Philosophy Job Market
CategoryUpdate to APDA’s Survey of Graduate Programs in Philosophy
Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA) has updated its philosophy graduate program survey infogram with more recent information and comments. (more…)
Hiring A Tenured Associate Professor As An Untenured Assistant Professor
A philosophy professor writes in with a job market question:
I’m wondering whether associate professors with tenure are ever hired for non-tenured, tenure-track assistant professor positions, and if so, what such candidates should do to increase their chances of getting hired for such jobs? (more…)
Use This Free Automated Recommendation Service, Created by Philosophers
MARGY (Managing Academic Recommendations Gratis Yay) is a free automated academic letter of recommendation service. It had its initial trial run at the start of the year (following earlier beta testing) and is up and running for the Fall 2017 academic job market. (more…)
Graduate Student Input on Hiring
What input do graduate students have in hiring decisions in your department? (more…)
Job Market Mentoring for Women in Philosophy
The Job Candidate Mentoring Program for Women in Philosophy is now accepting requests for mentorship for the 2017-2018 job market season. The program is also in need of more mentors this year. (more…)
Area of Specialization, Gender, and Placement: a Close Look at the Data (guest post by Carolyn Dicey Jennings)
The following is a guest post* by Carolyn Dicey Jennings, assistant professor of philosophy and cognitive science at UC Merced and principal creator of Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA). A version of this post first appeared under the title “Permanent Placement and Area of Specialization for 2012-2016 Graduates” at the APDA site.
Philosophy Jobs Per AOS, 2016-17
Over at The Philosophers’ Cocoon, Marcus Arvan (Tampa) reports on the number of jobs advertised over the past year per Area of Specialization (AOS). (more…)
Should We Stop Interviewing Job Candidates?
Recent research suggests that job interviews not only provide potential employers with irrelevant information, but actually “undercut… the impact of other, more valuable information about interviewees,” according to Jason Dana (Yale), in a recent column in The New York Times. How, if at all, should the hiring of philosophers be affected by these findings? (more…)..
Hiring Departments: Don’t Do This
A philosophy department hiring this year publicly announced who it hired (a) before it had received a signed contract from the candidate and (b) without first asking the candidate. Hiring departments, don’t do this. (more…)
Hiring Departments: Try This New Free Recommendations Service
MARGY (Managing Academic Recommendations Gratis Yay), the free service for emailing confidential letters of recommendation developed by philosophers David Faraci (Georgetown) and Graham Leach-Krouse (Kansas State), previously reported on here, is entering its second phase of beta testing. The team is inviting hiring departments to participate in the testing, and inv..
About Letters of Recommendation
Consider this a space for the discussion of various issues related to letters of recommendations. Here are three: (more…)
Hiring Departments Ask Candidates To Anonymize Materials
At least a couple of philosophy departments that are hiring this year have instituted measures to shield the identity of applicants from those reviewing some of their application materials. (more…)
The Where, What, and When of Philosophy Jobs
Mark Alfano (Delft), one of today’s more data-driven moral philosophers, has taken information from PhilJobs regarding the location and types of advertised jobs and placed it on a map at Tableau Public. Here’s where the jobs are: (more…)
Job Market Mentoring for Women
Now in it’s third year, the Job Candidate Mentoring Program for Women in Philosophy” matches job candidates with junior faculty mentors who have recently been on the market. The program provides mentoring and peer support to women candidates during their job search through videoconferencing and online forums.” (more…)
On Campus Visits: A Job Candidate’s Critique (guest post)
Below are critical suggestions from a graduate student, who’ll go nameless, who was on the market this past season. The suggestions are for departments, in regard to how they arrange and manage campus visits. We’ve discussed some flyout horror stories before, but there seems to be no lack of resourcefulness in how departments can make things lousy for job candidates..
Gender & The Philosophy Job Market
“The odds of women obtaining a permanent academic placement within two years is 65% greater than men when all else is held constant,” according to an analysis discussed by Carolyn Dicey Jennings, Patrice Cobb, and David Vinson (UC Merced) at the Blog of the APA.
Jennings and Vinson do not argue for any particular explanation of this finding, but note three possibil..
How to Talk about the Philosophy Job Market with those on the Market
A philosopher currently on the job market writes in:
I wanted to start a thread/have a place for job market candidates to talk about what is, and is not, helpful for our friends/mentors/professors/colleagues to say around this time of year. The job market is, by all accounts, abominable (and not only for those of us who don’t land jobs—there are different stre..APA Issues Job Market Calendar Guidelines
It used to be that the timing of the job market in philosophy was anchored by the publication schedule of Jobs for Philosophers and the practice of holding first-round interviews at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). Now that the ads are posted continuously over the year, and video interviews, which can be scheduled anytime..
Applying for Jobs You Won’t Take
A graduate student in philosophy asks:
“In today’s job market climate is it immoral to apply for a job and go deep in the interview process when one knows (not just reasonably foresees) that one will not take the job if offered it? Or is this practice, common among senior philosophers to increase their salary at their current institution, just a shrewd career str..
Interview Catch-22?
In the latest installment in his APAblog advice series on applying for jobs in philosophy, Allen Wood (Indiana University Bloomington) takes up the job interview, writing about what he sees as a dilemma for applicants:
Much could be written about the current circumstances, in which many very talented and well-trained young philosophers are applying for jobs at pl..
New Heights (Lows?) in Philosophy Job Application Requirements
A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous brought to my attention the job advertisement of California State Sacramento, and sent along the following commentary:
As those on the market all know, the application process can be a hassle. In addition to all the intellectual investment and tedious editing that goes into putting together a decent portfolio, depar..
The Job Market: Shifts in the Schedule?
With the increased use of video calls in place of first-round conference interviews, as well as the inauguration of the January scheduling of the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, some philosophers on the market are curious about how this has been affecting the timing of the process. We discussed some aspects of this back in August,..
APA’s Best Practices for Interviewing
Interview season is creeping up on us. Interviewers and interviewees may wish to check out the new edition of the American Philosophical Association’s Best Practices for Interviewing. It includes an overview of the typical stages of the interviewing process, along with advice for those hiring.
For example:
Members of the hiring committee should confine themsel..
Late Letters of Recommendation
A philosopher currently on the job market writes in with a query:
The philosophers who are writing my letters of recommendation are incredibly overworked. They send in recommendation letters sometimes a week after the deadline. Is this the norm? Due search committees overlook this aspect of the application?
My sense is that slightly late letters tend to not ..
Philosophy Jobs Wiki Is Up
The Phylo Job Wiki is up and running. From the site:
A job wiki is a space for philosophy job seekers to post unofficial information about the status of various job openings in philosophy. Job seekers traditionally share information about when hiring departments schedule interviews, make offers, and so forth. Although job seekers provide this information as a ser..
Name-Blind Hiring
The BBC reports that
Leading companies and universities are being asked to remove names from application forms in an effort to stop “unconscious bias” against potential recruits from black and ethnic minority backgrounds… Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that Ucas, the UK’s university admissions service, will carry out “name-blind” applications from 2..
Applying for Jobs at a SLAC?
A revised version of the Guide for Applying to Jobs at Selective Liberal Arts Colleges has been published at Inside Higher Ed. Check it out. The original was created by a group of philosophers and first published here at Daily Nous over the summer.
Cognitive Biases and Limitations of Search Committees
A philosopher whose last name starts with a letter towards the end of the alphabet writes in:
I wonder how often members of search committees work through alphabetized stacks of dossiers? I recently had a few conversations with people who have been on search committees, and both mentioned working through an alphabetized stack.I work in phil cog. sci. and psy..