It is, isn’t it? Two poli sci jobs at my Canadian school for fall 2007 were posted two months ago.

I feel a bit better about not finishing my graduate degree now; I probably would be less employable with it. eye roll

What’s the over/under on you caving and going to Philly?

The only way I’ll go is if there’s some other reason I need to be there besides the meat market. Since I’m not on any panels and have no organized section duties, not bloody likely.

After some serious reflection, I honestly don’t think 20-minute meat market interviews play to my strengths as a candidate; I don’t have the Tony Robbins personality you need to stand out at those. Better to let the vita and letters make the first impression, methinks.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I completely agree with your description of the meat market and your self assessment. I’m just wondering about the odds of your talking youself into this self-flagellation….

…BTW, email me and tell me who you have doing your letters now.

I’ll be doing the apsa meat market interviews. It’ll be my first time. I’ve heard the horror stories so I thought I should experience it myself, like a rite of passage. Any tips?

I wouldn’t wish the meat market on my worst enemy. (In the words of Monty Python, “run away!”) That said… here are a few tips that may help:

1. Come up with, and memorize, some questions beforehand. My experience is that 90% of the obvious questions about the job will be answered before you get a chance to ask them, so ideally your questions should either (a) show a little in-depth knowledge about the institution or (b) cover the “obvious” they don’t answer. My experience was that they rarely, if ever, talk about what the students are like (except in statistical terms)—so that is a good thing to ask about in more qualitative terms.
2. Incidentally, the obvious questions are: teaching load (courses per semester or quarter—and make sure they tell you which!); course expectations (what and who you can expect to teach); resources for research (travel, internal grants); community stuff (cost of living, schools).
3. Expect to be grilled about your dissertation and/or other research. Have a 3 minute summary ready to rattle off at a moment’s notice.
4. Don’t schedule interviews back-to-back (adjacent 30 minute slots).
5. This may be controversial… but I’d say don’t meet with more than one “type” of institution at the meat market. For example, I’d go with all liberal arts colleges; all public 4-years; all master’s places; or all PhD institutions. Why? Well, it’s one big room, and it’s the same people in there the whole time. If Southwest Nebraska State sees you sit down with Houston or Oberlin, or (worse) vice versa, it could hurt your candidacy. Look like you’re focused on a laser beam at APSA, even if you’re sending applications to all three.
6. Probably obvious, but dress professionally (admittedly easier for men). In 2005 in DC, I think there were a few female candidates who were dressed for a nightclub. I’m not sure this was the ideal strategy.

There was some more interesting advice over at the American & Comparative Jobs blog, but the proprietor is on vacation and all the comments have disappeared (I guess that’s a side-effect of closing down comments, or maybe there was a screwup).

My sense of the consensus was that a: the MM is an OK way to practice interviewing for rookies, b: you shouldn’t expect much from it, and c: the only people pushing the MM hard were people at the hiring end of the process, which suggests to me that it functions more as a weeding-out system than helping candidates.

The last thing I’d say is that it’s all a crapshoot. Meat market interviews I thought went well (i.e. where I established rapport) went nowhere, while ones that were rougher ended up with phone interviews. So don’t be disappointed if an interview you thought went well doesn’t lead to anything else.

Chris-
About how many school did you interview w/at apsa?

In 2004, I think I had about 8 interviews at APSA; in 2005, I think it was 10 or 11.

Needless to say, I violated rules 4 and 5 above. Rule 4 is more for your own sanity (it’s good to be able to take 10–15 minutes to freshen up, drink water, etc.); rule 5 is based on observing what goes on in the interview room—you will bump into people you have interviewed with, and they can see and/or hear who is looking to talk to you.