| Get
a Job |
| Read |
Many
have found the following book useful: Mary Morris Heiberger, The
Academic Job Search Handbook (2nd ed.; Philadelphia 1996).
The APA
site offers a handy Checklist
of Advice. |
| APA
/ Placement
Service |
Sign
up early. Ads start appearing as early as Aug. or Sept. The service
entitles you to (as spelled
out)
- Use of the
interviewing facilities at the Annual Meeting
- One (1)
page in the placement book for your CV (fee for one extra page)
(See what my APA CV looked like
in 99/00, when I first entered the market)
- Subscription
to the monthly email 'Positions for Classicists and Archaeologists'
- Scheduling
of your interviews
It is really
worth your while to sign up. Try to avoid ad hoc scheduling,
which is a nightmare. |
| Ads |
Each
month the Placement Service will e-mail you a list of job ads. Oct.
and Nov. are heavy, but be prepared to turn in some applications
by mid-Oct. or mid-Nov. Also check the Chronicle
of Higher Education ads, which appear weekly, and the ads in
the AHA newsletter. See the APA listings
if you want to know what an ad looks like. These are written in
a sort of non-English. Learn the genre. Until you get the hang of
it, bring every single ad that looks remotely feasible to your advisor
and talk it over. As a rule apply widely; let them
decide whether you fit. |
| Application |
Be
prepared to submit the following
- CV
(see what my CV looked like in 99/00,
when I first entered the market; mine may have been too long;
it is best, I think, to aim for one page; see what Megan
Drinkwater's CV looks like)
- Letter
of Application (see what one of my
app. letters looked like in 99/00, when I first entered the
market; mine may have been too long; it is best, I think, to aim
for one page)
- Syllabi:
include sample syllabi (see some of my
current syllabi)
- Transcripts:
last I checked the Registrar will let you walk away with 5 at
a time. Unsealed are usually sufficient.
- Letters
of Recommendation: Start warning professors in the summer.
Assume that for a given job you’ll send, say, 4 recommendations.
Get 6 or 7 people to write for you. This allows you to pick and
choose which letters go where. Assemble your dossier at the beginning
of the Fall semester. The Career
Center farms its Credential
Services out to a private firm called Interfolio.
The system is relatively new at Duke, but seems to work reasonably
well. You will want to stress to your recommenders the importance
of using the digital letterhead and signatures done.
For my advisees I write several "standard" letters (e.g.
one for Classics Depts, another for History; one for positions
with a philological focus, another for positions with a texts-in-translation
/ civ focus; etc.; I also custom tailor some letters for individual
positions (where, for example, a student fits the bill in some
extraordinary way). One or two other advisors do likewise. So,
be sure to share with your advisor the descriptions of every position
for which you are applying. We want to help you as much as we
can.
- Writing
Samples: If you have published an article or book-review,
include it. If you have written a stellar seminar paper, include
it. If you have a particularly polished diss. chapter, include
it. Some depts. assign an upper limit to the number of pages you
may send; choose your best.
I assembled
all of my materials in a folder, requested materials on one side,
supplementary materials on the other, on the assumption that this
created the least hassle for recipients. Turn stuff in early. People
read apps. as they come in. |
| Interviews |
Practice,
practice, practice. Set up a dry-run here with your committee. It
is better to mess up in front of people who care about you.
- Be prepared
to state the thesis of your diss. in two concise sentences
- Be prepared
to describe research projects that you would like to pursue in
the future
- Be prepared
to talk about classes that you would like to teach
On Campus
- Sleep: Get
plenty of it; an on-campus interview can last 12 hours
- Duplicate;
bring extra copies of everything: CVs, articles, syllabi, etc.;
email yourself a copy of your talk in advance.
- Talk; you
may talk to 10 people back to back; get comfortable with the idea
of repeating yourself; this can be tough, but you do not want
to seem bored with your own ideas; don't be afraid to volunteer
appropriate information about yourself; don't be afraid to ask
them about their work.
- Prepare:
familiarize yourself with the members of the dept.; learn names
and faces from the dept. website if possible. You'll have enough
to worry about; take comfort in familiar names and faces. Take
the time to learn the department's strengths so that you can best
determine where you might contribute the most.
- Job talk:
practice your job talk over and over and over. Present it to the
dept., to your dog, to your mother. You should be so comfortable
with the talk that you are able to spend more time looking at
the audience than at your script. Opinions differ as to duration,
but I think it is best not to go over 45 minutes (I aimed
for 35). The Q&A session can last longer than the paper and
is just as important.
|
| Questions |
Some
of you thought it might be useful to see the types of questions
that interviewers might ask. The following is a brief list--not
meant to be exhaustive--of questions that I have asked, been asked,
heard of, etc. Feel free to use it as a very rough guideline
of the kinds of questions you might expect to encounter. Some places
tend to follow a somewhat strict schedule of questions; others tend
toward discussion.
- Your project
on gar in Pindar looks very interesting. Could you tell
us (a) a bit about how you got interested in the subject, (c)
how you think you might expand or change it when you convert it
into a book and, (c) where your thoughts on a second project are
headed at the moment? [This question, or
any part of it, often turns into a discussion, with people interjecting
as you go. Be clear and concise. And, don't get frazzled when
people interject.]
- I see you
have spent your education in elite private institutions, how do
you think you will make the transition to our state school, here
in [insert strapped state]?
- We are a
small department of mostly generalists. You seem to have a very
specialized expertise. How will you be able to conduct research
at our medium-sized college, and more importantly, how will you
be able to contribute to our department of generalists.
- One of the
requirements of this position is teaching graduate courses. We
have a number of courses in regular rotation (Greek history, Vergil,
etc.) but we also get the chance to teach some seminars in our
specialty. I wonder whether you could walk us (quickly!) through
a few ideas you have for graduate seminars. Maybe you could also
tell us what kinds of grad reading courses you would be able to
teach.
- Interdisciplinary
studies is a big part of our curriculum here. How do you think
you might contribute to this mission?
- I see that
you published a couple articles. Some of us have not had the chance
to read them; could you give us the 30-second version of what
you found?
- One of the
duties of the ancient historian in our History dept is teaching
Western Civ, at least the first semester of the two-semester sequence,
and the entire stretch in our one-semester WCiv course. I see
that you have a bit of teaching experience, but mostly in the
ancient languages. Could you comment on how you might approach
a course of this nature and how your experiences in the classroom
might prepare you for the task?
- I see that
you have taught only small language courses and seminars. One
of the things that you would have to do in our History dept is
teach the Greek / Roman history sequence. These courses can draw
as many as 100 students. Could you discuss some strategies that
you might employ in teaching these large classes?
- I see that
you have taught only small Civ courses and seminars. One of the
things that you would have to do in our Classics dept is teach
Greek and Latin at the introductory and intermediate levels. Could
you discuss some strategies that you might employ in teaching
these classes?
- If you could
pick, say, one graduate language course and one undergrad civ
course to teach next fall, what would they be?
- Do you have
any questions for us? [This can be a real
killer; learn as much as you can about departments before you
go, not in order to kiss up (they will spot this instantly), but
so that you can ask them real questions about, say, their honors
program, their cooperation with the religion dept., or whatever
seems distinctive and interesting]
- Could you tell us about the most interesting conversation you have had recently on a non-classical subject [I totally bombed this one. I had been eating, drinking, and sleeping dissertation for weeks, and hadn't talked or thought about anything else. It is ok--even a very good idea--to let them know that you are a person--you know, someone with interests, hobbies, thoughts... ]
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