job market
TagOn 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..
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..
Against Reducing The Number of Philosophy PhDs
Here’s our situation: for many professions—actor, artist, astronaut, athlete, musician, novelist, philosopher, just to name a few—there are more people who aspire to enter them than succeed in doing so.
How bad is this? There are some problems with it, of course: mainly the disappointment of and opportunity costs borne by those who are unable to join what is ..
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..
This One’s Not For The Ladies
You may recall that last week was the launch of the Job Candidate Mentoring Program for Women in Philosophy. As you also may recall, this announcement was followed by clamor for job market mentoring for others besides women. Well, from your lips to bloggers’ ears, folks.
Announcing: The Philosophers’ Cocoon Job-Market Mentoring Project, “a philosophy job-market m..
Reaching Under-Represented Job Candidates
Job search committees are asking the American Philosophical Association (APA) for help in reaching potential job candidates who are members of under-represented groups in philosophy, according to Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (Gallaudet), the acting chair of the Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession. Of particular interest are email distribution lists (listservs) t..
The Job Market in the Post-APA Eastern Era
Over the past several years we have seen an increased use of video calls (e.g., Skype) as a replacement for in-person first-round interviews at the Eastern Division meeting of the APA. Though there may be some holdouts (for various reasons), the trend seems likely to continue. What have been the effects of this change, so far, on the job market? And are they saluta..
Philosophy Placement Data Analysis Project
A new research project to collect and analyze job placement data in academic philosophy, funded by the American Philosophical Association (APA), is underway. The project is currently at the information gathering stage, with a target completion date of August 31st, 2015. The final results will be posted at placementdata.com.
The task is being carried out by Carolyn ..
A Guide for US Students Applying for UK Jobs
A group of rather successful philosophers currently or formerly employed at universities in the UK have put together a guide for students and other applicants from US universities who are interested in academic jobs in the UK, and kindly offered to allow me to post it here. The authors of the guide wish to remain anonymous because, apparently, human resources depart..
Research On Excess Philosophy PhDs
Are there too many philosophy PhDs? Do those seeking PhDs in philosophy have an accurate understanding of their chances of securing a permanent academic position? Ingrid Robeyns (Utrecht), is beginning a research project on the topic. She writes that, in the Netherlands,
In those debates, one often hears the rough number that about 9 out of 10 PhD students aspire..
Sexism in Academic Hiring — A Myth? (updated)
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences produced findings that appear to show that hiring practices in certain fields are not biased against women. Here is the paper’s “significance” summary:
The underrepresentation of women in academic science is typically attributed, both in scientific literature and in the media, to sexist ..
Solutions to the Jobs Problem Revisited
Last year, Daily Nous reported that Eleanor Dickey, professor of classics at University of Reading, had been collecting various possible responses to problems associated with the high ratio of PhD holders to academic jobs. The full report is here, and the helpful summary, which groups the more popular responses by type, is here.
Professor Dickey (et al) report th..
Grad Programs and Non-Academic Careers
How should graduate programs address the fact that some of their graduates will not find jobs in academia? There was a brief discussion of this here back in the early days of DN, but I am prompted by a reader to revisit the question. He writes:
My department has a terminal MA program. By admitting students into this program, one of the responsibilities that we ta..
Hanti Lin’s “Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy”
Check out “Hanti’s Notes on Doing a PhD and Getting a Job in Philosophy” by Hanti Lin, assistant professor of philosophy at UC Davis. It has a lot of good advice. Of particular value is the “When to do what?” section. Also, I appreciate the “Health maintenance” section, the issues under which do not get discussed as frequently as they should. Throughout the guide, L..
Networking and Merit in Philosophical Success
Critiquing the Philosophy Tag game, commenter “Aspasia,” a tenure-track professor, worries about it “perpetuating the status quo of getting somewhere by networking rather than on the basis of merit in philosophy.” Leave aside Philosophy Tag. Let’s look at the broader issue about the role of networking in philosophy. It crops up in a lot of places such as publishing ..
Posting About New Hires
I’ve received a couple of inquiries as to whether I’ll be hosting a thread for people to post hires, and the answer is no. Instead, please post your hiring news at the Appointments in Philosophy page at PhilJobs.
Students Object to Job Candidate for Offensive Views
Graduate students in a philosophy department somewhere in the English-speaking world did some online sleuthing about a job candidate for a position in their department, and learned that the candidate seems to hold views they find offensive. In particular, they found reports (including alleged quotes) that the candidate had expressed in online fora the view that homo..
Lessons for Philosophy from Economists on English?
“Over the last 35 years, less than half of graduated Ph.D. students have gotten tenure-track academic jobs upon graduation. The result is a large pool of residual job seekers, which places even more pressure on the job market for existing students.”…
“The data are pretty straightforward,” the paper says. “While students in top-10 programs might have a reasonabl..
Philosophy at Community College
In the Tusculan Disputations, Cicero famously says, “Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and set her in our cities, bring her into our homes, and compel her to ask questions about life and morality and the nature of good and evil.” At a community college, my students—aspiring plumbers and harried moms among them—helped me to rediscover th..