesterday, I don't feel the least pressured to stay in academia just because I'm getting the Ph.D. If I can't get a job as an academic, though, then, how am I supposed to continue being an academic? I think I won't ever stop researching, I just feel it's pretty sad to have "Independent Scholar" under one's name on a tag when going to conferences. I was even looking at this depressing page at the Chronicle of Higher Educations's site ("Non Academic Careers for Ph.D.s"). The Chronicle's essays are sometimes, as we say in Portuguese "a cold bucket of water" being thrown on one ("um balde de água fria") -- a bitter reality check. That's why I don't check it often.
Finally, as you know, the Job Search is not officially over for our family yet!! My husband is still on it, so we'll have some more excitement to follow here in this blog :). And I'll be back to this subject soon enough.
(P.S. I'm cheating a bit on the time, since I want this to go as a Thursday and not Friday post, I may want to post "tomorrow" again - it's 12:06 am, for the record :)
I am still rooting for you! I don't know very much about the world of academia, but perhaps there is a more unconventional path you can take in your job search. If you have problems with some of the current methods being used, there must be some kind of "alternative schools." Not sure, but it's worth checking into.
ReplyDeleteIt's a big question for all of us: how do we remain active and engaged, even while we remain unaffiliated? What does it mean to be an independent scholar?
ReplyDeleteI think of my own attitudes. Unaffiliated, wandering scholars tend to strike me as crackpots. That's my gut talking. But if I think of them that way... hmmm... I am one of them. But I don't feel like a crackpot. I'd suppose many of them aren't either.
How do we keep our wits about us, our passions alive, our drive, and our research without sacrificing ourselves?
Hi Lilian,
ReplyDeleteSorry that I'm only now catching up, but I wanted to send my condolences, too, about the rejection. It hurts no matter what. But there are a lot of those "whats" with an academic search. There are usually a huge number of candidates for a position (my own department is hiring and we got 112 applications for the position, which really isn't that many compared to past years) and you never really know exactly what they are looking for. The rejection could have much less to do with you and the interview than with some other agenda that they had that you'll never know about. So chin up, okay? Regardless of whether you decide that you really want to be in academia, I can't imagine you not figuring out a way to feel engaged and intellectually active. And, as someone who is bogged down in the world of caring about those damn student evaluations, attending pointless committee meetings, worrying about even more pointless college service, trying to remember that I like teaching, and trying to figure out when, exactly, I get to do my research, the whole "independent scholar" thing sounds pretty damn good. Of course, the grass IS always greener....
I'm sending a hug. And I've got my fingers crossed for that second search that's going on in your household right now. I hope that y'all end up with something fabulous!
Hi Lilian,
ReplyDeleteLooking for a job after graduating is very tough in itself, and being a Ph.D. and having limited options is even tougher.
I don't mean to spam your blog with shameless self-promotion, but I've been in your shoes (sans Ph.D) a few years ago, and I wrote a series of articles to help deal with that exact situation - "How to search for a job after college."
You can check it out here, and you may find some tips that would be helpful to you:
http://www.alexanderkharlamov.com/2007/01/04/how-to-search-for-a-job-after-college-part-i/
I am sorry you have had discouraging news. But I really think you are going to find the perfect position for yourself when your husband's job is settled. You would hate to be offered a fantastic job only to have to leave it for your husband's location, right? So once you know where he is going to be, you can hunt for the best job for you. It will all work out, I am sure. Your talents must be used and your light will shine!
ReplyDelete