Job-market reporting thread (2018-19 season)

Each year, readers ask for threads for discussing and reporting news on the job-market. I just posted this season's discussion thread here. Please visit that thread if you are interested in discussing/commiserating about this year's market. The current thread (below) is for reporting news on the market (i.e. reporting interviews, flyouts, offers, hires, and so on). Although it should go without saying, commenters are asked to remember the Cocoon's supportive mission while reporting. 

Note: I've placed permalinks to both threads on the right-hand side of blog.

Comments

[Anon]

Once these start accumulating multiple pages, is there a way to easily get to the most recent comments? Last year I found myself clicking "next" a million times. Thank you! :)

[Marcus Arvan]

Anon: Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way to do that. What I have done is now set each comment thread to allow up to 100 comments per page.

That should reduce the number of times people have to click "next." You can also always just copy the URL of the most recent comments page to a note on your desktop and then paste it in to go directly to that page. Hope this helps!

[E]

Any news on UNC?

[Ian]

The Lawrence University job seems to be gone. Does anyone know what happened? Did they come up with a short list by the end of August and close the thing to further applications? Was the search canceled? Something else?

[Recent Grad]

I'm also curious about Lawrence. The job was for *this year,* though it didn't specify that in the philjobs ad. Maybe it wasn't really an open search and all along the department planned to do an inside hire? The time table just seems too compressed for a genuinely open search.

[Ian]

The job was for this year? Jeez. I never even realized that. I'm feeling pretty foolish right now--I'd been quite excited about that job, but hadn't recognized that it was an impossibility for me.

[Justin]

Did anyone else apply to the Uworld position that was advertised on PhilJobs? Does anyone know if they have hired a philosopher for the position?

[Job seeker]

Quick rejection from Bard.

[Anon]

Does anyone have clarification on Bard? I didn't get the rejection email, though I was definitely not the candidate supposedly chosen.

[Anon]

I think someone would have to email them to really get clarification. Maybe the search is done, maybe the not-rejected are on some sort of long list, maybe something else.

[Anon]

They have scheduled Skype interviews!

[Michel]

I think they meant that they've drawn up a short list, but they didn't bother to change their rejection email from last year so it still says they've hired someone.

[Tom]

Anyone know anything about the Munich logic job?

[Job Market for first time]

There doesn't seem to be a jobmarket wiki this year, so let's start this thread up again. Anyone hear anything from Villanova? Brandeis? Reno?

[Applicant]

Did anyone else receive a form letter from Gonzaga asking that you make sure letters are uploaded by Friday?

[Yet another applicant]

To applicant: yes, I did. Interfolio and their peopleadmin site say that the letters have been sent to them already. So, I think it is just an automated thing.

[Recent PHD]

Did anyone receive an email from Clark University asking for a teaching dossier? As I recall, the job ad didn't ask for this. But they seem to be asking for it now. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

[Arsene]

My sense is that the open Kant position at the University of Memphis is an inside hire: they have a visiting Kant specialist from Penn State. My sense is the same about the open Contemporary/Continental position at Vassar: they, too, have a VAP whose credentials closely fit the job description.

[Marcus Arvan]

Arsene: I would really encourage job-candidates *not* to get hung up on which jobs look like 'inside hires.'

I knew of a number of cases during my time on the market where the 'inside candidate'--someone who looked like they were a shoo-in for the position--didn't get the job. I also have some very real (ahem!) inside knowledge of why inside candidates are sometimes passed over!

I think you might be surprised at just how committed search committees typically are to hiring the person who they think is the very best for the job. Indeed, here is how I have seen and heard things often go: the committee does have an initial preference for the 'inside candidate.' Then, however, Skype interviews occur and the committee becomes enamored with someone *else*. Whereas the inside candidate is a 'known quantity', the committee begins to wonder whether some outsider candidates they are enamored with would be an even better hire. Then, for one reason or another--including a spectacular on-campus visit by an outsider--the committee might pass over the insider.

Over the years, I've heard many stories of this sort of thing happening--and I had first-hand experience with something pretty close to it.

[Another Round]

Recent PhD, yes, I got that request also. The ad didn't ask for it, but the way the request was phrased made it seem like I had forgotten to include something that they had already requested. I think they had meant to ask for it, but didn't.

[Recent PHD]

Another Round, thanks!

[J]

I didn't get that request from Clark, and (like you) I hadn't submitted a teaching dossier, since it wasn't requested. I reckon this means I didn't make some initial cut. Maybe you did, though--in which case, congrats and good luck!

[Arsene]

Marcus Arvan: Thank you for your response. I agree with all you say: an "inside candidate" is not necessarily a sure or guaranteed hire. I have had firsthand experience with this as well, and have seen it go both ways: the "insider" walks through the hire without second thought and the "insider" who does not get the job because of exceptional first- and second-round interviews by an outside candidate. However, I am a proponent of being optimistically realistic. I find that departments are more risk-averse than in the past - even in just the past 3-5 years. A "known quantity" in a VAP is safer than the risk of offering the position to someone who may/may not take it, or, who may/may not stay. Losing a candidate these days, given budgetary constraints, might mean losing a line. Thanks for your thoughts, though: part of my optimistic realism is optimism.

[Anon Prof]

Seconding what Marcus says about not getting hung up on inside hires. I'm at a department hiring this year, and we are hiring in an AOS that we happen to have a postdoc in this year. We also have have a visiting professor in this area this year, and a former, amazing TT professor in this area who wants to come back. None of them are getting first-round interviews, and whoever does get the job will have no direct connections to us whatsoever. I have seen similar situations at two previous departments, and only in one case did the "inside person" get the offer (in one other case, the "inside person" did get a flyout and did eventually get the offer, but only after the first-choice candidate turned down the offer).

[Mercado]

Emory sent notice to those who didn't make the semi-finalist list for the Latinx Studies job.

Although, they said that they will continue to review applications until December 8th. So, they may still reach out to more applicants until December 8th.

https://philjobs.org/job/show/11358

[Anon]

University of Oregon is scheduling skype interviews

[curious]

Is there a jobs wiki this year?

[Recent PHD]

curious, I don't know if there is a wiki, but some graduate students at Brown have made this spreadsheet:

https://drafty.cs.brown.edu/ajobs/#!data?-?2~Philosophy

The main piece of useful information it can potentially provide if people crowdsource the information in an honest manner is the column that says "position status" which will tell you whether interviews have been scheduled, etc.

[Anon]

This is the wiki from several previous years, that still seems to be in use:

http://phylo.info/jobs/wiki

It's a bit unfortunately inefficient, that there's three places to watch if you want to keep track of this information. Currently the phil job wiki has info that isn't here or in the spreadsheet above (Gonzaga) and the spreadsheet above has info that isn't here or on the phil job wiki (Florida).

[Anon]

The Florida update looks a bit strange: deadline Nov 8, and they already interview? It's strange because in the job ad they say that they will do first round of interview in January. Is there someone here who can confirm this update?

[bob zorn]

Got an email from Hartford on 11/19 that they have selected desired applicants. Which is strange because their deadline was 11/19...

[ABD]

Bob Zorn, that's interesting. I applied and didn't receive anything. Are you among the selected?

[bob zorn]

I got the impression that I'm one of the rejected...

Quote: "We were fortunate to have many candidates to choose from and, at this time, we have selected the candidates we feel most closely meet our requirements.

We wish you the best of success in your career pursuits and thank you for considering the University of Hartford."

I applied a week or two earlier, so perhaps they reviewed and rejected as they go? I found it quite confusing.

[ABD]

Thanks for the update then. I, too, applied early, but haven’t heard anything. Who knows what that means.

[Rob]

Bob Zorn,

When I've been on search committees, we did not wait until the deadline to begin reviewing applications. Depending on the year, we would get the majority of our applications some time before the deadline, and will have finished reviewing almost all of them before hand. So we often had a good idea of who we were interested in before the deadline. So it might only take a day or two, or sometimes a week, to review the ones that came in ad the deadline and we were ready to move on to the next step.

[Anon]

It takes *forever* for us because the university has extremely specific rules about how to evaluate applications (teaching school).

[anon]

PFO from Swansea.

[anonymous person]

Has anyone heard anything from the UMass Amherst modern search? Their deadline was early...

[Applicant]

Lycoming Skype interview invitations were sent out today

[Not so recent grad]

Anonymous person:

UMass Amherst has at least asked for additional letters from a subset of applicants. I don't know if they've gone beyond that.

[X]

Wash U has scheduled on-campus interviews for their open-rank phil. of mind position.

[Anon]

Purdue has sent out invitations for first-round interviews

[Anonymous]

This website claims that Notre Dame scheduled first round interviews. Can anyone confirm? http://phylo.info/jobs/wiki

[J]

@Anon 02:05 -- yes, I can confirm that.

[Tom]

Kansas State has scheduled skype interviews.

[Job seeker]

University of Rochester has scheduled first-round interviews.

[T]

Tom, can you clarify which Kansas State job? AOS moral philosophy or AOS formal/empirical philosophy?

[Recent PhD]

T: According to the Phylo wiki linked above it’s the moral philosophy position. Good luck if you’re still in the running for the formal/empirical position! And I feel your pain if you, like me and at least a couple hundred others, had hoped to get an interview for the moral philosophy position.

[anon]

St. Joseph's MAINE has scheduled first round interviews.

[Anonnie]

Pfo from Carlton ancient search

[anon phd]

so it seems that none of us are using the brown spreadhsheet huh?

https://drafty.cs.brown.edu/ajobs/#?-?2~Philosophy

[Anon1]

Lake Forest College has started scheduling interviews

[jobjobjob]

KSU has scheduled first round interviews for the formal/empirical position. (I don't know if the person who updated the wiki meant to announce this one or if they've scheduled interviews for both positions).

[anon]

PFO from Westminster College

[anotheranon]

Xavier has started scheduling interviews

[Anon]

Any one have any news about Villanova or Vassar? Have interview calls not gone out yet?

[Job seeker]

Jobjobjob: Kansas State has scheduled interviews for both jobs.

[Y]

UNC Greensboro has scheduled interviews

[anon.]

Curious, which Greensboro position? Or both?

[anon]

Y: Do you know if Greensboro has scheduled interviews for both jobs (epistemology; philosophy of medicine)?

[Random Job Market Person]

Don't know about medicine. But I know they have scheduled interviews for epistemology/logic.

[This job market makes no sense]

That Greensboro job closed 12 days ago, and they've scheduled interviews already? How on earth do you go through hundreds of applications that quickly?

[job market makes some sense]

Many applicants apply before the deadline. Many search committees start reading the applications as they come in.

[Anonnie]

Re: Chicago. Have first round interviews been scheduled for only the senior hire?

[anonymous]

If you're organized, 12 days is plenty of time to make a short list. Especially if you are not advertising an open AOS job. I don't know how many applications they got, but my guess is somewhere in the 150-300 range. My experience with hiring is that usually about 10% of the applications you get completely don't fit the job at all (e.g. people who do ancient ethics applying for a logic job). You only need 30 seconds with one of those to toss it out. Different committees work differently, but you might assign a chunk of the applications to each committee member (maybe), or overlapping chunks, or whatever. It's really not that hard especially if people know the timeline in advance and set time aside for it. (Most committees are not this organized, but some are!) It's not like (most) committees are reading every single writing sample carefully. Some are. But most are spending a couple of minutes on each application, looking at cover letters/CVs/letters/research statements, and narrowing down to those that are interesting/fit the job/whatever. The real work starts when you cut down a very long list (everyone you want to take a second look at) to the long list (the names you want your colleagues to look at)--there you might start reading or at least skimming writing samples (I do read some of them earlier when e.g. someone seems interesting but has no publications, or has what appear to me to be really overinflated letters). Every committee works differently, but when I was on a committee I'd guess this first step (getting to the names I wanted my colleagues to look at) took me about 6-7 hours total, so could be accomplished in 1 day (though I did it at night spread out over more time). Second step is to review other people's proposed candidates (maybe another 4 hours) and meet and discuss, and that takes however long the meeting lasts--maybe 2-3 hours. So, while this is just one example of how a committee might work, if you're organized and prepared, coming up with an interview list in 12 days is not magical. I do think that most committees are not that organized and prepared, so it sounds sort of magical...

[anonymous guy]

(At least some) interviews have been scheduled for the junior hire.

[AnotherAnon]

(At least some) first round interviews have been scheduled for the TT philosophy of mind/cog sci job at the University of Dayton.

[Blake]

I just received a request from Clark for a teaching dossier similar to the one mentioned in the above comment from 11/10. They stated they were asking for dossiers from all applicants.

[anon]

UNevada-Reno calls are out for Skype Interviews

[Recent PHD]

rejection from NorthEast Catholic College

[Cleverly Disguised Mule]

PFO from Santa Clara.

[AnotherAnon]

At least some first-round interviews have been scheduled for the TT job at Rutgers-Newark.

[A]

PFO Groningen (200+ apps)

[postdoc.1]

In the past two days I got PFOs from KSU (ethics), Groningen, and Rochester.

[robots in disguise]

Anyone hear anything about the metaphysics job in Toronto?

[anon]

Any word on Wofford?

[anon]

Any word on CSU Fullerton?

[Anon]

Is this thread only for jobs in lemme or also for philsci?

[Marcus Arvan]

Anon: it’s for all academic jobs for philosophers.

[Confused]

Question that may have been addressed on threads from previous years: PFO? A google search was unhelpful.

[anonymous]

Wofford has scheduled skype interviews.

[Amanda]

It stands for Please Fuck Off. It means rejection letter.

[PFO]

Confused: it stands for “please fuck off,” which is a strangely cathartic way of saying “rejection.”

[anon]

Anonymous, do you know when Wofford scheduled them?

[anon]

did Washington and Lee send out interview requests?

[grue]

general question: are these notifications for interviews all done via email, or are there rare cases where one receives a phone call?

[postdoc.1]

Virginia Tech sent out invitations for Skype interviews.

[Anon]

grue:

There are very rare cases, in which one gets a call. So be sure to check your messages and make sure the phone number on your cv has a message machine!

[anon]

anon: yes, i know that W&L has made at least some first-round interview requests.

[NA]

UNC Greensboro has started scheduling first round interviews for the philosophy of medicine position. And, grue, to answer your question, my invitation came via phone call.

[Job seeker]

My invite for a Rochester interview came via phone this year - but it's the only one I've ever gotten that way.

[First time ABD]

I got a call to schedule a skype interview (for a different job) as well. It's made me extra paranoid about picking up since I didn't recognize the number and let it go to the answering machine!

[another first-timer]

Is there a standard practice as to who sends the calls or emails — is it the search committee chair, an administrator, the job application platform, etc.?Specifically would love to know for Purdue so I can check spam filters and lay my hopes to rest.

[jj]

why so few interviews scheduled so far?

[Amanda]

This is interesting. In the past few years I had quite a few interviews and I never had a phone call - but I never answer my phone and am not good with checking messages, so I don't know guess I could have missed one. I would hope they would email you if they couldn't get a hold of you by phone.

[AnotherAnon]

another first-timer: in my experience it varies from place to place. last year i had emails about first round interviews from administrative coordinators, department chairs and members of the search committee. to speak more directly to your specific question: last year, I was involved in a search for a postdoc at Purdue and I received the initial email about scheduling first round interviews from vickie sanders, the dept. admin who's listed as the contact on the philjobs ad. good luck!

[SLAC tenured professor & chair]

I always email initial skype interview invitations, and email and call about campus interview invitations.

[phone calls]

Last year Pitt called candidates to inform them about interviews. They emailed if no one picked up.

[Blake]

Speaking of phone calls: Just got a phone call from U Kentucky to schedule a first round interview.

[ABD]

Any word on Virginia Commonwealth? It's been a while since the deadline, and nothing on the wiki yet.