Keep Calm and Carry On

Now that I've sent off my first couple of job applications, which was something of a deja vu experience (given that I've now been on the market a few times), I wanted to follow-up on a comment I made in reply to Matt DeStefano's recent post on dealing with uncertainty.

The entire job market process -- putting together/revising one's dossier, writing cover letters, submitting applications, waiting to hear back, finding out that schools you thought you had a good chance with are already interviewing (and haven't chosen you), interviews, on-campus visits, etc. -- is really quite grueling.  Having done it before, I have one piece of advice: try, as far as possible, to just go one with life as normal.  If there's a job wiki posting which schools have set up interviews, ignore it. If you get interviews, don't get carried away with speculating about what it would be like to get the job. You shouldn't do these things for one simple reason: you're just setting yourself up for a bunch of unnecessary worry and heartache.  The fact is, once you submit your application, checking a job wiki 58 times a day is not going to change anything. It'll just make you feel bad when you see schools interviewing people other than you. Similarly, stressing over what it would be like for you and your partner to be separated by distance if you got the job you interviewed for is just a waste of time and energy.

Over at the Smoker, Mr. Zero states that his "problem is hope." At the risk of sounding too much like a Stoic, I think it is a problem in this case, and one avoided as much as possible. Try not to hope too much, try not to check job wikis, try not to speculate on what that job would be like if the interview goes well. All any of this does is up the pressure you put on yourself. Try -- and I know it can be difficult, but seriously, just try, as far as you can -- to keep calm and carry on, doing your research, your teaching, and living your everyday life.  Your spouse or partner, your colleagues, and you will all be much better off. 

Anyway, now that application deadlines are coming due, I just wanted to wish all of you on the market once again the best possible luck. Unless of course you getting the best possible luck conflicts with me getting the best possible luck, in which case I don't wish you the best possible luck, but would be happy for you nonetheless if you got it. ;)

Comments

[Matt DeStefano]

Good luck Marcus, and to everyone else applying for jobs this year.

[C.]

Any department will be lucky to have a you as a colleague, judging from your posts here on P.C. Good luck.

[Marcus Arvan]

Thanks for the kind words, C. :)