How Not to Be Seen
Jan. 14th, 2002 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupAcademic applications sent out so far: 38
Rejection letters: 10
Search cancellations: 2
Interviews: 0
It is worse than it sounds-- this is one of those "no news is bad news" kinds of things, and many of those I have yet to hear from were applied to in October and November. For the more recent applications, I'm getting rejected in record time.
From the December 2001 Perspectives magazine (the standard newsletter for historians):
In 1999-2000, 297 PhDs were granted to people specializing in 20th century US history. "These [numbers] differ markedly from the field specializations being sought in ads for junior faculty. Only 47 advertisements sought a specialist in 20th-century US history. ... Those advertising 20th-century US history positions reported receiving an average of 133 applications for each job opening... Less than half of the 1999-2000 cohort of history PhDs could be identified as having full-time academic employment."
1 job for every 6 new PhDs, and that doesn't count the similar odds for the past 10 years, meaning that there are a hell of a lot of other people in line.
I had one of my friends from Hopkins, who now has a job and has done some hiring, look over my letter. She told me it was too short. No one at Hopkins ever told me anything about that. It makes me feel a little sick to think that all my letters didn't look like they were supposed to, or that they came off a certain way.
This academic job search will obviously be a project of many years, if it ever pans out. College Board is good, but I have not yet really thought about it as a long-term thing. In this trip to New York my boss also wanted me to go down to Princeton. Hm.
Rejection letters: 10
Search cancellations: 2
Interviews: 0
It is worse than it sounds-- this is one of those "no news is bad news" kinds of things, and many of those I have yet to hear from were applied to in October and November. For the more recent applications, I'm getting rejected in record time.
From the December 2001 Perspectives magazine (the standard newsletter for historians):
In 1999-2000, 297 PhDs were granted to people specializing in 20th century US history. "These [numbers] differ markedly from the field specializations being sought in ads for junior faculty. Only 47 advertisements sought a specialist in 20th-century US history. ... Those advertising 20th-century US history positions reported receiving an average of 133 applications for each job opening... Less than half of the 1999-2000 cohort of history PhDs could be identified as having full-time academic employment."
1 job for every 6 new PhDs, and that doesn't count the similar odds for the past 10 years, meaning that there are a hell of a lot of other people in line.
I had one of my friends from Hopkins, who now has a job and has done some hiring, look over my letter. She told me it was too short. No one at Hopkins ever told me anything about that. It makes me feel a little sick to think that all my letters didn't look like they were supposed to, or that they came off a certain way.
This academic job search will obviously be a project of many years, if it ever pans out. College Board is good, but I have not yet really thought about it as a long-term thing. In this trip to New York my boss also wanted me to go down to Princeton. Hm.
