So, I’ve decided to write a series of posts with advice and comments on the whole process of the media studies job market. Sorry to any non-academic readers, but since I don’t think I have any readers anyways, I’m not too concerned!
Why? Well, there’s a dearth of good advice out there (for a major, lovely exception, see Jonathan Sterne’s site here). The main site seems to be the job search wiki, which while an at-times great source for updates, can also be populated by some bad eggs who post misinformation or speculation on how search committees work, masked as authoritative. Understandably, too, a lot of the posting on the wiki is motivated by fear, anxiety, and anger, and hence doesn’t always see the forest through the trees.
I’m also feeling the job season right now. I finished my Ph.D. in 2003, and almost every year since 2002 until last year, August meant one thing – pouring over Chronicle job listings, white with fear that it’d be another bad year, and playing a stressful game of alternate worlds in which I imagine what my life would be like in a variety of different university towns and cities. But here I am in my second year at Wisconsin, and since I love it here, I ain’t applying for anything. It’s so blissfully wonderful to be off the market … and yet since it’s that time of the year, and the fear and stress is emblazoned upon me by now, I find myself thinking about the market a lot.
(addition/clarification to respond to a comment below: For all those years I was on the market, I was also gainfully employed. First job was a lecturer at UC Berkeley, though, so needed to keep trying to get tenure-track. Second job was t-t at Fordham, but wife and I needed to be on market since she was finishing up)
Pardon the long intro, but before I begin, let me fill in some background, so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve probably applied for 40 jobs in total over the years (20 when I was a PhD student, and I’m guessing 20 since). I’ve had 7 on-campus interviews, with 3 job offers, 3 rejections, and 1 case in which I accepted another job before the decision was made. I’ve also served on 3 search committees officially, and “advised” in 2 other cases. I write from the experience of someone who has had some interviews, some good, some obviously not so much, and I’ve done some interviewing. But I’m not claiming to be an expert. These are simply my opinions, and I sincerely hope that others who’ve applied for jobs and who’ve been on search committees will chime in with their own opinions, even if and especially when they differ from my own. Don’t take anything I say as gospel – it’s just me pontificating.
Three more opening disclaimers and requests, then down to business after the fold:
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Academic Job Market
job market, media studies
Time for another interlude, this time to announce that my department, Communication Arts at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and more specifically my area of the department, Media and Cultural Studies, has two job listings. I’m super excited to announce them, and I will be so happy to have two new colleagues next year. I adore this program and city, I would highly recommend both, and I look forward to seeing a whole bunch of applications. We will try to run these two searches as humanely as possible within the confines of UW policies on confidentiality and due process for searches, and of our personal schedules (which, of course, will be exacerbated by running two searches at once).
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