When to expect interview requests?

In our job-market discussion thread, ED asks, "Is it reasonable to expect to hear about interview opportunities (positive or negative) before the holidays, from departments in the US advertising tt jobs with deadlines in October or November?"

Good question. Our job-market reporting thread has been pretty dead so far this year. Is this because not many hiring departments have set up interviews yet, or is it because people aren't reporting? It's been a few years since I've been on the market, so I'm not sure what the market calendar is like these days. Anyone have any insight? When do the lion's share of interview requests go out these days?

Comments

[SLAC tenured professor & chair]

We'll notify people of preliminary Skype interviews in very early December after the deadline of December 1 passes. We hope to arrange fly-outs also within December for end of January & February.

[anonymous]

If schools are following the APA suggested calendar (which the majority of them are), then applications were mostly due Nov 1 or later. It seems very early to me (as someone who has been on the hiring side) to be scheduling interviews. So I wouldn't worry if you haven't heard anything! I think late November/early December are normal. So, though, are late December and early January (especially if a school is skipping the skype stage, which some places do).

[Amanda]

Two years ago the overwhelming majority of my first round interviews came after Jan.1st. I had flyouts in March and April the last two years. Last year I noticed a few late TT posts in Feb and one in March -, as in first applications due in Feb and March.

[Lauren]

I wouldn't expect anything until the first of December at the earliest for most jobs. My first year on the job market (2016-2017), I only had one interview before Christmas (if I recall correctly, the request came during the first week of December). It went poorly, and I thought I was done for the year, but the others--including the two I got flyouts for--ranged from early January to early March. I didn't receive an interview request for any of them until after the new year. This past year (2017-2018), I had 1/3 of my interviews pre-Christmas (mostly the week before) and 2/3 after (about 1/3 in the first week of January and 1/3 spread from late January to late February). My flyouts this past year ranged from late January to mid-March but I ended having to cancel the last one since I'd accepted an offer already. My current institution is hiring this year, and flyouts will be in early January (I'm not on the search committee, but I expect that means interviews will be scheduled pre-Christmas, though I don't know whether they will be conducted before or after).

[ash]

The past two years, the Skype interview requests I received did not arrive until early December (the first and second weeks of December).

[another postdoc]

More anecdotes: in the past years, mine have mostly come in January; a colleague of mine had most last year come in December. This year I've had one request just this week from a place with a deadline on Nov 1, so they're moving unusually quickly. I don't expect others (knock on wood) to come for a while yet.

[Anony]

Last year, I received one Skype interview on 8 Nov and another on 18 Nov, both from SLAC.