Sunday, 10 December 2006

Stories of my dead-end academic career have been mildly exaggerated

As a few readers are already aware, I learned (under highly suboptimal circumstances) that SLU has offered the tenure-track equivalent to the position I currently occupy to someone else, although it is unclear at this point whether or not said someone else will be accepting said position; it is also unclear whether I might possibly receive an offer should this offer be turned down.

The good news? Three phone interviews next week, and one more I’m very confident of getting in the near future. Some of them even at places that I’d rather be than SLU… admittedly a list that has expanded somewhat since Friday.

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3 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.
[Permalink] 1. Jim wrote @ Sun, 10 Dec 2006, 3:14 pm CST:

I’m no academic nor do I know any personally but reading here over the last few years it seems finding a job in academia is a full-time job. Is the tenure-track worth it? I’m guessing that means a position where it’s damn near impossible to fire you. Any other benefits that make it that in-demand?

I’ve been contacted by the Ole Miss engineering department several times since I graduated to review a professor for tenure. Once my review was glowing the other not so good but as far as I now they both got tenure.

 
[Permalink] 2. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Sun, 10 Dec 2006, 5:33 pm CST:

It’s not so much that “it’s worth it” as it’s basically the only way to get a continuing full-time position in most fields at a university or college, with very few exceptions.

And you have to make it through the probationary period to get the protections of tenure… so for the first 6 years, there’s not really any advantage over a non-tenure-track job except that you gain eligibility for tenure at the end.

 
[Permalink] 3. Alfie Sumrall wrote @ Tue, 12 Dec 2006, 10:52 am CST:

That’s pretty crappy, but at least you’re keeping your head up. I’m not at all surprised that the academic world and the “real world” don’t differ too much when it comes to hiring/firing/promoting/transitioning decisions being almost always made behind closed doors/people’s backs.

 
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Signifying Nothing formerly featured the stylings of Brock Sides, a left-leaning philosopher turned network administrator currently residing in Memphis, Tennessee who now blogs at Battlepanda, and Robert Prather, a libertarian-leaning conservative economist and occasional contributor at OTB.

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